Dark Crow Rising

"Valkinvar-Staguiffmani, welcome." I greet my sister-in-arms as she arrives atop the battlements. She doesn't answer and instead maintains the scowl she walked up the steps with. Straightening my lips out from under the safety of my helmet, I shift my attention back to my three fellow Valkinvar-Imdvarce.

Bsess, Cetrepe and Osses.

I feel odd, still knowing these three. Since my first command back at the Siege of the Long Battery Fort, I have watched many of my sisters and brothers die. But, these three, these three have managed to stay alive since then, even as we've been pushed all the way back to Thurn's Forge. All that we have left lies behind these walls and this shield.

We did our best to hold the perimeter fortresses still smoking within sight even as the shield flares unendingly. I look away and grip my sword's pommel tightly. If I just showed a little more recklessness, we could've maybe have held onto one long enough to support a counterattack. But, it doesn't matter now, the Union has us bottled up within our capital.

Their machines are too strong for most of us to handle and there are too many of them full stop. In front of the city they fire without end, even the horizons viewed from the Great Bridge are covered in those airships firing away. All the way around the Thunlanann side of the city too.

"Maybe there's a chance we will be sallying out soon? The Valkinvar-Staguiffmani are amassing throughout the city." Osses remarks, bringing our attention to our most magically involved sisters within the Valkinvar. A noise lingers in my mouth and I start to shake my head.

"I can't imagine that will happen. We need an entire Wind to push through. Firing off spells from the safety of our walls doesn't seem to be amounting to anything." I contradict, looking over towards the main gates as flashes of spellfire wash out across the devastated land in front of the city. I can't cast spells like those of the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani can, but, it doesn't look like their efforts are amounting to anything either.

Counterspells or entrenchments are just making it a light show. We have the provisions and means to last for decades, even with the city locked up like this. This siege, however, this once incomprehensible siege, the Union can keep it up for centuries by the looks of it. More and more airships keep coming, they just keep coming.

One was enough to devastate the army I was given command of all those years ago. Before I became burdened with such great shame. I am not obligated to do my prayers with the others, but, they're all picking up on my want for isolation. Professionalism only keeps so many sniffing noses away, someone's always going to be curious.

And, with our inaction, I have a feeling problems are going to start arising. We will hold out as long as we can but I have a feeling trouble is brewing within our walls. I've heard no such rumours but maybe the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani are being assailed by malicious words? They've all seemed out of it as of late, consumed by something in their minds.

I guess when they're the only ones who can act and they're not achieving much, it wounds their pride. I wish I could tell them we're all in the same situation, but, are we truly? Though we Valkinvar-Imdvarce are still the most populated even with all we have lost. We have done nothing since the shield first cast its protective shadow.

The fortresses are abandoned, their guns turned on us and the last of our armies are on alert for no reason...

Cetrepe growls and throws a gentle punch out against the stonework. She heads off without a word and flies down to the gap between us and the next set of walls. I raise a hand at Osses and Bsess, urging them to stay here. Hovering down after my friend, I watch her slam her backside down onto the narrow, rail-less walkway.

Sitting down next to her, I join her in watching the bladed machines within the water make it a lethal whirlpool.

"Vapooliar, what's the point of all this?" she asks me and I look away, not really sure how to answer such a question.

Eventually, I manage to think of something, hypocritical of me as it is to say it.

"We have our oaths."

"Our oaths are to serve our Theocracy true and well. To die honourably and with meaning. How is whittling away within our own capital, once a respected, untouched fortress... How is dying here going to have any meaning? History will remember this siege as the end of the Valkinvar." she laments.

"Nothing lasts forever, Cetrepe, not even gods and goddesses." I remind her, pointing out what became of the often-forgotten god of the heavens and what once filled his domain out. Though, I guess, thinking of him, her point strikes all the more prevelantly. Ihtuntar is known as the god who was killed, not as the God of Hope like he should be.

In time and with their hatred of all that is good driving them, the Union will see to it that our name is in the ashen mud. They will build over our cities and not even the most out-of-the-way roads will be safe. It's all theirs now and they will do as they please. All for an evil god.

"It's strange, really, for centuries we Valkinvar have held the line against the Union. The empire our ancestors created all those years ago has been maintained until only a few years back. Something that has lasted for so long is now on the verge of being snuffed out. All because of something that should've never happened." she says and I nod along, still not entirely sure of how the Union has developed the way it has while we have stifled.

Back at the Long Battery Fort, we had an immense marvel there. The mountain-cracker gun was but one display of our engineering talent and the genius of the men and women within this country. And yet, here the Union comes, with a fleet of thousands upon thousands of airships. A mountain-cracker takes time to destroy a peak, an airship takes time to wipe out an unshielded city...

We've all seen it, the maps with crossed-out names and covered-up spots. So much has been lost so utterly that they've ordered the cartographers to forget about it entirely. Sighing, I pat my friend on the shoulder and use magic to fly us back onto our feet. Though not consoled as well as she can be, Cetrepe nods and salutes.

"By your orders, Wing-Head Vapooliar." she says, her downtrodden expression seeable even through a narrow visor. Magic starts to flow across the walls and throughout the city.

"Come, let us get back to the battlements, it seems like something might need us to be there." I say, noting how the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani and their staves are lighting up with all the power they can muster. Much the same is happening outside of the city and its shield, an immense, familiar power is building up a spell of his own.

The Prince-to-Ascend is attacking personally?

My eyes briefly match the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani up here and I feel an odd feeling in my gut. The malice in her eyes, it seems to be directed at me. Suddenly, it all stops, the spells all go out like a sudden wind in a candle-lit room. A sharp pain strikes across my mind.

"Ah..." I go, taking my helmet off and clutching my head properly. Cetrepe, Bsess and Osses are the same, they can feel it too. I catch sight of the Valkinvar-Staguiffmani again and look out to all the others, they're completely frozen up. Twitching, shaking.

The one closest to us is choking on something, they all collapse and scream.