Page 97 of Oath of War
‘Katja Laster, sincewhenhave you had such a potty mouth?’ I asked.
She shrugged before casually throwing a vial at a rampaging manticore. Yellow smoke covered the creature’s face when the vial broke, and in moments, it began clawing its face until it fell, twitching, to the ground.
‘We’re in a bloody battle. So what if I curse?’ she asked, shouting to Bryna, ‘Get the unit away from here. Ani wants to cast without an audience.’ The half-orc grunted in response, calling the remaining females away. ‘There, happy now? And hurry up. There’s a swarm of ... whatever those are heading our way.’
I watched Katja take a few steps back, smirking as if she were challenging me. I didn’t have time to argue further as the epicentre of the fight was heading our way, the thunder of heavy cavalry and the grunting of monsters growing louder as they neared.
It was now or never.
You wanted me in Katrass before the first snow? Then I’ll be there. I’m going to enjoy seeing your face when I burn it to the ground, I thought.
I knelt in the centre of the sigil, and with a few quick gestures, wove a spell to connect its power to my elemental magic. I was focused on stabilising the connection when a vast shadow swept across the ground before it turned, heading in our direction.
A piercing screech disturbed my concentration, and my eyes snapped up to the skies. I watched as flames burst from the beak of a raróg, melting the soil into glass and erasing the runes of the sigil.
I screamed, still linked to the construct, as the explosion of aether engulfed me. Instinctively, I transformed it into a bolt of condensed energy, aiming it back at the beast as it obliterated the world around me.
My connection with Vahin protected me to a certain degree, but I could feel my skin blistering in the heat. The formlessenergy I’d flung up missed its target, and the raróg twisted around to attack again.
The fire demon screeched as it dove, and I tried blasting it with pure aether once again. I needed to stop the tenacious beast; I might be fire resistant, but the people surrounding me weren’t. As it spouted flames once more, I turned to protect my friends.
‘Katja,run!’ I screamed as I spun around, but instead of doing so, Katja leapt forward, pushing me out of the way of the raróg’s flames.
I watched, helpless and disbelieving, as the fire engulfed her.
She was gone.
Katja, my friend, my family, was gone.
I couldn’t breathe, the weight of what just happened crushing my chest.
It was my fault. The price for death magic was always life, and it seemed when Arachne, goddess of fate, saved mine, she’d doomed my friend to lose hers. Katja had died because ofme, because I couldn’t protect her. Bile rose in my throat, the bitter taste of my failure choking my screams.
It should’ve been me. Not her. Never my Katja.
Bryna bellowed, her large body tearing through the enemies that swarmed us. The pain in her voice matched mine, but all I could see were the horrifying remains of the sister of my heart.
She was actuallygone.
The woman who had welcomed me when I first arrived in Zalesie, the one who had treated me while I mourned my Anchors and tried to drink myself to death, the one who always had my back ... was gone.
I dropped to my knees, digging my fingers into the scorched ground, and keened in pain. Primal magic erupted from my core, flooding the world with its destructive power. It had no direction or control, but the half-ruined sigil beneath my knees flared to life, warping the ground around me.
A trumpet sounded the retreat, and everyone scrambled away from the crumbling rock as it rose and fell in devastating waves.
It wasn’t enough, wouldn’tbeenough, until this place drowned in destruction. So I raised a hand and dragged the aether of the storm down and twisted it into something dark. Countless monsters were caught in the chaos, but my wrath was entirely focused on one: the raróg.
Pulverised rock scored its wings as a vortex of death held it in place. The overwhelming wind extinguished the flames covering its body, but I wanted more. I wanted to see it suffer.
I clenched my fist around the aether, watching as its wings disintegrated, and laughed. I caught sight of more of its flock and expanded my reach, quickly destroying one after another. My laughter increased in volume, and as the last one died, I turned to the mountain.
The Lost Ridge had taken everything from me, and now it protected my enemy. Somewhere in this mountain, Aro and Tal’s bones were buried beneath tonnes of rock, and now Katja’s ashes were mixed with its cursed soil. This graveyard of my heart held no markers, no memorial, but I would make sure no one forgot this place ever again.
Darkness arose inside me, numbing my senses. I was going to find the heart of the mountain and rip it apart just as it had mine.
The ground cracked beneath my feet, the fissure spreading outwards and heading straight for the Rift. I was rooted to the spot where my magic had become the nexus of power. The elemental aether became a part of me, even as it shredded my insides while my consciousness escaped the torment, travelling through the rock, seeking its heart.
Finally, deep beneath the earth, beneath the Barrier stone chamber, deeper even than the sleeping army’s cave, I found it.In a grotto of molten magma, held aloft by a lonely spire, I found the immense, jagged boulder—the Heart of the Lost Ridge.
