Five small motes of red light winked from the pitch darkness that made up the monster’s body as it reared back and let out a deafening roar. Lieutenant Cassandra Nightglimmer felt the sound deep in her bones, its vibration making her teeth rattle. Fear rushed at her like a rip current, threatening to pull her along and weaken her resolve. Thankfully, she was trained to resist such magic, and it simply washed over her. Instead of allowing the fear to sink its claws into her, she harvested it. Balling the emotions into magic, Cassandra thought about the first light of dawn on the summer solstice. Holding the thought in her mind, she took both the emotion and the image, pulling them into reality to wreath her spear in violet light. Five eyes reflected the magical spear as it focused on the new threat.
This creature was big; larger than any she had fought before. Darkness radiated from it, covering the road and trees in void taint. She couldn’t even tell what it was before the void took it. It was too large to be a wolf, maybe a bear? Either way, it was a menace and needed to die.
She watched as it prowled towards her, and she kept her distance, keeping wary of its overlarge claws. It reared again, this time its massive front legs reached towards her — definitely a bear. She danced back two steps and hurled the magical weapon directly at the thing’s heart, hopeful the void hadn’t completely rearranged its insides. As the spear pierced the creature, violet sparks exploded in a cascade around it. The creature teetered backwards and crashed to the ground, taking out a tree as it went.
Cassandra let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. The void tainted creature began to slowly dissipate, seeping into the spreading darkness still tainting the wooded area. She shook her head in disgust. Yet another beautiful part of her home covered in void-stuff because of some moons blighted summoners.
Elsewhere, Cassandra knew her cadre were hunting down the followers of the Stonefoot Magocracy, illegal daemon summoners, who created this mess. She walked back to the main road, careful to avoid stepping in any of the inky darkness. She stopped at the road and pressed her back against the trunk of a large tree and settled into rest. She hated waiting.
Within thirty minutes, her cadre had circled back to find her. A few minor scrapes and bruises marked their triumph, and Cassandra felt the relief of being reunited with her charges once again. They had been together for a year, and this was their last mission together. When they arrived home, these soldiers would complete their training and take on their own leadership positions. Except maybe Lieutenant Skylar Starsong, the bat-woman who served as their diviner. She might stay by her side for another year if Cassandra was lucky.
An hour and a half later they were all in a tavern drinking and laughing. Cassandra sat alone at her own table nearby. Despite her repeated attempts to assure them that she was their equal, the soldiers viewed her as a superior officer. Their combat training would take much longer than a year to break. She drank from a tankard of watered wine, and frowned as she noted a messenger enter the tavern.
Marked out by his bright blue uniform, the young rabbit-man searched the room, his eyes glowing that same blue. The messenger magic allowed him to sense his recipient from meters away. Cassadra said a quiet prayer to the moons that his magical glance would pass over her. Instead, he locked onto her and moved with an alacrity towards her table. She swore under her breath as the man, barely older than a boy, stopped before her.
“Lieutenant Cassandra Nightglimmer of the Fifth Cadre,” he paused, swallowing hard. “The Night Hunters?”
“Aye boy, that’s me. What do you have?”
Without looking down, his hand dropped into his satchel and pulled out a black scroll case. Cassandra had been a messenger early in her career and recognized the case. Its enchantment was what allowed him to find her, and while he was on mission would be the only one he could touch until delivered. He probably had a half dozen identical cases in that bag, but the magic made his delivery unerring.
“Here Lieutenant, and may the moons guide your path.” He turned without pausing for her to open the case and made his exit; his glowing eyes already searching out his next delivery.
Rolling the case in her crystalline fingers, she found the seal. The Sigil of Operational Command. The revelation evoked a deep sigh from her. The OC only sent two kinds of messages: new mission assignments and death notices. Another mission it was.
She slid one onyx nail under the seal and popped it open. The metal covering opened and the parchment within fell to the table. She read through the mission parameters once, reviewing the maps and the accompany information, then again. She tapped her finger on the table in troubled contemplation and looked up at her people letting off some much-needed steam. Skylar must have noticed her unease, as she held her gaze for a long moment before standing and coming to her table.
“What’s the good news LT?” the bat-woman asked while taking a seat next to her. Under the table, the end of the woman’s left wing rubbed against the back of Cassandra’s hand, a quietly intimate gesture.
She passed the top sheet of the new orders to Skylar. “Another mission.”
“I thought we were done.” Skylar took the proffered papers and read them over.
“The law waits for no one. It doesn’t help that more and more people want daemonic aid with each passing day.” Cassandra said. She allowed the back of her hand to slide over Skylar’s wing. She knew all too well that people defy the rules all the time. Often for very understandable reasons. “There might come a time when the whole nation is filled with daemon summoners.”
“Here’s hoping we’re both retired by then. Want me to wrap all this up?” Skylar gestured at the rest of the cadre still laughing and drinking.
Cassandra thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, let them have their fun. They earned it. We earned it. This new summoner can wait a night.”
The bat-woman smiled, revealing pointed incisors. “Then come dance with me LT, that’s an order.”
Cassandra threw her hand up in a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am!”
Cassandra awoke with a start coated in a sheen of sweat that made her crystalline skin shimmer in the spare light of a single burning candle on the bedside table. Skylar laid next to her with her wings wrapped around her arms and chest like a cocoon, still and undisturbed. She struggled to remember the nightmare. Only flickers came to her. Something about danger involving someone she cared about. That wasn’t exactly elucidating. All Everend was in turmoil, and every person she knew had some form of danger on their doorstep. The dream clung to her though, a warning that she couldn’t ignore.
She rose from bed and went to the wash basin to splash cool water on her face. The dim candlelight refracted purple and blue off the firm line of her jaw and the deep emerald of her eyes. Wan light sifted in through the window draping, signaling predawn.
“Another day, another hunt,” she said to herself with a determined smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She busied herself with her morning duties to shake the lingering effects the dream had on her.
By the time the sun sat a quarter of the way into the sky, Lieutenant Nightglimmer stood at ease in front of her small unit. Before her were five of the best summoner hunters she’d ever known, and not only because she trained them. Skylar had become her lover six months ago, after years of knowing each other through military training. Garth Falconer, a thief from the high country had stolen her heart as well. Lucien Murdo, a skilled warlord with a love of poetry was their trickster, always joking around. Tamsyn, a mage with a love of old books had spent five years in Caparanite before joining her cadre. Brink Isi, a warrior of some renown was the best fighter she knew, probably better than her if they ever had to fight one on one. She would be sad to see them go. But this time next month, she’d have a whole new group of prospective summoner hunters to train up.
“We are travelling high into the mountains near the volcano of Marr’s Torpor,” Cassandra said.
A few gasps and shocked looks broke the otherwise stoic group. Marr’s Torpor erupted many years before and destroyed the ancient city of Old Talpi, the nation’s previous capital. Now Old Talpi was something of a monument, with people making pilgrimages there to pay respects to the dead. Mentioning the volcano that devastated the nation in the same breath as summoners felt sacrilegious, even to Cassandra, who wasn’t religious at all.
“We aren’t going into the city. There’s a ghost town nearby. The mission is the same as always. Find the summoners and bring them to justice. Hopefully, before they summon a daemon and cause a blight. You’ve a few hours to get your gear and meet by the wagon station. Get ready for a hassle. If they’re willing to base themselves in the ashes of Marr’s Torpor, who knows what else they’re okay with. You’re dismissed.”
Each of her soldiers gave her a crisp salute and turned to ready their things. Cassandra watched them go; unease still settled in the bottom of her gut. This mission might be the one where she finally lost someone, and it didn’t sit right with her.
