Silvayn stood in the Council of Epoch with various assembled teams, listening to the desperate rantings of Derek Tzardiche.

  “My intel is good! This is our first and only chance in decades, centuries even, to see how they erect these spires and prevent one from taking root! We have to strike now!” he demanded, stomping his foot in indignation. Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Many voices said he was going to get his forces killed, waste resources, or walk into a trap. Derek held his conviction and even worse, he held the ear of the then head of the Summer faction: his father, Roland Tzardiche. Ever hungry for glory, the man quickly threw his support behind his son and called for a conscription. Four of the strongest teams had to join Derek in his mission with refusal leading to them being stripped of their adventurer status. In the moments that followed the raid, that caveat would be what led to his downfall as leader.

  With no other choice, Silvayn was on the move under Derek’s leadership. Though high leveled, it became clear rather quickly that he had never been in a true combat scenario. He was sloppy, his commands were contradictory, and ultimately, his instincts were wrong. They realized far too late that Derek’s intel had been incorrect.

  There were two types of locations used by the Dark Lord: Spires, which expanded his veil and allowed him to marshal his forces, and Spikes, temporary outposts for covert operations he sought to conduct for resource gathering. This mission had led to the discovery of the latter.

  Derek was giddy seeing the small number of Forsaken guarding the area but none of the other adventurers shared this feeling.

  “This isn’t right,” said Shauna, gripping her hilt tightly. She looked to Marcus and he went silent, his mind drifting distantly for the moment. Eonis knew they were thinking about the twins. The toddlers had been posted at the guild with then Mistress Georgina Goodshow, Gordona’s grandmother. Their logical minds knew they were safe but that parental sense screamed at them to flee.

  “Oh don’t be a coward!” exclaimed Derek as he drew his lance and charged without issuing a command.

  Panic spiked through all of the adventurers as they stumbled to their feet to catch up to his charge. They took the Forsaken by surprise, Derek thrusting his lance rapidly and swinging wild arcs that the adventurers had to dodge for fear of beheading.

  They were making quick work of the creatures when footsteps rang out from inside the Spike. Stepping from an imperceptible wall in the structure, emerged four figures. Before that day they were unknown but in time, they came to be known as the Dark Lord’s generals. An elven woman with deathly pale skin and white hair stepped forward. The adventurers looked to Derek for an order but by then, he had fallen to the floor and cowered in fear. With no other option, they charged. Verity the Magistrate simply turned her nose up at them. She spoke and all hell broke loose.

  “First law: let air become iron and shackle all in place.”

  Every adventurer froze when she finished speaking, snapping into place. A sudden pressure enveloped them all and everyone struggled to breathe. Her laws commanded the way of the world and they were powerless to resist. Her twin brother Verdant, a mad grin stretched across his face. To Gene, as he replayed the memory, they looked like representations of the comedy and tragedy masks of Greek theater and in that tradition, the elven man was a showman. He walked towards the group with flounce and flourish, approaching a young warrior bearing an axe. He was known as the Mesmerist and when he locked eyes with the warrior, he showed why.

  “You should kill the person you care most about here.” His honeyed words dripped with power, filling the mind of the axe bearer.

  Verity pointed to him and said one word: “Exemption.” and he launched forward, cleaving a nearby Wizard in two. She had been his sister. He cried out in anguish but it was cut short when Verdant told him to keep going.

  The axe bearer charged and was struck down on the spot. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning erupted from the clouds above, triggered by the spell Marcus had begun to cast silently the moment Shauna gave him a signal before Derek charged off blindly.

  Electricity arced from the axe bearer and bounced from Verdant to Verity, finally crashing into Tir who suffered no effect. The twins were caught off guard and their control lapsed long enough for the group to break free.

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  “Retreat! Live!” shouted Shauna as she ignored her own orders.

  She was a blur as she launched herself forward, blade drawn and aimed for Verity’s neck. She knew she had to take her down first to make retreat a viable option. She found her blade parried suddenly by Melias before he produced a clone to flank her and then surround her as she began riposting his many strikes.

  Adventures scrambled to get away, Derek being the first on his feet, and Marcus began to rapidly construct earthen barriers between them and the generals. Tir barreled through the first few walls and found himself falling into a pit trap of Marcus’s design. The Bloodrager was skewered by countless spikes but all it did was release a deluge of blood that he used to propel himself into the air above the barriers. Eonis moved to help only to feel a hand grab his wrist. It was Gordona and her face was wracked with grief.

  Tears spilled from her eyes and her lips trembled when said, “You heard her. We need to go. We need to live.”

  Eonis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He tried to pull himself out of her grip but Gordona had always been stronger than him. She dragged him away and began to run. He shouted, tore at her hands, and begged her to stop but he was helpless. He knew he’d be helpless whether he stayed or left. He was only level 14 and didn’t even have his subclass yet. The only thing he could do at that time was get in the way.

  As they ran, he received pulses of messages from Marcus, they all did. He was rapidly casting sending spells, relaying as much information about the clash as possible. Thanks to him and Shauna, all of the people of the Council of Epoch would know what the generals were capable of.

  Shauna was a beast unleashed on the battlefield. She clashed blades with one, then two, then six Warlord clones, cleaving through them and parrying the strikes of others with her other gauntleted arm. Marcus had thrown caution to the wind and displayed his long hidden and most powerful abilities: multi-casting and blended spells. Fire spells melded with wind spells, producing massive bursts of searing heat that evaporated a rain of blood needles that rained down upon him. They took turns preventing the twins from using their insidious abilities, bashing and battering them to keep them off balance.

  The couple fought fiercely, drawing on all of the special skills, spells, and items they had amassed in their time as adventurers. But even as they split the land in half and scarred the battlefield, it proved to not be enough. Shauna crashed into Marcus, battered and bloody as the four descended on them.

  With one final sending spell, he begged Eonis and Gordona to watch over the twins before bidding them farewell. Eonis turned in time to see a white light erupt in the spot where they encountered the Spike. A ripple of energy rippled through the forest, shaking the trees and blowing the adventurers further forward in the wake of the blast. The Spike was gone but so were Shauna and Marcus Winthrop.

  The memory concluded and Eonis went silent. Gene retreated from his mind to see them all crying. Kyra had fallen to a knee, held up only by Kyrie’s embrace.

  “Those of us who survived were contacted by the Summer faction in the aftermath and sworn to secrecy about what happened and told that we would be dealt with if we said otherwise,” said Eonis, sliding back into his chair and letting out a breath. “The official story was of a success, of gaining new intel in our battle against the Dark Lord. Back then, Gordona and I were too weak to stand up and too fearful of retaliation against the twins. We had a promise to keep and I didn’t care about the political machinations of some pissant like Derek. I was effectively retired until the twins wanted to take up their parents' mantle.”

  “That is where I came in,” said Winnie, drawing Gene’s attention instantly. “You see, sometime after these events transpired, I was working for Ilfas Illurian Ingot. I was a relatively new pact Witch and trying to remain hidden. I had just forged a pact with the Keeper of Secrets, I was tasked with uncovering a monumental secret to satiate the being and that’s when I discovered a long buried file in his safe that was startlingly easy to open. It was a dossier on the bungled operation that showed he was the one who supplied Derek the information. Not only that, there were several pages devoted to Marcus and Shauna, detailing their actions in depth and the chain reactions they caused with profit and loss calculations. It seemed they proved too good at their job and he had sought a way to…”

  Winnie’s words trailed off. She didn’t want to finish her sentence. They all knew what she meant. She regained her composure and continued.

  “I left immediately in search of the remaining members of Silvayn to share the information and I’ve been with them ever since.”

  Gene’s mind raced from all he heard and now took Gordona’s warning to heart. He thought about the members of the council and his mind drifted to the one she warned him to worry about the most.

  “And Liris? Why did Gordona feel the need to warn me about her most?” he asked.

  “She’s Derek’s ex-lover,” said Kyrie as he helped Kyra to a nearby seat. “What she knows and doesn’t know is impossible to determine. That woman has plans within plans that have plans and she has sided with Derek in most of his disastrous sieges, acting as a mouthpiece to dissuade any from questioning their reckless actions. If they learn about what you can really do, you’re going to be in trouble. Just try your best to give as little information as possible and whatever you do, don’t let them use you. You have a kind heart and people like that will feast on it.”

  Gene’s chest was tight. He was so far out of his wheelhouse and felt lost. He only had three days to prepare for what would be his most grueling challenge yet.