Lily looked up as the door rattled with a heavy knocking. Leona was asleep and Alice had disappeared again. She deftly opened the door without a sound and before the barkeep, Shar, opened her mouth she placed her index on the deeply tanned woman’s face, hushing her as she stepped swiftly outside the room. She didn’t want to wake Leona or the child. The door behind her shut silently.
“Red,” The woman pleaded, “one of your friends just scared off the whole tavern!”
“I thought I heard a gunshot... what happened?”
“That man came back carrying some woman...” she started but she trailed off – shaking her head in disbelief. “It was the White Hare... she’s crossed some powerful people.”
“I’ve heard of her... get on with it, what happened?”
“Well, someone shot at them... and, curse my eyes as liars, he sent the bullet right back using his sword! Everyone panicked and ran!” she exclaimed quietly, her eyes darting around and her body trembling like a leaf.
“Why was he carrying her?” Lily asked – her eyes narrowing.
“I honestly don’t know but they were both drenched in blood. He asked for you,” Shar told her. Lily stepped past the bewildered woman and bolted down the hall as well as vaulting down the staircase. She almost skidded into the taproom. Shar hadn’t been exaggerating at all. They were both drenched in blood.
Lily looked very carefully at the woman on the table. She was lightly tanned and had a worn but very handsome face. She was muscular but far from over-built and she was slender. She wore a black leather jacket and similar breeches, along with a black and silver corset and travellers knee high boots. She looked all the part of a pirate captain. Her weaponry consisted of a foreign looking pistol and an Andar sword but despite her outlandish equipment what drew Lily’s attention far more was the woman’s silver hair. Only two races had that trait. It was a fifty-fifty chance that Faden had dragged an angel into their midst and the other alternative was just as bad.
“Lily, Could you get Leona please,” Faden asked, his eyes still in their dark hue. It sent a shiver down her spine.
“We can do this by ourselves. I’ll remove the bullet, you can deal with the rest,” she told him.
“I don’t know how to heal wounds, Lily. I’m not a surgeon.”
“Your sword will show you. Sean had a very strong ability with necromancy... with his power you should be able to give life, not just take it away,” she explained. Faden gave her a dubious look but he nodded all the same. She unsheathed her dagger and dug it into the woman’s knee and prised out the bullet. It was a good thing she was already unconscious - though they would have to wake her very soon as her unconsciousness could have easily been caused by shock.
Faden placed the sword over the wound. Lily crouched down beside the table to see what was going on between the blade and the shattered knee. For a few moments there was nothing then there was movement. Lily watched, horrified and intrigued at the same time. Capillaries burst up through the flesh and wrapped around the blade. To her surprise, Faden’s raced forwards to meet them. The overlapped and many fused together.
The exposed bone melded back into their proper place and the ripped flesh began to grow and sew itself back together. Faden was twitchthing throughout the entire thing. Lily was sure his eyes had rolled back up into his head but their colour was solid at every point so there was no way to tell. Eventually the blood vessels contracted and retreated. The only evidence of any wound was the blackened dot scars on her knee and his hand left by the arterioles.
Faden stumbled back and blinked. He rubbed his eyes and screwed up his face, as if something her itching inside his eyelids. As he opened them his eyes were a plain brown as they had been before. Lily was distinctly relieved by that. Hopefully there’d be less outbursts now.
“Faden... i’m going to do something now that will wake her up. If it doesn’t work, we’re going to have to kill her.”
“What?” he demanded, outraged, “why?”
“Because if it doesn’t work, it means she’s an angel-spawn just like the ones we fought on the air-carrier.” She told him bluntly, her eyes fixing on him with dreadful seriousness. She lowered her head and whispered in the White Hare’s ear. It was a word that has been lost for a long time to the world, and it was one of the most painful things for a certain kind of creature to hear.
The unconscious woman immediately came around and flipped over the other side of the table, landing with a distinct thud on the floor. Lily was ready before the White Hare was even standing. She put her foot on the patch between the other woman’s shoulder blades and rested the edge of her now unsheathed sword on her neck.
“What’s your name?” Lily demanded.
“White Hare,” the woman snorted. Lily pressed the blade more firmly and asked again.
“Real name?”
“Rio,” the pirate answered, realising this was no game.
“What was your father’s name?” Rio remained silent aside from a low growl in the depths of her throat. “Answer me!” Lily shouted at her.
“Samael!” Rio shouted back. Following there was utter silence. Lily was too shocked to respond. Rio had stopped growling to let her words sink in. The question of Rio’s heritage meant that both sides knew exactly what she was and exactly who her father was. Lily took her foot back and allowed Rio to rise. As she did she looked the golem straight in the eyes. Lily saw that they were not the aqua-green of the angels, but the amber-red of the demon legionnaires.
“That’s quite a claim,” Lily noted quietly.
“Not one I ever intend to use,” Rio snarled back.
“What the hell is going on?” Faden almost shouted, slamming the flattened edge of his sword on the table. Lily and Rio froze with shock. “What on earth are you doing, lily?”
“Up until now you’ve known we were fighting angels... this girl is their flipside. She’s half demon – though she has almost never used it to her advantage.” Lily told him. He eyed Rio suspiciously.
“Is that true?” he asked her, his voice was deadly quiet.
“yes,” she said bitterly, “though that doesn’t mean much when there’s a living golem in front of me and a sorceress upstairs... and I have no idea what you are.” She added spitefully.
“Neither do we,” Leona’s voice echoed hollowly through the room. All of them turned to her. She was the barest of shadows; Faden could see the rest of the room through her as if she were a dark mist.
“So, has astral projection become so easy that you can do it in your sleep?” Lily chuckled.
“Yes, yes it has.” Leona told her in a matter of fact tone. “Besides, I could hear the gunshot earlier.” Leona turned to Rio, “Does Samael have anything to say on the angels?”
“I wouldn’t know... I’ve never spoken to him,” She spat, glaring at Leona.
“What about you?” Lily asked. “We could use your aid.”
“What aid could she give us?” Leona asked.
“I have a ship, if you have the need to travel across water. Little aside from that.” Rio told them - Lily smirked.
“Oddly enough, we’re heading for the new continent.” Lily informed her, “Do you think that you could get us there?”
“We were heading back there anyway,” Rio told her. “There’s room for you but you’d have to work as part of the crew unless you have the coin to spare. We also have to stop at the Dragon’s Isle for a few days.”
“Where are we sailing from?” Faden grunted.
“Feros. It’s a small port town no more than two weeks on foot but we can catch a carrier there and make it within a day.”
“We can save on supplies if we take the carrier and get restocked in Feros then,” he sighed as he took a seat and relaxed. “Shall we leave in the morning?” as he finished Leona gasped and stumbled forwards.
“That’s going to be a problem,” She croaked as her form stumbled to its knees. “The city... it’s under attack!”

Xander looked out of the air carrier. His squad was ready; they only had to wait until they were above Noesis before they could jump down into the city on the new contraptions that had been purpose built for them. He looked over his shoulder, down the line of men standing to attention in their battle-armour. Soft leather interlaced with metal plates – a steel alloy that could stop a point blank pistol shot.
He spied Stratos grinning like a child. He never got a rush from combat, and once the ground fighting started his face was a bleak mask of stone. Before and after, though, was a different story. He never suffered the endless nightmares that the others did and he had no concept of danger. Nothing ever bothered him aside from the fact that he was hurting others. How such a man had become part of the Rangers he would never know.
Rayne was still cleaning his equipment. The grim faced and grizzled veteran, his head shaved and his body decorated with scars more plentiful than his large array of medals kept at the barracks, was the most efficient of all of them. No moved of his was wasteful. ‘One shot, one kill,’ was his motto.
He would have inspected the others, but the sleeping city had awakened. Cannon fire blistered out into the air, ripping shots out at the aircraft that rarely found a mark and groundward barrages that tore the foot troops to pieces. The carrier rocked as heavy balls of metal rushed past them.
“How far to the city?” he bellowed to the cockpit. The pilot responded to the real question behind the one that was spoken.
“Within range, drop when ready.” Xander threw the door to the side and dived out. The roar of the wind blotted out the sound of fire but not the sight as chemical coated ammunition traced out tracks of light against the night sky. He twisted as he pulled the cord to the heavy package attached to his back. As the latch was released the equipment automatically unfolded. The light but strong frame flipped out again and again before the cloth was released to form giant artificial wings.
The wind buffeted and rattled him but he’d been in far worse situations. All of the Rangers had. They were the best of the east: the shock-troops, the commandos, and the spearhead. Their battlefield role was anything and everything and they excelled at it. He pulled alternately on the cords, steadying himself on his slow, gliding descent.
He watched as a carrier exploded in the sky. It had been torn apart by cannon fire and its fuel store had exploded along with all the onboard ammunition. It had already released its gliders but he made a silent prayer for the crew that had been aboard with his hand wrapped around the obsidian looking amulet. As his hand fell he guided himself downwards, dropping to the meet the city roofs.
He grunted as he landed harshly on his feet amongst the rooftops. He pulled out his quad barrel pistol and shot two militia guardsmen through the head. He watched as they went down, the pink mist marking the place where their skulls had been. He poured black powder into the barrels and then packed down another bullet for each. He holstered his pistol and drew his cutlass.
His squad touched down as he dropped from the rooftop. Their objective was simple: wreak havoc and disrupt the perimeter. Draw as much fire as possible until the main force broke through. Then they were to retreat en mass and make for the boarder. The point of the operation was to show the west that no city was safe. Hopefully they would pull back troops to reinforce cities behind the front lines or they would risk losing their supplies.

Faden’s march was implacable and unstoppable. Black clad men dropped into the city on mechanical wings and were burning as they went. The city was soon lighting the night sky as a mass funeral pyre. The Paladin’s Blade was at his side as he stalked through the flames.
His eyes saw reality and something more. Everything was overlaid with a greyscale. He saw two cities. One built of sandstone of ancient architecture that had been worn down through the centuries and the other was wrought from marble. Phantom soldiers charged through the blaze, killing and raping and pillaging as they went as defenders tried to repulse them. In reality there was no numerous legion but an elite few and they were here only to destroy and the effort to repel the invaders was nonexistent.
His vision flashed and blurred between reality and what he could only call fantasy. Bursts of bright light flashed from nowhere and with each one he simply lost time from his memories. He would slip into some phantasmal illusion and by the time he had slipped back out there were corpses at his feet, all of them clad in black cloth laced with armoured plates.
For some of the time in the crimson lit night Faden fought to maintain his sanity but it slipped from his grasp as he faded out of and into consciousness to find himself in a different section of the city. Occasionally he was fighting side by side the militia of Noesis and once or twice he was outside the walls, surrounded by enemies. Time lost all meaning as he jump backwards and forwards in reality and in the background image that played behind it.
Then the madness stopped. He was running. Leona was in front of him though she was dressed much differently. Where before she had worn a light garment of black, she now wore a heavy velvet dress. She was casting furious glances everywhere.
He heard the clinking of someone running in armour... only to discover the noise came from his own armament. A man wearing mud coloured leather armour and a breastplate burst out from one of the alleyways of the ancient granite-hewn city. The man charged, his spear leading out in front of him as his comrades piled forth behind him.
Faden snapped the spear with a huge overhand swing from the claymore in his left hand and pulped the man’s skull with the mace in his right. Then he dropped the metal bludgeon and seized the greatsword with both hands, hauling crossways to snap spears and bodies. One skilled young soldier passed his swing and drove his spear into Faden but the strike was foiled by the heavy banded armour. Faden almost pitied him as he reversed the stroke and parted the soldiers head from his shoulders.
“Sean!” Leona called out from in front of him. His eyes darted around, his heart thudding in his chest and his blood rushing at the thought that the black paladin was here. He, however, had not appeared. After a few moments Faden realised that Leona was looking directly at him.