I hurried up the stairs, the burning in my legs and chest telling me that I was very much behind on my conditioning, and I could almost hear Peevan telling me I was going to die as an out-of-breath, lazy little bastard. Well, fuck Peevan, he died before me, and I’m the master now. I already knew I had room for improvement. Eggs flew ahead of me, screeching and squawking as they went. I could hear Gertha’s steps at least a floor ahead of me. I didn’t dare look behind me, but the heat on my back told me that the flames that thing had somehow taken control of were rapidly spreading throughout the tower.

  I was no Magi, but clearly there was something Arcane behind them. I’d never seen flames bite hold of stone like that.

  “TULL! TURN INTO THE NEXT ROOM!” I heard Gertha shout, and as I arrived on the next floor, I took the first turning I saw and barreled into a large, stone room framed by windows. In front of me were several large tables with an array of brass instruments, shelves with all manner of glass bottles with various liquids and on a stand, a strange looking suit of armour, black as obsidian with intricate runes and markings all over it.

  I slammed the door shut behind me, sliding the steel bolt across and taking a step back. The dead would surely be on us in seconds.

  “Gertha, help me move this shit in front of the door,” I said, already dragging one of the tables across to the door. The brass instruments on top wobbled and then fell, most of them clattered on top of the table, but one fell onto the floor, making a mighty clang.

  “TULL THOSE COST MORE THAN A YEAR'S WAGES!” Gertha cried.

  “RIGHT NOW THEIR WORTH IS HOW MUCH TIME THEY GET US!” I roared back.

  She huffed in exasperation, “You’re right,” before she started helping me. Together, we got three desks in front of the door in around fifteen seconds before dead fists started pounding the door.

  I could feel the heat below us as the room started to warm. The flames must be engulfing the entire bottom floor now, and we were effectively trapped in a makeshift stone oven. I’d probably trapped us here to make us simply more appetising for whatever carrion would pick the meat from our bones.

  The door buckled as the dead continued to pound against it like heavy hail that would not relent. I grabbed one of the shelves, heedless of the potion bottles that fell onto the ground, smashing their contents everywhere. It reeked of alcohol, oil and oddly enough metal. I piled it onto the tables and then went to seize the armour to add to the pile.

  Gertha held out a hand, “Tullen wa-” but it was too late, I’d already touched the strange armour and there was a flash of light in my eyes.

  In that moment, I was suddenly falling through a sky, watching a large shadow above me that I couldn’t make out. Air whistled around my head, and the chill of it numbed my hands, my ears and my face, robbing me of touch. I rolled as I fell, suddenly seeing a rapidly approaching landmass. There was a river snaking down, splitting clusters of trees in half, either side of the bank, a mountain range followed its path on the right side, and I veered to it’s right. There was a huge cluster of forest which seemed to pull me in by a tether.

  Now fully aware of my new circumstances, I screamed bloody murder, but the wind robbed me of my voice.

  “Tullen Fal Barraz.” The voice was deep but soft, light yet heavy, at once feminine and masculine. I heard it in my mind.

  “HELP ME!” I screamed.

  “You have the power to deliver or consign all to darkness. What does your heart say?”

  I continued to fall, tumbling in the air as the wind buffeted my face, my tears flew in a trail backwards as I wailed in fear.

  “SAVE ME!” I pleaded.

  “With this burden, this responsibility, Tullen Fal Barraz, do you swear to honour it for a higher purpose? To hold back the Dark?”

  “IF THE DARK MAKES THE DEAD WALK. YES!” I screamed into the wind.

  “Whether you deliver or damn remains to be seen.” The voice in my mind said, turning the words over as if it were sipping wine.

  The ground rushed up to greet me, and the trees looked peculiar, much smaller than I expected.

  “I FIGHT FOR HUMANKIND, I ALWAYS HAVE,” I yelled, tumbling in the air once more.

  “Even when you killed…him?” The voice asked.

  Resolve gripped my heart, certainty, clarity. Of all the things I’d ever done, that kill was the most necessary.

  “Peevan had to die,” I whispered, noiseless in the wind, but I knew the voice would still hear me.

  “Did he, your master, the one who trained you?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “He made me; he would make others.”

  “Yes, yes, he would have.” The voice answered, before it chuckled.

  I gritted my teeth, awaiting the impact on the ground. I hoped that Gertha and Eggs would be okay. I had no clue how I’d made it miles into the sky, but here my story would end. Dashed against the ground, all that would remain of me would be a messy smear.

  My last thought was how I wished I could save them, and a tear fell from my eye.

  “Help me, friends, if you won’t help me, please,” I asked before taking a deep breath. I could make out individual tree branches closing in, and so I closed my eyes. It was my time.

  “I am satisfied.” The voice said.

  “-it!” Gertha gasped in shock as I suddenly turned around. I was back in the stone room, the dead were pounding on the door, Eggs was growling, and I was not falling.

  I looked for the armour, but it was gone. I grabbed another shelf, and the hands that grabbed it were clad in black metal armour, strange runes and markings shimmering with a silver hue that reminded me of starlight on water. I shook and fought to control my breathing, being confronted with imminent death by falling, and discussing my last dance with Peevan was not what I needed now, or ever.

  “What in the fuck?” I asked, my voice booming from within a helm as I stood there holding my hands in front of me, turning them over. These were full metal gauntlets. I looked down, and my entire body was coated head to toe in armour. The shape and lines of it were strange, and every inch of it was covered in the strange, silver-hued markings. My sword was slung over my shoulder in its baldric, my bow over my other shoulder, and my quiver at my side. My armour had simply been replaced.

  “How? How did you do that?” Gertha asked, her face one of awe.

  Flames engulfed the door as burning hands punched through it, splinters dug into dead flesh, and the sickly sweet scent of flesh filled the air. A gust of air slammed into the door from Gertha’s outstretched hand, and the flames grew larger, but moans and hisses from the other side of it told me she was burning the dead as much as the fire was burning the tower.

  Then the arms pulled back, the gap in the door was as wide as a man's chest, and I could see them falling to the ground as the flames overwhelmed them. I smirked, looking around for another exit when I heard a wheezing, hacking laugh.

  “Tullen Fal Barraz has found his sliver of destiny.” The ruined face of three mashed corpses leered at us through the gap in the door, the flames fleeing from its visage like rats from a flood.

  Eggs roared in defiance, their frill fully opened and wings splayed as wide as they could get them. My heart leapt for fear that this would make them a target, so I drew my sword and stepped forward.

  “You know my name? Tell me yours.” I spat, holding my blade in front of me like a ward as I angled the tip toward one of its eyes.

  “It matters not, you will burn here with your witch and your myth.” The three half merged mouths all grinned, pulling the corners into different directions that made it look like a crude child’s drawing of a star. Misaligned rows of teeth scraped together as three tongues danced and slid across them. I could feel my mouth watering, my body keen to purge itself of its contents in response to this unnatural, unholy abomination. It had to die.

  I lunged forward with my blade with a speed that surprised even myself.

  The thing’s eyes narrowed, and the flames around the door exploded with new life, igniting the entire wall the door was set in. The heat drove me back until the markings on my armour suddenly glowed with harsh light, enabling me to drive further forward. I managed to glance the thing’s face with the tip of my blade, a grim smile carved on my face as I felt the metal graze bone, and I was rewarded with a rivulet of blood.

  “TULLEN, THE FLAMES!” Gertha shouted as Eggs squawked.

  “I’M FINE!” I called back.

  “No.” The thing grinned its awful smile once more, and what used to be some part of its intestine suddenly wrapped around my off hand, pulling it loose from the sword’s grip. I tried to hack at the tendril, but it resisted the bite of the metal, and I could feel the flesh tightening around my armour, which lit up and burned at the tendril. The effect was too slow, and I was pulled against my will, inch by agonising inch, closer to the flames, closer to the thing’s leering face.

  “TULLEN! I NEED YOU!” Gertha shouted, and I glanced back. Flames covered the entire floor and ceiling around her. I saw that ice encased her flesh, but it was rapidly melting from her, making her look like The Jut and one of its many rivers and waterfalls. I guessed she must be low on magic, and if she moved, I knew that she would quickly become engulfed, whereas my armour would keep me safe, for now. My brief moment of analysing the situation cost me, and I was suddenly being pulled into then across the tables by my arm. I spun around as a second tendril wrapped around my chest.

  “Watch as she burns.”

  “FUCK YOU!” I shouted, my heart pounding in my chest as I watched Gertha fall to her knees, spluttering, soaked through as the remnants of her ice started to slough from her skin.

  An almighty screech lanced through my ears as I saw Eggs launch from their position straight for the gap in the door. I cried out, but one Wyvern ignored the other. I watched their beautiful golden eyes narrow and the body elongate as Eggs passed over my head and into the gap. There was an almighty wheezing scream and the frenzied screeches of Eggs as the tendrils suddenly dropped from my body. I raced for the gap in the door, but the last thing I saw was the entire space beyond being consumed by flames.

  “EGGS! EGGS! NO!” I cried, sobbing, but there was no answer, no screech or hiss. I watched for a second before turning and running, heading for Gertha.

  She was swaying on her knees, the ring of ice around her rapidly melting, and her skin was red and raw. With tears in my eyes, I sprinted and scooped her up in my arms as I ran for the window.

  Gertha coughed, wheezing as she breathed, looking up at me with a vacant, lost gaze.

  “Tullen…Fal…Barraz.” She croaked.

  I leapt in the air, half turning so that my back broke the glass as I held Gertha close to my body. Flames exploded out from around us as the night air met the engulfed room, and a fireball shot out above us.

  This time, I wouldn’t fall to the ground alone.