She could feel her limbs splayed across the warm ground. Forcing her eyes open against the mud caked on her lashes, she could still make out the chaos surrounding her—soldiers locked in mortal combat, Cynthian and Godman blood mingling in the dirt.

  Lostya Huggins's gown had been incinerated to half its original form, leaving only thin undergarments to preserve her modesty. Her pale skin should have blackened like silk cast into flame, but at the final moment, the rainbow diamond from Elnya had fractured light into a protective veil around her flesh. The precious gem had fulfilled its purpose and shattered into crystalline dust. Without a replacement focus, casting would remain virtually impossible. Her battered body, too, would forbid any magical exertion for some time.

  The Cynthian garrison had erupted through the breach first. Prepared for the worst, they seized their moment. Ranks of infantry formed a desperate perimeter around the gap, straining against the southerners' assault while Godma scrambled to redirect forces scattered along the barrier's length. Ash Davan intended to drag Lostya to safety, but first needed to navigate the churning battlefield—the frenzied melee had consumed all order, and four women no longer commanded any attention. Even wounded soldiers still under Julia and Aurelia's treatment tore away their bandages to join the slaughter. "Ash!" Aurelia called out, clutching Julia's hand while scanning the chaos for their companions. "Ash! Over here! Lostya!"

  "I'm here!" Ash ducked, but a passing pikeman still clipped her, sending her spinning. "Julia! Aurelia! Over here!"

  "Come on, Ash." Aurelia pulled Julia through the press until they reached Ash Davan. "Our men won't hold this position long. We need to leave immediately." She gripped Ash's shoulder firmly. "Wait—where's Lona?"

  "I... I don't know..." The golden-haired sorceress trembled, her breathing ragged. "She... she cast a barrier over me for protection... The explosion threw me backward, and after that I..." Before she could finish, Aurelia had begun shouting Lostya Huggins's name into the cacophony. Her cries were swallowed by the roar of battle.

  "What in the hells are you doing here?" a knight demanded, pulling his black warhorse to a halt before them. Julia noticed the gray cloak billowing at his back and the crimson-lacquered shortbow hanging from his saddle—a Grey Knight. "We came to breach the magical barrier, Sir Knight," Aurelia answered, speaking as the most senior among them.

  "You're the Empire's court sorceresses?" he demanded, voice cutting through the din. When they confirmed, he barked, "Then why do you remain? The barrier is down. This is a killing field now, ladies. I strongly advise immediate withdrawal." With a sweep of his arm, several mounted warriors encircled the women. "Escort these ladies back to camp!" he commanded.

  "Sir Knight, we cannot leave yet," Ash Davan replied, her composure returning. "We still must—"

  "You're missing one of your number, aren't you?" the Grey Knight interrupted sharply.

  "Uh..." Ash hesitated, momentarily believing he'd divined her thoughts.

  "That's correct, sir," Aurelia confirmed. "We've become separated from our companion in the confusion."

  "I suspected as much..." the Grey Knight muttered. "Nevertheless, ladies, you cannot remain—" A deadly hail of arrows whistled toward them. The knight's sword flashed, deflecting two shafts in rapid succession. One of his protective circle took an arrow through the throat and collapsed without a sound; nearby infantrymen fell like wheat before a scythe. "Engage! Brothers, engage!" He struggled to control his mount as it snorted and reared at the stench of fresh blood. "Leave now! The Cynthians are pushing outward—we don't know how long until reinforcements arrive!"

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "But Lona is still out there somewhere!" Ash cried, voice cracking with desperation.

  "Go! Get out of this gods damned slaughterhouse!" the Grey Knight roared, and spurred his warhorse into the thick of the fighting, his men following close behind.

  "We... have precious little time," Julia whispered, her fingers digging into Aurelia's palm. "They'll kill us here, Aurelia. We'll... we'll die in this place. I don't want to die..."

  "Steady yourself, sister." Aurelia returned the pressure reassuringly. "Clear your mind and think. Riding isn't an option—those knights are bleeding for our sake as we speak. Which means..."

  "A portal," Ash Davan stated flatly.

  Aurelia nodded. "Can you manage it, Julia?"

  Julia nodded once—then immediately shook her head. "I... cannot. Not without a focus."

  "The focus, of course—damn my forgetfulness. Wait—thank the Ladies, here." She slipped the agate silver ring from her finger and pressed it onto Julia's right ring finger. "There should be sufficient Source remaining inside. Please, Julia. I beg you."

  "But what about Lona?" Ash clutched desperately at their sleeves. "Breathe deeply, Julia," Aurelia instructed. "Just as you've done before—nothing different. Slow and deliberate. The portal rests entirely on you..."

  "You're abandoning her!" Ash's voice rose in anguish. "She could be lying beside some corpse-heap within arm's reach!"

  "I know! Ash, by all gods, I know!" Aurelia whirled to face her, anger flashing in her eyes. "Don't disrupt the casting! I understand perfectly what you're saying! I know Lona remains here—in this battle, at the very heart of all this blood and tears! I know she's here! I..." Her voice suddenly flattened, laden with guilt. "I simply don't know how to save her."

  The words struck Ash's heart like a physical blow. She recognized this sentence as Lostya Huggins's death warrant. She had felt this exact same way once before. A morning, tangled in the sheets with him, the air rich with the scent of the sea and the salt-dried seagrass in the pillows. She had believed it would be another beautiful dawn, indistinguishable from all previous mornings. But then he had kissed her golden hair and whispered against the delicate shell of her ear, "I don't know how to save you. Forgive me." Her lover—her former lover—had taken a simple wooden boat and a few days' rations and sailed east, chasing a whisper of an Eastern Continent, a paradise no one else believed was real. And she, merely twelve years old, had been abandoned by his seventy-six-year-old self on Sitinna's shore—left with nothing but her restlessness and youth, forever.

  "You've surrendered her to fate," she said, her voice barely audible.

  "We... have no recourse."

  The portal materialized before them—earth and gravel rising into an archway, its center shimmering with pale, translucent light. "Go through, Ash."

  "She is our sister," Ash whispered brokenly.

  "Must we depart now?" Julia asked, her eyes rimmed with red. "I can maintain it briefly. Perhaps you two could search for Lona..."

  "She has already surrendered—abandoned our companion, the sister who shared our laughter and conversation," Ash said, her voice trembling with emotion.

  "I don't wish to rage against you, sisters. But I swear by everything sacred, I desire Lostya's return more desperately than any of you..." Something whistled through the air toward them; all three sorceresses threw themselves to the ground. When they raised their faces again, they discovered a severed head, its eyes still wide with lingering surprise. "...But we can't do it!" Aurelia's voice broke. "There is so little we can actually do!"

  "Flee while you can!" Another knight thundered past. "My deepest thanks for healing me, ladies!" he called to Aurelia and Julia. "But you must leave immediately! Our line is failing! Go! May the Triad watch over you!"

  They watched, frozen in horror, as the knight was run through with a spear in the midst of his charge.

  "We must go," Julia urged weakly. "I cannot sustain this much longer." Aurelia looked imploringly at Ash Davan.

  "Come, sisters," she said. And together, the three of them lunged through the portal, a mere heartbeat before it imploded into dust and silence.