Arthur’s eyes shot open as he sat up in his bed, he could smell the smoke in the air just as clear as he could in his dream. He turned towards the window which was closed, yet as he creeped closer the smell of smoke grew stronger and stronger. When he practically was pressing his face against the wooden shutter he could hear all sorts of sounds.

  Without hesitation, and perhaps too much force, he pushed the shutters open and looked down upon the fields below him.

  A small part of him was expecting to see everything as usual, just a dark field of all the alchemical ingredients he would be using for his potions. Instead he saw around ten people carrying torches and setting his fields alight as they laughed.

  For several moments Arthur stood there unsure what to do until his mind wandered towards his wife and his unborn child.

  His head spun around to see Calavia still sleeping on the bed and with terror in his soul he rushed to her and quickly shook her awake.

  “Calavia! You need to get up now!” Arthur shouted as he pulled the blanket off with far too much force.

  “Oh, what is it? I’m trying to sleep. And why does it smell like smoke?” Calavia groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to see her husband moving around like a terrified animal.

  “There are people outside burning the fields down, you need to get out of here.” Arthur almost shouted as he tossed her clothes and everything she would need. “Take the horses and get to Lindum as soon as possible. Once you are safe I will follow you.”

  “Arthur, what are you talking about? Who is it out there?” Calavia asked with increasing worry in her voice as she tried walking towards the window before Arthur stopped her.

  “No time to worry about that. You need to get out of here. Take your things and get ready. I will do what I can to make sure they don’t notice you.”

  *******

  The two quickly gathered what they would either carry or wear within just a minute and started down the stairs and out the door. When they were certain none of the people carrying torches were looking in their direction Calavia quickly walked over to the small hut that functioned as a stable for the two horses they kept.

  When she was safe and out of view Arthur crept forwards just enough to get a good look towards the houses where all the farmhands lived. From what he could see the three small houses were untouched by the flames and the people.

  “Get yourself out of here as soon as you can and don’t look back. I am going to get the farmhands and get them out of here. We will meet you at Lindum.” Arthur called out to Calavia as he started slowly walking to the farmhands and their homes.

  “But you said you would follow me once I was safe.” Calavia’s terrified voice called out after him. For a moment he stopped unsure as to what to tell her.

  “I can’t leave them to die Calavia, and I hope they would do the same for us.”

  Arthur waited for a moment but received no reply from Calavia. It was an answer enough.

  *********

  Slowly Arthur walked towards the farmhands' homes in what he hoped was beyond the sight of the men carrying torches. For the time being they seemed rather invested in burning the fields down and were paying little attention towards any of the actual buildings.

  Perhaps it was arrogance, perhaps it was ignorance, or perhaps it was simply just their job. Arthur didn’t know, but a small part of him was thankful towards whatever god or goddess that might have been watching over him.

  When he reached the home of the brothers Canus and Placus the men with torches had moved their attention towards the bottom eastmost field. Though they had only just started it was starting to cast a glow on the three small houses, and when it was fully alight they would most definitely be fully visible to all who might even glance in their direction.

  ‘I don’t have much time.’ Arthur thought to himself and he urgently knocked on the door for several seconds. On the other side he heard the sound of someone moving around and then slow footsteps towards the door. He knocked again with even greater urgency hoping whichever of the two brothers it was they would hurry up.

  Slowly the door crept open and Placus poked his head out with clear exhaustion on his face.

  “Boss? What are you doing out here so late?” Placus asked oblivious to the fire slowly spreading towards the house he and his brother resided in.

  “No time to explain everything, just wake your brother and take only what is necessary. There are people here who are burning down the fields and you all need to get out.”

  Placus’s eyes widened in surprise and his breathing intensified as he looked past Arthur and towards the dim light coming from the fields. “Alright, I'll wake him. What do we do after?”

  “Preferably you will join me in waking the others, but in the event that doesn’t work out I will need you to run into the woods and when you are safe return to Lindum. Calavia will be there and she will be sure to keep things together.”

  Placus nodded as Arthur turned and made his way towards the next farm hand house. Without waiting a moment Placus closed the door and rushed over to his elder brother and shook him awake. “Wake up Canus! Wake up!”

  Canus’s eyes opened with a start and he looked up at his brother with clear annoyance. His eyes turned towards the closed window and when he saw no light slipping through the cracks he looked as though he was about to strike him upside the head.

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  “What are you doing you fool!?” Canus practically hollered as he stood. But before he could continue Placus interrupted him.

  “Brother, we need to pack our things and get out. The boss told me only the essentials.” Placus didn’t wait for a response and quickly turned to start picking only what he considered to be essential to himself. It wasn’t very much, only a satchel with a book, a few trinkets, and a glass bottle he used as a container for water. The only other object he grabbed was his cloak which he quickly draped over his shoulders.

  “Wait, what do you mean we need to pack our things? Did the boss say why?” The anger in Canus’s voice was now completely absent, now it was replaced with worry.

  “The boss said there were people outside burning the fields. Now grab your things, we need to meet with him before we have no choice but to go to Lindum on our own.”

  *********

  Placus and Canus practically rushed out the door the moment they had everything they deemed valuable as they turned and made their way towards the other two small houses where they found Arthur with one of the other farmhands. Arthur gave the two brothers a nod before turning back towards the door to the last house.

  For several minutes the four stood outside waiting, their eyes occasionally looking towards the field as the flames slowly crept closer. But before it drew too close the door opened and the last two farmhands exited carrying a large sack between themselves.

  “Alright, we have everyone.” Arthur said once the door closed and everyone looked towards him. “We need to keep our distance from the fields, so that means we are sticking to the trees as much as possible. If anyone has anything to add, now is the time.”

  The four farmhands looked between themselves with a mix of nervousness and uncertainty, but none said anything.

  “Very well then, we need to get a move on.” With that Arthur led the four farmhands out towards the trees where there was a minimal amount of light. Slowly they crept towards the small stable and by extension the tower Arthur had come to call home for four years.

  ‘Four years.’ The number lingered in Arthur’s mind as he continued walking forwards. ‘Four years of peace, four years to experiment, four years to be happy. Will there be anything left when I come back?’ Out of the corner of his eye he looked towards the fields, by that point two were completely engulfed in flames and the strange people had moved onto the third.

  ‘I don’t need to worry about losing much of the money I have earned since we keep most of it in the bank, but what about everything else? How long will it take to rebuild everything?’

  Slowly a small feeling of hollowness started to fill Arthur’s chest. It was an unfamiliar sensation, something he had never experienced before. It was like his soul was bleeding from his chest from an invisible wound made with an invisible blade.

  Then suddenly a sound came from behind the group. Everyone paused and slowly turned to look in the direction of the sound, and there they found a group of five riding horses.

  At first it looked as if the riders had no idea where they were, but when they passed the burning fields and continued directly towards where they were hiding.

  The farmhands who had no experience in fighting started to panic, two even started running further into the trees with the hope the rides wouldn’t or would at least have trouble following. Even Arthur was rooted to the spot for a second unsure of what to do.

  “Run to the stable.” He said as he stared the riders down and reached towards his bag, a slight tremble in his arms as he did so.

  “What about you?” Arthur heard Placus ask from behind as another set of steps started moving towards the stable.

  “I will be fine, I’ve killed bandits before.”

  “What? When? You haven’t ever left the farm for more than a day since we met.”

  “It has been a few years, but I have killed a lot of people. But I didn’t need to worry about anyone else then. So if you could, get to the stable and get out of here.” Arthur said as he pulled out a long wooden staff from his bag. At first glance it looked no different from something a wayfarer or pilgrim might keep with them, but subtle magical engravings hummed with well restrained power.

  Arthur didn’t need to look back to know that Placus was torn between getting to safety and staying. It was only natural to feel convicted leaving someone behind. But the sound of someone else whispering to Placus, most likely his brother, was enough to convince him to leave. But before he left and with only a few seconds before the riders were on them he had one last thing to say.

  “I will tell Calavia about what is happening.” And with that he rushed with the one other person who stayed to the stable and towards safety.

  Arthur gave a small sigh as he kept his eyes trained on the riders heading right for him. Only a couple carried any light source so only when they were close was he able to distinguish anything of note about them.

  The first thing that he took notice of was the armor and weapons the supposed bandits were wearing. Unlike typical bandits who either wore cheap, worn, old, and or whatever armor they could find or take, these ‘bandits’ wore new and uniform armor. First was the dark gambesons that covered most of their upper body, then over top of that they each had a treated leather vest and a leather hood that covered each of their heads. In the dark these hoods also partly concealed their faces.

  The only exception to these was the supposed leader of the group who was dressed far differently. From what Arthur could tell it was a man dressed in a thick black robe with a somewhat pointed hood and a ghost white mask that covered his face. The mask resembled an exposed humanoid skull and in the empty eye sockets two normal eyes could be seen. With a thin gloved finger he pointed towards Arthur and gave one order to his men.

  “Kill him, kill him now.”

  For just a single second the world seemed to slow to a crawl as everyone processed the disturbingly causal command. Each of the riders reached to the side of their saddles and then aimed a crossbow directly at Arthur before they all pulled the trigger within just a second or two of each other.

  Arthur’s heart raced as he quickly conjured up a wall before him, but the hasty wall wasn’t near enough to keep the bolts from poking out.

  Arthur’s eyes grew as wide as eggs as he stared at the tip of the bolts just an inch or two from his face. Just another moment of hesitation or just a little less mana being used could have resulted in a painful and swift death.

  Suddenly the sound of horse hooves started from the other side of the wall and with the sounds Arthur saw the head of a horse poking out from the edge of his earth wall, and only a second later the rider would be pointing that crossbow directly at his face.

  So Arthur with a spell at the ready. When that foolish rider was within Arthur’s sight he was the first to discover just how much effort Arthur put into learning geomancy.

  With just two seconds he was able to conjure a tier two earth spike and have it pointed towards a very surprised rider. The sound of a man being impaled filled the quiet night for a moment as nobody was sure how to react.

  The rider died nearly instantly, so the fact he didn’t scream or shout didn’t surprise Arthur. However the fact that none of his comrades did planted a small seed of worry in his heart.

  As he waited behind his wall casting up a few more spells both for protection and killing he heard the sound of someone speaking very softly, it lasted for ten seconds exactly before the earth wall he created suddenly shattered with enough force to cast him backwards several feet.