by Dixon, TJ
“If things get out of hand do we retreat here?” Lilian asks.
“I’ll call in Peter if we need him, but if need be, then yes we retreat here. I’ll give the order if it comes down to that but, until and unless I give it, we fight on.” I say confidently. Goblins are dangerous, but even if we get in trouble there is no way that Peter who killed an army of them single handed is going to lose to them if I do need to call him in. “Everyone hold onto me.”
We port into a clearing in a forest. Not the nearby forest, but one much further away. It used more power than I expected to get here. Most of our team however are still at or close to full power so I am not worried. “Lilian, see if you can sense them.”
“Ok.” Lilian says and closes her eyes. “There are more than I expected. Perhaps a hundred or more. We should consider abandoning this job.”
“Do they have magic?”
“How am I meant to tell that?” Lilian asks annoyed.
“Then let’s at least give this job a try.”
“We’re facing no less than an army here. If they do know magic this is suicide.” Lilian says angrily.
“We can do it.” I reply not wanting to back down now.
“Contact Peter then.” Lilian says. I consider refusing, but perhaps she is right.
“Ok, just give me a moment.” I say and try to contact Peter. I get no response. I try again worried. “He’s not answering me. We should head back.” I say and my emotions are clear. “Everyone hold onto me.”
When everyone has held onto me I try to port but something stops me. Then I feel eyes on the back of my neck. “Enemies! They’re stopping the port!”
Fire races towards us but Jenny’s own flames throws theirs back and the goblins are roasted alive. I try to port again but I am still being stopped. “We fight.” I say fearfully.
Ice shards rain down on us but Lilian creates a shield of earth above us. I have no idea where the enemy is and my heart is full of fear. I call again to Peter but there is no answer. What is wrong with Peter?
Lightning strikes at us, but it is absorbed by a metal rod that rises from the ground. The rod must be Lilian’s magic. Then the rod races towards the goblin who threw the lighting. I can hear it scream. Perhaps we can do this. I open my senses to their full and sensing where some of the goblins are I throw flames at them, but mine are much weaker than Jenny’s flames. To my frustration the attack is deflected by a magical shield. Then Sherry’s flames join mine and the shield is broken. The goblins burn to ash.
“We can do this.” I say relieved. Then suddenly a huge rock is thrown our way. It shatters the shield of earth that Lilian had up. Cherry throws wind at it and it shatters before it hits us but it does still hit us. Both Cherry and Sherry fall to the floor in pain, and Lilian is barely standing. Jenny and Tabi were lucky and are not badly hurt. I desperately call out one final time to Peter.
“Who is this?” An elderly female voice asks.
“Hermes.” I reply.
“How did this boy get this item? It bears the royal crest. Is he a thief as well?”
“From the Queen! He is no thief. Please summon the Queen with it!”
“Ridiculous. I will have you arrested as well, if you dare return to the academy.” The voice says and then I notice a goblin right in front of me. I throw flames at it, but without Sherry’s aid they are shielded. I raise my arm to block the metal rod that it is holding. The same one Lilian created. I reinforce my arm with stone but the rod shatters the stone and my arm. I scream and suddenly the goblin is ash. Jenny’s flames are to thank, but the pain overwhelms me.
(Jenny)
It is chaos. I wish I had argued against this more but it is too late to wish that now. Hearing Hermes scream I burn the goblin that attacked her but there are too many enemies. I am sure there must be far, far more than a hundred goblins. A hundred is not truly an army but this is an army we are fighting, and every army has a leader. If we can kill the leader then the enemy should be thrown into chaos, though that is exactly what we are in right now. Perhaps whoever threw that rock is their leader.
“Lilian, kill the one who threw the rock! I’ll focus on defence. Tabi on defence as well!” I say. Earth is after all her element. She grunts, which I assume is agreement so I focus on a flame shield around us. Tabi seeks out the enemies that approach the shield and intercepts the attacks, which are proving all too frequent.
“Got him.” Lilian says. Having followed my logic though she says. “Don’t think he was their leader though.”
“Take out as many of them as you can.” I say under the pressure of maintaining the flame shield.
“This is hopeless. We need to take out the dimensional magic so we can port out of here.” Lilian says now sounding more herself.
“Any idea where it is coming from?” I ask desperately.
“Not yet, but give me a minute and I will.” She says. A minute is probably the longest I can maintain this shield.
“Ok, but I may have no power left to port by then.”
“Tabi make sure you save power to fly or port us all out of here.” Lilian says and then goes silent. She is surely searching for the enemy. I am almost out of power when I hear a giant crash. “Now Tabi!”
Suddenly we are all flying up and away from the enemy. Moments later when we are all in contact Tabi ports us. I can tell we haven’t gone far, and we are a mess, but we are alive. I try to contact Peter but there is no answer. Cursing I take out the healing potions that I had in case of emergencies, which this certainly is. I first give some to Cherry, and then Sherry. Then I give Hermes some, and finally Lilian. I don’t waste any on me or Tabi who aren’t too badly hurt, because I have no idea whether we will need to use it again before we can get back.
“Anyone got any power left?” I ask.
“A little but not enough for another fight or to port us far.” Cherry says but Sherry shakes her head, and so do Tabi, Hermes and Lilian.
“I’m about the same. We need to find somewhere to hide. Something must have happened to Peter, because he’s still not answering.”
“It sounded like he may have been arrested.” Hermes says. There’s more than one gasp at that.
“Now’s not the time. We need to focus on finding somewhere safe. A cave would be good. Most goblins avoid caves, because where goblins come from more dangerous creatures live in caves. Of course some goblins make them their homes, but it is our best bet, if we can’t port.” I say before everyone gets too distracted.
“Everyone follow me.” Lilian says. “There’s one this way.” We follow and soon enough we reach it. We go deep into it until we are far out of sight of the entrance.
“We’ll rest here until we get enough power back to port.” I say.
“We may be arrested too if we go back.” Hermes says tearfully.
“The Queen will clear things up if we are.” I say before anyone can panic.
“So you know about the Queen then.” Lilian says, and obviously she isn’t talking in the general sense.
“Just who are you all?” Tabi asks in pure shock at everything that has happened and been said.
“Future’s Forge.” I answer confidently. “We exist to serve the Queen, and Peter. You need not be afraid. When we get back everything will be sorted out.”
(Rin)
Our first job went really well. Helski tracked down the bug straight away, and it died instantly from my attack. The next job is taking too long. I wish I’d chosen a different job, or not given both Cherry and Tabi to Hermes. Cherry would have tracked this enemy down in an instant and, I have no doubt that Tabi would have found it by now. I was under the impression that Midori had caught up with them, but it seems I was mistaken. I don’t want to call Peter after what he said, but Midori has been looking for this bird all morning. It is now lunch time. Perhaps Hermes has finished her jobs now.
“We’ll port back to the town, and see if Hermes’ group has finished. Perhaps we can swap you and Cherry.” I say to Midor
i.
“I will find it soon, I’m sure.”
“You’ve been saying that for hours now.” I say and shake my head. “You’ve had long enough. If you were going to find it you…”
“Found it!” Midori says. “We need to be quick, though or I’ll lose it. It is really fast. I’ll fly us there.” Then she picks us up with flight magic and we are racing through the trees. I am a little nervous, because I’m not confident she isn’t going to crash us into a tree, but having waited this long I don’t want to risk losing the bird. “There!”
The green bird really is fast. I can see why Midori had trouble finding it. My ice attack misses and so do Yu Kii’s rock shards. Somehow Yusa hits it, but her attack is too weak, and is just shrugged off. Helski shields us from its fire breath with her earth shield. My next attack misses too but Yu Kii manages to hit it. Hurt, it is slower now and other than Helski, who is shielding us, we all manage to get it with our next attack. It is well and truly dead.
“Good work Midori. Sorry, I didn’t realise how fast that thing was.”
“It’s ok.” Midori says sounding and looking pleased.
“Let’s take it back and see if Hermes is there yet. If not we’ll need to wait for them, because we need Jenny to hand both the jobs in for us.” I say. I don’t feel like having to wait though, so I hope she is there. “I suppose we can have lunch if she isn’t back yet.”
“Sounds good.” Midori says. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m hungry.”
“Yusa, you can port us.” I say. Her magic is the weakest so I’d rather use hers to port than anyone else’s.
“Ok.” Yusa says. She sounds happy to be of use. We gather around Yusa, and she ports us. Hermes’ group is not around.
“I’ll check inside to see if they’ve done their jobs already.” I say and leave the others outside. I double check and both the jobs Hermes was doing are removed.
“You were with Jenny earlier weren’t you?” A worried looking woman says approaching me as I was starting to leave.
“Yes, is there something wrong?” I ask now worried myself.
“She took a rather difficult job earlier. I was wondering whether you had seen her since.”
“What job did she take?” I ask hoping she didn’t take anything too difficult.
“Goblins. I have the details over there. Would you mind taking a look?”
“Sure.” I say now really worried. I suppose I shouldn’t be though, because she’d have gotten help from Peter if things had gone badly. He took out an army of goblins before on his own so there is no way he would have trouble.
“There were reports of a small band of goblins, who may or may not know magic. They were seen near Black Isle, a small island in the centre of the river that runs through the Black Forest. We lost contact with Black Isle shortly after they took the job though. The town on that island has a fairly significant mage guard, because of its location, so we think the goblins must simply be blocking communication magic. It is possible that the enemy are stronger than we thought.”
“Blocking communication magic.” I say fearfully. “They wouldn’t be able to call for help if that is true. Please share the location with me.”
“I’m not sure you should go after them. If the enemy is that powerful you’ll be killed too.”
“They’re not dead, and I’m not going alone. Please share the location.”
“A group of students may be able to handle a small band of goblins, but if it is an army…”
“I have a friend who has defeated an army of goblins single handed before.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“Well, on your head be it.” She says and shares the location with mind magic.
“Thank you.” I say and race out of the town hall.
“You must be hungry.” Midori laughs but I shake my head and she can tell from my expression that something is wrong.
“Calling Peter.” I say to them and then I call to him. “Peter. Hermes’ group is in trouble. We need your help.” There is silence. Can he not hear me? “Peter?”
“He’s been arrested, along with most of his club.” An old voice comes back. After a moment I recognise it as the head. “Return to the academy at once, to face justice.”
I am in shock but I quickly take off the gold chain. “Everyone this is really bad. We need to contact the Queen, and quickly.”
“The Queen?” Midori says blankly, and Helski is clearly just as confused.
“So it wasn’t coincidence. You really do know the Queen.” Yusa says and I look at her for a moment, but this is no time for questions.
“We do and I’m not going to ask what you are talking about because there is no time.”
“Lucy’s mother may be able to help.” Yu Kii suggests.
“Yes, you’re right!”
“Aventurine’s mother may be able to help.” Yusa suggests, and she is right. The Divine Flames are famous, so she may be able to, and her daughter has probably been arrested.
“Do you know how to contact her?” I ask.
“Aventurine will be able to.”
“No good, she’s probably been arrested too.” I say and Yusa’s eyes go wide. So do Helski and Midori’s.
“Arrested?!” Helski exclaims.
“As well as Peter?” Midori asks in panic.
“Yes, that’s why we need to contact the Queen. I am sure she will help us with whatever has happened.”
“I know where the Divine Flames live, although I don’t know whether they’ll believe us.” Emma says.
“Yu Kii, go to Lucy’s mother then. Everyone else go to the Divine Flames with me. Hopefully one of them will help us. I just wish it wasn’t just Peter’s chain that connects to the Queen.”
“His…” Helski starts to say but I cut her off.
“No time. Get going now Yu Kii, everyone else to Emma.” I say and see Yu Kii port. Once everyone is holding on Emma ports us and we are at the front gates. A startled looking guard comes to attention.
“Who are you?” She asks warily.
“Friends of Aventurine. She’s in trouble and we need help from her mother.” I say and the guard’s eyes go glazed for a moment. Another moment later a young woman appears. She is older than us but certainly not old enough to be Aventurine’s mother.
“I am Trinity Divine Flame. You are friends of my sister?” She asks politely.
“Yes. We are all in the same club.”
“Is there a problem? Aventurine isn’t in if this is a social visit.”
“There is a problem. We need to contact the Queen. Peter and most of our club, which probably includes Aventurine, have been arrested.”
“Arrested?!”
“Yes. We don’t know why yet but we are sure the Queen would help. Peter has done some very important work for her.”
“Yes, like Min… Oh sorry, I forgot that I’m not meant to talk about that. I am aware of his connection to the Queen.” Trinity says. “Getting an audience with the Queen is no simple task though.”
“But it is our only chance. Part of our club is on a mission at the moment, which seems to have gone bad. They could already be dead. We need Peter’s help.”
“What mission?” Trinity asks clearly concerned.
“It was meant to be a small goblin bounty hunt, but it sounds like the enemy may have been a lot stronger than we realised. Without Peter to support them…”
“If it is just goblins I can organise the house guard, whilst my mother tries to talk to the Queen.” Trinity says. “Wait here.” So we do and a few minutes later she arrives with about twenty mages. They all wear the Divine Flame house colours. Cleary they are the house guard. “You know where the enemy is?”
“I know the location where the job was.” I say.
“Please share it.” Trinity says calmly but clearly in command. A moment later she says, “We’ll bring your friends back. No amount of goblins can stand against the Divine Flame. For now pl
ease enter the house and talk to my mother.”
“We can help.” I say but she shakes her head.
“We will deal with this. You will help mother.” Trinity says firmly. Suddenly they all port at exactly the same moment, without a word exchanged. Either they have something like we do to exchange thoughts, or they have a very good dimensional sense and instincts. I am sure they will be able to help Hermes and her group.
“This way everyone.” I say and we rush up the path to the front door. A minute or so later we reach it and it opens on its own. Standing behind it is a woman, who I would guess is around forty or so, but age is sometimes very hard to tell, and if this is the head of the Divine Flames she could very well be hundreds or even thousands of years old. She has the same emerald green eyes as Aventurine and Trinity, and though her hair lacks the same shine, it is also red. Her skin is pale like theirs, but obviously not as smooth. She isn’t as thin either, but she has the same dignified posture.
“So you are friends of Peter and Aventurine.” She says, oddly mentioning Peter before her own daughter. “We should make haste to the royal palace, but it may prove difficult to gain an audience with the Queen. One thing that you may be confident of though is my daughter and the house guard. No goblin will stand in their way. If your friends are still alive they will stay that way, and be back here shortly. We should not wait for them though. Come closer and I will port us. There is no need for contact.”
(Trinity)
We port in right on top of the enemy. The enemy are caught by surprise and we take full advantage. Our flames have soon killed dozens of goblins, but they recover far quicker than is normal for their kind. Stone, wind, lightning and ice all strike against us, but we are not a bunch of amateurs. As an elite independent company my mages know exactly who needs to focus on defence and who on attack without need for words. After my shameful inability to so much as sense the enemy in my battle against the elves my flames burn even stronger than normal.
Waves after waves of goblins are reduced to ash, but they show no sign of stopping. I haven’t been counting but we must have killed hundreds now and some of my mages must be starting to tire. I leave the killing of these cattle to the house guard and I focus my senses trying to detect a leader. It takes a while but finally I sense something. It isn’t their leader but is far more important.