Revenge of the Raven

Chapter 2 - Declarations of War

My eyebrow shot upwards in surprise at his statement. I had to admit, he had intrigued me.

“We? How many?”

He hesitated and I studied him carefully. Occasionally, people were able to break free of the subjugation spell and I had to be sure that wasn’t why he was pausing. Finally, he spoke again, his voice cautious and unsure.

“I’m not sure. My company consists of about a hundred men, but I can’t say for the other units. I know there are a number of others, but I was never informed how many.”

“And what exactly were you supposed to accomplish tonight.”

He hesitated again and I could feel myself growing increasingly impatient. When he spoke again it came out rushed and he dropped to his knees in front of me.

“We were here to kill all of you. Please forgive me master, I didn’t know what I was doing. You’ve shown me the error-”

“Stop. Who exactly were you here to kill? Where is the rest of your unit?”

“We were sent here to eradicate any nonhumans. My men are most likely each at their assigned positions, carrying out those orders now... if they haven’t already.”

I couldn’t help the bubbling laughter that erupted from my lips at his words.

“Your king is a bigger fool than I thought. You honestly thought a small group of men such as yourself could eradicate my entire coven? You’re men are surely dead, or it least in the same state as yourself.”

I shook my head and stood up, vanishing the large piles of clutter with a slight wave of my wrist. I cast a quick spell to dress me before I hovering my hand over a space on the wall, revealing a small nook stacked with a variety of old scrolls and books.

This was just one of my many hiding spots, but I was fairly certain the books I was looking for were in here. I started digging through the books looking for the oldest ones that held the same runes as the bracelet, when the man spoke again from behind me.

“The king had a plan for how to attack such powerful beings as yourself. The bracelet you’re holding blocks magic. We were told to sneak in while you were all asleep and put them on before attacking. Obviously it failed because he underestimated you master-”

He continued ranting on with meaningless praise but I ignored him, it was just a side effect of the subjugation spell. Instead I lifted the bracelet and inspected it closer. I’d heard of objects that could block magic, I even had a few of them myself, but they were exceedingly rare.

The few that I had obtained over the years were anything but easy to get. How had he gotten his hands on enough of these bracelets to supposedly subdue my entire coven? The king was obviously very wealthy, but money wasn’t the issue. Artifacts of this nature were created in the ancient times, before the great war. After the war was over, the majority of magical items were destroyed.

Apparently, he had found a way to create them himself. It was the only explanation for there being so many of these bracelets. I had to admit it was intriguing. Very few people even knew ancient magic existed, let alone how to wield it or how create something that could harness it. I pursed my lips and turned back to the man still rambling on his knees by my bedside.

“How did your king create these?”

He looked up from the floor, his eyes still clouded over with the mist.

“I- I don’t know. They were given to us, and each unit was instructed to attack a different coven and use the bracelets to suppress any sorcerers.”

I nearly dropped the bracelet in shock as I stared at him.

“He attacked more than just my coven? How many?”

“All of them master. Well all that he knew the location of.”

Just as the last word left his mouth I heard a scream coming from outside my door. I clenched my jaw and sprinted to my bedroom door ripping it from its hinges as I tore it open. It seemed the king’s master plan was just being put into action. All along the hallway I could hear the screams of my students as their lives were ended in their sleep.

I burst through the door across from mine, the one belonging to my closest friend, blasting the door into splinters as I rushed into the room. Blue masses of fire engulfed my hands as I saw the soldier standing over her bed.

I was a second too late, and I watched as he withdrew the silver blade from the gaping wound in her neck and her body dropped limply back onto the sheets. I screamed in fury raising my hand and clenching it into a fist in front of me, instantly crushing every bone in his body.

My scream echoed through the halls and I flew back into the hallway blasting open every door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man whose mind I’d taken over cowering in my room. I ignored him and I stormed forward down the hall. As I passed each doorway I let electricity fly from my fingertips, electrocuting the guards in every room.

I opened my mind, letting it expand and searching for any of the familiar consciousnesses of the members of my coven. Usually when I did this, my mind would be filled with overwhelming numbers of all the minds of my followers. An hour ago there were nearly sixty of us. Now, there were only seven.

I bit back the sadness and despair at having lost so many in so short a time. I’d mourn them later. Instead I focused on the few remaining spots and brought the first to the forefront of my mind and gasped as I realized it belonged to Imani. She was one of our youngest members and I immediately teleported to her room.

Her room was empty, save for the body of one of the soldiers. I rushed towards the noise coming from the hall. Imani was standing in the doorway of another bedroom, bright orange and yellow flames pouring relentlessly from her palms.

Another soldier stepped forward out of another room and I snapped his neck with a flick of my wrist before he could swing his sword at Imani’s back. She turned and smiled softly when she saw me.

“Zea? I should’ve figured they wouldn’t get to you.”

I nodded at her, glad she had survived, and glanced around watching for any more of the soldiers.

“Have you seen anyone else? Any other survivors?”

Imani shook her head sadly.

“Everyone I’ve seen around here is dead. How could they do this Zea?”

I chose to ignore her question for the time being, there simply wasn't time to get into explanations.

“Will you be ok here? I’m going to try and find any other survivors.”

Imani nodded and launched a discarded sword into the stomach of another soldier that had just come around the corner. I teleported again this time to where one of my more advanced students was standing. Barth was surrounded by a huge crowd of the soldiers. He met my gaze over one of their soldiers and grinned viciously.