Out of Hiding (Mica)

MICA EARTHBORN

"Mica looks ridiculous," I grumped, gazing into the mirror as I twisted and turned to see myself from multiple angles. We had flown from the Beast Glades to Greengate under the cover of night, sneaking into the town in the early hours of morning. There was no sign of the Alacryans, so we stole into an abandoned house to wait.

At least, we'd thought it was abandoned until we found a young woman's corpse hanging from an exposed beam in the kitchen. Varay had cut her down, and we'd put her in the home's single bed and covered her with a blanket. After I sang a dwarven death song, we left her to rest.

It was a gloomy start to our mission.

We hid within the dead woman's house for two days before the Alacryans arrived. It was a quiet, reflective two days. Varay had paced endless, restless circles around the house while Aya sat and watched through a crack in the shuttered window. I told her this was unnecessary, as we would feel it the moment a retainer appeared in town, but surprisingly she didn't listen to me.

I spent the time in thought. It was a shame to waste quality time I could have spent tormenting the other Lances, but the discovery of the woman's body had been a slap-in-the-face kind of reminder of the cost of this war. As a general, I'd become used to the sight of soldiers' bodies littering the battlefield, but those were never the only casualties.

Who did she lose in the war? I wondered. Who did she lose that she couldn't live without?

The names of the dead thrummed in my head like barrel drums. Olfred. Dawsid Greysunders. Glaundera Greysunders. Rahdeas. Alea Triscan. Bairon Wykes. Virion Eralith. Arthur Leywin. My charges, my companions…and how many others from Darv by now? Dwarves I'd known from Vildorial or the Earthborn Institute? My family? There were so many faces I would never see again, voices I would never hear.

I had been in danger of becoming rather depressed when we finally felt the telltale surge of mana announcing the arrival of the retainer.

"Why does Mica have to wear this dead woman's clothes, again?" I asked, still examining myself in the mirror.

"I want to see what we're up against before we risk attacking," Varay answered. "If we march out there dressed like Lances, they'll either attack immediately or flee, and we don't want either of those things to happen."

Varay and Aya had also exchanged their armor for simple clothes and hooded cloaks. They were both closer to the size of the previous owner, and managed to avoid looking completely stupid. Aya's tunic was perhaps a little strained, and Varay's pants ended above her ankle, but the only thing in the house that fit me was a man's tunic that we'd found crumpled up at the back of the wardrobe.

"It looks like a potato sack," I said, keeping up my steady stream of complaints. "Mica is supposed to be the cute one, not the frumpy, dumpy one."

Aya scoffed. "No one is going to remember what we're wearing. Now let's—"

She went silent as something set the mana particles all around us to vibrating subtly. A honeyed voice oozed out of the air. "People of Greengate. Your attendance is required at the village square. You have ten minutes."

The three of us shared a look, everything forgotten except for the mission.

"Suppress your mana signatures. Let's go."

Aya and I followed Varay outside and down the street. The dead woman's house was near the west edge of the village, so it was easy to blend into the crowd of confused townsfolk making their slow way toward the square.

Their fear was obvious, but I didn't blame them for it. They'd have been stupid not to be afraid, considering what was waiting for them. Still, I knew they were going to be really surprised when the Lances suddenly appeared!

With our faces hidden under our hoods—I had to hold onto the hem of my borrowed cloak to keep it from dragging on the ground—we streamed along with the pale-faced, silent farmers until we found ourselves standing in a wide plaza.

The crowd was pressed in close around a column of stone that rose ten feet above the cobbles. A ring of Alacryan mages guarded the column, but everyone's eyes were on the woman standing on top of it.

She was wearing the gray and red uniform of Alacrya. Her hair was the color of fire, and it seemed to move with a life of its own, like a flickering candle flame. She gazed down at the crowd with a subtle smile, her hands clasped in front of her.

The retainer was letting her intent press down on the people below her. Not murderous and crushing, but insurmountable. To these humble farmers, if must have felt like she was a deity.

I've seen better.

She was pretty, sure, and she was powerful enough, and whatever sound deviant spell she used to project her voice the way she did was neat, but she wasn't scary.

While the silence lingered, I examined the mages with her, but they were nothing special. Despite being high-ranking soldiers with multiple runes displayed along their backs, they were there more for show than safety. It's not like villagers with pitchforks were a threat to the retainer.

It feels too easy, I thought, Aya's words about it being a trap coming back to me.

Closing my eyes, I felt around the town for any other mana signatures, but the only mage I could sense was an old man in the crowd, who looked like a strong gust of wind might blow him all the way to the Wall.

A sufficiently powerful mage, like another retainer, could hide their mana signature, however, so I didn't entirely reject the possibility of some kind of trap.

It wouldn't be too bad, I thought idly. Like a two-for-one sale on Alacryan retainers. Two flies, one slap.

"People of Greengate." The words oozed into my ears like honey. Gross. I stuck a finger into my ear like I could dig the woman's voice out. "You already know that your Council is gone, your armies have broken, and your most powerful warriors have abandoned you. The flying castle is ours. Xyrus, Blackbend, Etistin, Vildorial, Zestier…all of Sapin, Elenoir, and Darv are ours. But do not despair, for we do not come as pillagers."

She gave the crowd a practiced pause, letting this sink in.

When she spoke again her voice had softened into a warm, welcoming tone. "We come here not for conquest, but as saviors. You know of the asuras, the beings you've long worshiped as deities. You've been told they watch over you, but this is a lie. The asuras abandoned you, they abandoned us all…except for one. One such being does care for you, and it is by the will of our High Sovereign, a true asura, that Alacrya has won this war. We had to win, so we could show you this truth."

The retainer paused again, as if she'd expected the outburst of muttering that followed her words.

I met Varay's eye, eager to shut the Alacryan woman up, but she gave me a tiny shake of her head. Teeth grinding, I turned back to the retainer, waiting to see what other lies would spill from her red lips.

"My name is Lyra Dreide. I have come here to extend to you the good will of the High Sovereign, to express that it is time to move past our conflict and extend to each other the hands of friendship."

"Is it with 'friendship' that you torture students in Xyrus?"

A hush fell over the crowd as everyone looked around for whoever had spoken. A small pocket of terrified people were pushing away from a blond young man, leaving him isolated and abandoned under the retainer's steady gaze.

The speaker seemed less confident now that the retainer's focus had fallen on him, but he forged ahead anyway. "Is it with friendship that you tear our families apart, making anyone who challenges you, who stands up to the horrible things you do, vanish in the night?"

Lyra Dreide's gaze swept back over the silent crowd, her expression soft. "There will always be those that refuse the peace we offer, but for the good of all, agents of chaos and disruption must be dealt with firmly."

The ground shook as a pillar of earth lifted up beneath the young man's feet, carrying him into the air and causing a panic. The crowd scrambled to get even farther away.

"I take no pleasure in this violence," the retainer continued, "but peace may be maintained only through the careful application of force. Watch, everyone, and remember this man's fate."

I met Varay's eye again and widened my own as if to say, "Can Mica knock this snake-tongued loony off her pedestal now?" The human Lance gave me a sharp nod before launching into the air, placing herself between the retainer's outstretched hand and the blond farm boy.

The scene froze.

Terrified villagers stared up at Varay with expressions of confusion and shock. Lyra Dreide's pouting, painted lips turned down in a deep frown. The ring of soldiers activated their runes as they stepped forward with weapons drawn.

"Every word you speak is heavy with untruth," Varay said coldly. "You are a liar, and a murderer. I am Varay Aurae, and I won't let you hurt another Dicathian."

Lyra Dreide smoothed out her uniform and stood very straight. "Varay Aurae, code name Zero. You and your associates—Mica Earthborn, Ohmwrecker; Aya Grephin, Phantasm; and Bairon Wykes, Thunderlord—are fugitives sought by the High Sovereign. I will allow you exactly one chance to turn yourself in peacefully."

I let out a happy laugh before flying up a few feet off the ground. "Well, Liar Dried-up"—I snorted at my own off-the-cuff mispronunciation of her name—"we charge you with being incredibly dumb!"

She scowled at me before quickly scanning the crowd until she found Aya as well. "Three of the famed Lances all together in one place. It's my lucky day, I guess."

"It's really not," I replied cheerily.

The retainer stumbled to one knee and her guards were jerked off their feet to slam against the column she stood on as it became its own source of gravity. A cylindrical shield of ice at least a foot thick condensed around the column and the Alacryans, separating them from the crowd, and then a creeping fog spread from the ground under their feet, climbing up the soldiers' legs and torsos.

Screams and the crackling of spells echoed out of the frozen tube as the Alacryans attempted to counter our attacks, but their spells only rebounded back on them, and the soldiers quickly turned on each other as Aya's illusions seeped into their minds. The whole town seemed to hold its breath as it watched the carnage that unfolded, but it was short-lived. In moments, the soldiers were all dead.

On top of the pillar, Lyra Dreide stood slowly back to her feet. I released the gravity spell and tried to push through her control of the stone column and turn it to sand, but she held the structure against me.

The twin pillar, where she'd detained the young man who'd spoken out against her, crumbled instead, sending him plummeting down into the jagged remnants. I thought he'd be impaled in the rubble, but Aya snagged him by the back of his tunic at the last moment.

The cylinder of ice exploded outward with a deafening crash, sending razor-sharp shards into the crowd. Varay yelled as she forced the projectiles to burst apart into a flurry of harmless slush, but not before several villagers tumbled to the ground with shouts of pain.

Too much opportunity for collateral damage. "Run, you lumps of coal!" I shouted, encouraging the crowd to clear out.

A shimmering blue globe appeared around the retainer as Varay focused on another spell. The air inside grew so cold that the moisture began to condense and flutter down as big snowflakes, but steam was rising from the retainer's skin.

"She's countering our spells!" I shouted, reaching down and driving my hand into the ground. A huge stone mace formed in my fist. Despite the weapon being half again my height, manipulation of the gravity around it made it feel light as a feather.

I waited until the surface of the frozen bubble popped before launching myself at the retainer, my giant mace arcing through the air. Before it reached her, however, some sort of vibration pulled my weapon apart, leaving me holding nothing but a handful of sand.

So I punched her with that instead.

Her head rocked back as my fist made contact with her nose, but her leg was sweeping toward my knee at the same time. I made myself heavy enough that my feet cracked the column, and when her kick landed it just bounced off again.

I gave her what I considered my most frustrating smirk just before the pillar beneath me crumbled, sending me plunging toward the ground like a catapult stone due to my weight. Along with a thousand pounds of rock, I crashed into the remains of the Alacryan soldiers, crushing them to red pulp.

"Ew," I groaned as I pulled a chunk of something wet from my hair.

Above me, two different ice spells collided with the retainer, who was floating on a current of wind-attribute mana. I was able to see the vibrations, like squiggly black lines written in the air, as they caused the ice to break apart before reaching her.

Lyra Dreide seemed to have very precise control of mana, directly influencing it to counteract our spells instead of casting spells of her own, which allowed her to subtly counter almost everything we were throwing at her. Feeling for the earth-attribute mana in the chunks of stone all round me, I sent them hurling back up into the sky. Instead of disintegrating, a draft of spinning wind caught them and flung them across the town square so that they rained down onto the retreating crowd. Oops.

"Be careful of the villagers!" Varay shouted.

"No crap," I muttered as I pulled myself out of the rubble.

Seeing our hesitation, the retainer let out a laugh that resounded throughout the town, rolling back over itself, building into wave after wave of noise that grew until glass shattered and timbers splintered.

I clapped my hands to my ears, but it sounded like the noise was inside my head. I could feel my bones aching with it, my heartbeat skipping with the rhythm of the laughter, but then it was gone.

Varay had been equally affected, I was glad to see, but Aya had been able to counter the deviant spell with one of her own. Mica can't be the weakest Lance. That would be humiliating. Unlike the three of us, the villagers left in the town square had no mana to buffer against the attack. Every one of them collapsed to the ground, and I couldn't be sure if they were alive or dead.

Although the attack was effective, it seemed to have drained our opponent. Lyra Dreide sagged, her wild hair hanging limply around her pouting face, her arms dangling at her sides.

"Cylrit, you bastard, where in the name of the Vritra are you?" she muttered, her voice carrying through the plaza on her own wind spell.

"Things not going to plan?" I jeered, sticking my thumbs in the thick belt I'd used to keep my potato sack of an outfit together and looking up at her like I didn't have a care in the world. No reason she needed to know that her spell had left me with a persistent whistling sound in my left ear, which I thought might have a little blood dribbling out of it.

"Enough talk," Aya snapped from my left. "Let's finish this."

The retainer snarled, her haughtiness and regal bearing gone. "You'll regret coming out of hiding, Lances. Next time I won't be alone."

"Next time?" I asked, cocking my head to the side questioningly. "Cute that you think there's going to be a next time."

The jagged black lines of her protective spell tore through the air around her, forming a solid barrier.

Aya threw a barrage of round chakram formed from condensed wind that spun, slashed, and whirled around the battlefield, striking Lyra Dreide from every direction, but they dissipated as soon as they passed through the vibrations. Varay conjured a storm of frozen bullets that should have shredded the retainer, but not a single one made it through.

Lyra Dreide screamed. Unlike the laugh, which was an undulating wave of building, debilitating noise, this was a single sharp note than cut like a knife. I shrouded myself in mana, reinforcing the hard layer that already clung to my skin, and Aya conjured a thick mist that thrummed with a low tone to counter the attack, but it was still enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

Dizzily, I glanced up at the retainer.

Inside her cage, Lyra Dreide had pulled some kind of device out of a dimension ring. I couldn't see it clearly through the black ripples in the air, but I experienced a moment of vague recognition before it snapped into place. I'd seen something like it years before, at Xyrus Academy.

"She's trying to flee!" Varay shouted, coming to the same conclusion as me: the retainer had some kind of teleportation device, and she was trying to buy herself enough time to activate it.

"How do we break that barrier?" Aya shouted as she redirected the mist to condense around the retainer's magic, but it hissed and popped as it passed through the vibrations, dissipating harmlessly.

I winked at the elven Lance. "Leave that to Mica."

Lyra Dreide had easily countered all our spells that utilized ice, wind, or ground, but she had definitely struggled to escape the increased gravity I'd created. It seemed likely that she couldn't counter every type of magic, and I knew just the spell. If it worked against a Scythe…

Focusing a few feet above the barrier, I began condensing gravity into a single point. My ears rang and sweat ran into my eyes as I focused all of my prodigious capabilities on that one spell, letting mana pour out of my core as fast as possible.

Within seconds, the gravitational pull from the Singularity spell was strong enough that the retainer took notice. Her flamelike hair was blazing up from her head, and she was being tossed around on the current of air keeping her in flight as she battled to maintain her concentration while also trying to activate the teleportation artifact.

The visible vibrations all around her began to warp, losing their shape as the barrier collapsed under the pressure of the black hole. The whole barrier was being pulled upward, but Lyra Dreide couldn't let herself drift with it or she would be drawn into the spell and crushed.

That wasn't exactly what we were trying to achieve, but if it happened…oh well.

Varay and Aya stood by, spells ready, and when the cage of vibrating mana pealed apart, like the rind being ripped off an orange, they both attacked. A bullet of wind punched through the teleportation artifact only an instant before a rectangular block of transparent ice formed around the retainer, encapsulating her within.

The block hung in the air for a moment before plummeting down to the ground with a heavy thud. Inside it, Lyra Dreide was held perfectly, unable to move an inch. Her eyes darted around, flighty and wild with fear and frustration.

I could see her lips moving as she started to beg for mercy—or curse at us, it was hard to tell—but no sound escaped the icy prison.

"That's nice. What's it called?" I asked Varay casually, hopping up to stand on top of the block of ice and striking an appropriately victorious pose.

"Frozen Tomb," she said, her gaze sweeping across the destroyed town square.

"That's not very good, is it?" I asked. "Mica invented this spell called Black Diamond Vault. Now that's a good spell name. It—"

"Mica?"

"M'hm?"

"Go help Aya check on the villagers."

I ignored the frosty tone in Varay's voice and flashed her a grin as I flew toward the closest prone body. When I poked him, he groaned and struggled to sit upright. It was the young man who'd been brave—or stupid—enough to call out the retainer's lies.

Seeing that he wasn't dead, I gave him a friendly pat on the back. "I'm not sure if you can hear me, considering the blood coming out of your ears, but you're alive. Congratulations!"

I left him with a wink and headed for the next one, whistling merrily.