And Trajan walked. Past an abandoned farmhouse and the tilled fields that belonged to the farmer who had lived there. His boots and those of the mercenaries' treading a well-worn dirt path. And the red mists loomed ahead. Growing larger as he closed the distance. Like approaching a cliff wall, and the stone of
Arethil slowly encompassing all of one's vision.
He heard them. The unnatural whispers, faint and unintelligible. The smell. A kind of rotting. Though he wasn't sure if his nose was being tricked in the same manner of his ears. A foul thing, these mists, the whole lot of it. Like an unsubtle manifestation of his worst fears. The slow and mostly unnoticed encroachment of xenos upon ground already claimed by humanity. Sinister and insidious by its lack of outright menace. It was easy to rally warriors against a rampaging
monster. Trivially easy. But a thing like this? Which crept along slow and quiet? By the time the layabouts and complacents took notice, it would be too late.
And that was why he was here. Why he now stood but a couple dozen paces before the nefarious mist. With no small amount of trepidation in his heart, he chose to be one of Mankind's bulwark against this threat. Perhaps there were others, warriors from
Alliria and
Vel Anir, standing where he stood now in their own lands. If so, if these foul mists here along the Cairou were not the only threat faced by humanity this day, then Trajan could draw strength from the thought of others standing with him in spirit, even as his those around him now stood with him in body.
And it was good. To feel fear. For there could be no bravery without fear. And only true
monsters feared nothing.
All right, Band of Idiots… Let’s try not to die, yeah?
A few of the mercenaries laughed. Quiet and nervous, a release of tension. A murmured response here and there: "Hold me if I do", "I'll die if I want, you ain't my momma." Gallows humor. A boost in morale, especially among the likes of the mercenaries. It was good. Too much tension, too much fear, could ruin a man's fighting spirit.
And the mage, Faurosk, tried something. A probing, a testing of the city walls, as it were. But hole in the mist left by the wind he had summoned proved a fleeting victory. And the profanity of himself and the unnamed woman with the hat summed the affair up, especially for the mercenaries, who no doubt wished it would've been so easy.
An odd thing followed. A pair of ravens. Coming out of the mists. With...little bells strapped to them? Trajan watched them fly with suspicion. Keeping his eyes on them instead of the tiny thing one of them dropped. But it seemed they were simply ordinary ravens.
"Kilo?" Dio said, a hint of worry in his voice. "Did it change him into...what? That's impossible. It can't be--"
But Kalliana had a more measured response to the sudden and strange appearance of the ravens.
"Yes," Trajan said. "Maybe there are others. Other mists and others much like us."
Then, as if Dio's worry alone had called to him, Kilo streaked out of the mists and flew straight down on Dio's shoulder. He held his wings out, bobbed his tail, and breathed rapidly through his open beak. He'd been scared half to death.
"Kilo!" Dio said, holding his hands up but not quite touching the bird yet. "Easy, Kilo. Easy. Calm down. You're okay. Just breathe."
After a moment, Kilo spoke. High-pitched, as it was with parrots. A
mimicry of the
common tongue and an imperfect one, not true intelligence. Dio's enchantment allowing for the bird to translate what he saw into words the party could understand.
"Dead things," Kilo said. "
Humans. Four." And a second later, "Mate calling."
Trajan shared a glance with Dio. And the mercenaries all looked among one another. Everything the bird had said was troubling. Dio pulled out a pouch of nuts and fruit bits, and opened it and let Kilo eat. It was Trajan's cue that Kilo had said all he could say. And, more over, that the time to act had come.
So Trajan took a step forward and turned around. Stood out in front of all who had assembled. His mercenaries, Dio, Mitsy, Rainie, Kalliana, Faurosk, and the mage woman.
"You know why you have come," Trajan said, raising his voice to be heard by all. "For coin, for glory, for adventure. Whatever may be your reason. But you must cast it aside. For once you step through this mist, there is only
one thing that will matter. Those who stand beside you now. Your brothers! Your sisters! For they will see you through this day."
He nodded slowly, making eye contact with each and every person before him. "You're afraid." A pause. "As am I. And you would be a fool not to have that fear in your heart. For it is the foundation upon which the castle of courage is built! Each of us shall be a hallowed bulwark, imbued with an unbreakable faith in the righteousness of our shared cause! And together! We will stand against this evil!
Today, is the day your names will
shine in the halls of history! Believe! Believe with all the strength of your soul that we will prevail, and it will be so!"
Trajan thrust his warhammer high into the air and shouted, "Will you stand with me? Will you be my brother? My sister?
Will you stand with me?"
The mercenaries all roared a battlecry and pumped their shields into the air. Kilo flapped his wings and almost fell from Dio's shoulder as he too joined in.
And Trajan smiled. Held the Emblazoned Sun in both hands. And said, "Then let us go. Keep close, and trust only in your brothers and sisters. Those humans Kilo spoke of may yet be the unfortunate farmers, or they very well may not. Remember, that there are a number of foul creatures and xeno deceivers which disguise themselves in the sacred human form."
Trajan turned sharply on the heels of his boots. Faced the mists before him.
And he marched toward them, the mercenaries following close behind with their shields up in a preemptive defense, and Dio with Kilo on his shoulder walking behind the wall of them.
Then Trajan, Dio, and the mercenaries stepped through.
Entering a world of red.
Elbion_pandemonium
