Jackal Among Snakes

Ruleo stepped through the stone confines of the Order of the Rose fortress he inhabited with one other beside him. This place was far more elaborate and long than most fortresses of theirs he’d visited—from all he’d gathered in old books, this place had been the site of a prolonged war. The fortifications, and concurrently the number of undead, was astronomically high in this place.

Ironically, that war was mirrored centuries later—Argrave’s army stood opposite the valley, while their Unhanded Coalition defended the valley with Castle Cookpot. The exact same situation had occurred long ago, with the Order of the Rose building these fortresses beneath the earth for a strategic advantage. It had led to their victory, evidently. And Ruleo felt somewhat confident it would lead to theirs, this time.

He looked to Georgina. For some reason, she’d brought a large backpack with her. She fought for King Felipe III, but Ruleo didn’t care who won this war.

“What?” Georgina looked at him scornfully. She didn’t like being looked at, he’d found, and any compliments about her beauty might as well have been insults in her ears. Worse yet, any sort of attention she got was assumed to be lecherous. In truth, he didn’t like her at all.

“You’re wasting your time coming here, Georgina,” Ruleo told her curtly.

“The undead you’re sending out could kill tens of thousands of soldiers. I let you go unsupervised, but this could be just as big a threat to the Unhanded Coalition as it is Argrave’s forces. And you send them out… especially recklessly.” She paused, peering ahead into the darkness. “You’re throwing away a precious fighting force with such little regard for what they might be usable for in the future. I wanted to see why.”

Ruleo paused, too. “I send them recklessly because they need to die.”

“A necromancer thinks the undead are abominations?” she crossed her arms.

“I don’t care about necromancy,” Ruleo shook his head. “It’s only another form of magic in my eyes, same as any others. In fact, it makes corpses just a bit more useful. Might be considered a boon,” he mused. “But… I know something is coming. Something that corrupts all of these things against the living—makes them weapons of war in a calamity. I have to get rid of them before that happens.”

“What is this, a fairy tale?” Georgina said disdainfully.

Ruleo felt the frustration that came with someone acting arrogant when they were only ignorant. “You want to talk fairy tales? Then let’s talk about King Felipe’s prospects. Him taking the throne once more—that’s a fairy tale.”

and smiled brightly. “If you really think that, why are

things would be chewing through northerners instead of Relizeans, though. The only reason I work with you is because I’d like Argrave on the throne the least of everyone, and you gave me the information I needed to ruin his advance,” Ruleo cracked his knuckles. “Bigger things are coming than this civil war. This is a month’s work,

put her arms to her side, and Ruleo watched to see if she drew a weapon or cast a matrix.

Ruleo chuckled beneath his breath. “I don’t care for your little coalition. I don’t care for you—not one bit. But I’ve hurt some people I like a fair bit, and I’ve helped some people I didn’t. So long as you keep feeding me information, I’m

a sword of my own. And your designs might interfere with that. If I’m the dealer, I’ll pay attention carefully to all cards that leave my hand,”

take his gaze off her.

back of Ruleo’s head for half a second, and then blackness

#####

Brew, and it changed the body so that any movements didn’t disturb the air. The place was dark already and he employed illusion magic on top of that. With all those factors in tandem he’d been able to sneak through all of

things had been gathered here into newly-made cages—chitinous humanoids with blades embedded in their flesh, gargantuan thousand-armed creatures. Durran suspected Ruleo controlled only batches at a time, sending them to fight piecemeal. Death by attrition. He had no idea how Ruleo

over the unconscious man to confront this brunette woman—from their conversation, Georgina. He hoped to end her now. He’d intended to kill Ruleo, too, but after what he overheard he decided an

body as he cleared him. “Take him, secure him. Too early for

prepared a spell. Durran perceived the matrix’s potency at once—it was B-rank. A wave of frost erupted, obscuring all vision in front of him. Thinking quickly, Durran reached to his side to retrieve a dagger of Ebonice. He threw it where he last saw her, then used one of the rings that Argrave had made. A

ward to see what was happening beyond. Georgina tried to cast another spell, but the matrix wobbled and shattered. Durran saw it, then—the knife had stabbed into her shoulder, barely getting past her armor.

She vainly attempted another spell, but when it failed once again her hand reached for the Ebonice dagger. By then, Durran was nearly upon her. Then, her body shifted dramatically—one foot planted steadily, and her momentum rotated from moving backward to forward without any loss of speed in a strange, serpentine technique. She pulled the dagger out of

quarterstaff, swiping at Georgina to contest her quick speed. She ducked low and stabbed at Durran’s knee, aiming for a gap in his armor. He shifted his leg backwards to dodge, yet the moment his leg was off the ground she raised free hand to cast another spell. It was a quickly-forming low-rank wind spell, and with only one

hurt. She tried to reach for the Ebonice dagger, yet Durran cast the C-rank [Skysunder], striking her with white lightning. Spasming once, as soon as he had her faculties she gave one final push of her backpack

stepped to pursue, prepared to bound over whatever she’d set down. The fabric of the backpack exploded outwards, revealing a battered cage. Three blue ethereal paws rushed towards Durran, swiping at him with long claws. He ducked low and jumped backwards, but one slashed across his thigh. He expected his armor to work as well as it usually did, but instead his flesh seared in pain while his armor remained untouched. He felt warm blood pooling in his

a healthy distance, Durran swiped at the claws emerging from the cage with his glaive, yet it passed through them as though he held nothing at all. He cast a spell of flame, and though that had some effect, his magic was running low after their long journey. He dodged another swipe, then used his glaive to sweep up the discarded Ebonice dagger.

crueler manner than he’d expected. She had his

necromancer? Good gods, he… he worked for Elenore…” Melanie looked down at