David Mcintee - The Light of Heaven

They rushed him together, Erak's blade held low. Batsen bounded forward a couple of steps and leapt into the air between them. One foot hit the flat of Erak's blade as if it was a ladder rung and prevented him from swinging the weapon. The other foot caught Gabriella's shoulder, making her stagger aside.

Then Batsen was on the balls of his feet, blocking and parrying Gabriella's attacks. The sword-hilt jarred painfully against the heel of his hand with each block. Erak was on the other side of him, lunging forward with his weapon, but the assassin merely danced aside, forcing Erak to pull back for fear of hitting Gabriella.

Suddenly, Erak was upon him once again and Batsen found himself making side kicks to the Knight's hands, while fencing against the two blades that Gabriella was trying to drum on his head with. The trio danced around the nave like this for a moment, each seeking an advantage. Then something struck Batsen's ankle, and a sweep from Erak Brand's blade knocked the smallsword from his hand.

Before either Knight could move on him, Batsen stabbed backwards for Gabriella with an elbow and snapped a kick at Erak's head. Both Knights staggered back, allowing Batsen to slip a toe under his fallen smallsword and flick it up into his hand.

He fenced with Gabriella for a moment, then lunged for her throat. She batted the attack aside and pushed forward, driving the assassin back towards the altar. Now she had him.

The assassin didn't return to the attack. Instead, a startling, almost blinding, light blazed from his eyes, and he thrust out his left hand. Gabriella didn't know what that meant, but she knew it was meant to be bad for her, so she dove and rolled, just in time to avoid a bolt of lightning that shattered the air and ignited a pew.

Gabriella didn't quite understand what had just happened, but she rose and rushed at the assassin. He was blocking the door now, light beaming out from his eyes. He grinned, his left hand rising, and Gabriella understood that she had badly misjudged things. One man was not just one man. Not when he was a Shadowmage.

Batsen made a quick gesture and muttered a word that kept his mind in focus. Immediately, the torches flickered and the light in the church dimmed. Erak froze, and waved his hand around in front of his face as if he suddenly couldn't see, but Gabriella was more surprised to see Batsen walk right towards her, angling from the left, as if he thought she couldn't see him.

A swift kick to the chest, and a lunge that nearly skewered him, changed his mind. He looked utterly shocked and suddenly the light in the church was restored. Erak snarled and ran at Batsen. Batsen leapt onto a pew and thrust his hands upwards.

Without warning, the floor exploded upwards around Erak's feet, grabbing at his legs and holding him fast.

Seeing his target immobilised didn't make enough impression on Batsen to raise a smile, but it was an opportunity he was too professional to let go. He raised both hands slightly, pulling tendrils of fire out of the air and gathering them into a ball. Then, with a flick of the wrist, the ball of blinding flame shot across the chamber and exploded against Erak's head.

The fire engulfed him instantly and his screams almost drowned out the crackling of burning flesh. Sparks of infernal red and gold burned across his armour and out to his wide-flung hands.

What had once been Erak Brand dropped to his knees and stopped screaming as there was no more air in his lungs. He thrashed and twitched, melted skin and fats dripping from his hands, before finally lying still.

Gabriella couldn't believe her eyes. She felt as though all she could hear were Erak's dying screams.

She rushed out into the plaza, knowing that her assailant would follow.

Close on her heels Batsen sent another flaming bolt after her. The blast knocked Gabriella off her feet and she rolled, managing to keep a hold of her sword.

Batsen called upon the air to form another fireball and hurled it with perfect accuracy.

A fist-sized globe of red flame hit Gabriella between the shoulder-blades. She arched her back under the impact and Batsen, for the first time in years, felt something. He felt utter, uncomprehending, astonishment as she turned round.

Her hair floated around her head as if lifted by a breeze and worms of light wriggled in the folds of her armour.

She didn't die screaming, with smoke curling from her lungs as they burned.

She didn't even fall.

She yelled, not in pain, but in pure primal anger and ran at Batsen, swords raised high. Batsen, astounded, called upon the shadows to hide him and darted aside. Unbelievably, she followed right after him.

Now Batsen could feel something. It was fear, thick and cloying, and filling his head to the point where he couldn't think.

Terrified, he gathered the air around him, thickening it so that it would cup him and carry him up on to the roof of the nearest building. From there, he fled. Gabriella pounded after him along the street below, screaming with rage and loss. She shouldered citizens aside as she leapt for an awning against a shop front and clambered up onto a low roof. There she stopped. The man had disappeared. She could see several streets in either direction and he was nowhere to be seen.

Gabriella jumped back down to street level, caught her breath and all the desire to keep standing fled from her body. She slumped to her knees, too exhausted to keep in the sobs that her pounding heart and head were letting out.

As people came to see what was happening, she curled into a ball and cried.

Travis Crowe had woken to the sound of iron on iron and screams. He hadn't even realised that he had fallen asleep, though he had been bone tired when he sat down to take a few minutes rest in the stable.

He jumped to his feet and looked for his sword but it wasn't in the stable, so he grabbed a long, loose coat from a hook and went to search for it. He found it in the vestry, where had left it, and ran out into the church. There he saw smashed pews and shattered flagstones. On the floor was a charred corpse and he recognised by the mail and fragments of blue cloth — but mostly by the sword lying near it — that it was Erak Brand.

"Sorry mate," he muttered, "but rather you than me."

He heard shouts from outside and ran to the door. He was just in time to see Gabriella fall, struck by a bolt of magical fire. There was a man there too, dressed in black. Gabriella, to his amazement, climbed to her feet and went at the man in black, who flew to the rooftops, where he fled.

"Batsen," he snarled.

He followed Gabriella as she ran, only to turn a corner and find her sobbing on the ground. People stood around, looking concerned but at a loss as to what to do.

Cursing the Faith for not teaching their flock any practical skills, Crowe rounded on the nearest man.

"You! Help me get her inside the church."

The man grabbed Gabriella's legs and Crowe lifted her by the shoulders. The two men carried Gabriella through to the Enlightened One's apartment beyond the vestry and lay her on the bed. Crowe and the shopkeeper then returned to the ruined interior of the church.

"What happened here?" the man whispered. "More goblins?"

"No, this guy was human. More or less." Crowe looked at the charred corpse lying in the remnants of a blue robe. "Looks like you people need another Enlightened One."

When Gabriella awoke she wailed with dismay. If she had died, at least she would still be with Erak, in the clouds of Kerberos. Instead she was in bed, alone. Summoned by the sound she had made, the door opened, and for a heartbeat she thought it was Erak and that she had simply had a nightmare.

It was Travis Crowe, more sombre than usual. He had let his white hair out of its ponytail and was re-tying it as he entered.