Lillia
Lillia watched the delicate flakes drifting through the air—careless, free—only to land softly on the ground, vanishing in pools of crimson. The returning patrol approached, soldiers, limping and wounded, their cries of pain echoing around them.
Two mages behind the base dropped the wall, the earth sinking into the cement. The soldiers passed through a thick, stone entrance before Lillia turned back to the city.
They were in a yellow zone, but it was quickly becoming red. Each week they faced more and more waves of the dead. Hundreds of them would swarm at once. They'd pile up against the forty-foot wall, scrambling over each other. Even now, fire mages walked the outside walls, incinerating the remaining dead to clear for the next horde.
Lillia wiped her face, feeling soot and grime. Her hands looked just as horrible as she felt. She hadn't slept in three days. She barely ate besides the dried rations provided by the military. And every day, she'd patrol. Sometimes she saw nothing. Sometimes she'd leave so caked in blood she didn't know what belonged to her, the dead, or a teammate.
"How long do you think it'll be until they're back?" Eirik asked, his sharp green eyes darting over the stone sculptures. Each one was crafted from enchanted stone from before their arrival. The plaza had once served as a gathering place for both religious and solemn ceremonies. Now it served as a clearing to spot the dead.
Nolan rubbed his pale face. "Probably fucking soon. You know those are just the fresher ones. They're faster, the new horde's only a week away."
"We're all fucked," Andrew replied. He sat on a stool, arms folded as he watched the TV they'd propped up on some boxes. "Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they fucking killed me. I could finally sleep."
"Preach," Lillia muttered, blowing a lock of orange-red hair out of her face. She leaned against a stone pillar, feet aching. She scanned the homes and dwellings behind the statues carved into the mountainsides. Some homes were built with materials that seamlessly blended with the earth's bland colors. And with the statues, there was enough space to do damage when the Thrawlers came.
"I'm fucking sick of this shit," Mia snapped, chucking a rock off the tower.
"Who isn't?" Eirik said, green eyes burning into hers. "We all want to go home!"
"We're all tired," Lilly said, feeling her own temper flare. "Let's just not say anything and watch for the dead."
"Shut up, Lilly," Andrew hissed. "You're not even supposed to be on this team."
Lilly ran a tongue across her teeth. "You're just pissy that I don't give a shit about your opinion."
"You're not supposed to be on this team!" he growled, flipping through the channels. "You're only here because our other fire mage died."
"You think I want to be here and put up with you stupid people?" she snapped, turning.
Not that her last team had been much kinder. Lilly was too hot-headed for their taste. Too quick to get into fights and disobey orders.
Dragon Rider, is what they called her.
She didn't give a shit. She'd always gotten along better with them. Plus, it never hurt to have friends who could breathe fire to have her back.
"Let's all settle down," Eirik sighed. "We're hungry and cold."
Lillia glowered at him before looking back to the city and sighing. He wasn't worth it. None of the people on her team were worth it.
They didn't care about her so why should she care about them?
"Ya'll," Andrew said, his tone dramatically lighter. "Look at this."
Lillia almost didn't look out of spite. She focused on the city, scanning between the buildings for moving shadows of the glimpse of a limb.
She didn't care. They wouldn't include her anyway so there was no reason to look.
Not until Lillia heard the screaming.
She whipped around, expecting some movie or gruesome TV show. But there was a man with grey, runed skin on the screen. The man dwarfed the people at the table.
Lillia recognized most of the faces at the table, mainly council people, but some were unfamiliar.
"What the fuck is going on?" she breathed, watching as a man with red hair was glued to a wall, branches piercing his body. She was by no means an expert in anything rune-related, but she'd never seen anything like that before. The whorls and lines were too intricate-- too out of this world.
"Shut up Lillia!" the others hissed, leaning closer to the TV and cranking up the volume.
"He said he was a god," Mia explained as more soldiers gathered around. "Something starting with an A?"
Lillia wandered to the other side of the wall, seeing soldiers and dragons gathered around other TVs.
"He said that the Thrawlers come from a god," Andrew said bitterly. "That all this bullshit comes from some made-up fairytale."
"But look at him," Mia breathed. "That doesn't look like any human I've ever seen."
Lillia took in the man again. The runes and the four-legged creatures snapping and hissing at the council. She'd never denied the existence of gods, but she'd never believed in them either. But seeing this... Seeing the council go along with what he was saying--like they'd known. The council didn't even seem surprised but threatened.
She turned her head to the city. To the piles of dead burning.
She'd never seen anything like those things. The dead running--speaking.
Maybe the gods did exist.
"You will enslave us." Lillia turned back to the TV. A creature of black fur sat near the god, gnawing on a severed leg.
"What you term as slavery, I consider worship," the god retorted.
And then he turned, the camera catching only a grey blur. He screamed, grabbing his shoulder. When he peeked at the wound, dark blue liquid shined in the light.
The video wobbled like whoever held the camera had moved. The view shifted to the god's back.
"Call it whatever you want," a woman said, her voice steely. "It won't happen."
The god's broad shoulders rose and fell heavily--like he were angry. He still held his shoulder. "When I rule this world," he seethed. "You will be the first I collar."
Then he was gone. Lillia had only blinked and the god had disappeared.
The camera fell, taking on a view of boots and a table. But in the back, near the dragon-sized doorway stood a woman. Her black hair was short and as she walked closer her features sharpened.
"Are you fucking serious?" Andrew hissed, rubbing his face. "This bitch."
Lillia stared at the bow in Norah Crimson's hands. It looked like it'd been created in a nightmare. The steel-colored bow looked like a dark storm turned into metal. The curves narrowed into razor-sharp tips. It looked as elegant as it seemed lethal.
A group of people lingered behind Norah. They scanned the room, but their gazes always returned to her as Lillia's did with her leaders. The Crimson even handed arrows to a man within that group.
A team. That's what she was seeing. Lillia's heart yearned for that. Not these fucks she'd been forced to work with. She watched everything until Norah's boots consumed the TV screen. Then it went black.
Andrew lit a cigarette, taking a deep swig until smoke flowed out his nostrils. "As far as I'm concerned, the half-breed is doing more for us than any of those dumb shits sitting on the council."
"I fucking knew we weren't getting the whole story." Mia stood, jabbing a finger at Andrew. "Didn't I tell you? I told you they were lying to us. No mages would destroy their own city, not even necromancers."
"Wait a fucking minute," Eirik scrubbed his jaw. "Are you telling me you actually believe this shit? It's an illusion."
"I don't know," she snapped. "But what else could explain what we fight? And what normal person looks like that?"
"She made it bleed," Lillia murmured, her voice drowned out by the others. Gods were supposed to be invincible. Too powerful to be harmed by any mortal. But the Crimson did it.
Lillia looked back to the pile of bodies. To the wall ten feet thick surrounding the city. Screams echoed throughout the base as wounded soldiers were carried to the healers. They would remain under constant supervision from other soldiers until the risk of death was gone.
"I heard," Eirik murmured, "that the half-breed and her team show up to the front sometimes."
"Yeah, same," Mia said matter-of-factly. "But no one knows where they go or what they do. They just show up-"
"No," Andrew drawled. "I heard some people saw them in battle, fighting alongside the soldiers."
An idea unfolded in her mind, growing hot like the fire she controlled. She turned her gaze onto the grey skies, searching for the faintest sight of a dragon's wing to pierce the veil. But there was nothing, not even a shadow of the scouts above.
Lillia had always looked to the riders for hope. Dragon riders were strong. They were never ones to back down from a fight but met them head-on.
That's what I need to do now.
There was nothing significant Lillia could do here. The city would be overrun soon like every other city and then she'd be shipped off to a new base so she could watch it and its people die.
But maybe with Norah she could do something. She could be someone. Maybe she'd even get a family out of it.
As soon as her shift was over, Lillia made for her barracks, plunking down onto the floor beside her bed. She searched for sightings of Norah Crimson, her fingers flying over the phone screen. Her heart pumped faster as she searched, her blood thrumming with something she hadn't felt for some time.
Hope.