Damarys Kyla sat still behind the thick brambles she was using as a blind. Her left hand was closed around her bow and an arrow rested easily in her right, ready to draw and fire. She’d been out hunting for the better part of the week and today she was set to return home. She just needed one final kill, either a deer or a boar would suffice, and her pack, magically expanded to hold far more than it appeared, would be full. It also preserved whatever was placed inside of it so she had no worries of the meat going bad before she got back to Yomichi.

The city was less than a day’s journey from where she was. The forested hills and mountains that surrounded the capitol city were lush and well maintained. Damarys was one of the many hunters who were sent out to harvest meat for the city. They were careful never to hunt any one area or population too heavily so even though the city was vast and there were hundreds of hunters, the wilds remained plentiful.

A family of boar trotted into view, following the game trail on their way to a natural salt deposit. Plenty of animals came this way every day on their way to lick the exposed rock that would give them the salt they needed. Damarys was glad she didn’t have to lick rocks for salt, but this location was a favorite among the hunters since it made their work all the easier.

She waited until the boars were almost drawn level with her when she drew and loosed her arrow in one fluid motion. The boars squealed in alarm, scattering briefly before regrouping and looking around for the source of the attack. Damarys remained where she was, keeping her eyes on the boars while her mark lay on the path, no longer breathing, with an arrow through its heart. It was a clear shot and near instant death for the animal. The other boars searched for a time but the charms Damarys had set up prevented the boars from being able to find her. Eventually, they left and after waiting a few more minutes, Damarys left her cover, cleaned and stowed the boar in her bag, and began her walk back to Yomichi. She’d already unstrung her bow and returned it to her quiver that magically pulled her bow and remaining arrows into itself and then sealed shut in case of foul weather.

As she walked, she sang to herself. Not only did it help pass the time, but it also ensured most wild animals would avoid her. Hunters were known to most living things in this forest and they knew to make themselves scarce when one was around. There was nothing quite like coming face to face with a surprised moose while walking in the wilds. You only did that once before you were either dead, trampled or mauled by whatever you’d surprised, or you learned your lesson and made noise while you walked.

Akumu, ancient and immortal king

Guide and guard our lands, all seeing

With thy undead legions massed

Our boarders no assault has passed

Wisdom of uncounted ages

Shared to make they people sages

None here want or go without

Praise Akumu, all ye devout

The first song she sang was an old one but that didn’t mean it wasn’t well known or unpopular. In fact, it was the unofficial national anthem. The real anthem, which Damarys sang next, was more about their nation, Yume, and it’s fruitful lands, lack of enemies, and utter lack of war. She liked them both but she felt the anthem ought to include more mention of Akumu. He was, after all, the entire reason for Yume’s peace and prosperity. While nations all around might have their squabbles, even wars, Yume stayed out of it. No one crossed the borders without permission, and everyone enjoyed trade with them. They were the most prosperous nation, after all. Not having to deal with war, and an immortal, undead lich as your king helped with that.

There were drawbacks to every system, of course, but Damarys figured the problems in Yume paled in comparison to those of other nations. As she stepped out of the forest and looked down the sloping mountain side, she could see Yomichi, the capitol city, at the base of the mountain. Marching along the main road towards Yomichi, was a sight that reminded her of the main drawback of living in Yume.

“Soul tithe,” she whispered.

Several hundred people, all dressed in plain white clothes, were marching towards the city. She was too far away to pick out any individuals, but the white clothing was obvious. Every day, in order to maintain his mind and immortality, Akumu had to consume the soul of a living person. There would be no afterlife for them, only oblivion. Yume was divided into twelve states and each one had to provide thirty people to the soul tithe every year. Akumu didn’t dictate how the selection was to be made, but made it must be. Some states sent the sick or elderly who weren’t long for this world, others sent condemned criminals. A few states held random drawings. Most of the time, however, there were volunteers. The most devout who practically worshiped Akumu would go willingly. Regardless of how they were chosen, the soul tithe arrived like clockwork every year. The 360 offerings would be hosted in the castle for the remaining year or until they were consumed. That was partly the reason Damarys was out hunting. She was bringing in meat to replace all the food that would be eaten up for the feasts to be held in honor of the tithe.

The soul tithe was…difficult for some people. Damarys didn’t blame them. And yet, she couldn’t see Akumu as a monster. He allowed anyone to leave his country, his lands, and would never force anyone to return who didn’t want to. There were a few people, of course, who took him up on that freedom and left. But for every person who left Yume there were a dozen more who emigrated. The promise of peace was an alluring one.

It was midday so Damarys decided to sit and have a meal while she watched the slow progress of the soul tithe. They were still quite some distance from the city and even if she went slowly she’d still likely reach the city before the procession.

Sitting down on a level spot of ground, Damarys dug out her travel rations. She poured a bit of water into a bowl and then added a hard wafer. It would slowly absorb the water and soften until she could chew it without breaking her teeth. While she waited, she chewed on some jerky and dried fruits. It was a fine day, not too hot with just the right amount of clouds. She was high enough that there weren’t many insects to bother her either.

The soul tithe themselves were not alone on the road. They had a small honor guard, a few carts carrying provisions, and a handful of hangers on. Only the tithe themselves wore white, although the honor guard blended in somewhat, seeing as how they were all undead skeletons. Damarys wondered if the honor guard was really necessary. It’s not as though anyone would attack the soul tithe. Perhaps it was to discourage any of the tithe from trying to run away. Or maybe Akumu thought it was just proper to provide them with an escort.

Her eyes traced along the road until she was looking at Yomichi. It was a beautiful city, built to be incredibly defensible even though Yume knew no wars. Not even the history books recorded any wars. The city, for its part, was a collection of concentric rings with a river bisecting it. Autay Wa was the first and largest. It was a patchwork of fields to Damarys’ eyes and she could see the divisions of crops. The city gate, set into the southern end of Autay Wa was the only land route in or out of the city.

The next gate, leading into Ichiba Wa, was north facing so you had to go all the way around Autay Wa to get into Ichiba Wa. That ring of the city held all the merchants, the docks, and markets. There was almost always a boat or two on the Bokyaku river. Boats, but never swimmers. Lake Shibo took up almost the entire southern quarter of Ichiba Wa and it was similarly full of boats and devoid of swimmers. Everyone knew those waters were cursed. A couple times a year, it seemed, someone would fall in. If they were lucky, they’d be fished out and only loose their memories.

On the southern end of Ichiba Wa was the gate into Chikara Wa where the administrative officials, the Sages of the Mercurial Robe, The Tower of Light, and foreign diplomats were placed. They were closest to the heart of the city and nearest to Akumu’s castle, Nemuri no Shiro. There were no gates into the castle itself. You had to be teleported in and out, and the teleportation circles were tightly controlled.

Each gate had it’s own guardian, and overseeing all of it was the ephemeral satyr, Tomodachi, captain of the city guard. Everyone’s grandparents had stories to tell about him. Stories that their grandparents had told them about Tomodachi. No one was sure how ancient he was but some assumed he was at least half as old as Akumu, though clearly not a lich.

“What’s that?” Damarys sat forwards as she noticed a faint wavering in the air a mile or so outside the city.

It looked like how air waved above a hot forge. The area, however, of waving air was far too large to simply be a thermal or the like, and it looked like it was actually down by the road, rather than just in the air between her and the ground below. A moment later, a sea of color and glinting lights appeared on the road. It was all in motion and confusing for a moment until Damarys realized what she was looking at.

“An army,” she gasped.

Thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers, cavalry, siege weapons, were suddenly on Yomichi’s doorstep. How was this even possible? You couldn’t break the law in Yume without an undead hand reaching up from beneath the ground and holding you in place until a living guardsman could arrive and arrest you. It was taboo to ever dig very deep in Yume because of what was known colloquially as the bone layer where dirt ended and only undead remained, waiting to be called upon by Akumu. As she watched, the ground surrounding the army churned like a storm tossed sea and Akumu’s legions spilled forth.

Distantly, and delayed by almost a full minute because of the distance, she began to hear the sounds of the battle. Metal rang and magic burst while voices shouted. It was all too muddled for her to understand any of it but that did nothing to allay her her shock and fear. Akumu was omniscient within his nation so how had anyone gathered such a force, unless they had teleported in from beyond their borders, in which case how was that even possible?

Most concerning of all was the fact that the army wasn’t being stopped. A radiant nimbus surrounded them that held all but the most powerful undead at bay, preventing the undead from slowing their advance. They were moving fast, too. They must have been magically hastened since they were already halfway to the city from where they’d started.

Magical fire began to spit from the city’s walls a moment later and magical shields rose above the army, protecting them from the onslaught while they fired back their own munitions. The city gates were closed and Damarys thought she saw a glint of deeper red that could only be Nyla, the captain of the gate, engaging with the army now. If ever there was a time to be grateful Akumu had struck an infernal pact with the fiend, it was now, since her hellfire was cutting through both the nimbus and the magical shields and finally letting the defenders have a go at the bulk of the army.

However, the victory was not won yet and the sheer mass of the army flooded through the gates, even as Damarys lost sight of Nyla’s hellfire. There would be Kamillus as well but he was a lesser fiend than Nyla. Other fiends and beings that Akumu had bound to his capitol were beginning to join the undead in fighting back but the invading army just kept on advancing. Civilians were getting caught in the crossfire although both sides looked like they were trying not to harm them. Even though there was only the one gate to enter Yomichi, it was wide and even as the army was pouring into the city, its citizens were flooding out and heading for the nearby hills.

Damarys wasn’t sure when she’d started running, only that she was needed. She could help fight these invaders, or at least help treat any of the wounded citizens. Her pack held, besides a lot of meat, a good amount of healing herbs she’d been gathering as well which would no doubt be useful at this time.

She was too far away, she knew. She couldn’t run down the entire mountain. Even on flat ground she was no long distance runner. She could maintain this pace for perhaps an hour or two, but that still wouldn’t get her back to the city. Regardless, she couldn’t slow down, not while she had strength. It was dangerous to move this quickly but she didn’t care. She leapt down rock slides and over low-lying shrubs as she left the pine forests behind and approached the deciduous forest that covered the lower slopes. If she could just get there, if the city could defend itself long enough, she could get there and…do what? She was one hunter and how much could one more hunter with a dozen plain arrows really do against such an army?

Before she reached the shaded forest she took one last look at the city. Smoke was rising from fires now and the army was marching around and up towards the gate into Ichiba Wa.

“Autay Wa is burning,” she muttered, “and they’re halfway to Ichiba Wa.”

Without further thought, she dashed ahead once more and ducked beneath the canopy. A dozen steps in, however, and she collided with a large, brown, furry creature. She bounced off its hide and landed, sprawled on her back. The bear’s roar snapped her out of her daze.