There wasn’t much time to waste, so even though it was getting into the evening hours, Damarys, Kasyn, and Zeter held on tightly to the carpet as it sped back towards Ichiba Wa. Zeter couldn’t help but notice Kasyn’s renewed faith in Akumu. For the last week or so, it had seemed as though Kasyn was softening on the subject of Akumu’s divinity but now he was holding the symbol of Akumu that he wore around his neck and muttering prayers of thanks.

As the gate into Ichiba Wa drew near, Zeter saw that it was shut and the earth elemental was blocking the way as well. He slowed the carpet and stopped in front of the living mound of earth.

“We need to get in so we can fix the Wa,” he said.

“The children of Nyla have ordered the gate barred,” it replied.

“Her children aren’t bound to the city,” Zeter explained. “They’re acting on their own volition and not in the interest of the city.”

“I know,” came the mournful reply. “Nevertheless, I am bound to obey them.”

“Any ideas?” Zeter asked the others.

After a brief hesitation, Kasyn gestured with the chain.

“I could try to bind the elemental to me instead,” he suggested.

“If it doesn’t work we’re going to have to fight it,” Damarys warned.

“Is there any other option that doesn’t involve fighting it?” Zeter asked.

When neither of them could come up with another solution, Zeter nodded to Kasyn to give it a try. The carpet was already hovering a meter from the ground so Kasyn hopped off and approached the elemental.

“Do not approach any closer,” the elemental warned as Kasyn came within striking distance.

The skeletons took up defensive positions around Kasyn and he hefted the chain to get a feel for it. He looked back at Zeter and Damarys, as if seeking instructions on how to use the chain. His guess was as good as any that Zeter could come up with so he just shrugged and pantomimed swinging the chain like a whip.

Kasyn did so and the moment the chain touched the elemental, both it and Kasyn locked up and a shiver ran through them. It was apparent that an internal struggle was taking place. The chain itself was buried into the elemental, link by link it was sinking into its earthen flesh.

“Do we need to do something?” Damarys asked but Kasyn gave no indication that he’d heard her.

“Just get ready for a fight, I guess,” Zeter said and began preparing his spells.

Fortunately, a moment later the elemental relaxed and the chain broke away from it.

“My apologies,” it said and opened the gate.

Kasyn was wiping sweat from his brow as he and his skeletons climbed back onto the carpet.

“That was both terrifying and visually boring,” Zeter said, patting Kasyn on the back.

“It was a lot harder than I expected,” Kasyn panted. “I hope I don’t have to do that too often. I got the feeling that if I failed, then I would be the one under it’s command.”

“That would have been nice to know before you used it,” Damarys said and Zeter agreed.

“Go right,” Kasyn said, pointing. “I can feel a missing rune that way.”

Zeter obliged and turned the carpet. As the sky above darkened, Ichiba Wa took on a more sinister appearance. There were no lights here from lamps or torches like there were in Autay Wa. Before the attack there would have been the night markets getting setting up with their large bonfires. It didn’t matter that he had exceptional night vision, Zeter still preferred the warm light of a welcoming fire.

“Over there,” Kasyn said, pointing again, after a few minutes of flying.

“That’s Chikara Toshokan,” Damarys said.

“There’s a lot of Sages who would love to get inside of there,” Zeter sighed, including himself in that group that wanted access.

“Why’s that?” Kasyn asked.

“Because that’s the Toshokan dedicated to magic,” Zeter explained. “A lot of Sages request access but only a few are ever let in. It’s one of the rarer Toshokans to gain access to.”

“Well, I think there’s a damaged rune on it,” Kasyn said. “I can almost see it, like a fractured aura.”

“I don’t see anything,” Damarys said.

“Me neither,” admitted Zeter. “You must be attuned to it’s magic, now that you have the chain.”

They flew around the Toshokan until Kasyn pointed out the spot where a piece of brickwork had been disturbed. Zeter eased the carpet closer and Kasyn struck the wall with the chain. This time, rather than a struggle, the chain easily bit into the brick and, leaving a link behind, restored the missing rune.

The instant the rune was repaired, a terrible shriek rent the air

“NO!” the voice cried out. “STOP!”

It came from above and Zeter instinctively cast a magical barrier above them, just in time to deflect a diving fiend. It crashed into the ground and whined in pain. Kasyn and his skeletons sprang off the carpet and began thrusting their spears at the fiend as it tried to gather itself back up.

Two more fiends were also flying down at them but pulled up before running into Zeter’s barrier and instead remained aloft, throwing handfuls of hellfire. Zeter dodged the first barrage and then fired off his own attack at them while Damarys loosed arrows with her bow, piercing one of their wings and forcing it to land. With two fiends on the ground, Kasyn and his skeletons were having to divide their attention. Now instead of four against one, it was four against two and although that might not seem like a huge difference at first, the two fiends quickly teamed up on the nearest skeleton and destroyed it, further reducing Kasyn’s advantage. As the second skeleton fell, Zeter saw Kasyn drop his spear and instead draw out his chain again.

There was a brief moment of hesitation on both sides before Kasyn lashed one of the fiends with the chain. Just like with the elemental, the chain sunk deep into the fiend and both it and Kasyn froze in place.

“Protect him!” Damarys called out and Zeter managed to blast the other fiend on the ground before it could take advantage of Kasyn’s immobilization. It faded into dust as all fiends do when their physical body is destroyed, though it would reintegrate within a few days.

The fiend in the air, rather than press the fight, turned and fled in the direction of the lake. Zeter and Damarys kept a wary eye out but no other attacks came and just like the elemental, Kasyn won his battle with the fiend. This time, as the chain fell to the ground and the fiend bowed, Kasyn collapsed.

Zeter landed the carpet and both he and Damarys helped Kasyn back up. His nose was bleeding and his eyes were bloodshot but he was grinning.

“Lord Akumu,” he gasped, “has given me strength.”

“Yes, well, I think you’d better not try that again for a while,” Damarys patted his forehead while Zeter got out a scrap of cloth to wipe the blood from his nose.

“Now then,” Zeter turned towards the bowing fiend, “What have you lot been doing here in Ichiba Wa?”

“Breaking free of Akumu’s grasp,” it spat.

“How, exactly?”

“Certain runes were damaged leading up to and during the assault. We gained enough autonomy that we could begin searching for and destroying the rest of them that have kept us bound.”

“Why stay here if you’re free?” Kasyn asked.

“We haven’t found all the runes yet,” was the reply.

“Where are the other fiends?” Zeter asked.

“Across the lake.”

“And what are they doing there?”

“The survivors of Ichiba Wa have been put to work, serving us, while we prepare a summoning. The people will be the sacrifice once the ritual is prepared”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Damarys said.

“Who or what are you trying to summon, and how long before the ritual is ready?”

“We will summon countless greater fiends to take the city as a stronghold for our kind and a staging ground for a greater war yet to come. The ritual will be ready tomorrow morning. A red sun will rise and with it so too will our power.”

“Are Jelvaic and Arjana going to be sacrificed too?” Damarys asked.

“No. They never reached Ichiba Wa.”

“Then where are they?”

“I don’t know.” The fiend grinned wickedly as it licked its lips.

“What did you do to them?” Kasyn demanded.

“Paid a merchant to take them,” the fiend bowed low to Kasyn. “They trade in such things and we needed Jelvaic and Arjana to be gone.”

“Who’s the merchant?” Zeter asked.

“Don’t know their name or what they look like. We only know they exist and how to contact them.”

“And that would be?”

“A magical ribbon, dipped in blood, torn in half and burned. We have a few, confiscated long ago, and kept for just such an occasion.”

“I don’t suppose you have one of those ribbons on you?” Zeter asked.

“Of course not.”

“As much as I hate to say it,” Damarys spoke up, “I think our first priority is stopping this summoning. We can worry about finding this merchant and getting Jelvaic and Arjana back later.”

“Right. Priorities,” Zeter nodded.

“If we can repair enough of the runes in Ichiba Wa, that should prevent the fiends from acting against the city.” Kasyn said, and then added. “Right?”

The fiend twisted uncomfortably as it struggled against Kasyn’s control over it but in the end it shook its head.

“Yes and no,” it whined. “There is a master rune, of sorts, that empowers all the others. It is heavily guarded by us at all times. As long as that rune is disrupted, the strongest of us will still be able to resist and continue the ritual.”

“And where is this rune?” Zeter asked.

“On the wall of the chapel of the Tower of Light that lies across the lake.”

“I guess we’re going across the lake, then,” Kasyn sighed.

“No, we’re not.” Zeter replied. “Remember what the sailors told us? The guardian of the lake is active and will probably attack us if we try to cross it.”

The fiend slumped, noticeably disappointed that Zeter had realized that danger.

“The fiends can fly across because they’re part of the city’s defenses but if we tried it we’d be pulled under, wouldn’t we?”

The fiend nodded.

“Then how do we get across?” Damarys asked.

“I don’t know,” Zeter admitted. “But while we work on that problem we can at least begin repairing all the runes on this side of the lake.”

It was as good a plan as any that they could put into action for the time being so they climbed back onto the carpet and swept across Ichiba Wa, using both the fiends knowledge and Kasyn’s ability to sense them to find and repair every rune that they could without having to cross the lake. As it happened, they finished that task on the north west side of the Wa, near to where the river entered Ichiba Wa.

Seeing the river gave Zeter an idea. He wasn’t sure about it, but it seemed like a better alternative than the lake.

“How heavily guarded do you think the river is?” he asked the others, then eyed the fiend. “Is it safer to cross here than at the lake?”

“It is,” the fiend growled.

“I think we’ve found our way across, then,” Damarys grinned.

It was dark by this time and there were no lights to be seen across the river but Zeter knew it would be too much to hope that the river crossing was unguarded or unwatched by the fiends. Even so, he had a plan forming in his mind.

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