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(One Mage Mara, One Crafter Mara)

(2x Mage Mara, 1x Rock Mara, 1x Metal Mara, 1x Diamond MAra)

(2 x Mage, 2x Dark Mage, 1x Crafter)

Raemos felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders as he looked out at the expanse of the ranch. He cricked his neck and took what felt like his first real breath of fresh air in days, feeling a sense of ease flow through him.

The healer was finishing with his father, and they were not, as they said, out of the woods yet, but...

Mallew would be okay.

His wounds would not kill him. Raemos would not lose a father, not this day.

He wiped his eyes, though tears did not come. They would have been dried almost instantly in the heating air of the new morning anyway, and were pointless. Indeed, there was no need to cry. Things were going to be fine. Yet still, he felt them burn at the corners of his eye sockets, and he rubbed his eyes again, sniffling with equal amounts of joy and embarrassment.

As he removed his hands from his eyes, he became aware of a shape in the desert haze, a dark silhouette against the brightening sky. He drew his sword in an instant. After the last few days, every mysterious shape approaching on the horizon seemed like a Mara and the herald of a new dire fight to the death.

He gathered his magic to himself, shimmering with a dark, writhing, black aura. His magic was ominous, but he no longer feared it. Sliding from his fencepost perch and striding towards the figure, he studied their movements and realized, as he got closer, that they were moving oddly. They did not move with the smooth glide of the Mara, but with the limp of an injured magescan. Raemos pulled back his magic and squinted at the shape.

Yes, definitely a magescan. Two-legged, with the newborn sun shining off of familiar objects like flesh and cloth. He moved faster, lowering his sword. "Hello there!" he called. He did not sheathe it - he did not know if it was a friend or a foe. They were not a mara but, even still, they could be an enemy.

"Hello!" called the figure. It was, he realized as they drew closer, an Oblivionite, a male. His clothes were light and loose - typical rancher fare with room for the fell demonic wings of his kind and a stubby, spined tail - but stained with dark patches: Blood? Raemos wondered, uneasy. He did not appear armed, but Raemos did not trust him. After all, what was an unarmed Oblivionite doing out in the remote desert at such a dangerous time as this? "Can you help me?"

Raemos sheathed his sword and ran forward as the man staggered and nearly fell. He did not trust the man, but he wasn't going to be heartless about it. Raemos's guard was not down, of course, even as he helped the man stay standing, but he was also not unarmed - he still had his magic, and would use it if the Oblivionite proved to be a threat - Which was unlikely, from the way he had stumbled, but Raemos had heard the horror stories of bandits who lured in prey by feigning injury. Many a fellow Guardian had a story just like it, and a scar to go with it. Raemos intended to learn from their errors.

"I might, sir." he said politely, propping the man up. The dark stains were definitely blood, and the man was definitely injured. His wounds were not visible beneath his clothes, but they were apparent. The man's wings were folded to his back, but Raemos could see further injury there too, in the say they hung loosely and at an odd angle. That explains... thought Raemos, Why he was walking

"You're a Guardian, right..." Raemos nodded, "Then... please... My ranch was overrun..." The man staggered again, his eyes half closing.

"... Lets get you to a healer." said Raemos, hefting the man's arm over his shoulder, "Come on."

He half dragged, half carried the Oblivionite back to the house, hesitating for a moment at the door. Dare he bring him across the threshold? Injured or not, this was his house, his unpolluted haven of light, unsullied by darkness. Could he - should he - bring the man inside?

Sonia opened the door and blinked at him. "Raemos? What do you have there?" called his mother. Sonia's head peered at the man. "Oh gods, Murran! Bring him in, Rae!" she said, moving quickly out of Raemos's way. "Sir healer!" she called, as Raemos, the decision made for him, brought the man inside and set him down, pillowing his head on a sack of flour, "We have another patient!"

The Orderite healer emerged from Rae's parent's room, rushing over to the Oblivionite. "His beathing is strained." said the healer absently, spreading the man's wings out carefully. Their membranes were torn and, as the healer inspected them, the man cried out and writhed weakly in pain. "... and his wings are broken." he stretched them out, flat, on the floor, lifting up the man's shirt, "At least one broken rib, too - pierced the skin..." he frowned. "Get him some water. I'll fix the worst of it..." his hands glowed.

Raemos could not look away from the scene. Magic always fascinated him. Somehow, it was strange to watch the healer work on the Oblivionite, to see his glowing magic caress the man's wounds and wipe the lines of pain and worry from the man's face. That light magic still worked, even with one of the creations of the dark god, only proved to him that Seren's mercy was infinite.

His mother came back with a pitcher of water, and the healer stopped his magic and carefully gave it to the Oblivionite man who drank desperately at it before leaning back, his face limp with exhaustion. "Thank you..." he murmured weakly.

The healer sighed. "I'll do what I can for your wings, but no promises." he said, drinking the remainder of the water himself.

"My wife... My daughter..." said the Oblivionite, "Sonia... I..."

"Murran?" Sonia knelt beside him. Raemos watched in astonishment. He did not know this man - how did his mother know him? "What happened?"

"I was out with my herd and those... things... attacked..." he swallowed. "Monsters of stone and metal..."

"Mara..." Sonia nodded, "Is that what caused these injuries, Murran?" she asked. Her eyes were bright and curious, as they alwasy were, but her face was serious.

"Yes..." the Oblivionite nodded, though it was clear that the motion gave him great pain. The healer gently held his head still, magic glowing around them both before he took his hands away.

Sonia waited until the healer was done. "What about Adiah and Milara, Murran?" she said, quietly, "What about your wife and daughter?"

"I don't know..." he began to cry, "I don't know, miss Sonia, I don't know..." his body shuddered with choked sobs, and the healer gently pushed him down until he calmed, looking at Sonia with reproach.

Sonia regarded the injured Oblivionite quietly, before putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry." she said quietly, "They'll be fine." she gave the man a smile before standing up and turning to Raemos. "Right. Lets go save some people, Raerae."

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"Come along Rae! I'm going to get all kitted out!" she said, and she scampered off into the storage area, Raemos following in confusion.

"Kitted out? What? Ma, what's going on?"

"Well, isn't that obvious? You and I are going to go to Murran's ranch, get his livestock out of there, and save his family. You know, heroic stuff." she said, putting on a belt and vest and tightening her boots, "The sort of thing that's right up your alley, Rae."

"But..." Raemos said, not sure what he was protesting or why. "Ma..." He fell quiet as she brought down an old trunk. It had been sitting there as long as he could remember, but he had never really noticed it before, and had never seen inside it. Sonia opened it gently, almost cautiously as if it would bite. Or he thought, Reverently... as if it was one of her artifacts.

Inside was a sturdy wooden object, a mechanical device of some sort. Raemos looked over her shoulder with interest as she turned it over in her hands. "It's been a while..." she murmured, running her hands over it gently, "I missed it... I can't believe I missed it." she held it close, before setting it aside.

"What is it, Ma?" asked Raemos, picking it up. It looked much like a crossbow, but with mechanisms and a holding compartment for further bolts. It was made of some unidentifiable, but sturdy wood strengthened with engraved copper. It had a strange aura to it, that he could feel just by holding it. Something odd, eerie, and familiar. He brought it closer to his gaze, investigating it more closely with his magic. It was a strange aura, dragon-like but not that of a dragon, bright but also darkly patient, like the ocean depths. "Ma..." he said, his voice low with awe and shock, "This is..."

"It's my imprinted weapon, Raemos." she said quietly, taking out a quiver of old bolts from the box and checking them one by one, "It's a repeating crossbow..." she tapped the blunt ends against her hand and put them back in the quiver, strapping it to her back with old leather straps.

"Ma..." Raemos stared at his mother, then back at the weapon. Imprinted? But that meant... "Ma, you were... an archer?" in all of his life, Raemos had never seen her fight. He knew she kept a dagger, but she had never had need to use it, not that he knew of. He'd thought that she was just an archeologist, a civilian through-and-through, a person to be protected.

"Once." she said, holding her hands out to him, "A long time ago." Raemos handed the crossbow back to her, and she strapped it to herself as well, checking the straps, "A lifetime ago." She frowned, "... And several dress sizes, too." she shifted the straps uncomfortably, "Well..." she stood up, "Lets go."

Unsure of what to say, Raemos followed her outside, past the healer and the Oblivionite, who was now asleep. Raemos could see that his sleep was far from peaceful, and as he passed by, he felt sorry for the man. Oblivionite or not, if his wife and children's fates were unknown, Raemos could understand his pain. He knew how he would feel if something bad had even the potential of having happened to Vona, or to his parents. He knew how it had felt, wondering if they were still alive while travelling over a bleak desert and being ambushed by monstrous weapons of stone. He understood.

Outside, his other saddled up one of their kugel and, taking the reigns, she started to lead them towards where the Oblivionite had come. "Come on, Raemos!" she called to him, "Don't be a slowpoke!"

"Coming ma!" he called, reflexively, and ran to catch up.

They walked through the desert in a physical silence that seemed to blaze from the sand. "Ma?" Raemos asked, breaking the silence. "Who was that man?" He had many questions, but he felt he should start with that - the most basic and relevant of them all. "You seemed to know him."

"Oh, He's Murran Katyol. He owns a sheron ranch nearby - raises a few dalak too, noisy birds. He's been there about..." Sonia frowned thoughtfully, "Oh, about seven years now."

"How come I don't know him, Ma?" Raemos thought he knew all the people in the area, as in, there were no - or at least - very few who called their corner of the Eowyn desert home. "If he's been here so long...?"

"Oh, well." she said, tugging the kugel away from a plump cactus, "They're oblivionites. Mallew wasn't going to be friendly, so why inflict that on them, right." her tone was joking, but Raemos could hear a little sorrow in it, a remainder of her worry for his father. Mallew would pull through now, but, Raemos perceived, she had not forgotten. "Besides, they were pretty far out for social visits." she pointed to a point in the distance beyond the fence and stone spires that marked the end of their property, "I helped them get set up, sold them a few sheron without telling Mallew, and let them to themselves." she tugged the kugel again, "But now, we're gonna go over there and help them. Any problems, Raerae?"

"No ma'am." Rae said, automatically, earning an amused look from his mother.

"Did you just 'ma'am' me, Raemos?" she asked, smirking back at him. Even so, her face was tired, and the smirk was weak, almost halfhearted. "I'm not that old, honey."

"Sorry ma..." silence crept in again, their feet quietly crunching on the sand as Raemos prepared his next question. "So... You were an archer."

Sonia sighed. "A long time ago. Before you were born. Before Vona was born..." she rubbed her nose with a hand, "Long before I met Mallew..." she glanced over at Raemos, frowning, "I haven't told him this story, or Vona, and you aren't to tell him either. It'll be our little secret, all right? To pass the time before we get to the Katyol ranch." She looked at him seriously, "Is this clear?"

"That... depends..." he said, uneasily, "Is it anything illegal?"

"No."

"Is it anything..." he swallowed, "shameful?"

"Er..." she hesitated, "Not really, no." she frowned at him, "Raemos..."

"Is it risque?" he asked, almost reluctantly. If it was, he would not want to know it about his mother. He already knew that she had a history of 'experimenting'. He did not want to know

"No!" she said, laughing in surprise. The laughter brightened her face, and made it more like the mother he remembered, and less like the strained woman she had been before the healer had arrived, "Goodness no! I was your age! Younger! What do you think I did with my life?!"

"Excavated ruins and ancient things." said Raemos with a shrug, "All right, Mother, I won't tell." he said seriously, "Guardian's honor."

"Oo. Guardian's honor. And 'Mother'. My little boy has gotten so formal... I did not raise you to be that stuck up..." Sonia shook her head, and looked forward quietly, before sighing resignedly. "All right." she began, "It all begins a long time ago, in a nice little part of Ashen city... have I told you about your grandparents? My Ma and Pa?"

Raemos shook his head, surprised. "No..." he said, staring at his mother with wonder. He'd never heard about his grandparents before, and the idea that his mother had come from somewhere - and hadn't just sprung into being as her glorious energetic self in a burst of light, or from a flower. Or, even, had simply always been there.

"Really?" Sonia frowned, "Yeah. Huh. Well, I guess you'll probably ask about them. Always asking questions, thats my boy..." she laughed, "All you need to know right now, for this story, is that they were really great people - really great. They let me and my brothers do whatever we wanted..." she smirked. Right! Raemos realized, Argos was her brother. Which did help support the parents theory. Wait... brothers... Raemos stared at his mother. That meant more than one, none of whom he had met or even heard of. The number of questions he had to ask his mom increased again, and he realized just how little he knew about hte woman who had loved and raised him. "Except shirk." she continued, "We had chores assigned to us, and Seren forgive us if we skipped even one... Anyway, one of those chore... well, more a chore-like thing... was that we all had to try going down the path of the warrior. No exceptions. We could do other things on the side, but we had to fight for the Orderite cause, blah blah blah." she laughed, "I mean, I was all for it, we were all pretty proud of our family, but honestly? I wasn't a fighter. My brothers were, I wasn't." she sighed, "Its a bit more complicated than that."

"How so?" asked Raemos, forgetting all discomfort in his intrigue.

"Well... So I picked the bow, right? I was a fresh young apprentice out hunting with my brothers. I think it was dragons, could have been other things - practice was practice, and we'd just go on outings and kick the a** of anything in our way." she giggled, "Ah, those were the days. I'd gotten separated from the boys following some interesting tracks - not uncommon - you know how I get, focused on the oddest things. Well I tracked it all right, and when I got to it? Do you know what it was?" her eyes sparkled, as if she, too, had forgotten the discomfortt and stress of their mission. "Guess!"

"What?" asked Raemos when it became clear that she was not kidding about him guessing, "A dragon?"

"No, you little nut, it was something more interesting than that! It was a beast, but not! It was some fusion of animal and tree, both rotted and alive. I don't know why I was so brave, but when it ran off before I could shoot at it, I had to follow! So follow I did. I think it knew I was following - it kept waiting, looking back with hollow eyes that stared back with a glint of magic. Eventually, I got pretty far away, but I felt that I had to hunt it and take the shot - I couldn't get that far and come back empty handed, right?" her eyes grew distant and her steps slowed. The kugel lowed and nipped at her playfully and she pet its side. "Well, I was an idiot." she said, "I tracked it to a steep hill and, when I tried to find it, it was suddenly behind me, and it shoved me and... well..." she shrugged, "I fell. I tumbled for what felt like forever, and I'm pretty lucky that I didn't break my neck, because there were rocks and trees everywhere. Broke my arm, though, and bruised my leg..." she laughed, "You and I, both accident prone, we are. Anyway. When I could sit up again without tumbling further, I found myself pretty far away from any recognizable landmarks. I had a flare - always prepared, that's the family motto - and I sent it up so that my brother's could find me. It was still a good few hours before they got me out. But that was enough to change my life... a lot can happen in a few hours, or minutes." she smiled. "Or even just... a little thing, with big ripples. See, I'd sort of come to a stop in a flat part of a gorge of some kind. There was a little stream, so I had water, and while I was drinking, I noticed something shiny in the mud. Being bored, curious, and... well..." she tapped her arm, "I started digging it out. I soon realized it was bigger than just a shiny thing. It was a piece of pottery. as I kept digging it out, I realized it was a piece of pottery, mostly intact, shiny and white and very old. Not too big, about the size of my hand, but it was pottery - a bowl made of fired clay and painted with designs... not that I could see much of them, what with mud degradation and all, but... Still a bowl. An old bowl, that someone had once used, and that was now in some half-forgotten gully in the forest. I turned it over in my good hand many times while I waited, wondering what it was, who had made it, and why... Er... Both what it was used for and why it was there, where I could find it. That helped to pass the time nicely." she clapped her hands, "Well, that settled things. I mean, I hadn't realized there had been anything in me that didn't want to get into the family business of maiming and soldiering, but apparently, it had just been quietly warring and now, it won. When I got home and pretty much right after I got my cast on, I told my parents I was giving up warrior-ing and going to the university to learn Archeology. I made it official with Aevah Avi, so my parents couldn't do anything. In the end, they were proud of me, so... It worked out." she grinned at Raemos, "The rest is history, right? I hired Mallew to bodyguard me, it got hot and heavy, we moved around a bit, I had Vona and then..." she hesitated, "you. So..." she took a deep breath and let it out, not quite a sigh, "Thats the story of how your mother gave up hitting things with bolts. Oh! By the way!" she smirked playfully, "It was just an ordinary bowl. semi-comtemporary, not more than a century old. It was just used for holding candle wax. A candle holder. Thats what it was, but it started a whole passion and carreer so, I guess you can say... it lit my fire." she snickered, then laughed heartily.

"Heh." Raemos said, following suit with a chuckle of his own. "Thats an amazing story, Mother." It could only be, he felt, Seren's guidance that showed her that bowl. Amazing. Truly. But, his mother was an amazing woman. "So, Mother. You've not used that..." he gestured to the repeating crossbow, "In... how long?"

"Hmm..." she tapped her quiver, "I practiced with it a bit in Aisko when your father and I were there. Or, rather, when he was out hunting and left me in the crappy cabin near the lake. There is one, but... yeah. I wanted my weapon around just in case. So its been about..." she counted silently, "Oh gosh, 25? 26 years? Goodness, Vona's grown up... Anyway, yeah. your mother's rusty, but not too rusty, if you get my meaning?"

"I'm... not sure I do?" Raemos raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you should be..."

"Yes I'm sure!" she was by his side, giving him a noogie through his dreadlocks, before he could react, "I can handle myself, twerp..." she gave him a kiss on the forehead, "Besides, I wasn't going to let you go alone, not with all the times you've gotten beat up in this day alone! Besides, I'm better at managing people than you are." she gave him a sly glance, "Especially if you start getting into your Serenite stuff. By the way, honey, don't do that. Its rude."

"I won't, Ma." He hadn't been planning to evangelize at all. Mara too precedence. "Are we there yet?"

"Hmm..." Sonia looked around, "Yeah, see those posts there? We're on their property now... We just have to find the herd of sheron, find the flocks of dalak, and find his family..." she thought for a moment, before handing the reigns of the kugel to Raemos. "Hold onto Yoma, Rae. I'll take a look around from the air."

Raemos took the reigns and watched with adoring envy as his mother summoned her beautiful, fluffy wings and took to the skies with a blast of sand and wind, becoming a mere familiar dot as she went higher and higher. Raemos tugged the kugel and continued forward, searching.

A glittering, humanoid shape, metallic in the blistering sun, caught his gaze and held it. It floated, silent, above the sand. This time, Raemos knew what it was with certainty. This was no injured being of flesh. Mara. he thought, crouching, motioning the kugel to follow suit (though of course the beast did not listen. It was, after all, a kugel.) Quietly, he snaked his magic out, an obvious shadow in the sun-scorched sand. It was hard to use his magic in the broad daylight of the desert, but he forced it forward, touching the shadow of the Mara and coiling, as if the shadow was rising to meet the glowing magic that powered the monster.

It had not noticed him yet, and Raemos took the opportunity to check his surroundings again - a rare luxury for a fight. There - in the far distance - more unnatural humanoid figures. And - he squinted - Sheron as well, he thought, if the warm, soft boxy shapes beyond them did not lie to his gaze. There would be a fight on his hands soon, he thought.

It would be best to take care of this one quickly, then, and, with a gesture and a hiss, he sent the creeping shadow up to engulf the magic inside the Mara and extinguish it. The metal being fell to the ground, lifeless, and Raemos continued to creep forward.

It wasn't as though he was bloodthirsty to kill the mara in the distance - that would imply a certain amount of rage and glory in killing - and blood, none of which were present. Raemos did not enjoy the fight, it was exhilarating, but he did not enjoy it. What he did feel, what he did enjoy, was the cool of it - the dark, cold, and calculating intent to kill and destroy. He liked that feeling of emotionlessness - the soldier's idea - where personal feelings were crushed under the weight of duty and responsibility. These were weapons gone awry, monstrous creations of his leader that must be put down. He had no personal feelings towards the mara, nor did he have any personal feelings towards the theoretically alive woman and girl - he had never met them. All he knew, all that mattered, was that they were civilians under threat from these beings, and his duty was to protect them. The best way to protect them was to destroy any mara he saw with impunity.

As he drew closer, he realized that it was a whole squad of mara. a tremor of fear broke through his concentration - he was alone, and there were an awful lot of them. The brown shapes were, indeed, sheron, nervously herding together but mostly unharmed. He hid among them, stroking them gently as he observed the mara from their warm, animal shade.

There were metal ones, and stone ones, and one resembling the sculptor mara from before, but also mara he had never seen before - large dark ones that seemed to absorb the light around them. There were more in the distance, as well, moving around seemingly randomly.

No. he realized, observing, Not randomly. It was a search pattern.

"Why must we guard the agricultural life forms?" rang a maran voice. Raemos watched them begin to interact. The sculptor mara appeared to be healing one of the dark mara. He wasn't sure which was talking.

"Because..." Reamos's heart skipped a beat at the smooth, oily, tantalizing voice, "It is important."

"We do not need the agricultural life forms. They are irrelevant."

"Not to the king." the voice purred, correcting, "To the life forms that live here - the ones from the dark land. If we guard here, they may come for the agricultural life forms, and then we can take them back to the king."

"Irrelevant. We should all be searching."

"Complain if you wish. Be thankful our king granted you the gift of boredom." it laughed, low and slow and beautiful. Now Raemos was sure that the smooth voice issued from one of the dark mara, "Remember these are not suggestions but orders."

Raemos shook himself free of the spell of fascination that the creature's voice had on his mind, and crouched among the sheron, trying to figure out a plan of attack.

It was obviously another form of the mages that he had been fighting, and he could guess at what magic it wielded - dark, like the Oblivionites, like himself. From the way it had not-shimmered in the sun, he could assume it was made of obsidian - was that where it found its magic and lovely voice? He tried to pus the word 'lovely' from his mind. It was an abomination, and abominations were never lovely.

But that voice...

"Mission: complete!" he heard, a gravelly rumble that, though devoid of emotion, somehow spoke of pride, "Winged life form: found!"

He heard an enraged shrieking and squawking sound that was suspiciously dalak-like.

"That is not a winged life form..." grooned the voice, "That is an agricultural life form. You are wasting time, Roca, time our king desires."

"Clarification: Then this is not a winged life form?" Raemos began to snake a tendril of magic towards the sound of the shrieking, feeling for the magic that supported the mara.

"It has wings, yes, and two legs, but it is not the winged life forms we seek. Your recognition protocol is clearly flawed. Report to the Mano for repairs..." He found the magic and began building a pool of shadowy power beneath the mara, waiting for the right moment to strike...

"Confirmation: Very well." Raemos heard an indignant croak - the sound of a dropped dalak - and took it as his signal, shoving the darkness into the brilliant signature of the magic and snuffing it out. He heard a thud as the mara fell - rocks on sand. He peeked out among the warm, unhappy bodies to see a rock mara on the ground, lifeless.

"We have a guest." said the sultry voice, and the obsidian mara began to call magic to them - Raemos could see the air around them darken and become thick, and he backed into the shuffling herd of sheron, drawing his sword.

"One of the agricultural life forms?"

"Don't be stupid." The voices were similar, and Raemos could not tell them apart except from the first one's contempt. "Something among them. Call the reinfocements"

Like a bell, a deep, loud ring echoed through the desert, answering rings sounding from not too far off. A summons. He needed to deal with the mara here quickly. He peered around the sheron to get his bearings and sent a quick bolt of magic at the metallic one, lassoing it like a sheron bull. It resisted, and he felt, on the edge of his magical sense, magic shearing against his, dissolving it. His tendril of magic would not survive long enough to snuff out the animating magic of the mara, so he decided to try a different tactic.

"Fupanoi." he said, forcing the mara into the air, watching through the sheron's legs as it struggled to maintain its balance. "Die." he slammed his magic downward, like the downstroke of great and powerful wings. He shoved it to the ground, increasing the pressure of his magic. "Be crushed." He felt it resist, felt the magic try to eat away at his spell, but there was too much raw force behind it - the magic mara would not be able to stop him. He felt, under his magic, metal begin to crumple, and he increased the pressure until, finally, there was no more resistance. He loosened his magical hold and turned it against his opponent, dark magic clashing with dark magic in a battle of oblivion.

The sheron had had enough: Mooing unhappily, they separated and shambled away from the fight. Raemos was revealed.

There were far more mara than before - clearly reinforcements, and Raemos knew he was outmatched. He could do little, though, but concentrate on keeping the mage mara at bay. It was powerful, its magic more than a match for his own.

But he was trickier. He coiled his magic around the thick streams of its own, seeking the animating magic at its core. He could feel it, close at hand, and his magic - hungry for its power - felt it too. Even as his resistance began to give, and the dangerous oblivion of it's power drew a notch closer to consuming him, he felt the crackling magic at the mara's heart. With a cry, he lashed into it, wrapping around the mara's magic and consuming it.

The mara screamed, its magic weakening as it was devoured by the hungry oblivion of Rae's magic, and finally fell, a mass of stone, to the ground.

Raemos drew back and gasped as it was finished. Mara were all around him now, imposing in their stony austerity. He backed away, slashing at one of the stone ones with a magical slash, putting in enough power to shatter it.

He staggered at the release of magic, realizing how much he had used already. The obsidian mara had taken a lot out of him... could he take another? His gaze met the gleamingly dark stone of one of the obsidian mara's eyes... and stuck there.

"Come to me, life form" it purred, beckoning. Raemos struggled against the magic that wrapped around him, inside him, and through him, but to no avail. He began to walk towards the dark mara against his will, his sword hanging loosely in his hands, "Your power will be of grat interest to our king. He will learn much from you..." Raemos struggled against it, but only succeeded in collapsing. "Neutralize it and bring it back." said the mara.

"Affirmative" Raemos could not look back to see the voice - he could only look ahead, at the glowing magic that animated the mara and at the sand below. "Initiating neutralization..."

A clang echoed from behind him, metal on stone.

"Get away from my son, you oversized pile of rocks!" Ma... Raemos struggled again against the spell, empowered by his mother's voice, but stopped as pain, acute and terrible, bounced through his head and body. He cried out against it, thrashing against the spell and the sand alike.


"Get offa him!" another familiar voice. A crack of broken glass and the smell of herbs, and the spell was gone, leaving a numbness in its wake.

"This way!" called his mother, and he was picked up by strong arms.

"We got you, Rae. We've got you." he heard, before unconciousness took him.

...

He awoke in a warm, comforting place, his head feeling like it was about to split in two. "Ugh" he moaned, sitting up and cradling his head in his hands, "What happened?"

"We just saved your a**." He turned to the familiar voice.

"Selza?! What are you doing here?"

"Like I said, Rae, saving your a**. You said you'd need a healer, right? Well, we came as quickly as we could. I brought Rasha along and we were just going to drop by some cousins of mine on the way when, lo and behold, there you were, with your mother.... how is, by the way, awesome." Selza waved, and Raemos turned to see his mother by the window, crossbow in hand, staring out.

"I'm not that awesome honey." said Sonia, frowning out of the window, "You know what would be awesome? Exploding bolts. Can you do that, Rae?"

"I don't have any enchanting tools..." said Raemos.

"I do..." said a small voice, and Raemos turned to see a little Oblivionite girl. She shrunk away as he looked at her, hiding behind a woman he assumed was her mother.

"Let him borrow them for a little bit, would you, Milara? If my bolts explode, we might have a chance..."

Another oblivionite came out from beyond a room. "How many are out there?" Raemos scowled at the familiar face.

"Oh. Yes. And Talon came too." said Selza, shrugging.

"I still do not approve of any of this. I will have you know." said Talon.

"I can live with that, dear." said Sonia, absently, "as long as we all reach home safely, I don't care what you think of me or my son. Rae, can you fight?"

"Mmm..." Raemos took a drink of offered water, "Yes."

"Take a look outside." Raemos joined her at the window.

There are so many mara... a whole regiment of them, standing silently outside in the dimming daylight. "Why haven't they attacked?" he wondered out loud.

"I expect they're still figuring out how..." said Sonia. "Here's the current plan: theres a barn just off the house, with some hastar. We get everybody one a few of those and ride out of here. I'll fly the little one, and the rest of you will blaze saddles. I'm thinking, if they let us, we wait til nightfall..." she glanced at Talon, "For magic reasons. I can make a light for myself, so I won't have a problem..."

"And you want exploding bolts to...?"

"Cover your ride, of course. And soften them up. Or whatever. Maybe just because its cool." she smirked, "You think you can cook that up for me, Rae?"

He felt a tap on his side. "Er..." The little girl stared up at him with her eyeless sockets, cute despite the unnervingness of it. He looked down at what she held - a basic children's enchanter training kit. It likely only had the basics, and only enough of those to make things glow or look pretty. It was, after all, just for training. "... I'll try." he said, taking it.

"All I'm asking of you, Raerae." said his mother, smiling. She handed him a few of her bolts and he took out the cute little decorated pen and attempted to set to work. It was very unlikely to work -he wasn't that advanced in enchanting himself, and exploding enchantments were at a whole other level entirely - but he could, at the very least, try to make them flash or do a lightshow - something distracting. He could feel the little girls gaze on him as he worked, trying to make the low-quality ink take the magic he tried to infuse it with, and stick to the wood of the bolts.

"You're really good..." she said, in a little scared voice and, despite how he felt about her lack of eyes, he smiled at her.

"Not really." he said, "But thank you."

It took him an hour or two before he ran out of ink. He sat back, regarding what he had managed to do. "Well, ma... It'll give you a lightshow at the least."

"Great. I love lightshows. Here's hoping they do too..." Raemos joined her at the window again.

"... thats a lot of Mara..." he whispered, as the dying rays of the setting sun struck the varied armors of each one. They seemed to scintillate and sparkle around one in particular. "Is that one...?"

"I think its made of diamonds. Never thought I'd see the day when Diamonds weren't a girl's best friend..." muttered Sonia. Selza snickered. "All right. Its nightfall. We should start moving out.." she made a face "... or you can go pray." she said, with a sigh.

Raemos kneeled in front of the window, going through his sunset prayer. Nearby, he heard Talon praying as well, but ignored it. They were praying for different reasons, and for different gods.

"It it an Oblivionite thing to be such a stuck up a**?" he vaguely heard his mother say, in a low tone.

He heard Selza's distinctive snort. "Nah. I think its just men."

Raemos grimaced as he heard his mother's stifled laughter. "I think you're right there." He finished his prayer and gave his mother a look, unconsciously mirroring the one that Talon gave his sister.

"All right." said Talon, "Lets go."

"All right, sweetie!" chirped Sonia, kneeling down to the little girl's level,"Have you ever gone flying before? I bet you haven't! Well, I'm going to take you flying, and we're gonna see your daddy! How about that?" The little girl nodded. "Great. So, the plan was I distract them first, then you all go out and smash things, and get Adiah out of here?"

Talon nodded. "Affirmative. Medrol..." he hesitated, "Mrs Medrol, you will take the girl. Kelom, you will take Mrs. Katyol with you. Ride fast, and do not worry about us. Sterben and Medrol... PRIVATE Medrol... You will be with me. We'll hold off as many as we can and distract them from the refugees. Then we retreat..." he glared at his sister, "Is this clear? We do not engage completely."

"Sure, big brother!" said Selza, stretching. Raemos nodded.

Rasha, the dovaa, frowned. "But what if you all get hurt?"

"Your priority is the woman." said Talon sternly, "And getting her to a safe place. That is an order, do you understand? You will follow after Mrs. Medrol, but I suggest that you take a direct route, while she take a more roundabout route. It would be best to split them up, should they follow." Sonia nodded.

"Got it." she said, "But first I cover you in getting to the barn and getting those hastars ready to ride?"

"No. You wait for my signal."

"I don't get to shoot stuff?"

"Negative. Your priority is the girl."

"Sorry, Ma." whispered Raemos, standing up.

"All right. Move out."

The guardians moved to the barn, Adiah Katyol in tow, and prepared the Hastar to ride.

"So, ma'am, how fast are your hastar?" asked Selza, petting one of the beasts. There were four, of the Eowyn breed, enough to carry two people at once, if they had to.

"Er, very fast." she said.

Rasha stepped up, mounting one of them and offering his hand to the woman, his bright eyes glittring serenely. "All right, ma'am." she took his hand.

Raemos mounted a hastar, and looked at his group. I will be fighting with Oblivionites today... he realized, Seren forgive me...

"Prepare spells!" called Talon, as Selza took hold of the door to the barn, "Medrol! Sterben! Ride out!" She opened the door and leapt onto her mount. And they were off. They rode into the ranks of Mara, their spells empowered by the darkness. It became a scene of chaos. The pressure of their magic, the pounding of their hastar's feet, and the cracking of Selza's mace became an orchestra of the battle. The voice of the mara rose as song as they set into them. Once chaos - and a few smashed stone monsters - had been achieved, Talon sent up a signal Flare. "Escape now!" he called.

Raemos could hear the sound of wings above him, and looked up to see his mother fly swiftly overhead, even as the dovaa sped past them like lightning on his steed, holding the woman secure against him.

"Fighters!" called Talon as the rescuers thundered into the distance, "Continue fighting! Block off any attempts at pursuit!"

Raemos's magic crashed into one of the sculptors, crushing it against the denting, giving metal of one of the warrior mara. Another sculptor fell, crushed under Talon's spell. He saw one of the other metallic mara crumple to the ground under Selza's mace, its beautiful carapace dented beyond repair.

Raemos, having a brief respite, scanned the back of the maran ranks. "Mages!" he shouted, "We should take them out before they charge!"

"Yes!" Talon called back, "Sterben, continue what you're doing. Raemos, with me! We'll take out the mages! How do they charge?"

"Wave of earth!" Raemos called back, spurring his mount closer. His sword was sheathed, only his wand was out. His wrist ached from his spell gestures, but he knew he could till keep going.

"All right! We hit them with a wave of oblivion, then. A combo spell!"

"And then target them with the residual power?"

"Exactly! It will negate any charge attempts they make..."

"You two!" shouted Selza, "Whatver your doing, shut up and get to it!"

The ground shook beneath them, and Raemos's hastar whinnied and shuffled. "I think she's right!" he said, gathering his magic. Talong said nothing. Reluctantly, Raemos let his magic touch and link to Talon's own. It gathered between them, dark and vast and hungry.

"How many?" said Talon.

"I see three!" called Raemos back. Despite how he felt about his magic, and about the other man, Raemos couldn't help but feel a little thrill at working together with such a huge amount of magic. This was what it was to be a mage, this was power. He liked it.

"All right! We hit all three. I will take the closest one to me, and you the one nearest you! We disable the third one and take it out quickly once the others are done!"

"Understood sir!" said Raemos.

"Good. On my mark! One, two... Three!" They released the building wave of magic. It swept over the mara ranks, shoving them back as Selza held onto her mount. The moment they hit the feeling of earth and metal magic around the mages, they stopped, coiling the magic inward into a concentrated cloud. The mages, isolated from each other, were no match for the Oblivionites, and, as they dealt with their individual ones and then converged on the final one, the mara mages were soon crushed.

"That should hold them!" said Raemos, gasping. He'd recovered his magic with the coming of the evening, but... it had been a lot. He looked over at Talon to see the older man slumped as well.

"Yes..." said Talon. He seemed to shake himself off. "Sterben!" he called, "Disengage!"

"What?!" yelled Selza. Her mace cracked against another mara.

"Disengage! Retreat! That is an order! Full speed to the safe zone! Dodge to confound pursuit! Now!" He turned and Raemos followed suit, kicking his mount into a healdlong gallop. Raemos turned to look and saw, with an exasperated look on her face, Selza, following them.

The mara were soon left behind, unable to keep up as they thundered forth to home.