-Nixie-

  The elves kept their distance, looking out to the waters only briefly before one team committed forward to check the wreckage of the craft. Meanwhile, I started releasing the outer shell of the vehicle. Yes, that's right, the outer shell. My battlewagon had a miniature battlewagon built into the control station of the primary vehicle. I just needed a chance to break for the forest.

  My patience was shortly rewarded as a massive wave signaling the arrival of a sea monster swept the shore. I held the kids tightly as I triggered the release while the wave nearly tipped the wagon back onto its wheels. The outer wagon split apart, and my mini wagon was let loose. I slammed the accelerator, pushing up the beach.

  A quick glance behind me lets me see a giant octopus fifty feet high grab and crunch my bait, but the elves didn’t take its intrusion lightly. The various elves charged forward viciously attacking the octopus. However, one of the archers didn’t forget the objective. I tried to turn back into the forest, but an arrow zipped through the chaos behind. For a moment I didn’t feel it until exhaustion began to set in. I looked down and noticed the kids soaked in blood. I kept the wagon rolling as I tried to check them. I didn’t see any apparent injuries, but a feeling of suffocating agony sprang out.

  Now I saw what happened. An arrow had blasted a hole in my lower gut but didn’t hit the kids because the talisman I gave the boy protected him. I shakily reach into my wand holster on my belt and pull out the fire wand. I tried to point it at the gut, but between the shaking of the mini wagon and my weakening limbs, I couldn’t hold it still.

  “Kid, take this and point it at the hole in my gut. Give it mana and share all the injured bits, ok?” My voice was shaky as I gave the instructions. I would really rather not entrust cauterizing wounds to a little kid, but I couldn’t do it while facilitating the getaway. If we slowed for even a moment, the elves might catch up. My octopus surprise was a decent pull, but it was no sea serpent, and I didn’t think it would prevail when the elves could easily harm it.

  I tried to hold myself steady as we kept going, but my vision was already getting spotty.

  “Kid, please, I know it's hard, but I need you.” My words seemed to finally spur him into action. The flames bit into my flesh, and I couldn’t help but cry out in agony. I gasped for breath, but the flames hadn’t lasted long enough. “Again,” I wheezed at the boy. Up ahead I saw the river. Callen was close. My nerves screamed out again as my flesh started to be charred by the fire of the wand. This time instead of screaming, I channeled my pain into a command. “Get. it. Done!”

  My vision was blurry but still holding as the pain faded. However, my sense of balance was spinning as I struggled to keep myself from blacking out. My grip on the accelerator loosened, and we started slowing down. I wheezed in desperation and focus to keep going, but my body couldn’t take it.

  “Follow . . . River. . . bridge fort safe.” I muttered out instructions as the last of my strength gave out. Darkness filled what little vision I had left as I slumped forward.

  -Callen-

  I kept my eyes on the horizon as the last of the refugees passed through the gate. I had to assume this was the last of the survivors, but Nixie showed no sign of returning. With no one left, I sent the door back into the void so Sis could use it. I grabbed the probably suicidal booster and moved to the edge of the castle. If only I had Callia’s ability to track, but it was futile. The sun began to set when I finally noticed something coming up from the ocean side of the river.

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  I raced over to investigate without hesitation. I arrived right as an ATV raced forward and crashed into a tree. Immediately I recognized Nixie slumped in the seat, but a pair of kids clung to the vehicle, trying to control it despite being far too young and small for the controls. Still, I gave that no mind as I leapt forward, grabbing Nixie. She was limp in my arms and had a massive hole in her stomach. While it was cauterized, it had been moved afterward, and the wound was still seeping. Unfortunately this was the exact kind of injury that healers struggled with most. It was a massive hole in flesh, meaning the injury couldn’t be shaped back into a natural state, and healing had minimal effect on severe blood loss. In fact, if I did try to heal Nixie, I would heal the cauterized flesh, and she would start bleeding profusely.

  Callia still hadn’t taken the Void Gate, so I summoned it again and pushed the kids through, assuring them Nixie would be fine. Though that was a lie. I may not be a master healer, but I was more than fluent enough compared to normal practitioners. Nixie needed blood more than anything else because her system was entering shock. She only had one chance, and that was a blind transfusion. I had no idea if my blood was compatible, but I didn’t have time to check. I summoned a knife and dipped the tip into a blood vessel in my arm. As the blood flowed out, I stored it in the void. Then I stabbed into a vein in Nixie’s arm. I carefully created a void gate connecting the arm to the blood I stored in the void and began carefully willing the blood in the void to go into the gate.

  My mana started to run low, and a feeling of weakness crept in as I finally healed the cuts on both of our arms. I had done all I could for Nixie as I pushed her through the Void Gate. Those kids had brought her all the way to me, so there was no way they wouldn’t get her to a town healer. I gave a sigh of exhaustion as I sent the door back into the void. Breathing heavily, I got to my feet and forced myself to run back to the fort.

  I slapped my cheeks and let my adrenaline wake me back up. This wasn’t over yet. If Nixie was in that kind of condition, that meant the elves wouldn’t be far behind. At the gate of the fort I felt a flare of warning from Nightshade. I ducked right as a distant arrow blasted from the deep woods. It ripped a hole in the fort but missed me. I ducked inside and moved to cover, trying to limit any sign of my existence while my mana recovered.

  Another three arrows blasted through the walls like armor-penetrating cannon shells. While Sis could also shoot shots like that, she needed more time between each power shot. Thankfully the targeting of the arrows made it clear that the elf couldn’t figure out where in the fort I was. I snaked a strand of mana out into the forest. It was a struggle to reach so far, but I held it just long enough to summon a large pile of explosives. “Just because you have a bow doesn’t mean you're safe,” I thought to myself viciously while adjusting my position and focusing my mana sense.

  It took some time with all the forest trees obscuring them, but eventually I managed to locate my assailant cautiously watching me from a distant tree. I was fine with waiting, as every second gave me more mana to work with, even if it was an infinitesimal fraction of a point. The Elf himself didn’t seem keen on forcing the confrontation. The explosion from earlier had clearly spooked the man. However, he wasn't alone. Roughly fifteen minutes later I noticed more elves coming. Five friends all still in top shape as far as I could tell with mana sense. Time was no longer my friend. I carefully got up and prepared to act.

  Queens Harlanou and Vienne

  Queen Harlanou crouched in her quarters, clutching her youngest son, muttering about the evils of the outside world in his ear. The boy needed to understand that everything but Mommy was his enemy, and she was the only one he could trust. She pressed the necessity of seizing power on the boy because every scrap that she didn’t claim was stolen. Just like how her brother murdered her brothers and sisters and stole her title. However, the moment was ruined as an outsider knocked on her door.

  “GO! GO! Away! NO Outsiders!” Her shrill voice echoed against the tense silence.

  “Your Majesty, you ordered me to inform you of notable actions by the other queens. Our informants report Queen Karia has been in contact with the holy order and has ordered the palace knight garrison mobilized.” Harlanou’s bloodshot eyes narrowed viciously. Without a word of acknowledgement, she burst from the room and stormed off into the castle. She would stop that harlot's coup well before she could get any kind of momentum. After all, she was the second queen, and Karia the third; if she ordered the knights, they would obey her first!

  The butler watched Queen Harlanou storm off and calmly left the floor, going to the one floor above, Queen Vienne’s chambers.

  “Her Majesty Lady Harlanou has taken the lead in suppressing Lady Karia. Did your majesty have any other requests from this loyal servant?” The butler bowed low as Vienne smiled.

  “That will be all. I intend to spend time with my husband before he gets bored and starts playing with maids again.” Vienne stood up and walked off with a confident spring in her step. Any day where she could snub whatever Karia was doing was a good day. In her hands she swirled a pale pink potion, the very potion she had been feeding her husband on her father's orders for years. Vienne even suspected this potion had been used to keep him obedient since his first wife was her big sister from an earlier generation.

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