Is Sostra… gone?

  Yasmine’s mom ran outside, before joining Atzi in abject terror when she spotted the mushroom cloud.

  “The whole city? E-everyone there?” Atzi asked, voicing her thoughts out loud.

  “What… do we do?” Yasmine’s mom asked. Atzi had never once before seen the woman uncertain in her life. Now, her hands were shaking.

  Why didn’t I see this? Why did I get shown useless visions about getting eaten instead of this? And now what do I do? “I dunno,” Atzi replied.

  Yasmine’s mom stared at the ground, tears dripping down. She probably had people she knew there.

  Atzi did, too. Cory. Hemm. Fence. Did they- ?

  “The gods were there, right? Why didn’t they stop this?” Yasmine’s mom asked.

  Atzi had no answer.

  “Go. Be with your family,” Yasmine’s mom finally said.

  Atzi nodded, and ran off to find her mom.

  -

  She saw her father in a heated discussion with her mom.

  He was much taller than either of them, with golden scales and black hair. Gold-and-red shaman robes hung off him.

  Atzi crept closer to hear them.

  “-not safe, we should leave,” Atzi’s father said.

  “I’m not abandoning my research,” Therese replied.

  “But what if-”

  “They’re all dead. That means I’m going to be in charge now.” Therese smiled.

  Atzi spoke up. “Um, hi dad.”

  Her father spun around. “Atzi! I’m so sorry I wasn’t here when you got back.” He had a sad smile.

  “What did you mean it’s not safe?”

  He frowned. “We’ve been divining the stars for the future. Visions of a lot of things, but mostly disaster, even if the one here doesn’t make sense. We thought it might be related to the explosion of Novae at first, but-”

  “It’s absurd,” Atzi’s mother interrupted, waving a claw. “I won’t be abandoning my work just for the chance things might go wrong.”

  “And you think something might happen here?” Atzi asked her father.

  “Yes. We should head to Branek. If-”

  “I’m not giving up everything I’ve done to make those council bastards happy. I’m in charge now. Plus, my research is almost finished. We can’t leave.” Therese shook her head.

  “What research?” Atzi asked, annoyed that her mom kept interrupting.

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  Atzi thumped her tail. “Because you wouldn’t teach me!”

  “You got the same education as-”

  Atzi curled her tail around her leg. “Mom, what if… what if Pomaria gets blown up? What does it matter who’s in charge then? Or what your research is?”

  “It’s not going to ‘blow up’.” Therese scoffed.

  “I bet the Saintess thought Sostra couldn’t blow up, either…”

  “Just leave us to our discussion, Atzi,” Therese said, looking very tired.

  Atzi could have argued, but didn’t. Fine! I guess I’m useless because I don’t know anything about magic, anyway! She marched off in a huff to find Yasmine if she could.

  -

  Atzi made her way to the single story guard building on the outskirts of town. Next to it sat a guard tower, empty.

  As she approached, she noticed the crowd of people outside. The mass of lizards were talking together in hushed tones. They surrounded a group of guards, who were answering their questions.

  Atzi spotted two people she recognized. The first was Bilge, her old locksmith mentor. He looked as furious as ever with the hole in the side of his face, exposing his sharp clenched teeth. His dull grey scales looked even worse than the last time she saw them.

  The other was an old bully of hers, growing up. Atzi tried to avoid the orange-scaled woman from seeing her as she made her way into the crowd.

  Then she spotted Yasmine. They locked eyes. Yasmine said something - to Atzi’s old bully, in fact, patting her on the shoulder - before pulling herself out of the crowd. She made her way over to Atzi.

  “What’s going on?” Atzi asked, worried.

  Before Yasmine could respond, gasps and shouts from the crowd drew both their attention. There was a bloody and ragged man on a horse, riding towards them at a gallop. He looked absolutely awful, cuts along his side. As soon as he was close enough to be heard, he slowed the horse and shouted to address the crowd.

  “Hasen has attacked Mediolanum! Sostra is gone! Countless undead are rising! They come this way!”

  The crowd of people immediately went into a panic. Several people cried as they clutched each other.

  Atzi just stared, wide eyed. Her brain had yet to catch up to the news.

  Suddenly Yasmine was in her face. “-we need to figure out how to evacuate Pomaria. An undead army… we can’t fight that. Just stay safe. When we give orders, follow them. Stay with your family until then.”

  Atzi nodded, and ran off back home. The rider, despite his injuries, galloped out ahead of her, alerting the town.

  Atzi just had to get her mom to understand what was happening, and convince her to leave.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Even mom wouldn’t be that stubborn, right?

  Atzi's father was hurriedly throwing as many things as he could into a rowboat when she got back.

  Meanwhile, her mother was writing something down. She looked… happy?

  “Mom, there’s an undead army, and-”

  “Yes, I’ve heard the announcement. We can fight them. We have magic.”

  “You- you’re seriously going to stay?”

  She nodded. “You should leave, though. You’d just get in the way.”

  I’m trying to help you! Atzi curled her claws. “Fine. If it looks bad, you should run. Good luck.”

  “Luck is for cowards and fools.”

  She wanted to scream at her stubborn mother. Instead, she shook her head and went over to her father.

  “Atzi, are you going to go with me?” he asked, putting another box into the boat.

  “Yeah. Um, sorry about mom.”

  “...she has her reasons. Help me get some things in.”

  He pointed her to some other boxes, and she started loading them on. Atzi’s mother didn’t help at all, eventually wandering off.

  After it was as packed as they could get it, they clambered on board and pushed out, each with an oar in hand to paddle. With all the sweeping Atzi had been doing lately, she found it easier than she expected.

  This is… hard to believe it’s it. Just leaving again, but with dad this time.

  “I’ve been having visions, too,” she suddenly said.

  “You have?” Her dad asked, surprised.

  “It was a bunch of unimportant stuff. Only about my own life. Did you really see visions about all this?”

  “We didn’t. We saw some signs we now know were pointing to the explosion. After the explosion in Novae, we assumed that was it. But now…”

  “So nothing about Hasen? Or the undead?”

  He shook his head. “Sometimes visions work through metaphor, but I still can’t wrap my head around how they might apply to either of those.” Then, he looked at her. “Are you sure your visions were unimportant?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “They might be more significant than you realized. Perhaps I could help you decipher the meaning, even if it might be too late now.”

  Atzi thought about it, before deciding to go ahead and tell her dad the truth. Who was going to arrest her for her crimes? The city was gone. “I-”

  As Atzi pushed the oar into the water, it seemed to catch on something.

  A skeletal hand shot up from the river and grasped her wrist.

  Atzi shrieked.

  She struggled.

  It gripped tighter.

  She smashed her other claw over the bones.

  Its grip loosened.

  She managed to shake free and pull her arm back.

  The skeletal hand sunk beneath the water.

  Atzi breathed heavily. “Wh-what was that?!”

  The hand shot up and gripped the side of the boat.

  Atzi stared in horror as a skeleton rose from beneath the water. Its grinning skull looked down on her as water poured out below its jaw bone, the reflection of the sun coloring the water like blood.

  The boat rocked as it pulled itself on. Atzi tried to back away. The boat was too small.

  Her father shouted something she couldn’t make out.

  The skeleton swiped at Atzi in a jerky motion.

  She ducked. Its hand smashed into a box behind her.

  She stood back up and swung awkwardly at the skeleton with her oar. She knew as she swung she hadn't put enough force into the blow. But the thing weighed less than she had expected. The wood smacked into its ribcage and sent it spilling back into the river.

  Atzi looked over to her father.

  He was locked in a battle of his own. Two skeletons in the river were grabbing him by the arms, trying to pull him in.

  “Dad!”

  He was pulled in with a splash.

  Several boney hands and claws grasped the sides of the boat. Dripping skulls peered up from all sides. The skeletons were already pulling themselves onboard.

  Where are they all coming from?!

  With no other choice, Atzi threw herself into the river.

  She oriented herself below the water. She tried to make out where her dad was even through the chaos.

  She spotted him lying near the bottom of the river, several skeletons between them.

  She swiftly swam towards him, avoiding the skeletons trying to grasp her.

  She reached out a claw for her father to grab.

  He didn’t grab it.

  Atzi dived further down towards him, worried he might be unconscious. She lifted him under his arms and started swimming towards shore.

  As she swam, a boney claw bounced off her scales.

  She made it, wading out of the shallows and dragging him onto the bank, out of reach of the skeletons in the river. His body was limp and motionless.

  She looked for any sign her father was still alive. She didn’t know anything about medicine, didn’t even know how to check if someone was breathing. She put a finger on his throat, like she’d seen healers do. How do you tell?!

  There was a rattling noise from behind her.

  “No…” Atzi sobbed. “No, no, no, no!”

  She turned around.

  An armored, spear-wielding figure walked towards her. She thought it might be a soldier. Or at least desperately hoped.

  The figure’s helmet tipped down, revealing the skull beneath. It pointed its spear towards her.

  “I’m not part of this! I just live here! I’m nobody, I don’t matter, you can have Pomaria, take it, I don’t care!” Atzi ranted. She backed away.

  It stabbed towards her.

  “Fuck!”

  Atzi rolled, trying to avoid the strike. It still hit her, shattering her scales. Pain bloomed in her side.

  She grabbed her father, slung him over her shoulders, and ran.

  More skeletons rose from both the river and ground.

  H-how are they-

  The skeletons attacked, trying to stop her escape.

  Atzi was operating off pure reflexes and panicked energy. She dodged the strikes that came her way. She shifted her father around frequently to prevent him from being grabbed.

  She somehow made it past them, but didn’t stop. She ran for what felt like hours.

  Eventually, Atzi stopped for a moment to catch her breath, looking behind her. Skeletons were still coming, but she had a minute or two from their slower pace.

  Atzi and her father were still in the marshes of Pomaria, as they extended far beyond the city. She couldn’t yet see the sands of Novasium, where their hope of survival lay.

  She felt her father move on her back.

  Atzi felt relieved. “Dad? You’re awake? Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here, then we’ll go to Novasium or something, and-”

  He said something she couldn’t understand.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  He continued to mumble. A creeping sense of dread filled Atzi.

  Then, a bright light shattered the space around her, breaking it apart like glass. The light engulfed her entirely. All at once she felt awful, like she’d been robbed of several days of sleep, her limbs heavy.

  “Wh- stop! Whatever you’re doing, stop!” Atzi tried to shake him off. Yet she was so tired, she could barely move. He wouldn’t let go.

  The light faded. Her surroundings returned to normal.

  Finally she managed to shake off her father. He landed on the ground with an unnatural thump.

  She turned to him. “C’mon, we have to-”

  It was then she saw his eyes.

  No light. No life. Whatever the thing in front of her was, it wasn’t her father. Not anymore.

  The thing that had once been her father began to move, jerking forward. A gurgling voice emerged from it as it began another low chant.

  Atzi didn’t have time to cry. She turned tail and fled. Even tired, she still had to move, had to get away, had to-

  Another beam of light struck her and she stumbled, falling to the ground in exhaustion.

  No, no! I don’t know magic. I don’t know how you avoid magic, how you stop this… Her thoughts became sluggish.

  The light faded again.

  She couldn’t get up, no matter how hard she tried. Her limbs felt like they were made of stone, embedded in the mud.

  A skeletal soldier stepped in front of her. It pulled back its spear.

  Its boney grin was the last thing she saw.