I thought-- You said your research was confiscated!

Seiren's mind almost exploded from recognising the state of the creature.

It was! I haven't had anything to do with them for months!

Dent managed to angle the thing's head and his gun without fear of injuring others or himself and fired it straight through its brain. Blood and brain matter sprayed in the other direction. The impulse jerked the creature's head backwards and it lolled, tongue hanging out, half its skull missing. Dent dropped it in disgust. It landed with a thump at his feet, the blood mixing in with the melted snow.

"What is that?" Dent said. Seiren's blood drummed against her ears and the inside of her skull. How the hell did Hannans get a hold of her classified research from Bicknor and why was it being used in Acrise? None of it made any sense. Her research was solely for healing purposes and it was successful in that the wounds could be healed provided there were enough intact pieces to regenerate from, but never had she even suggested it would be used in warfare--

"Dent," she said, cold realisation hitting her. "Get away from that thing."

Dent's prominent forehead scrunched in confusion. "What--"

The creature's head lifted. All the colour drained out of Dent's face. He raised his gun again but the thing leapt at him, the missing half of his skull knitting back together. They crashed and tumbled backwards, almost out of the range of Maura's wall. Seiren scrabbled forward and slammed a red rune on its back before its back leg kicked out, striking the centre of her chest, and sent her flying. She snapped her fingers, eyes watering to the point where she couldn't see. There was an animalistic screech and a splat.

Hands tugged at her.

"What are you doing?!" Rowan's familiar voice was a blessing to hear. "Are you stupid or suicidal?"

"Someone needs to save Portendorfer!" she said in retaliation, but it was hard to sound angry when she felt so relieved.

Rowan looked beyond her and spotted the blood-drenched mage.

"Why is he bleeding?"

"'Cos he's stupid."

"Stupidity doesn't cause haemorrhage in the neck. I'm sure any doctor will agree."

"Well, he's a special breed of stupid. He's fine."

"I'm not sure whose definitions you're using, but it's definitely not the one everyone else uses.""

Another cannonball whizzed from the soldiers and exploded. The silvery shards tore through the approaching creatures before turning into flames on contact with the wall. Rowan tugged at her.

"Move it!"

Somehow, Rowan and a few other soldiers managed to drag her, Portendorfer, and Dent back to behind the frontlines. Portendorfer got carted off to the medics' room at once. Dent was taken away for a check, too. Rowan patted Seiren over, initially blanching at the sight of her front covered in blood until she explained the source. He shook his head, disbelief on the face that looked ten years younger than he actually was.

"This is bad. We are barely holding them at bay. Those things don't seem to take much damage from anything..." He tugged at his black hair, making more bits stand up. "And you -- there are twenty ways this could have gone better. I am still counting. You moron."

"If I didn't do anything, we'll all be the contents of those reanimated things' stomachs."

"I don't know if anyone taught you that apologies aren't like that."

Seiren bared her teeth. "Rune me."

Rowan halted.

"Reanimated things?"

Oh, crap.

She swallowed, wilting somewhat under Rowan's laser-like gaze. "Remember my project at Bicknor Research Institute?"

"How could I forget? Your justified human experiments for the sake of healing."

She grimaced and looked pointedly beyond the barrier.

"Oh, blast me sideways."

Seiren had never heard Rowan swear before. His hands shot out and clasped her shoulders tighter than she was comfortable with. His blue-green eyes bored into hers with a fire blazing.

"You said you have nothing to do with human experiments any more!"

"And I don't!" Heat flashed across Seiren's back. She balled her fists, cheeks flushed. "You think these are mine? You think I created them to become an immortal army?"

That would require a bit too much thinking for you.

"Shut up, Madeleine!" she said out loud, and let out a groan of frustration. "The council confiscated my projects months ago. I haven't gone back to Bicknor Institute since Ashworth tried to gut me open, all right? These were mine, but I have nothing to do with what's happening now."

"This is bad."

"You said this already."

"I think you'll find it's worth repeating. These creatures can heal."

"Not if you shred them. If there aren't enough intact pieces, they can't regenerate. It destroys what remains of the rune magic within them."

Rowan gave her a heavy look before relaying what she said to Brigadier General Grader, whose eyes bulged. He muttered back to Rowan, who shook his head, appearing grim. Grader's grey eyes narrowed. He rubbed the scar that ran from under his left eye to along his jawline and then nodded. Whatever he said to Rowan, it made Rowan's features harden and he turned away, as if resigned.

"Mages -- retreat!" he shouted.

"Are you mad, Rowan Woodbead?" Maura said, storming over. "You have no jurisdiction over the mages here. I'm the state-appointed military mage. We do not retreat!"

"These creatures have regenerative runes within their bodies."

Maura's eyes looked as if they were about to pop out. "They what?!"

"They can recover from any wound, no matter how fatal."

"From which orifice did you pluck this information?" Maura crossed her arms, looking livid. She flexed and extended her fingers as if wishing to strangle Rowan with her bare hands.

"Mine," said Seiren, her voice trembling. Maura turned to her in astonishment. "I did research on regenerative runes a few months back in Bicknor. The result were humans with remarkable recovery potential from wounds at the expense of cognition. But this is not my doing. I abandoned that research to the council. Certainly last time I saw the results of these runes, the subjects weren't able to attack en masse. Heck, they couldn't even walk in the same direction, let alone follow instructions."

Maura scrutinised Seiren, her eyebrows knitted together above blue-green eyes that bore through her. Her eyes were almost ice blue against the snowy background. After what felt like forever, she straightened up and said, "What are the alternatives?"

"Unless we were to bomb them, which would likely also destroy a significant part of the Acrise structures, we have no other option except to shut down all magic."

"Oh?" She snorted. "And I suppose you expect me to create a nullifying rune for you right here and now? Or do you expect Nithercott here to do it?"

"Mage Haigh has already done it, Brigadier General Grader tells me."

"Kommora Haigh?" Seiren said, taken aback. The old hag had expected this to happen?

"Mage Haigh installed a large nullifying rune across Acrise as a last-minute precaution several months ago. Grader said it was just in case the Hannans stormed us; it would cancel out any advantages they had over us. We have enough firepower and men to hold our own."

"And what if they summon demons again like they did two days ago?" Maura's voice was crisp. "The sky demons? The long demons?"

"It works for demons, too, Mage Woodbead," came Grader's gravelly voice.

"Excuse me?"

"That's what Mage Haigh said. I raised the same concerns. Surely nullifying magic on our side, too, means it will be humans against demons. But she said it's the same vein of magic, their demon summoning and your magic. She said as long as our mages can't use magic, they can't summon either. It'll buy us time to restock and heal our injured members."

"Mage Haigh must have all this planned out," said Rowan under his breath.

She knows how to play the game, said Madeleine in a small voice.

It's almost like she knew the Hannans would get their hands on our magic.

Not the Hannans. These can't be the Hannans. All the Hannan attempts so far have been head-on -- the distraction from the south and then a storm from the wall itself. These snuck in.

Does it matter right now, Madeleine?

It matters. Because the Hannans might not be our actual enemies. Or our only ones.

Madeleine's enigmatic words made Seiren's head hurt.

"Right, you two get out of Acrise. Culpepper and I will round up the rest and be behind you. If we mages get caught in the nullifying rune's range, we will be useless." Maura whirled around and barked more orders at the soldiers and Grader.

"This way." Seiren grabbed Rowan's arm and tugged him towards the southern gates.

"The gates are sealed for the winter!" Rowan said.

"I know. I'm not a moron. I know another route." Seiren only hoped they wouldn't bump into Domic Butterworth. But if his words were to be taken at face level, he would be long gone.

Past the secluded path, they hurried down the stone steps towards the old dungeons and sewage system.

"This is where you took the citizens, isn't it?"

Seiren opened her mouth and almost skidded over. Rowan clutched her and yanked her back up before she smashed her head on the stone steps. There was so much water. Her boots squelched. The floor was uneven, too, just to worsen the tripping hazard. Water dripped from above. Seiren glanced up. Cracks branched from the wall up across the ceiling and along the ground. Several stone slabs along the sides were displaced, leaving gaping holes in the walls. Rubble and chunks of stone lay haphazardly. Everything was drenched.

"What happened here?"

"Domic Butterworth." Seiren's chest tightened. This must be his doing -- his flash magic. He must have killed all the citizens after she'd left. The monster. With a dry mouth and feeling numb all over, she advanced, picking her way over the rubble. Rowan was silent behind her.

The broken walls had cracked through the border her runes had created. Or perhaps Butterworth had destroyed it before the walls even fell. Perhaps he wanted to bring the dungeons down to fully block off any hopes of them escaping Acrise.

With his level of magic, I think he could have, if he wanted to, said Madeleine.

You think it wasn't him?

"I don't think this is Butterworth," said Rowan, touching the wall and running his fingers along the cracks. Seiren frowned. Had she spoken out loud again? "Butterworth prided himself on a quick and clean job. He wouldn't leave all this behind. Someone else was here, too."

"He was here!" Seiren said in exasperation. You don't need your left arm, do you?

The anticipation of coming across a pile of dead bodies made her nauseous. She rushed forward, expecting the room to open up to the dead Acrise citizens.

The defunct dungeon room was empty. The sewers running out of the city remained frozen with evidence of footprints on its surface. Not a dead body was in sight. Seiren stared in disbelief. Had Butterworth killed everyone and wiped all traces to keep it clean? But no, he would leave something to gloat, being the sociopath that he was. That must mean the citizens got away. Surely.

Maybe she was lucky and someone came after Butterworth when she left and killed him. She could still hope.

The ground shook. More cracks spidered up the ceiling, dislodging small chunks and dust in a shower. Seiren shielded her eyes. What was going on had damaged enough of the foundations for the building above.

"We need to go," she said.

"The other mages--"

"They're leaving as well. They'll find another route."

Rowan bit his lip. For a moment, Seiren wanted to shake him.

It's his survivor's guilt. He's abandoned post before and everyone died.

Yeah, well, the plan is for us to abandon post, so he'll have to suck it up.

"Once that nullifying rune goes off, you'll be a sack of meat, so move!"  

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