Cameron

Laughter rose over the howls of the Craft, and Cameron wondered if he had ever been so frightened.

The noise wasn't coming from his own charge. Despite the immensity of what they faced, Olivia Polden looked as collected as he could have hoped, and the shimmering waves of light passing through her hair was almost a comforting sight.

Instead, the laugh came from further down the wall. Further, since even Mackaroy had turned his attention to the Crafter just a dozen yards further down the wall down. Next to a Breckan, on his left hand, where Cassiopeia Saval was stationed.

And the sight was terrifying. The woman's hair was light and fire, and her eyes glowed like hot embers. Her heat haze burned the air around her, causing it to glow in wisps of blue and green. Her smile looked like one of childlike joy and wonder, but there was something dark and mad to it.

Her shadow, just a few feet away, had already drawn his knife and was shouting at her. Whatever he was saying didn't carry into the open air beyond Saval's heat haze, and Cameron couldn't hear it. But the shadow also gestured with the knife, and the direction the blade pointed spoke enough.

Crafter Saval looked back at her shadow, and Cameron could see the moment her eyes shifted down to the knife. It was the instant the shadow died.

A Crafter can see through the flame. Likely, Saval had already seen the knife as soon as the shadow had drawn it. That glance was a decision being made, a reflex of thought as consideration became decision, and a life was taken.

A mass of fire as large as a train and as bright as the sun appeared in front of Saval, and blaster apart the wall just beyond the Crafter's feet. Stone was shredded like confetti, and bits were hurled into the distant fields.

"Spit and simmering ash!" Cameron exclaimed, and only just noticed that his knife was in his hand. He glanced over at Olivia, who had abandoned her assault and was now staring over at Saval.

Olivia took a step past him, and Cameron thoughts shifted as his training washed over his other thoughts. Her neck, head, and back were all exposed; a quick thrust would bring her down quickly, and might even prevent her from responding.

His leg twitched, his heart hammered, and the fear was starting to make any other through difficult to hear.

Nearby, someone screamed. Cameron blinked and looked away from his charge, to see another shadow had jumped at a Crafter, one hand gripping her charge's shoulder, and the other resting against his chest. The Crafter crumpled to the ground, landing hard on his head, and didn't rise from where he fell. In his chest, buried to the hilt, was a shadow's knife.

A blast of fire struck the shadow in the chest, throwing her like an empty bottle hit by a bat. She barely struck the stones once before the momentum threw her off the wall and out of sight.

Cameron glanced about wildly, looking for the source of that craft, for whoever killed the shadow. His own Crafter had her hand extended, palm out, and the heat haze surrounding them intensified until it was so bright that Cameron couldn't see through it.

It wasn't until the air shifted and a crackle like popping rivets started to sound that Cameron realized Olivia was under attack.

The fire vanished a moment later, to reveal a mess of explosions and chaos in the distance. Ahead, Bracken Howel had raised his heat haze into a mass of shimmering air that stretched the width of the wall.

And past that shield of shimmering air, Crafter Saval was advancing on another Crafter, her arm outstretched. At her extended finger, fire pounded through the air, streaks of red so fast they looked like solid lines etched in the air, until they exploded violently agains the other Crafter's heat haze.

Though the other Crafter's defences were holding, the wall he was standing on did not share his resilience. Deep gouges were carved into the stone at his feet, the nearby battlements were shattered, and the stones had cracked like a thin piece of slate struck with a hammer.

Crafter Saval raised her other hand in the air, and something rumbled beneath Cameron's feet. He glanced over to Olivia, who for the first time looked as frightened as he felt. She put her hand on his shoulder, and with her other hand pointed towards her apprentice.

"You need to go!" She said, her voice harsh and frantic.

"We both need to go," Cameron agreed.

"No, you don't understand. Saval, she just seized the pipe!"

Cameron didn't realize he could be more frightened than he was.

The pipes were the fires from the Spire carried to ward off the Gloam. If Saval had reached for them with her will, meant she was going to use them. And if she felt she could use those fires in this fight, meant she was about to attack the wall itself.

The wall shook like a piece of paper in the breeze, knocking Cameron to his feet and nearly doing the same to Olivia. Fire erupted up ahead, just past Saval, and the wall turned into a mass of red that bloomed up into the sky. The last Cameron could see of the other Crafter was a red coat ascending with the rising fire, until he was swallowed by it.

Up head, Mackaroy was speaking to Crafter Howel, who shook his head and pointed towards them.

Olivia held up her hand, and a small ball of fire appeared in it. Crafter Howel nodded, held up his hand, and produced his own small orb. A moment later, Olivia turned to the ball in her hand, and said, "Together, we should be able to end her."

There was a pause, and Howel shook his head. Olivia waved her arms, and said "If we just run she'll come after us!"

Crafter Howel pointed towards Olivia. Mackaroy nodded, turned, and sprinted towards them. The air around the shadow began to turn bright red, until Crafter Howel turned back towards Saval and explosive blasts of flame began to hammer into her defences.

Mackaroy slid into Olivia's heat haze, pushed himself to his feet, and pointed back towards the train. "There's no guarantee you both could kill her before that Golem reached us. It's his call. Time to go, Madam Crafter."

Mackaroy managed to turn her around, and guided her towards where her apprentice and the small group of soldiers were waiting.

"Master, what happened?" Vincent asked.

"Crafter Saval lost herself to The Craft. Howel is going to keep her there, kill her if he can. But if he can't, he'll keep himself between her and us, at least until the Golem reaches them. After that point, it hardly matters," Crafter Polden said, and she pointed down towards the wall.

"While Saval is alive, none of you leave my heat haze," Crafter Polden said. She smiled, and looked at her apprentice. "Unless Vincent is with you. I could feel your heat haze when the battle started. Your will, it has some iron in it."

"Thank you, Master," Vincent replied.

"Crafter Polden," the corporal said. "May I take your apprentice with me up ahead? I'd like to be ready at the flow control station in all haste."

Olivia nodded. "Go ahead."

"Vincent, Mildred, Fauth, with me!" Corporal Redgrave said. Surprisingly, Vincent fell into step almost immediately, and the four moved ahead at a jog towards the causeway.

"Are we going to run?" Cameron asked.

"No," Olivia replied. "I need to focus."

Her answer was punctuated by another explosive roar, as the battle between the Crafters broke another piece of the wall.

Beside Cameron, Mackaroy tapped him on the shoulder, and gestured for him to fall back away from the others. "Let's talk for a minute."

"Sir, are you sure you want to be overheard?"

"What I have to say to you is something she may as well hear, because I don't want you anywhere near her until we're out of danger," Mackaroy said.

"What?" Cameron asked.

"Did you see the shadow assigned to Crafter Saval? Remember how he drew his knife?"

"Yeah. He saw the Crafter as a danger to everyone. Which she was."

"It was also the dumbest thing he could have done."

"What do you mean, Mack?" Cameron asked.

"He drew a knife, and then threatened her with it. Ash stained little shit should be grateful he died a quick death."

"Sir? Are you saying he shouldn't have drawn his knife?"

Mackaroy grabbed him by the collar and pulled him over. Cameron stumbled, and his motion nearly pulled his face into the knife that Mackaroy was pointing at his eye. "What the burning hell, Mack?" Cameron asked, trying to pull away.

But the hand at his collar felt like a vice, and Mackaroy's grip might as well have been made of iron. But it was Olivia who spoke next. "He threatened a Crafter."

"You might as well threaten an oncoming train while you're standing on the tracks," Mackaroy elaborated, his knife still inches from Cameron's eye. Cameron tried to pull away once, but his efforts might drive the knife in by accident. "You don't threaten a Crafter."

"Are we really meant to coddle them like that?" Cameron asked.

Mackaroy sighed, and pushed Cameron back, before he sheathed his dagger. "You're a burning fool. You and every other evaluator in Oversight. If you draw your knife on a Crafter, you had better be about to put it in them."

"And you had your knife in your hand," Mackaroy added. He turned to Olivia, and added "thank you for not turning my coworker into smoke."

"It was a near thing," Crafter Polden admitted. "I could see him considering it."

That admission left Cameron feeling cold.