Elba stood by the window, watching as all seven hells broke loose within Kel Dracon. A great bell tolled from outside, torches flickering into life like stars in the night sky. She heard the muffled sounds of people shouting, a continuous, grinding tremor felt beneath the soles of her shoes.

It was happening. It was finally happening. Libro had come for her, and he'd brought an army of devils with him. She smiled and placed a hand over her ever growing belly. No, she had to remind herself. He'd come for them both.

There was the muffled sound of rattling keys, of a door being hastily opened, frantic boot steps over stone and carpet.

Elba peered into a glass panel, saw the reflection of a Chosen standing behind her. Her hand slipped ever so gently into the pillowcase beside her, fingers brushing over a rough lump of metal.

"What is the meaning of this?" She demanded.

"My orders were to protect you, my lady," the Chosen said, rather begrudgingly too by the sound of it. "I apologize for my disturbance."

"As if your apologies mean anything. What's going on down there?"

"Rebels are attacking the castle, but you have nothing to fear. Somehow they got one of the gates opened, but they'll soon be dealt with."

Elba smiled despite herself. She gently palmed the lump of iron, bringing a hand to her mouth in feigned shock.

"How awful. How were they able to get inside in the first place?"

"Some old tunnel in one of the kitchens by the sounds of it. No one knows how they figured it out though."

Elba thanked her lucky stars. The man they'd sent to protect her was a yammering idiot. She dropped her hand, her other slowly reaching for the wooden handle in her pocket.

"And here I thought you Chosen were meant to be superior to us pathetic mortals. Ever vigilant and all that? Or were your boys sleeping on the job when it all happened?"

She'd meant to anger him, throw him off his game, but the Chosen looked scared more than anything else. He turned away, jaw muscles flexing as he gripped one of the chairs for support.

"Doesn't make any sense," he muttered. "I knew those men at the gatehouse. They were good men, solid men, they wouldn't abandon their post like that, but then how could..." He trailed off, his mind unable or unwilling to come to terms with the very real possibility that they were all dead.

"You know," Elba said. "There are things far worse than rebels attacking the castle tonight." She clicked the lump of iron into place on the wooden handle. Two parts joined together as one. A perfect fit.

The Chosen snapped his gaze up. "You don't say? Know something I don't, my lady?"

"I believe I do. Have you ever heard of the Vangen Royal Guard?"

"No, never heard of them."

"I thought not. Your little country has kept itself isolated for some time now, like a fish swimming in its own little pond, unaware of the bigger creatures lurking in deeper waters."

"Are you trying to insult me, my lady?" The Chosen's voice was cold and calm, but there was an edge to it Elba couldn't mistake.

"Of course not, I'm merely painting a picture for you. The Vangen Royal Guard are a company of soldiers who serve the greatest Empire in all the Cont. The Empire, in fact, hand picked from the mightiest warriors across the land, and battle hardened from years of constant warfare. They are, to put simply, the best of the best."

Elba stared out the window. A fire had broken out somewhere, smoke blooming over the horizon and mixing with the miasma above. She could here the faint clash and clamor of battle down below, bodies surging, rushing, racing over the snow churned mud.

"The Captain of the Vangen is out there right now, leading the rebels in a glorious campaign to take the castle. My guess is he brought a handful of his own men as backup. Just in case. You can't do everything on your own, you know?"

The hard edge she'd heard before ringed clear as Star Steel in the Chosen's voice now, dropping any formalities he once held for her. "And how would you know that, bitch?"

"It's simple really." Elba peered over one shoulder, eyeing the Chosen as her grip tightened around the handle. "Because I'm his wife."

She jumped then, swinging the hammer in both hands in a wide arc, not at the creature, but at the hissing stone between them. The cage containing it came apart instantly on impact, the rock itself exploding in a shower of glowing, molten shards.

The Chosen screamed as fire and earth pelted it like arrow shot, pale skin catching alight like parchment paper and spreading fast. Elba watched in horror as the creature was quickly consumed by the flames, arms and legs thrashing about in a wild, frantic dance. It tripped over one of the chairs, grabbed at a curtain for support, flames licking off its body and finding new places to burn.

"You!" The Chosen lurched towards Elba, eyes hissing in their sockets. "Damn you!"

She jumped out of the way, hammer clattering to the ground, as the Chosen jumped at her, missing her by a mere few inches and crashing into the window instead. Glass shattered, cold wind snatching at Elba's hair as the Chosen fell howling, its voice quickly lost to the storm outside.

Elba looked up, chest heaving, stomach squirming, head spinning, but still very much alive. A few charred boot prints were all that remained of the Chosen. Chunks of the stone still glowed and popped here and there on the ground, a small fire growing on one of the upholstered chairs.

Elba stamped it out before it had a chance to get any bigger. She ambled over, legs stiff and awkward, and picked up the hammer, noticed a crack of light peeking in through the doorway. The Chosen had foolishly forgotten to lock the door behind him. A lucky break, considering he'd taken the keys with him during his little excursion.

She pushed the door gently open, peered from one side to the next. All seemed quiet. She slid outside, turned, only to freeze as another Chosen came barreling towards her.

"I heard a noise? What happened? Tell me before I—,"

The door beside him burst apart at the hinges and smashed the Chosen into the adjacent wall. Grimmelda marched out of her room, the hammer in one hand looking strangely small in her massive hands. She pressed her boot against the door frame, pinning the Chosen in place.

The creature shook its head groggily, one eye staring crooked, the other pulped into red jelly. Its neck looked bent and twisted, but even then it still kept on living. Whatever magick keeping it alive must have been quite wicked indeed.

"You'll pay for this, scum," The Chosen gurgled, red ash dribbling from the corner of his mouth. "You're all going to die."

Grimmelda said nothing. She merely lifted up the hammer and dashed the Chosen's skull in. Once, twice, and she was done. She let go of the door, corpse and splintered wood flopping to the ground in a heap.

She turned, saw Elba, and smiled. "Good to see you're still alive, new blood."

"Likewise."

"Think the others fared any better?"

"Best we go looking for them. "Elba stared around. The Tower was strangely quiet, save for the muffled sounds of battle outside.

"I'll take left, you take right. We'll meet back here when it's done and then rendezvous in the gathering hall to catch any stragglers."

Elba grinned. She was starting to like Grimmelda. The woman had quite the knack for competence. "A perfect plan. See you on the other side."

"You too."

Without another word Elba turned and bolted down the corridor.

*

To her relief, everyone survived. They gathered together in the stitching room, bruised and shaken, but still alive. Nora looked the worst out of everyone. She sat wide eyed with the hammer in her lap, unable to speak, the head of her weapon dented and stained an ashy brown.

Emme had a cut on her forehead, Saga winding bandages over it with a strip of cloth she'd torn off of a tapestry, the face of an unknown warrior slowly stained red as the wound was bound up tight.

Tergrid looked the least shaken up. No doubt she'd fallen into the same habit Elba had. Seeing the Chosen not as people, but as corpses, rotten from the inside out. All they'd done was put them back into the ground. A mercy killing, if anything else.

"Everyone's here," Grimm said.

"Not everyone," Saga snarled, before the flutter of a cloak made her pause. Astrid stood in the center of the room, fashionably late as always.

"I am here," she said.

"Could've made your presence known, Wyrdling." Saga rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Emme's wound.

"Astrid, it's good to see you," Elba said. "I take it you've found our escape route?"

"I have, but it won't be easy getting there."

Nora looked up then, eyes wide and shimmering with wet. "I'd prefer it to be easy, please," she muttered. "I've had quite the day already."

"We can see that, dear," Emme said. "Astrid, please elaborate for us."

"The rebel attack on Kel Dracon has complicated things. They're pushing in through the west gate, and will likely take the outer walls soon with how brutal the fighting has been along the battlements. Escaping that way will be next to impossible."

"What's going on, exactly?" Elba asked.

Astrid turned to look at her, face pale as the snow outside. "I was listening to the reports before I slipped away to get here. Your husband," she paused, throat bobbing as she tried to swallow. "Killed everyone in the gatehouse, and was last seen heading to the south gate open it as well. From what I heard, no one so far has been able to stop him."

"Gods," Saga breathed. "Now that's a warrior if ever I've heard one. If he were a lady I'd bed him in a second."

"Saga," Emme warned her. "What have I told you about saying such things?"

"What? Prowess is prowess, I just wish it came with a pair of tits sometimes, that's all."

"My farking husband aside," Elba butt in, silencing the two of them. "What do you propose then, Astrid?"

"We'll need to sneak out and head east towards the harbor. I've a boat stowed away that we can use. We'll sail out along the shore and beach ourselves once the coast is clear."

"A boat?" Grimm asked, not looking the least bit convinced.

"A boat?" Saga snarled. "Have you all bloody forgotten I don't know how to swim?"

"There's an easy solution for that," Astrid said. "Don't fall out of the boat!"

"Is it at least a big boat?" Grimm asked, staring down at herself, but her voice was quickly drowned out by the growing argument between Astrid and Saga.

"You idiot witch! That's your damn plan? We're just gonna waltz into the harbor and sneak away on some farking boat?"

"Yes, actually."

"Well, it's a stupid plan then!" Saga threw her hands up in disgust. "For one thing, we'll be caught the moment we step out of the tower. A pack of pregnant women in the middle of a battlefield is gonna make us stand out as plain as day."

"A little allegorical, don't you think?" Emme suggested. "Why don't we try and keep things grounded, hmm? The idea isn't a bad one. Let's hear her out, at least."

"There's a terrible snow storm raging outside, and the ocean will be frigid this time of season." Nora shivered in her chair. "If they catch us, or try to sink our boat, we'll never make it out before we all freeze to death."

"That's why we'll use these." Astrid held up a coin shaped piece of stone before Saga, a single rune etched in the center. A very familiar rune. "No one will see us as long as we use my talismans. It'll be as if we never existed. So long as you're all quiet," she added, staring daggers into the hill woman.

"Use what? Your little wyrdling stones?" Saga put a hand to her chest. "Can you believe the gall of this woman, Rook? To think she can try and trick us with her simple parlor tricks? It's appalling!"

"Stop calling me, Rook!" Tergrid screamed back.

Elba watched helplessly as her new Company quickly came apart at the seams. They were bickering again already, tearing at each other's throats, unable to unite together. It reminded her of her old tribe in a way, of Andelherd and Elders, and all the other people who never believed in her.

They argued, threatened, cheated, and lied, and in the end stripped her of her title and left her behind.

Why? Why was it so hard keeping people together? Everyday they whined and complained, fought and bickered, and for what? What was the purpose of it all? She wanted to yell at them, wanted to scream her lungs out and tell them to shut up and listen to her. But that her inner child talking.

Screaming and yelling would get her nowhere, her father used to tell her, and as the former leader of the tribe he proved his point living by those words every day. She remembered how calm he used to be, no matter how heated the conversations got, he always kept his tone respectful, no matter who it was speaking to him.

In her mind's eye, Elba stared into a mirror and saw her father looking back. He smiled, and she smiled with him. If he'd been there with her, he would have known the right words, known what to say to make it all better, but he was gone now.

And she would speak for him.

Her grip tightened around the hammer. With a roar she smashed it against a table, as a Byzantian judge would rap his gavel for silence. The air grew tense and still as the others turned to look at her, watching on thoughtfully.

"Everyone," Elba started to say. "Right now, as we bicker in this goddess forsaken tower, our opportunity to escape is quickly slipping through our fingers. The rebels, my husband, has given us the chance we need to break free from this madness, but it will amount to nothing if we stand here and do nothing. Astrid's plan may not be the best, but it's the only one we've got so far. Unless any of you have a better idea, this is the one we've got."

"That's all well and good," Saga said. "But there's still the fact I don't know how to swim."

"Then I'll haul you back in myself," Grimm snapped. She clapped a heavy hand over the savages back, grabbing her by the scruff of her collar. "Now shut your purse licker for once and scrape your ears open."

Saga glared at Grimm for a good while, before she put an invisible lock over her lips and threw away the key.

"As I was saying," Elba said. "If the plan goes wrong then we'll simply change the plan, but for now we stick with what we know. Astrid, are the runes disabled along our desired path towards the harbor?"

"They are."

"And you've made sure the talismans work?."

"Of that, I have no doubt."

Elba swept her hands out. "Then let's stop wasting any more time. There is a war going on, after all."

***