Chapter Twelve, City Aflame

Landsen was probably the largest community of Nielda on the planet. It may even have been the only one that could merit being called a city. Alicea had heard descriptions of Skyknuckle, the holy city of the Ga-Vok Oracles, from Aurou, but Landsen put to shame even her wildest imaginings of what a city was like.

Mostly through its own shame, Landsen was a wreck. As the lift descended she could see the furthest parts of the city were burning. The parts below them, along the stretch of coast that had given the port its name, had a greasy shimmer to them even by the dim starlight. It was loud. Alicea, her senses attuned from years of hunting with the Ga-Vok, could smell rotting corpses and putrefying waste even before she could make out the narrow streets.
"Is that it?"
"Yes ma'am. That's Landsen, only town with access to the mountains and the sea. It's usually darker this time of day."

Alicea looked back at Ishylde and Barret. "It's on fire, of course it's brighter than usual. Get your weapons ready." She threw a small leather satchel to the young archer, "Ishylde, get right over to the docks and secure passage to Ruom Island. The rest of you follow me."

She lept from the platform ten feet from the streets and took off running towards the fire. She'd made it three blocks before the brothers roared up alongside her.
"Need a ride, milady?"
"Are you sure that thing's safe?"
"Probably not, but it's fast and it's fun. You'll love it."
"I'll race you."
"If you could outrun us you would have done it back on the mountain."
"Try me."

The four of them gunned it towards the gates. Alicea turned her mind to the mental image of the city she'd developed as they descended. She focused on the broken stone and ash tainted blood of the gatehouse.
Mages only gave effect to their magic for show. Alicea was not a mage, a shaman used the very essence of nature and the elements to fuel their magics. She did not simply reappear, she reappeared in a cyclone.
The pair of armored warriors standing guard over the shattered gate were far more surprised than she was. She used the still powerful winds and the burning shingles of the nearby houses to dispatch of both before they could recover. Then she surveyed the surroundings. Those buildings she could make out were burned to the ground, she was sure that there was more destruction concealed within the smoke.
"You there." It was a Nieldic voice, though in this filthy a city that seemed no guarantee of friendship. "Get down." A heavy spear of avariety she'd never seen hurtled over her and smashed through a warrior who'd snuck up behind her in the smoke. His howl drew his comapnions, a motely lot of well-equiped but clearly undisciplined Ga-Vok. Before they could strike a collection of barbed spears thrust past her, piercing armor and tearing flesh.

"What are you doing out here miss? This town is no place for a pretty young thing like yourself. Come on, we'll get you to safety."
"Thank you sir, but my guards will be on their way. I told them to meet me here."
"Boys?"
"Cap'n, wouldn't be right letting her stay here alone."
"You heard the boys miss. If you stay we're staying. Name's Orion Waveblade, these here are my boys. Needless to say we picked the wrong day to make port."
"Alicea of the Howling Axes, Lieutenant of the Imperial Army. You wouldn't happen to be intrested in providing a messenger of the Empire with transport around to all the major islands?"
"How's it pay?"
"We win you get to stay on the planet. We lose and the whole planet looks like this part of town."
"I usually prefer to work for less, but you've hired yourself a ship miss."