At Mei’s shout, two of the remaining downstairs fiends turned towards the front door. An axe thunked into one of their heads.
Magdala’s tension dissipated. “Mei?”
Saundra ran into view, pinned two fiends to the wall with her sword and then ducked. Again, a shot rang out, and this time both of the fiends’ heads evaporated into clouds of gore.
Wrenching her sword free from the inanimate corpses, Saundra dispatched the remaining two fiends with two quick sword slashes and looked up. “Are you all right, milady?”
“Yes!” Magdala grabbed her stuff, ran down the stairs, and cannoned into Saundra. “I thought I was going to die.” She hugged the corporal.
“M-milady, I-“
“Maggie.”
Magdala released Saundra and wrapped her arms around Mei. “Why are you two here?”
“Mei wondered where you were, milady,” answered Saundra. “She didn’t see you at dinner.”
Mei let Magdala hug her for another moment, and then pushed her back and met her eyes. “I thought you’d be better than my brother.”
Magdala’s heart fell. Even though her friend’s expression was the same as always, she could hear the disappointment. Between that and the concern on Saundra’s face, Magdala almost regretted not bringing them along. She drew herself up and wiped her nose. “It was a trap anyway. The real culprit is long gone.”
Saundra shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come here by yourself, milady.”
Magdala waved off her concern. “I just didn’t want to see you two get hurt.”
Mei shouldered her rifle and walked past Magdala. “We fight better together.” She tugged her new axe out of the wall. “We should be like star wolves.”
Magdala frowned. “I don’t-“
The ceiling collapsed, spilling charred fiends onto the bookshelves. After getting to their feet, the fiends reacquired their targets. The fall and debris had smothered their flames, and now they were between Magdala’s party and the exit, but despite that and the building’s burning roof, Magdala was strangely calm, her heart beat quickening from excitement. She looked at her last concussive. She had a plan. “Cover me!”
“With pleasure, milady.” Saundra raised her sword and stepped between Magdala and the fiends.
Behind them, Mei climbed halfway up the stairs, pulled out her rifle, took aim, and fired. “Three shots left.” She reloaded.
Magdala counted the remaining fiends. Twenty-two left. “More than enough.” She knelt to work. The primary problem with her concussives was that they directed too much energy into pure force, which only knocked the fiends around. Grabbing two chunks of wooden railing that had fallen from upstairs, Magdala closed her eyes. “Nqeoum“. Just normal wood. Opening her eyes, Magdala called out to Mei. “Mei, your axe.” The weapon thunked into the floor right next to Magdala. “Thanks!”
She uncorked a concussive, adjusted its composition with magic, and stoppered its vial with a piece of paper torn out of her notebook. Then she took Mei’s axe, carved grooves into the pieces of railing wood, and sealed the vial inside the wood with the piece of paper sticking out. Pressing the wood together, she conjured an image and said, “Nqesiumut.” With a shudder, the two wood chunks fused together.
“Milady, are you ready yet?” Saundra cut off a fiend’s arm.
Mei’s shot took down a fiend. “Last bullet!”
Magdala nodded. “I’m almost done!” She closed her eyes, shutting out the fiends, the sweltering heat, and her friends. “Nqe.”
The spell’s weight drew a gasp from her. It had been a long time since she’d bothered to prep a spell, and it felt like a bag of rocks sitting on her head.
“ou.“
More rocks in the bag, but she wasn’t done yet. Without opening her eyes, she picked up her handiwork, took a deep breath and said, “Qe.“
The rocks morphed into a single boulder. Bowing under the pressure, Magdala strained to hold the spell. Qe spells were difficult for her at the best of times and invoking them as a prepped spell under pressure was almost impossible, but there was no other way. She needed a lot of pressure all at once, and Nqe spells couldn’t provide that. Ignoring the taste of copper in her mouth, she touched one side of the block of wood.
“uive.”
Two boulders.
A headache was edging in now. She touched the opposite side of the wood block.
“uive.”
Three boulders.
Magdala’s hands began to tremble, and the headache was a now full blown migraine. Still, she pushed on through, repeating the syllable four more times.
“Milady!”
While a storm of a migraine rioted in her brain, Magdala put the block of wood down on the ground, her shaking hands nearly knocked it over. “Qem.” The boulders dropped, and the spell locked into place. With a shudder, the block of wood changed colors, becoming charcoal black. It still had the piece of notepaper sticking out of it.
Shivering, Magdala picked up the bomb and stood up. “Mei.”
The hunter appeared at her side.
“Take this.” Magdala dropped the bomb into Mei’s hand. “Get… Saundra.” Magdala swallowed. Her mouth was so dry.
“Saundra!” called Mei.
The corporal shoved back a couple of fiends and sprinted to them. “What is it? Are you okay, milady?” She reached for Magdala but was shaken off.
Black spots floated in Magdala’s vision. “We can’t let those things out into the town.” She blinked to clear her vision. “Mei, on my signal, light that, and throw it into them. When that happens, Saundra, get us out of here. Ready?”
“Milady, you should-“
“That was an order, Corporal.” Magdala’s voice quavered. “Ready?”
Unhappily, Saundra nodded.
After shouldering her rifle and retrieving her axe, Mei lit the black block with the closest bit of flame. In front of them, the fiends were gathering, readying their next attack. It was now or never.
“Now!” shouted Magdala.
Mei threw the bomb, Saundra scooped up Magdala, and together they dashed for the door.
Magdala tried to twist free Saundra’s hold. “No, I’ll slow you down!”
The corporal held Magdala tighter. “Mei, take point!”
Mei overtook them, decapitated a fiend with her axe, kicked another aside, then resumed running to the exit. After shoulder checking a fiend, Saundra followed Mei’s lead and gained speed, clearing the building in a blur. When she and Magdala were clear, Mei closed the door behind them, trapping the fiends inside.
When they got a couple of wir away from the building, Magdala rolled out of Saundra’s arms, shouted, “Get down!”, and pulled her friends down to the ground. A blast of flame roared out over their heads, singeing Magdala’s hair.
After the crunch and crumble of the collapsing building ceased, Magdala sat up. “Great, there goes all the evidence.”
Admaeus Speaks 
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