The word I didn’t want to say came out of me loudly without hesitation.

  "Ether"

  I looked only at the golem as I said it. He knew what I meant.

  We had chosen the word together before I ever sat foot on this battlefield, in my room at night watching the constant fireworks Golden dome produced protecting us.

  Keiran had only asked: if we must do this, how do we signal? And I told him the first word that came to mind—ether—a colorless substance that’s highly inflammable.

  This would be our last stand.

  Only if we have no other option, Keiran had said.

  Only then, I had agreed.

  I said it now because the golem crushing our forces with every step it took to get closer to me. I couldn’t dismantle it when some other mage below was unravelling my work and using my magic to reinforce it. Unfortunately, I had no other clever plans or secret skills to use. I had only started learning magic months before after all. I could only rely on what I could always rely on.

  I saw the flare Keiran let out into the sky. It was golden—the same color as the Dome protecting our country. It was bright enough to be visible across the arena even through the dust. It meant only one thing: strongest barriers now, no questions asked.

  Our plan in motion, it was time for my part.

  Precision required an internal conversation between the mage, the magic and the object being acted on. The negotiation broke when the enemy Mages learned my trick. They can fluently counter any precise statement I make now knowing much more about the golem than I have learned in last couple hours.

  I was time to brute force this.

  I found a seam I had made the last time I negotiated with the conductivity layer. It was only fractionally open. Too small for them to bother patching.

  I poured all my magic through it. No specific intention. No finesse. Not even any care about what would happen next.

  I poured and poured. All of it.

  The pain behind my eyes was unbearable. My mouth tasted metallic. The world was collapsing inward and detonating outward. I hear shouting and screaming through

  the ringing in my ear. Dizzy.

  My mana overpowered the conductivity field. No more surgical attacks that could be absorbed and repurposed. I pushed more magic through it than its architect had ever planned on charging it with. Enough for something to go really wrong.

  The different pieces making its body fell one after another in a trigger reaction starting from its feet—blowing fragments and shrapnels far and wide across the battlefield.

  I could only hear screams.

  And then the screams were overpowered by the deafening sound of the golem detonating.

  I could no longer stand.

  Keiran's hands found me before my back found the ground.

  Next, the earth itself fell. I understood what was happening in a distant sort of academic way. He was creating an underground pocket for us. A shelter we could use to survive this. Agnes to my left. The blonde man in my front.

  We went down fast and then the earth closed above us.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The sounds became muffled and distant. Then a series of enormous, sequential impacts hit sending vibrations through the earth my and my teeth. Dust rained from our makeshift ceiling. Shifting and settling. A crack formed and stopped. Perhaps by Keiran’s magical reinforcement.

  My world went quiet.

  ———————————————————————————

  I woke up next to warm, amber light providing some shelter from desolation.

  My cheek against the cold earthen floor. I could feel the still wet blood on the corners of my mouth.

  Sounds didn’t resolve into words yet. Everything was sensations—cold floor, warm light and the almost rhythmic pounding on my head.

  I blinked.

  Large crystal blue eyes looming over me.

  Rowan. No, he’s safe at home.

  I closed my eyes again as the pressure became too much to hold on to.

  “You’re alright,” whispered a calm steady voice over and over again.

  I believed him.

  I woke up to Agnes's coughing next. I had heard it all day today. It sounded worse now. Like each cough took more from her. Like she was losing the fight against it.

  "Agnes." Keiran’s voice was clipped. Like they had had the same discussion too many times.

  “One moment,” she replied sounding weaker than ever.

  I turned my head to look. Paying the necessary price for it.

  Her muscular frame looked smaller crouched against the earthen wall, she was massaging her temple methodically as if she knew it would help. Her eyes were open and they found mine across the small dim space we were sharing.

  Neither of us spoke.

  I looked away. I never discussed this plan with her.

  Four of us occupied a different corner of this tiny room where we could barely stretch an arm without hitting another. The walls were reinforced with Keiran's magic—I could feel the familiar hum of it, his magic was ordered and precise. The opposite of mine.

  The ceiling held. The crack not deepening any further.

  We must have been ten, maybe fifteen feet deep. I couldn’t really tell for sure.

  The blonde man kept staring.

  He was an anomaly. I don’t know why he put himself between me and the deranged dwarf.

  He was also the largest among us—his broad shoulders making the space feel smaller. His uniform had a gash on his torso. He must have been hurt at some point after he started defending me.

  There was something familiar about him. I felt like I was safe with him.

  “Thank you,” I said. My voice rough and cracking from underuse.

  He offered me no smiles in welcome.

  “Always.”

  He looked down then. No longer staring.

  My consciousness collapsed once more and I could think about it no longer.

  Keiran said in a low, deliberate voice. Low enough so I wouldn’t hear but I heard anyway. The sound of my name bringing me out once more.

  I opened my eyes. As much as I could and I saw those familiar blue eyes look at Keiran's face with shock. He looked at me then.

  I stared back till I couldn’t.

  “My MP has recovered enough for this,” Agnes said. Her business like tone reminding me our conversations over breakfast.

  "I'll begin within the half an hour.”

  "You'll start with yourself," Keiran authoritatively.

  “It’s more important—“

  "Agnes."

  I would have laughed if the circumstances were better. They were both still who they were. In the dim light the man with the blue eyes saw my small lime. The corners of his lifted like a mirror.

  I drifted in and out. Who could say for how long?

  Time in the dark with pain and hunger moved strangely. I reassured myself with the amber light and the steady breathing of my companions. We came together at some point without me realizing it. Holding on to each other for my warmth and comfort. I was on a stranger’s lap but I only felt security. Keiran and Agnes draped around us.

  There was no noise above us or around us. Whatever was happening. It was distant. We were as safe as would could be in our burrow under the earth.

  The noise in my head however never stopped. The screams I heard haunted me. How many had survived? The sound the golem made when it detonated. I didn’t know even know what it was.

  Dumb little Mira who is only good for her magic just pushed more and more magic till the world went kaboom.

  It would stop. I convinced myself. No one won but now there would be no one to left fighting with. It would take both sides years to rebuild the resources we destroyed over an afternoon.

  We had calculated the consequences down on paper when discussing this strategy. The consequences felt different now that I bore them in my heart as a permanent black mark. I couldn’t let them settle in when I didn’t even know what is actually happening up there.

  I looked at the man who only had eyes for me.

  He was still watching me. Maybe never having stopped.

  "What's your name?” I said.

  He briefly paused.

  "Aldric."

  My heart dropped.

  I repeated it quietly.

  “My father—I am the daughter of Aldric—you’re not right?” I said stuttering through my words. Keiran had promised my father would be evacuated before we did this. It couldn’t face Mumma otherwise.

  “I am your father, Mira.” his eyes holding more kindness than mine ever could.

  I let my eyes drop.

  The earth around was solid. It had stood her long before us and would stand here long after the war and the golems and everything else that would ever happen in the history of this kingdom and more. It held us gently in the dark like a mother holds her babe.

  Agnes was breathing. Keiran was warm. I was once more in the arms of my father. My father.

  I sank deeper into his chest. Letting his love heal the wounds Agnes’s healing magic couldn’t.