The Spark

A young man shows up to enlist as a Xandeavil Battlemage. He and another one seeking to enlist quickly prove their potential with a surprise terrifying event.

“Next!” Called the woman over the large crowd inside the building, moving a newly filled out form to a stack of completed ones. It was the end of summer, and she lamented the fact that she wasn't at home. It was a busy time for people to enlist as a Battlemage, and she was originally scheduled to be off. A last minute absence of a coworker caused her to be called in on short notice.

The room was filled with hundreds of young men at women, all with bright eyes burning with passion to defend what was left of the country, and to reclaim what had been taken from them by the inhuman Ivlig.

A young man walked forward to the counter, eyeing the people around him with interest, almost as if he were a general and not a recruit. 

“What is your full name?” The woman asked, eyes flicking upwards to meet a youthful face with gold eyes, and ivory skin framed by black hair.
“Virgil Zophar Priest.” He responded. The woman’s eyes focused back on the paper form in front of her, quickly filling in the name slot.
“Race?” She asked, not looking up at him.
“Stroc.” He responded. She looked up slightly surprised, taking him in more. His eyes were round, though surprisingly sharp with an unspoken experience of battle. He wore a simple dark gray long-sleeve shirt and blue pants, accompanied by black combat boots that stopped just below his knees. His eyes were a pale shade of gold, and his hair seemed to be windswept and as black as a new moon.

She couldn't see his wings, meaning he had hidden them under his shirt.
“Don’t get many of you applying for this these days.” She commented, eyes going back down to the paper in front of her. “Desired mark?”
“Forerunner.” He told her, which got a nod from the woman.
“Any idea which guild you wish to join yet?” She asked.
“No.” He responded. “Going to figure it out in training.”
“Many do.” She said, skipping the guild line. She opened her mouth to ask the last question, when the windows on the far end of the room blasted inwards, with fire following it and a group of creatures following it. The creatures were easily six feet tall, and looked partially like spiders. They were a dark red in coloration, and had eight to ten legs.
“Muxscythes.” The woman said, her face paling, eyes locking onto the creatures through the now running crowd of people rushing for the exit. “We need to get out of here now.”
“What about them?” He asked as the woman run out from behind her desk and began pulling him with her towards the door. His voice was shockingly calm for the situation.
“The guilds will deal with it.” She told him quickly, trying to control the panic in her voice. He turned and began to run with her and the crowd towards the door until he heard a scream.
“Help!” He froze as he turned, the heels of his boots digging into the wooden floor. He saw an human figure cornered against the surface of a flipped table by the one of the Muxscythes. Their skin was a pale ice blue, head covered entirely by a sharp triangular mask, and the place where hair normally belonged was paler blue wisps of energy. Before the woman could do anything, he twisted his arm out of her hand and ran towards them.
“Hey!” He yelled, simultaneously picking up a discarded bottle from the floor and throwing it at it. It hit the creature in what Virgil only guessed could be its head, immediately turning it’s attention to him, giving the person the chance to run. “Get out of here!” He yelled to them, though they didn’t seem to need to hear it, as they were already on their feet and running towards the door.
The Muxscythe stood up on it’s back four legs, bringing the creature up to what seemed like seven feet. The four legs attached to its abdomen hung downwards, and from above it’s abdomen the spider figure turned into a human torso, that stretched up to neck and shoulders with human like arms, but there was no head to be found. Behind it’s head, a part of it’s back arched above it’s head, shaped like the top jaw of a Venus Fly Trap, with four large ‘teeth’ that were shaped more like short spears.
Virgil pulled a dagger out of the sheath on his belt, holding it tightly in his left hand, taking deep breathes to steady himself. Just as they passed him, they stopped and looked back, pale blue eyes blinking through the holes in the mask, before turning and stopping next to him.
“Name’s Lilian.” They greeted, voice and name distinctly female. She was wearing a black body suit, with black flat shoes, a beige jacket with a collar of feather shapes behind her head, three holes in the long sleeves on both sides of her jacket, each with a purple blue glow, and two holes in the suit on both sides of her ankles, glowing with the same color. There were two triangular shields, one of either of her hips, connected by a small chain, and a bronze necklace around her near invisible neck.
“Virgil.” He greeted. “Any idea where to aim on these things? It’s certainly not the head.” That got a chuckle out of Lilian.
“The torso.” She told him. “The rest of their body has a tough shell.”
“Alright.” He said, eyes looking at the group of Muxscythes beginning to surround them. “I have your back, you have mine?”
“Deal.” She said, raising her hand, balls of purple energy hurling towards the Muxscythe in front of them. In a flurry of movement, the circle of Muxscythes jumped on where they were standing. Lilian slid under one of them and pulled out a rapier she had in a sheath on her back, shooting out more of the purple orbs, which hit one of creatures in their torso, the red flesh there bubbling and popping while the creature let out a loud wail. Virgil leaped through the gap between two of them, turning his eyes at the wail. One of them swiped at his with two of it’s four limp, but sharp legs, which he quickly ducked beneath. His hand became a fist as the shadow of its arms moved over his hand, and has he brought it out, shadows were surrounding his arms and moving his arm in a movement like he was swinging a blade. Shadows in the shape of large needles, but clear like glass flew towards the injured Muxscythe with almost blinding speed, and ripped holes through its torso. Through one of the holes, they could see a beating heart. Seizing the chance, Lilian ran forward, and pierced it with her rapier, flicking it to the right once it had made it through, the monster letting out a weak sound before dropping to the ground motionless.
“One down, eight to go.” Virgil said out loud. Lilian only smiled as she ran to be next to him. The Muxscythes looked at their fallen comrade, one walking towards it to see if they were truly dead.
“How do they see?” Virgil asked, reaching his arm into Lilian’s shadow, gathering it around his arm.
“Your guess is as good as mine.” She said. Suddenly, several small pale ash colored figures ran towards them, arms seemingly sharp as swords.
“Left!” He called, bringing his dagger up in time to block an attack from one of them, Lilian doing the same with her rapier. The creatures had a sharp and slanted head, their bodies had a look of wood, and their elbows extended into sharp, blade like shapes that went beyond the connecting point of the upper and lower arm. They were skinny, with twig like legs and feet that were similar to a horse’s.
“Cinderlings.” Lilian said, watching as they ran around them. “They’re primarily deployed by Ivlig for attacking supply lines.”
“Great.” Virgil said, and before he could ask were to attack, one of them ran at him, alongside a Muxscythe. Another two Cinderlings ran towards Lilian, and the two of them jumped in opposite directions away from each other to dodge each attack. Lilian ran by an overturned table, sliding under a stab attack from one of the Cinderlings, it’s arm getting stuck in the sturdy wood. She blocked the seconds Cinderlings attack, and purple chains sprouted from her fingertips, wrapping around it, a painful wail being its response. She spun, the movement picking it up. She willed the chains to disappear, causing the Cinderling to fly into a marble pillar across the room, dropping to the ground motionless. She turned to the still pinned Cinderling, and pierced through its chest with her rapier, then quickly brought it out, and turned its blade upwards and plunged it through its head before drawing it out, the Cinderling dropping. She turned just in time to dodge a stab attack by two more Muxscythes.
Virgil slid over a table, three of the Muxscythe’s arms plunging through the wood on the table. As he jumped over the bench, the Cinderling jumped over the table, its extended elbow piercing through the bench, but sliding out smoothly as it continued to chase Virgil, the Muxscythe tossing the table in Lilian’s direction to continue as well. Spinning around, Virgil suddenly stopped, and held out his hand. Two shadow needles flew out, and went right through the Cinderling’s ankles, causing to begin to fall just as it reached him, and he quickly flicked his blade across its throat, and sidestepped so it wouldn’t fall on him. He blocked one of the Muxscythe’s arms with his dagger, but wasn’t fast enough to dodge the arm to rounded and ran through his left arm. Virgil screamed, and the Muxscythe used its newly found hold on his arm to fling him across the room.
Lilian froze as she heard the scream, turning just in time have Virgil’s limp body ram into hers, sending both of them flying across the floor and hitting the wall. Lilian’s rapier went flying somewhere to the right of her, while Virgil’s dagger stuck into the wall just above her head.
“Virgil?” She asked, turning to look at him, and paling at the gaping hole just above his left elbow that was bleeding profusely. She covered the hole as best as she could with her gloved hands, and looked up at the creatures surrounding them. She counted eight Muxscythes and five Cinderlings. She couldn’t see her rapier, and Virgil’s dagger wouldn’t do much to defend them in this situation. Two Cinderlings jumped at them, and she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain, only feel… warm.
She opened her eyes, and stare wide eyed at the two piles of ashes now in front of her, small embers floating down to meet them and quickly die out. Crags suddenly sprouted from the ground, tearing through all the Muxscythes, disappearing as quickly as they appeared, and flames engulfed the remaining Cinderlings, reducing them to ash almost instantly. 

Two women ran towards them, both of them were pale, one slightly more than the other. One had long wavy silver hair framing her face, and kind gray eyes. She wore all silver armor, and Lilian could see snowy white feathered wings at her sides, holding a steel sword in her right hand. To the right of them, a woman with long red hair held in a ponytail with passionate orange eyes wearing all red armor was walking towards them with a rapier in either hand, Lilian quickly recognizing the rapier with the purple blade as hers. They both knelt by them.
“Are you alright?” The redhead asked Lilian, as her companion moved her hands from Virgil’s wound, yellow light emitting from hers as she closed them around it.
“I’ll be fine.” Lilian told her. “What about Virgil?”
“He’ll be laid up for a while.” The other woman said calmly. “But his wound will heal. Is that dagger his?”
“Yeah.” Lilian said, reaching up and pulling it down from the wall, letting it rest in her hands as she watched Virgil.
“Why were you here?” The redhead asked.
“I was here to enlist.” Lilian told her. “I don’t know about him.”
“What was his name again?” The redhead asked.
“Virgil.” Lilian told her.
“Virgil Zophar Priest.” The silver haired one finished. “I spoke to the clerk at the enlisting desk. She was filling out his form when the Detritus attacked. She said he yanked his arm out of her hand when someone screamed for help.”
Lilian stared at him when she finished saying that.
“Felira.” The redhead turned to look behind her at the new voice.
“Cassandra.” She greeted to the tall woman walking up behind them. She had short, shoulder length black hair with a faint blue glow, sharp red eyes, and pale coco brown skin. She was wearing full body armor, chainmail over her torso, with a faint purple tint. Cassandra looked at Lilian, before her eyes turned to Virgil. She immediately frowned.
“Will he be alright Azriel?” Cassandra asked, and the winged woman nodded in response.
“He’ll be out for a day at most.” She explained, removing her hands from the spot they covered. Instead of the hole that was there, was instead skin that was paler than the skin around it. “And he’ll have that scar for the rest of his life.”
“Is this the male the clerk told us about?” Cassandra asked.
“Yes.” Azriel confirmed.
“And you are?” Cassandra asked, turning to Lilian.
“Lilian.” She told her. “I don’t have a last name.”
“Construct or Infraix?” Felira asked, raising an eyebrow, and it was then that Lilian noticed the small, curled horns on her head.
“Construct.” Lilian told her.
“Beings of pure mana.” Azriel said, almost absentmindedly. “Didn’t think I’d actually meet one.”
“You two are pretty talented.” Cassandra said, looking at the corpses of the Cinderlings and Muxscythes that weren’t killed by Azriel and Felira. “Are either of you enlisted?”
“No.” Lilian said. “I was here to enlist.”
“And so was Virgil.” Felira filled in. At Cassandra’s confused look, she pointed to Virgil, and Cassandra nodded.
“I wouldn’t call killing just one Muxscythe and three Cinderlings talented.” Lilian commented.
“It is when you’re in a room full of them and don’t get impaled multiple times.” Cassandra explained. “Any idea which guild you want to be in?”
“Dusk Guild.” Lilian told her. Cassandra looked questioningly at Azriel.
“The clerk told me Virgil said he wanted to find out in training.” She explained. “His desired mark was a Forerunner.”
“Let’s get the two of you to a safe place to look at your injuries first.” Cassandra said, nodding at Azriel’s reply. “After Virgil wakes up we’ll talk to him.”
Lilian nodded, wincing as she stood up, her back and right side of her body feeling sore. Felira and Azriel picked up Virgil, suspending him between them as they walked out the door. Turning her head, Lilian saw Cassandra walking to a woman wearing heavy silver armor with runic designs colored crimson.
“Make way!” Felira yelled, the battlemages on the stairs quickly moving out of the way as the four of them walked down them and towards a group of battlemages wearing mage robes at the base of the stairs. They were just finishing setting up a table when Felira and Azriel laid Virgil on the table, another one of the group pulling up a chair for Lilian.
“Stabbed through the arm by a Muxscythe.” Azriel told them. Felira put Lilian’s rapier so it was leaning against her chair, then turned and began back up the stairs. “Make sure he heals safely.” Azriel ordered them, before she turned and followed Felira.
“Take a blood sample.” A battlemage wearing blue ordered. “Test it for any poison or parasites. Are you alright?” They asked, turning to Lilian.
“I’ll be fine.” She told them. “Just going to be sore for a while.”
The battlemage nodded, turning their full attention back to Virgil and pricking his now healed wound with a needle.