Chapter 10

“While it took a great deal of time, this organization and system began to pay dividends, able to reproduce essential effects that were considered to be exclusive to magic very rapidly, and to even integrate the magical and the technological into one singular overarching grand theory. Since the creation of that grand unifying theory, we have seen unexpected growth in both technology and magic, as they are used to reinforce one another and support the other’s development. 

When an experiment in magic requires observation without interference, technological means can be used, and vice versa. Not to mention the many situations in which a technological substitute can form a part of a spell in hitherto unknown manners. The ongoing work of the Technocratic Union seems destined to eventually result in magic that is indistinguishable from technology and the inverse. Pieces of technology and magic that are so perfectly aligned that they blend into a single whole that we do not yet have the language to describe.”

—A History of the Empyrean Alliance, Elenya Starweaver

Behind him, the Empyrean fleet had scattered and shattered. 

The impenetrable wall of the dwarven shields could only hold if they maintained their distance from one another, and so, just as the elves had punched holes in the Dominion’s fleet, so, too, did the Dominion now find gaps to unleash their special brand of arcane hell through. One of the floating universities that the Veilbohr Institute had deployed near the center of the fleet was torn in half along its length by an entirely unblocked barrage. 

Two of the elven needle ships that had served so well at the flanks now found themselves undefended as the shield wall shifted. In their frantic attempts to dive back under cover, the rhythmic pulsing of their ritual spells was halted, giving the Dominion ample time to pull themselves back together.

The important thing, from Sylvas’ perspective, was that nothing now lay in the path of this nightmarish curse creeping ever closer to them. Nothing except for the Folly. He remembered to do the rest of them the small courtesy of a warning this time around. “Brace yourselves!”

Fire and shadow were insubstantial things, already ready to slip through his grasp the moment that his concentration wavered. Now that he had abandoned his hold on the spell entirely, it leapt forward with all of the momentum it should have had from the start. He’d delayed the inevitable, and now there was only a moment before the spell hit them. A moment he used to fling the ship sideways and punch a hole through into null-space.

In that perpetual nothingness, the fire followed. Without light, the shadow could find no purchase in null-space, but the rest of the spell chased them through the hole that Sylvas had torn, melting away the ablative armor Kaya had stuck to their hull faster than she could grow it. Sylvas flung them off course, whipping the ship out of the fire’s course, but it followed them all the same. It sought them, hunted them, through the nothingness of null-space. 

Chasing faster than Sylvas could think until he doubled back through a new portal into reality and slammed the way shut behind him. Most of the hunting flame was left behind to starve to death in the void, but some still clung to the ship, searing over every exterior surface and trying to force its way inside.

Flooding the ship’s systems with ice mana, Sylvas pulsed his power against the spell and found it to be lacking now that it didn’t have the crushing will of whoever had cast it focused in this direction.

The battle had turned in an instant with the arrival of the new Dominion ships. To the naked eye, they seemed no different from any of the other warships in the vast fleet, but the magic being cast from them had a frequency and potency that it didn’t take a genius to decipher. Kaya gawked. “There are covenant mages on those ships—”

“That is impossible!” Malachai snapped back, though his scarred face showed the frown forming there far more clearly than the perfectly smooth one ever had. “There are dozens of them.”

“Guess Emperor ‘Look At Me’ can keep some secrets after all.” Hector slid across the floor, trying to find purchase on one of the consoles as they whipped through one evasive maneuver after another to avoid the firestorm.

Saizen was hanging sideways in the doorway, legs dangling in the air. “Blackstar’s all ego. He’d never share power.”

“Reality seems to disagree.” Rania had finally gotten over her nausea, just in time to be tossed around like a rag doll.

The hex-shield that the dwarves had been holding up faltered and cracked under the assault of the new ships, and the craft that had previously been free to focus exclusively on making their own attacks and casting the complex web of spells that empowered the whole Empyrean side were now forced into panic, shielding themselves, diving through evasive maneuvers and trying their best to hold their ground in the face of overwhelming force.

What had been a coordinated battle fleet now became every man for himself in the face of the empowered Dominion. The comms channels were a rabble of screams and contradictory orders being barked back and forth by people with no authority to give them. 

Sylvas’ eyes darted back and forth, his full sensory array screaming with all the information he was taking in and trying to process. “What do we do?” 

Of all of them, Saizen was the only one to pitch a suggestion. “Run?”

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed. Just as it seemed that the whole fleet was either going to break and run or be destroyed in the pounding artillery fire, silence fell over the comms channels, and a blossoming lotus of magic opened out from in the midst of the madness. Vast and lilac, the petals peeled open, on and on in a fractal explosion that continued out to sweep over the entire fleet. A protective bubble that expanded to encompass them all. All except for the Folly, positioned as it was so far off to the side of the fleet.

The ongoing bombardment struck the sphere of tranquility and faded away. The new spells that the Dominion tried to fling at it found no purchase. Sylvas was more than familiar with war, the eidolon that had dwelled within him for the longest was attuned to it, but this was the first time he had ever seen anyone cast a spell of peace. The first time that it had even occurred to him that someone might want to.

Inside the blossom, the fleet reorganized itself. It formed a new, tighter formation, clustered around the flagship where Elenya Starweaver was casting this protection from, but the other covenant mages of the Empyrean did not stand idle under the umbrella of her protection. Greenmantle’s technocracy were the most active. Their ships seemed to have burst apart into clouds of smaller craft, zipping from place to place, making connections and repairs, deploying probes and satellites into the space around the ships.

The Dominion flagship moved like a shark through the still waters of the night sky, smoothly and without fear of any repercussions. It had travelled while Sylvas had been fleeing its fire, swinging around to join the rest of the Dominion fleet, to blend in amongst the other craft. But now it struck again. 

The spell that tore out from its crossed emitters was shadow and fire again, but now it was far less aggressive, and far more insidious. It hit the lotus bubble surrounding the Empyrean fleet with essentially no impact at all, spreading across it like oil over the surface of a pond, spreading until it was encompassing almost the entire bubble, with only the faintest glimpse of lilac still visible towards the rear of the sphere. It didn’t try to burst the peace of the bubble, it didn’t try to force its way inside, it just coated everything in its slick shadow, soaking into the still waters of the peaceful aura until it had entirely invaded it. 

Which was when the flickering and mild flames that had just been carried along like spectators to the shadows’ journey burst into life. The peace wasn’t broken; it was made oppressive and damaging. And still the oily curse spread, everywhere that Starweaver’s lotus protected slowly burned, spreading and spreading until she did the only sensible thing and cut her protective spell short. The curse dissipated with the peace, and the bombardment resumed.

In formation once more, the Empyrean stood a better chance of protecting itself, particularly with all of the covenant mages of the council finally coming to the fore and using their immense power. The hex-shield that the dwarves had raised was now firmly under the control of Ironfist, and each time that an enemy spell struck one of the hexagonal panels, both panel and spell were immediately turned to stone. 

The sudden wall now formed between the two fleets might have been an impediment, if it weren’t for the renewed assaults by the melt ships, who were no longer dumping firebombs behind enemy lines but instead unleashing vast volcanic eruptions from the warped mouths at their fronts. The stone just became more lava to be launched out into the enemy fleet. Solid mass that their shields could only halt, not dispel. Leaving each Dominion ship that tried to stand its ground blind behind a sizzling hemisphere of molten rock. 

They couldn’t break through the Dominion shieldwall now that it had been reinforced, but that didn’t mean that they were standing idle either. The fighter fleet of the Empyrean had deployed into the lotus bubble and now shot forward, using the blind spots that the melt ships had plastered over the enemy line to clear as much distance as they could before having to evade enemy fire. If they could get past the Dominion’s shields and their own fighter fleet, there was an opportunity to do some damage, and at this point, it was becoming increasingly apparent that the battle was not going to be decided by the ships of the line.

Both fleets hid behind their shields, unleashing the full fury of their magic and making no dent in the other side. 

The Dominion had numbers on their side, especially in the number of covenant mages at their disposal, but those covenant mages lacked the cunning and creativity that the Empyrean had been able to bring to bear. They had the power, and they had been trained in specific ways to use it, but they were not individual powerhouses the way that the Empyrean’s were because they were soldiers, with all the limitations that inflicted, while each of the Empyrean council members had lifetimes of experience focused on what their magic could do. 

It would have remained a standoff, with both sides slowly grinding away at one another, if it weren’t for the flagship. The leader of the Dominion fleet was a covenant mage, there could be no question about that, and they had everything that the rest of the Dominion’s covenant mages lacked. Whatever problem was presented, that one mage seemed to have an answer.

Sylvas adjusted course and headed right for it.

Hector’s grin faltered. “Sylvas, we seem to be heading towards the enemy again.”

“Yes,” he replied levelly, “we are.”

There was the beginning of a whine in the spy’s voice. “We just put so much effort into getting away from them. Is this really…”

“As long as they have their flagship, the Dominion is going to win this battle.” He highlighted the ship on their screens in red. “We take out that one ship, the Empyrean wins. I’d say that’s worth the risk.”

“Yeah, because that’s the Eagle’s Shadow.” They stared at Saizen blankly until he explained. “Emperor Blackstar’s ship?”

Kaya’s eyes lit up. “Kill him, and the whole empire falls out of its own culgh.”

“Then why would they risk deploying him to the…” Malachai was cut off by Saizen.

“Because nobody can take him.”

There was a momentary pause as they all took that statement in, then Kaya groaned. “Why did you have to say that?”

“That he’s undefeated in battle?” Saizen was practically shouting. “That we should be heading the opposite direction?!”

“You made it a challenge!” Kaya moaned. “Now the stanzbuhr’s got to go after him.”

Malachai nodded. “It is true, he cannot resist.”

“I am not that predictable,” Sylvas grumbled, only to almost have his words drowned out by Mira cackling in his head. 

Rania had made her unsteady way over to him and now lay a sympathetic hand on his arm. “You absolutely are.”

Hector rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry to say that you definitely are.”

Saizen deflated as they all made light of the impending battle. “So we’re just…”

Hector folded down a seat from the wall for the gangster to secure himself and gently pushed him into it. “Strap in. It’s going to get bumpy.”

A more accurate prediction had never been made. The Dominion fleet had been unleashing hell on the Empyrean one and doing their best to make the journey between the two shield walls impossible to safely traverse for the fighters, but it had been a very generalist approach to rendering the space unusable. A steady flow of destructive spells unleashed without much in the way of targeting. The moment the Folly started to move forward, that changed. The Empyrean fleet found it had the upper hand again, as all of the relentless assault they had been enduring was angled off towards the Folly.

Throughout their mad dash forward, Sylvas held up a gravity shear, deflecting all of the enemy spells off course, and he gritted his teeth in expectation. The attacks of the warships and covenant mages, they could push through, despite the ship constantly rocking and bucking in the concussions of spells collapsing against his shield, but the moment that Blackstar’s ship took aim at them, the situation was going to change dramatically.

Moments ticked by as they shot forward at full speed, and still, the strike did not fall. Sylvas couldn’t understand it. They’d seen Blackstar handle every problem that had been thrown at him. Why was there no response to them? As it turned out, his attention was turned elsewhere.

All across the front of the Dominion shield wall, darkness pooled. Not the shadows of Blackstar’s magic, but the absolute darkness of the void. Through the chaos of spell fire, Sylvas couldn’t see any of it with his eyes, but his gravity sense screamed as each event horizon slipped open and the way to null-space opened. More reinforcements.

Sylvas should have pushed the Empyrean to cast the interdiction and block more ships from arriving the moment that he realized that the Dominion still had more ships. He was cursing himself for forgetting about it in the chaos of the battle.

What came bursting through from null-space was not another attack wing of Dominion warships. Their wings spread wide and leathery, not angled and metallic, and their bodies had not been forged in some orbital factory, but in the depths of arcane chaos. A flock of eidolons, titanic and draconic, burst through into real space. 

Each and every one of them was a planetary extinction event in itself.