When there was nothing left to tear apart, the banshees wheeled away into the dark below, and the air grew eerily quiet. Pierce stopped swinging and just let himself hang. He couldn't believe what he'd just witnessed, and he'd never felt so powerless.
Morale took a plunge after that incident, and the mining teams agreed to call it quits for the day. Of course, everyone knew that tragedy could strike at any moment. Dipping into the Chasm for any amount of time was known to be a deadly risk, but knowing something could happen was a far cry from actually experiencing it.
At first, Pierce was accepting of it, watching the Chasm while leaning back on the wall of the annex tower and sipping at some mead. The more he thought about it, though, the more he began to feel a burning inside. He hated that he hadn't been able to stop the banshees from claiming their prey. All those garrison troops had left was each other. Their families were gone, and the city they'd called home. He knew of course that he couldn't have done anything significantly different if he'd been up top of the cliff, and armed. He simply wasn't equipped to fight creatures like the banshees. It seemed no one was. That didn't make it sting any less.
An indignance mounted within him and he started pacing.
What about those two wizards, cooped up in the tower. Could Ess or Eff have done something to repel or destroy the banshees? It certainly seemed that they were powerful enough, but if that was the case, why hadn't they been down on the ground helping? Pondering this, Pierce found it difficult to stay put. He didn't know if his thoughts were rational on this count, but he quickly got to the point where he didn't care. He stomped off around the curve of the tower, making for its open doors.
He climbed the steps inside, making for the forgemaster's lab. At least one of the wizards was likely to be there.
He opened the door to the lab impatiently, storming in, at this point ready to holler, but his eyes found Ess there, watching Sev's work intently, and his rage dimmed a little.
She looked innocent, like a perfect little doll, eyes half-lidded as she gazed down at Sev's hands. Her silver hair hung down on the right side, and the left she had tucked back behind her ear. Her white lips were slightly parted and a small crease had formed in her brow. She'd finally deigned to change out of her robe and into work clothes. They were too big, but still managed to hug her slender frame. Pierce realized he was staring. He'd almost forgotten why he'd come.
"Ess," he said. She looked over at him, eyes not quite focused, as if she was still lost in whatever thoughts she'd been having.
"Ess, why weren't you or Eff down at the cliffs?" Pierce asked, more softly than he'd meant to. "Why haven't you been all this time?"
Finally she registered his presence fully and surfaced from the depths of her thought.
"Pierce," she said. "What do you mean?"
"You, in all your power, or Eff, who you say knows even more magic than you do. Why aren't you helping to protect the men from the banshees?"
As Pierce thought about it, some of his ire began to surface again. He felt a mixture of guilts. One, that the mere presence of this lovely girl could so easily disarm his rage, and another, that he had started to speak sharply to her.
"Pierce, no one can harm the banshees," she said patiently. "You know this. Everything that can be tried, has been."
"No," he said. "There's always a way. Maybe you just haven't found it."
"There is no way," Ess asserted. "I assure you."
Sev kept working as if he didn't hear the argument at his back.
"Even if you really think that," Pierce said, "why do this instead of trying something new?" He gestured at Sev, working his magic on the growing crystals. "Be out there, amplify our music, cover us with protective wards, try something."
"Pierce," Ess sighed. She didn't look insulted or challenged at all. She looked vaguely weary, in fact.
"No," he continued. The argument was doing good for his determination. Her beauty did not abate, but it was having less of an effect on him. He wouldn't back down.
"You, both of you, should be giving this expedition priority. What else matters?" he said. "If Kash takes Overland, if we die, what will it matter if you know how his forgemasters work their enchantments?"
"Pierce," she said, still unnaturally calm, "you are young..."
"Me? I can't be that much younger than you," he said. "That's beside the point."
"No, Pierce, it's not," Ess said. "And I am not young. I have seen a hundred years as of the last green moon. You have heard our stories - how could you imagine I was not your elder?"
Pierce's jaw dropped. It was one of those odd things the mind refused to put together. He felt foolish. "A hundred? No."
Ess chuckled and smiled. "Yes. I may not look it, but such is the blessing of these magics, combined with the blood of my heritage. But that's not the point of mentioning it," she said. "There are many things one can learn, do, and try in a century. My Master has been learning for over four hundred years. There is little he does not yet know. And, as any good student, my primary goal is to surpass him in all ways. Capturing Kash will help me achieve that."
Pierce couldn't say anything in response. Despite himself, he was looking at the highness of her cheeks, the suppleness of her bare arms sticking out of the sleeves of the work shirt. A hundred?
"When I say you are young, I mean that you have not yet learned to accept what you can and cannot change," she said.
"I'll never --" he started, but she held up two dark fingers to stop him.
"And
