No Class Found

Kaine’s office was quieter than the rest of the Academy.

Cassira sat across from his desk with Mira beside her. Serin had taken the chair nearest them rather than the empty one beside Kaine. She had barely left Cassira’s side since the wagon reached the gate.

A pot of tea rested between them, untouched.

“This is not an interrogation,” Kaine said. “Investigator Marius will conduct his own inquiry later. I only need to understand what happened.”

Cassira glanced toward Mira.

The girl sat with her hands folded tightly in her lap. She looked nervous, though the fear was no longer as raw as it had been in the Waste.

“You don’t have to give every detail today,” Serin said. “Tell us what you can.”

Mira nodded.

Kaine leaned back slightly. “Begin with the attack on Thornwick Rest.”

Cassira drew in a slow breath.

She told him about the windows breaking and the crossbow bolts tearing through the common room. Mar and Garrik had held the attackers back while Calen led her and Mira through the kitchen.

They had tried to reach the checkpoint, only to discover that more attackers were already waiting in the alleys and on the rooftops.

“They knew where we would run,” Cassira said. “Calen realized it before I did. He stayed behind to slow them down.”

She and Mira had not made it much farther. Cassira had been struck by a paralytic bolt and lost consciousness before they were carried from the city.

Their leader called himself Wisp.

He told them someone had paid to have Cassira delivered alive to an exchange point in the Waste, but he never named the buyer or explained what they wanted from her. Cassira had offered him more money than the contract could possibly have been worth.

“He refused,” she said. “He believed my father would hunt him afterward, no matter what I paid.”

“So he thought completing the contract was his only way out,” Kaine said.

“That was what he claimed.”

Wisp and the other kidnappers forced them north, using stamina potions whenever they slowed. They rarely stopped, and Wisp grew more frightened the farther they traveled.

“Something was following us,” Mira said. “He never told us what.”

Cassira remembered Wisp returning to camp injured, blood staining his clothing while he pretended nothing had happened.

“After that, he pushed us even harder,” she said.

They eventually reached an old stronghold built into the mountainside. Clan mercenaries were waiting inside, but instead of paying Wisp, they killed two members of his crew and imprisoned the survivors alongside Cassira and Mira.

“Whoever arranged the exchange may never have arrived,” Kaine said.

“Or they were already there,” Cassira replied. “No one told us enough to know.”

The attack on the stronghold began shortly afterward.

They heard a horn, followed by shouting from the upper levels. When the guard abandoned the cells, Wisp used a small tool hidden inside one of his teeth to break the lock.

Serin raised an eyebrow. “Inside his tooth?”

“It exploded,” Mira said.

“A very small explosion,” Cassira added.

“That does not make it better.”

For the first time since entering the office, Mira almost smiled.

They escaped into the lower passages, where they found Calen searching for them.

“He followed you into the Waste?” Serin asked.

“He followed the kidnappers,” Cassira said. “Doc found him along the way and continued with him.”

Kaine’s quill paused.

“The armored man who arrived with you.”

“Yes.”

“What do you know about him?”

“Not much,” Cassira admitted. “He was staying at Thornwick Rest. He studies runes and carries weapons I’ve never seen before.”

“He does more than study runes,” Mira said. “He changes them.”

“While they’re active,” Cassira added.

Kaine’s attention sharpened. “He demonstrated this?”

“At the inn. I gave him one of the Academy texts before he left for the Guild.”

Kaine wrote that down.

“What kind of man did he seem to be?”

Cassira thought of Doc sitting among the children at the inn, patiently answering their questions. Then she remembered the stories surrounding Rellan Vex and the warning hidden beneath Doc’s otherwise calm manner.

“Dangerous,” she said. “But kind when he didn’t have to be.”

“Did he ever tell you where he came from?”

“No.”

“I know a little,” Mira said. “Only what my father told me.”

Kaine turned toward her.

“They come from a new settlement in the Waste. The Matriarch of Threeburrow asked Dad to help Doc and his people while they were in Glasshold.”

“Why?”

“Threeburrow owed them a life debt. Doc and Mazoga saved the settlement from a draugr horde.”

“So your father knew of them through Threeburrow, but not much beyond that.”

Mira nodded. “That’s all he told me.”

Kaine looked back toward Cassira. “And this man followed your kidnappers into the Waste.”

“Yes. By the time we found Calen, Doc was already fighting the creature that had attacked the stronghold.”

“You hadn’t seen it yourself?”

“Not until Doc came through the ceiling.”

Serin blinked. “He came through the ceiling?”

“The creature threw him through it,” Mira said.

Cassira described what followed as best she could.

The creature looked like a man, but it covered itself in ice and created copies that moved and fought on their own. When the copies were broken, they formed again.

Doc gave Calen one of his weapons—a small metal object that fired lances of light.

“He asked if Calen remembered how to use it,” Cassira said.

Serin turned toward her. “Remembered?”

“Apparently it wasn’t the first time.”

Serin closed her eyes briefly.

Calen fired at the real creature after Fish identified it, but the creature crossed the hall before he could shoot again and threw him into the wall.

Cassira remembered how quickly it had happened. One moment Calen had been standing beside them. The next he had been crumpled against the stone.

Everything after that blurred together.

Ice covered the hall. The copies broke apart and returned. Wisp used light magic while Cassira and Mira did what they could to keep the creature occupied.

Then Doc reached the real one.

“They were locked together,” Cassira said. “I couldn’t see exactly what was happening.”

“There was a light,” Mira added quietly.

Cassira nodded. “Then the creature started coming apart. A moment later, it was gone.”

The office fell silent.

“Doc stayed standing long enough to say it was done,” Cassira continued. “Then he collapsed.”

Kaine waited before asking, “What happened after that?”

Cassira looked down at her hands.

Even now, she could still see Doc standing for that final moment before his legs gave out.

Doc collapsed.

Calen reached him first, but a voice came through the armor and warned him not to move Doc. He was alive, but badly injured.

Across the hall, Wisp revived Mav with something from his bag and helped him toward the exit. Cassira raised a hand, ice gathering around her fingers, but Mira leaned close and whispered that they can't do another fight.

After a moment, Cassira let the spell fade.

Wisp looked back, inclined his head once, and disappeared into the passage with Mav leaning against him.

After that, they waited.

The voice inside the suit contacted help, but it would take days for the rescue party to reach them. Once it said Doc could be moved safely, they carried him into a smaller chamber, gathered what food and firewood remained, and took turns watching the passages.

Doc did not wake.

On the Fifth morning, Fish lifted her head and began to growl.

Then the voice spoke through the armor.

“Multiple necrotic signatures detected approaching the stronghold.”

A narrow section of Doc’s armor opened with a soft click.

Something small rested inside.

“Place the communication device in your right ear,” the voice said.

Calen leaned closer, then carefully removed the tiny black object. Cassira could not tell what it was meant to be. It looked too small to hold a spellstone and carried none of the markings she associated with enchanted tools.

Calen pressed it into his ear.

His eyes widened slightly.

“You can hear me through this?”

Whatever answer he received was for him alone.

He crossed the chamber and picked up the small metal weapon Doc had given him during the fight. It still looked more like an unfinished tool than anything meant for battle, but Cassira remembered the lance of light it had produced.

Fish was already waiting at the passage.

Calen started after her.

Cassira rose. “Where are you going?”

“To see how close they are.”

“You can barely stand.”

“I don’t need to stand for long.”

He continued toward the passage.

Cassira looked at Mira, then at Doc.

Mira understood before she said anything.

“I’ll stay with him,” she said. “I can strengthen the wards around the chamber.”

Cassira turned back toward Calen.

“Then you’re not going alone.”

Calen glanced back at her.

For a moment, Cassira thought he might argue.

Then he looked at her face and just gave a tired nod.

Fish moved before either of them could continue.

She slipped into the passage, silent against the stone. Calen followed, the small metal weapon held low at his side. Cassira stayed a few steps behind him.

The stronghold felt different after five days of waiting.

They had cleared some of the bodies from the main hall, but dark stains remained between the pillars. Broken ice still clung to the walls where Doc and the creature had fought.

Calen stopped near the stairs leading toward the surface.

His head tilted slightly.

Cassira heard nothing.

Then he looked toward the left-hand passage.

“They’re not at the gate yet.”

Cassira frowned. “How do you know?”

He touched the small object in his ear.

“The voice in the suit told me.”

Of course it had.

Fish continued up the stairs.

They followed her into the upper level.

Gray morning light entered through gaps in the damaged walls. Snow had blown across the floor near the outer doors, gathering in thin drifts around fallen weapons and splintered wood.

Fish stopped at the entrance to the yard.

Her growl deepened.

Cassira moved closer and looked past her.

At first, she saw only the open gate and the white ground beyond it.

Then something moved between the rocks.

A figure stepped into view.

Its clothing hung in frozen strips. One arm bent at the wrong angle, but it walked without slowing. Another appeared behind it, then another farther along the ridge.

More shapes moved through the snow beyond them.

Cassira felt her stomach tighten.

Calen raised the metal weapon.

“Stay near the doorway,” he said. “Don’t let them get around us.”

“What are you going to do?”

He glanced at Fish.

“Keep them away from the door.”

Then he stepped into the yard.

Cassira followed far enough to keep him within reach, though she stayed beside the broken gate.

The first draugr crossed onto the stone.

Calen lifted the weapon with both hands.

A flash burst from its end.

The light struck the draugr in the chest and punched through it. The creature fell backward into the snow, smoke rising from the hole left behind.

The draugr behind it kept coming.

Calen fired again.

The second creature lost most of its shoulder but remained upright.

Fish vanished.

Violet light flickered across the yard, and she appeared beside the wounded draugr. Her jaws closed around its neck. She twisted hard, dragging it to the ground before disappearing again.

Calen’s next shot struck its head.

It stopped moving.

Cassira drew in mana.

Ice spread from beneath her boots and raced across the yard. It climbed over the stone, passing beneath the approaching draugr before thickening around their ankles.

The first stumbled.

The one behind it walked into its back.

Calen fired into the cluster.

Light struck one, then another.

The ice around their legs cracked beneath their weight, but it slowed them long enough for Fish to reach those Calen missed.

For a few breaths, the defense worked.

Cassira froze the ground.

Calen fired.

Fish appeared and disappeared between the draugr, knocking them aside whenever they came too close.

Then Calen vanished.

Cassira’s heart lurched.

One moment he stood in the center of the yard.

The next, only a faint distortion remained where he had been.

A draugr lunged through the empty space.

Calen reappeared several paces to the side.

The moment he raised the metal weapon, whatever hid him failed. The draugr turned toward him, but the lance of light struck first.

It fell at his feet.

Cassira stared.

She had known Calen possessed strange skills.

But this was different.

He moved like a shadow that could choose when to become solid.

Another draugr came through the gate.

Calen faded again.

Its head turned, searching for him.

Cassira drove an ice spike through its knee.

The creature dropped.

Calen reappeared behind it and fired into the back of its skull.

The strain of the movement showed immediately.

He staggered after the shot, one hand pressing against his ribs.

Cassira left the doorway and crossed toward him.

“I told you that you could barely stand.”

“I’m standing.”

“Poorly.”

Fish bark once.

Both of them turned.

More draugr had appeared along the ridge.

Others were moving through the broken section of wall to the east.

Calen went still, listening to the voice in his ear.

His expression tightened.

“They’re coming from both sides.”

Cassira looked toward the gate, then toward the broken wall.

They could not hold both.

A faint shimmer appeared across the entrance behind them.

Mira’s wards.

The light spread over the doorway in thin overlapping lines, sealing the passage back toward Doc.

Cassira let out a slow breath.

“Then we don’t hold the yard.”

Calen looked at her.

“We make them come through one way.”

Calen nodded.

Cassira turned toward the broken section of wall and thrust both hands forward.

Ice climbed between the stones, filling the gaps and spreading across the fallen rubble. She thickened it until the breach became a solid pale wall.

It would not hold forever but it'll do.

The first draugr reached the gate.

It moved with the stiffness of a frozen corpse until it came within striking distance. Then it lunged.

The sudden burst caught Cassira off guard.

Calen slipped aside a heartbeat before its hands closed around him.

He reappeared near the wall and fired.

The lance of light struck the draugr through the torso. Frozen flesh and ribs burst outward, and the corpse folded around the wound.

Another came over it.

Fish appeared beside the creature in a flicker of violet light. She struck low, tearing one leg from beneath it, then vanished before its hands could close around her.

Cassira froze its remaining leg to the ground.

Calen fired again.

The creature’s head snapped back, and it dropped.

More reached the gate.

They did not move together or protect one another. They simply rushed toward the nearest living thing, clawing over the fallen whenever a body blocked their path.

Cassira raised a ridge of ice across the entrance.

The first draugr struck it at full speed. Its legs shattered beneath the impact, but frost spread around the broken bones almost immediately, locking them stiff enough for the creature to drag itself forward.

Cassira stared.

“It’s still moving.”

“Then break more of it,” Calen said.

The next corpse vaulted the ridge in a sudden lunge.

Calen faded from sight.

Its hands closed on empty air.

He appeared behind it and fired into its back. The light tore through the center of its chest, leaving a smoking gap.

The draugr twisted toward him anyway.

Fish struck it from the side and drove it against the wall hard enough to crack its skull.

Cassira sent a thick spear of ice into another corpse, pinning it against the gate. It clawed at the ice instead of struggling to free itself, scraping toward the warmth beyond it until its fingers broke.

The air grew colder as more pressed into the yard.

Cassira felt it first in her hands. Her fingers stiffened despite the mana moving through them, and the tiredness in her arms came faster than it should have..

Calen’s movements slowed as well.

The draugr carried the cold with them.

One broke through the line and rushed him.

Calen tried to fade, but the creature’s shoulder still caught him as he moved. He spun across the ice and struck the ground hard.

The small weapon skidded away.

"Calen!"

Fish appeared over him before Cassira could raise anything, lips pulled back from her teeth.

The draugr came on regardless.

Fish met it, seizing one arm while Cassira froze the creature's feet. The corpse wrenched against them with enough strength to tear its own shoulder apart.

It kept coming.

Calen reached the weapon.

He rolled onto one side and fired from the ground.

Light passed through the draugr’s skull.

It collapsed across the shattered wall.

Calen stayed down for a moment, breathing through clenched teeth.

Cassira caught his arm and pulled him upright.

He touched the object in his ear.

Whatever the voice told him made his expression tighten.

"The wall."

Cassira turned.

Cracks had begun spreading through the ice sealing the eastern breach.

Something struck from the other side.

Then again.

Frozen fingers pushed through one of the cracks and began tearing it wider.

Calen looked toward the gate. More shapes moved through the snow.

"We fall back," he said.

Fish vanished into the yard and reappeared near the gate, slamming into the nearest draugr before it could lunge.

Cassira raised another barrier behind her.

“Fish!”

The phase wolf disappeared just before the ice closed across the entrance.

The three of them retreated through the passage.

Behind them came the sound of draugr striking the barrier, one after another.

Mira stood at the entrance to the smaller chamber.

Several wards now covered the doorway, their lines overlapping across the stone in pale blue patterns. More had been placed along the passage and around Doc himself.

“How many?” she asked.

“Too many,” Cassira said.

Mira looked at Calen’s face, then at the blood darkening his side.

“Get behind the wards.”

“I can still fight.”

“You can fight from behind them.”

A crash echoed through the passage.

Cassira’s outer barrier had fallen.

Fish appeared beside them.

A draugr came around the corner moments later.

It lunged.

The first ward flashed.

The creature struck an unseen wall and rebounded hard enough to break its neck. It hit the floor, twitched once, and started pushing itself upright.

Calen fired.

The lance of light destroyed its head.

More followed.

They struck Mira’s wards one after another, each impact sending light rippling across the doorway. The wards stopped their lunges, but the draugr did not retreat. They scratched at the barrier, crowding the narrow passage until frozen faces and grasping hands filled it.

Cassira sent ice beneath them.

She could trap them.

She could slow them.

But her magic only gave the cold more shapes to cling to.

“Move aside,” Calen said.

Cassira did.

He fired into the packed passage.

The light passed through the first draugr and burned into the one behind it. Calen fired again, choosing the center of each corpse rather than wasting shots on limbs.

Fish moved through the barrier as though it did not exist.

Violet light flashed between the draugr. Each time she appeared, one was torn away from the group or thrown against the stone. She returned behind the wards before they could surround her.

For several minutes, they held.

Then the weapon stopped producing light.

Calen pulled the trigger again.

Nothing happened.

He touched the object in his ear.

“How long?”

Cassira heard no answer.

Calen swore under his breath and lowered the weapon.

Mira’s outer ward cracked.

A thin line split one of the glowing patterns.

Mira raised both hands, forcing more mana into it.

The crack stopped spreading, but her arms began to shake.

“I can hold it,” she said.

Another draugr struck.

The crack widened.

Cassira formed a heavy block of ice above the creatures and let it fall.

The impact crushed the first two against the floor. One stopped moving. The other dragged itself free with half its chest collapsed.

Calen seized a broken length of timber from beside the wall.

When the draugr reached through the failing ward, he swung.

The timber struck its skull with a wet crack.

The corpse fell, and another immediately took its place.

The outer ward shattered.

Light burst across the passage.

The first draugr came through in a blur.

Calen stepped between it and Mira.

Its hands caught his shoulders.

He vanished before it could pull him close, reappearing against the opposite wall. The movement left him unsteady.

Cassira froze the creature from the waist down.

Fish struck its chest.

Frozen ribs broke beneath the impact, but the draugr reached for her even as its body folded.

Calen’s weapon flashed again.

The corpse dropped.

“It works,” he said, almost sounding surprised.

“For how long?” Cassira asked.

He fired at the next one.

“Long enough.”

The remaining wards began failing one by one.

Each broken layer brought the draugr closer to the chamber where Doc lay.

Cassira's fingers had stopped hurting some time ago, which frightened her more than the pain had. Mira's lips were blue. Calen had given up hiding the way his injured side dragged.

Another draugr broke through.

Then another.

Cassira raised an ice wall, but it formed thin and uneven.

The first corpse struck it.

The second blow opened a hole.

A frozen arm reached through and caught Cassira by the cloak.

She was pulled forward.

Calen fired past her shoulder.

The light tore through the draugr’s face, but its fingers remained locked in the fabric. Cassira cut the cloak free with a blade of ice and stumbled backward.

Behind the fallen corpse, the passage was full of pale eyes.

Mira looked over her shoulder toward Doc.

The last ward covered the chamber entrance.

“We can’t let them through.”

Cassira drew what mana she had left.

Ice spread shakily across her hands.

Calen stood beside her, barely upright, the small weapon held in both hands.

Fish lowered herself between them.

The draugr rushed.

The sound that answered came from outside.

A deep boom rolled through the stronghold.

The floor jumped beneath Cassira’s feet.

Dust fell from the ceiling, followed by a second blast even louder than the first. Fire flashed somewhere beyond the hall, and the force of it traveled through the stone.

The draugr in the passage stopped advancing.

Something had struck the horde behind them.

Sharp cracks followed the explosions.

Mage-bolts flashed through the darkness, striking the draugr from the rear. One corpse pitched forward with half its torso gone. Another turned toward the new heat and was hit again before it completed the movement.

More cracks followed, measured and steady.

Cassira stared past the remaining undead.

Figures entered the far end of the passage.

Gnolls.

They advanced with strange weapons braced against their shoulders. Each pull released a glowing bolt, and the weapons fired again as soon as the gnolls settled their aim.

A draugr lunged toward them.

A massive hammer struck it from the side.

The corpse left the ground and crashed into the wall hard enough to break apart.

Mazoga stepped through the settling dust.

She carried the hammer in both hands now.

Two draugr rushed her.

She met the first with an upward swing that shattered its torso. The second caught the return strike across the knees. Before it reached the ground, she brought the hammer down on its skull.

“Maz!” Calen shouted.

She looked past the draugr and found them.

Relief crossed her face, but only for an instant.

“Rurran! Clear the passage!”

The gnolls continued firing.

Behind them came a slender woman with hands glowing green.

She thrust it toward the nearest draugr.

Healing magic washed over the corpse.

Instead of mending it, the green light burned through its frozen flesh. Frost split along its limbs, and the draugr collapsed before it could reach her.

Cassira forgot the battle for half a heartbeat.

Silver-toned skin. Fine features. Pale hair pushed back from long, pointed ears.

An elf.

Cassira had never seen one this far north.

The woman sent another burst of green light into the next draugr. It struck the side of its head, burning through frost and dead flesh.

Then she lowered her hand and looked past Cassira toward the smaller chamber.

“Where is Doc?”

Cassira pointed.

The elf crossed the remaining distance at a run.

Fish moved aside without protest, allowing her through the final ward.

She dropped beside Doc and immediately began examining him.

Mazoga reached Calen next.

She looked him over, then Cassira and Mira.

“You three alright?”

Calen leaned against the wall.

“Mostly.”

Mazoga glanced at the shattered wards, the bodies filling the passage, and the small weapon still smoking in his hands.

“Mostly,” she repeated with a small smile.

Behind her, the last draugr fell beneath the gnolls’ constant fire.

Nothing else came through the passage.

Cassira lowered her hands.

The ice around her fingers melted away.

They had come.

Cassira’s hands had tightened together in her lap.

“Ironha treated Doc as best she could,” she said. “They moved us into the wagon and started back toward Glasshold. He did not wake for another three days.”

The office remained quiet.

Kaine’s quill rested against the page, unmoving.

A knock came at the door.

A young magister stepped inside. His gaze moved briefly over Cassira and Mira before settling on Kaine.

“Archmagister,” he said. “The man called Doc has arrived.”

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