Worlds Afire
Borek Hammerswift had thought he knew war. It was not an unreasonable assumption, after all he had spend half a century as a mercenary, always fighting in one or another skirmish or battle, ever since he had left his
clan and gone beyond the borders of the Burning Wilds into the more populated parts of the Plane of Fire.
He had fought in feuds among the Salamander-realms, he had guarded convoys over the Sea of Flames, he had even fought the Shaitan at Div's Delight a few times when the tides of war had driven up the prices for good mercenaries so far that it seemed worth the risk.
But he had never thought that he would see things like this when one of Ymeri's ladies had sent out word for hired blades and he had answered. It was not the beasts fighting in the sky, gigantic
birds of fire
tearing at each other in passing, while their riders exchanged spells and arrows. It was not the armies on the ground, elementals, fey, and bright-burning giants clashing with elementals looking no different, as well as angels with burning blades and stranger beings still.
What was new to him in this war was the way the world around him changed as his current employer exerted power over her domain and the Red God opposed her. It made for a sickening experience to witness the wall he was supposed to hold grow several hundred feet tall, its lower side made up of flames so hungry even the creatures of fire attacking it were swallowed, never to be seen again. Only for some priests carrying a holy relic to arrive and notice that he was suddenly barely a dozen feet above the ground, the wall beneath his feet made from simple basalt.
By now he had no idea how long he had been fighting, or even if the killing he did changed anything about the battle. The presence of the deities was twisting time and he was certain he had seen some of the Fey standing right now beside him die by steel and their corpses trampled under the shifting tide of battle.
Lately he had gotten the impression that the lines of conflict had come closer to Ymeri's palace than ever before, but his perception had betrayed him often enough by now that it was hard to trust such idea. He was not even sure if Ymeri losing ground was a bad thing. After all, conventional wisdom had little place in this war, and maybe the Fey queen could manifest yet greater powers over the world in the heart of her domain?
Or maybe she was losing, and he would never get to spend a single one of the gems he had been payed in.
Regardless, at this point the best he could do was to fight on and pray that Kossuth find his soul and take it to him in the mess his fellow fire-deities were making here, and maybe that was all a mercenary could hope for anyway.
___________
Outta nowhere an omake.
Hopefully it works as a little look into the conflict we are trying to dip a toe into.
"
