Adam grabbed Evelyn by the hand as the city of Crence fell into chaos. Just moments before, all had seemed calm as he led Evelyn through the marketplace. The market was busy with commerce as people from all walks of life came to get their daily needs. The crowd would part for the occasional passing horses pulling wooden carts. At only twelve, Adam and Evelyn slipped through the crowd like the small children they were, looking for what Adam's mother had sent them to get in their modest, walled city. They were unaware of what was to come.

  They were always good friends, but while Evelyn’s father was drafted into service, she stayed with Adam’s family. Her father was a divinator and was required to use his arcane skills of foresight and other abilities to aid in defending the nation from the expansion of the Alden empire. It had been a year since he left, but she spoke like they were all safe as long as her father was away protecting them. She said that he would be home any day when this was all over.

  Adam never understood how she could be so optimistic, especially in her situation. He still had both his parents, but even they were in service to the war. They were healers, and he watched as soldiers returning from the front squeezed into their small clinic below their loft. The number of wounded soldiers seemed to grow exponentially with each group, and their wounds only got more visceral. He understood this war wasn’t like the wars of small, feuding nations in the past, but a slow moving wave of destruction like a growing flame. To him, the war not only dragged, but it seemed to build with a pressure that couldn't be contained. He felt the constant tightness in the air and waited for the sudden snap.

  The crowd sprung into action and clashed as everyone ran to what each called safety as the city bells rang. The war and expanding empire of the north had come at last to the place he called home.

  He pulled at her once, but she was frozen stiff, staring at the horizon. He turned to look, and he saw thick moving columns of smoke like massive bonfires crawling across the countryside just beyond the city walls.

  As they stared, the city guard began to rush past, adorned in worn leather armor. Their swords and shields lacked any radiance, looking less like soldiers and more like a militia as they charged past them in the direction they were looking.

  Adam turned away and pulled her hand again, this time so hard he thought he might pull her arm off. He pried her loose from her trance as he dragged her behind him as fast as he could run. Evelyn could hardly keep up, but he needed her to.

  He heard the noise of everyone calling to each other around them in preparation for what was to come, but under that he heard another sound. A deep, unnatural, penetrating, and resonant sound that stirred him to his core and grew with each step louder as he quickened his pace. It ended with a sudden, dark, and elongated metal crashing.

  He instinctively dropped to the edge of a building and enveloped her tightly as another sound raged towards them. This one sounded like the sky being ripped open with both a deafening roar and a piercing whistle growing louder and closer. It flew overhead like a flame soaked meteor the size of a small house; then it struck with the force of an earthquake a few buildings away. The ground and buildings shook, some collapsing as flames bathed the buildings around its impact.

  Adam jumped back up the moment the ground stilled and pulled Evelyn to her feet. The debris clouded his vision, but he could see her eyes move as if she had a hundred things she wanted to say, but he had no time to listen. He needed to get them home. They would be safe at home.

  Within a matter of moments that each felt too long, they finally reached the door. As quickly as he opened the door, his family hurried him to shut it once more.

  His mother and father were already tending to some wounded, but these were no soldiers. These were simply people caught in the collateral damage.

  Evelyn ran straight upstairs as Adam stared, dumbfounded, at the blood and gore. His mother urged him to look away and go upstairs with her.

  He went to look for her and almost immediately found her hiding with eyes filled with tears in the wardrobe. He climbed in, and they held each other, hoping it all might pass.

  They could sense the chaos downstairs increasing by the minute and could feel the commotion. They could hear the slow, repeated bombardment of the city outside with occasional screams of pain from below. They sat there for what felt like an eternity.

  Suddenly, it sounded like the crowd downstairs doubled in size, and Adam heard his father call out to him. Adam rushed to him, shutting Evelyn in the wardrobe behind him and telling her to stay.

  When he entered the clinic, bodies lay everywhere, either crying in pain or deathly silent. His father quickly grabbed his attention and told him they needed a bucket of water from the well outside. They were overwhelmed with the growing number of wounded, and they needed his help. He was scared, but he felt this was important and launched into action.

  As he charged out the door, he nearly ran into a squad of wounded soldiers coming in. As they exchanged places at the door, he took note of them. Their armor shone like no metal he had seen, their blades gleamed even through the stain of blood covering them, and they bore the insignias of the Alden Empire. They were imperial soldiers, no doubt, but he sensed no threat—only men seeking to survive their injuries.

  Pulling from the well required both his hands but not his full attention as he took in the horizon. He could not believe his eyes. He had heard of such things, but to see them was different. They sat far beyond the city walls, towering like the metal skeletons of windmills. These were the Alden Empire's Halo Trebuchets, designed by Dwarven engineers.

  A little over 300 years ago, Dwarves arrived in the northern realms as refugees to this world. The modest country of Alden promised them a future and built an empire on their enslavement to this day. The empire's blades and armor were made with metals from climates and depths only Dwarves could mine like the mountains of Drakmere across the sea to the northeast. The empire's architecture would reach new heights with the Dwarves. The Halo Trebuchets would be the epitome of the Alden Empire's military engineering.

  A machine tower of metal, gears, and chains, standing obscenely tall. It was designed to swing massive boulders soaked in burning oil in tight circles overhead. This would give the appearance of a large flaming halo. It would do this, building energy and speed until released with enough force to render craters in the earth. The flaming halos on the horizon and the tremor from each strike left him in awe. Stories could not live up to seeing them.

  He saw multiple towers of smoke inching towards the city, and little did he know each was a mobile Dwarven battle barge. Their forges and supplies fueled the attacking force and moved with them.

  The empire had conquered countless cities and kingdoms with its ill-gotten advantage and now dominated most of the continent. Only an allied resistance of kingdoms now existed in the south, but how could a few small, simple kingdoms fight such a superior force?

  As Adam's eyes danced around, taking everything in and keeping a lookout for danger, he saw determined soldiers heading for the clinic. One man led the small squadron, walking ahead of the rest. His armor was distinguished with the markings of an officer of high rank.

  The lieutenant moved with purpose towards where everyone Adam held dear resided. Adam hurried to pull the bucket up and rush back inside before him, with only moments to spare.

  Adam opened and slammed the door behind him. He ran to his father and set the bucket at his feet. His father, without turning from the injured imperial soldier he was tending to, dipped a rag in the bucket and applied it to his wounds.

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  “There are more Crence soldiers coming,” Adam said without looking away from the insignia of Alden on the soldier's breastplate.

  “We'll need your help, then. Find places for each of them and tell me who looks worst. Evelyn is helping your mother, so you'll need to help me manage these people,” his father spoke, unruffled by everything around him, focused on the mission at hand.

  Adam spun around to see his mother with Evelyn at her side. Adam spoke, not knowing what his words meant: “They're not injured. They're… they're…” He wasn't sure what they were or why they had come here, but it made him uneasy.

  His father heard the fear in Adam's voice and turned to face him with seemingly more understanding than Adam had of the weight of the situation. He stood up and shouted, “Adam! Evelyn! Go upstairs right now!” He moved with Adam towards Evelyn and to the bottom of the stairs with them, then rushed them up. “Don't come down! No matter what you hear! I mean it! If anything happens, you both hide until everything calms down!” He yelled, then turned to walk to the middle of the clinic and turned to face the door as if waiting for what came next.

  Adam went to run up the stairs just as his father told him, but he felt Evelyn grab at his shirt and pull him to stop. He looked to see her crouched almost entirely out of view of everyone, right next to him on the steps. He wanted to do what his father asked, but instead he crouched beside her. He didn't know what was coming, but he had to know. They watched the clinic from a bird's-eye view in the corner on the stairs. Adam gripped Evelyn's hand tightly, unsure whether he did it to comfort her or himself.

  The officer in his adorned armor that marked him as having his rank stepped decisively through the door, quickly followed by his entourage of armed and ready soldiers. He pointed to most of the soldiers in his wake and then to everyone before him: “Gather our brothers in arms! If they can stand, they can walk! Assist anyone who can't stand, including the civilians!” He quickly noticed Adam's father standing there, unmoving, and approached him calmly, speaking as if this was business as usual. “You must be the Reachers. I was informed that you and your wife would be here. I'm Marshal Eckhart; I was sent by His Majesty to gather his people and forces in the keep. We have supplies, beds, and healers. We'll need your help. Gather your family and everything you…”

  The Marshal paused as if interrupted, but no one spoke. The silence was deafening. Each of his steps planted heavy and firm into the floor as he marched towards Adam's mother, who was seeing to the same imperial soldier his father had been taking care of moments before. Adam's father tried to calmly intercept the moment the Marshal made his move, but was brushed aside. The Marshal grabbed Adam's mother by the wrist and ripped her from her seat, holding her so she could barely stand on her toes. Adam's father went to defend his wife, but two of the Marshal's men grabbed him and quickly subdued him, holding him on his knees facing the Marshal and looking up at him. Adam's eyes grew wide, and he felt Evelyn shift her weight as if to stand and open her mouth. He covered her mouth and gently pulled her back down.

  “What the hell is this? Do you even know what you're doing? Who these people are? By Mythran! You assist the enemy! In your own home, no less! This is treason!” Marshal Eckhart threw Adam's mother down beside Adam's father and scolded the two of them. “Lucky for you, I need healers, and I'm willing to assume you were simply ignorant for the time being! I have no time for weak links and traitors. I'll make an example out of you if I must. Just last month I had to put down a divinator who either could not or would not give me anything reliable. I hope I can rely on the two of you.”

  Evelyn pried at Adam's hands covering her mouth as she became distraught at what she was hearing. Adam held on tightly to Evelyn concealing them both from view as she whimpered and thrashed lightly.

  Eckhart looked to the soldiers in his command and spoke with fire: “We'll leave the imperial dogs to die of their wounds. Nothing else changes. Move!”

  “You can't,” Adam's mother spoke with a broken voice, looking at the floor. She looked up to meet the eyes of the Marshal and spoke once more through gritted teeth: “You can't do this!”

  Eckhart yelled angrily, “I'm doing what you should have done! How dare you! This is war! They want everything from us, and you seem more than willing to give it!”

  Adam's mother spoke with tears in her eyes: “These are young men drafted just like your young men. They're no threat to anyone. They don't have to die. Take them as prisoners if you must, but let us heal them.”

  “Prisoners?” Eckhart scoffed. “We are besieged right now. We are cut off, and what food, much less medical supplies, we have I will not spare for them!”

  Adam's mother spoke with tempered pride: “Then leave me with them. I refuse to let them suffer and die.”

  The Marshal swung his arms and smiled like a devil filled with pride and spoke now as though amused: “Is this where your loyalty lies?”

  “We are healers. I studied in the House of Liora. My loyalty lies with those in need,” Adam's mother replied with her own sense of pride.

  “And you, Mr. Reacher?” Eckhart asked of Adam's father.

  “Mr. Eckhart. You have your oath, and we have ours. You'll just have to leave us here,” Adam's father spoke with a stern respect as he struggled while being held to his knees.

  The room was still and quiet besides those suffering in their cots. Adam stared in awe at his parents as they stood their ground. Every emotion ran through him. The pride in his family for their bravery and compassion was immense, but his fear just as much overwhelmed him.

  “Absolutely,” Eckhart stated bluntly with no emotion on his face now. “I'd have it no other way, then.” His eyes met the eyes of each of his soldiers one by one. “They'll be left the same as the imperial soldiers.” He lifted Adam's mother by her hand to her feet and looked her in the eyes. “To die with the rest of the dogs.”

  Eckhart quickly pulled the blade from its sheath at his side and ran the blade straight through her in one swift motion. Adam's father cried out in pain at the sight. No words formed, but all his rage and sadness were made felt. Before he could speak, the two soldiers holding him down both unsheathed their blades and each plunged their swords into his back.

  Adam's parents each fell to the ground, silent and bleeding. Neither Adam nor Evelyn made a sound, as if life had been struck from them, too, as tears ran down their faces. They watched as Eckhart and his men cleaned their blades and resheathed them.

  Eckhart stepped over their lifeless bodies, nearly kicking them, and began giving orders with no hesitation. “Take everything. We'll supply our other healers. Gather everyone and move out.”

  One of the soldiers asked almost innocently, “What of the Imperialists?”

  “Execute them,” Eckhart said coldly. “They've felt enough kindness from us. Let them go to Les together and be judged with their caretakers.” He stepped out the door without looking back as the soldiers in his command sprang to action.

  Adam and Evelyn quickly scrambled up the stairs, terrified, as the scene went from heartbreaking to horrifying as soldiers moved systematically between the cots where imperial soldiers lay. Some of the Crence soldiers simply slit their throats, while others brutalized their victims. The blood seemed to flow from everywhere until the entire floor glistened red and rippled with every movement in its wake. They finally crawled up the stairs and cowered in the wardrobe where they had hidden only moments earlier.

  They sat there until the silence was deafening, until the light of the setting sun could be seen shining through their west-facing window and inching its way through the gaps in the doors of the wardrobe. Without a spoken word, Adam climbed out, and Evelyn followed quietly behind him.

  He walked slowly, taking everything in as he moved down the stairs. He could taste the blood in the air. When he stepped off the final step, he stared at his feet as he plunged his toes into the crimson lake and watched as his shoes became stained. He shuffled his way to his parents until his shoes rested beside them.

  He looked down at them, speechless, tears rolling down his face. He looked away, filled with such frustration and anguish that he bit his lip and gritted his teeth to hold it all in. He felt his heart begin to pound as his emotions overtook him, and he quickly stepped out the door and faced the setting sun.

  He could smell the smoke in the air and see the destruction and debris that lined the city streets around him. The physical world matched what he now knew as his personal reality: broken beyond repair.

  “My father isn't coming home, is he?” Evelyn asked softly from behind Adam.

  Adam hadn't even noticed she was still with him. His mind was blank, and he felt numb. He didn't answer her. He didn't even turn to look at her. They both knew the answer. They were alone.

  Neither moved as they watched the last sliver of sun disappear beyond the horizon to the west. All was quiet and calm for a moment. Then, suddenly, a light appeared in the northeast.

  They both turned to face this peculiar light, unsure of what was happening. It was as if the sun was preparing to rise back into the sky already, but not in its usual place.

  “What is that?” Evelyn asked Adam, in awe at the spectacle.

  Adam quickly responded, “I don't know.”

  Before either could come to terms with this strange sight, the earth began to shake violently. It lasted for a few seconds, but it was enough to nearly knock them off their feet as it passed over the city like a wave. They could hear damaged buildings collapsing from what felt like an earthquake.

  Once Evelyn and Adam had found their footing, they both waited silently, looking in each other's direction, waiting for another disaster to hit. They waited for a minute or two. It was as if they were scared to speak and accidentally challenge the world.

  Adam turned to check on Evelyn. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  She opened her mouth to speak but was quickly silenced by a gust of wind that tugged at their clothes and a sudden, loud boom.

  It was an explosion so massive that it was felt by the whole world of Moria, and its effects would be felt for years to come. Drakmere had erupted.

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