CHAPTER 1

  His scars hurt. They always did the morning on days like this. Awaking to the dull ache of the scars on his chest was a sign that he was alive, something he found to be of less comfort as the days went on. He slowly got out of bed as he took stock of his surroundings. This was one of the few buildings in Four Rivers that was still standing unmolested. The last two months of shelling on and off had taken its toll on the morale of the soldiers.

  He sauntered to the broken mirror held together by sinew and bone. It would make do for now as he brushed his ebony fur. He needed to pretend to be presentable to the men and women he had to lead. He traced the scars on his chest just under the pectoral muscles. Every morning, he always wondered if he should just heal them away or not. The scars prevented fur from growing over them, blemishing his black coat. Each time, he kept them. A marker of the path he walked in life now.

  He stretched as he brushed the last of the sleep out of his fur. Before gathering his uniform off the rack, he cycled nethergy across his body. The flow cleared his body of aches and the last dredges of sleep. For a moment, his cerulean eyes glowed with a deep seafoam hue as the energy moved. It subsided quickly as he let the energy dissipate into his flesh. He quickly pulled on the slate gray uniform of a Vashall State necromancer. The uniform was as clean as it was going to be, given the state of their supplies. They couldn’t use clean water for something as trivial as cleaning. Grabbing his wrinkled hat, he made for the door.

  Stepping out of the room that once was once a part of a rather upscale hotel, the building now served as the makeshift HQ for the forces that remained in the city. He quickly made his way to the stairs. As he was about to descend, he nearly ran into a private running up the stairs at a breakneck pace.

  "Colonel Falkenhayn!" She saluted on the stairs, nearly falling as she did so. Heinrich grabbed her before she could fall.

  The black and beige Vulpi looked embarrassed. Her white-tipped vulpine ears were pressed flat against the gray service cap she wore. Aside from her white ear tips, Private Argalia was mainly beige aside from the strip of black fur that started under her amber eyes. This strip ran down the fur on her muzzle and neck under her uniform. The uniform was the standard-issue uniform of the Vashall Imperial Army: a field gray wool tunic, a stand-up collar with five brass buttons down the front, and four large patch pockets filled with items. What those were, he could not tell. Below, she had a pair of trousers of the same slate gray. They were tucked into her type one jackboots, the same type given to all Vulpi, Felide, and Anubian. Type two were reserved for humans and their less common plantigrade feet. Heinrich’s visual inspection seemed to make her more nervous than she was already.

  "At ease. Be careful on the stairs. We have enough to worry about with the shelling. Don't need you to break your tail falling down the stairs."

  The private did her best to not look embarrassed. "Sir, Lieutenant Benson has received a message from Central Command and is requesting your presence."

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Heinrich nodded and dismissed the soldier. She quickly returned the nod and ran back down the stairs. As he descended the stairs, he worked the wrinkles out of his hat as best he could before securing it on his head.

  He walked into the main lobby of the hotel that served as their makeshift command center. Upon entering, he noticed that no one had called the room to his attention. This was an item he filed away for later but didn't press for the moment. It only took him a moment to spot the lieutenant. He was looking at a map of the city when Heinrich approached.

  "Benson, I do hope you have some good news for us." The ivory Vulpi looked up at Heinrich with a grim look across his muzzle, telling him all he needed to know.

  "We got word from Cicero. Those reinforcements we were promised a week ago?"

  Heinrich nodded. Their last message from central had mentioned that they would be getting reinforcements in the next three days. It had been a week, and nothing had arrived.

  "We had assumed they had been delayed, seeing as they are not here. Are they going to be here soon?" The acid in the Felide's voice could have melted bone.

  "Worse, it’s not coming at all. The brigade that was supposed to assist us was intercepted and destroyed. We are alone and surrounded."

  Heinrich sighed. This was worse than he feared. “We have orders to hold out for as long as possible. Once the lines from Arstil have been pushed back, they will attempt to assist us again, but until that time, we are on our own.”

  Heinrich took a moment to process the information. That could take weeks, months even. The civil war had not been going well for the empire, and now things were taking a turn for the worse. Still, he had his people to look after and a city to defend. However, the supplies they had might as well have been vapor for all it mattered in the face of the enemies at the gates. He had options to consider, no matter how grim they might be.

  "Sergeant Hostetter," Heinrich called out. A moment later, a dark-skinned human in his midtwenties stood up abruptly.

  Heinrich looked over the man for a moment before nodding. "I need your team to observe the enemy lines to see if there have been any changes. We recently got some bad news, and I need to know how much longer we have. Also, take stock of the civilians in the city... what's left of them, anyway."

  At this moment, the dull staccato of thuds could be heard in the distance. Every now and then, one was considerably louder as it impacted the bone and sinew dome that protected the hotel. He could feel that bone fracture and the nethergy drain from him to repair the damage that shell's impact had caused. All necromancers in the shield network were batteries for the system. It would only be a matter of time before their reserves were exhausted as well. He reached deep into the River to restore not only himself but others in the array.

  He looked back at the sergeant. He could see the concern flow throughout the man’s face as he heard the artillery impact close by.

  "Our time is short. I need that info if any of us are going to survive this. Unless you would like to join the ranks of the undead."

  The sergeant laughed. "Pretty sure my husband would be upset if I came back a walking corpse. He already gets his fur in a bunch that I'm out here on the front line." He laughed at the thought. "I'll gather my soldiers, and you'll have the info as soon as we return."

  The sergeant saluted before leaving. Things were looking grim, but there was an idea floating in the back of his mind. He would need some confirmation from the other teams before he could put that into motion. Another crack filled the air as a direct hit landed on the bone shield protecting the hotel. He felt the feedback from the impact through the network. Their reserves would not last forever. Something needed to be done