Avalon

Chapter 1

MARIAN

"Hurry! Get in!"

Standing at the great wooden doors of the Choir, Marian holds open one of the doors by herself. She braces herself against the heavy door while two other sisters hold open the other side, allowing people to flood in from the village. Screams pierce through the rumble of stomping feet. Peering up through her hood, her blue eyes glint as she sees monstrous figures pouring over the massive eastern hills. Yokai of various different shapes and sizes trample towards Carlisle.

Though yokai attacks were not uncommon in the Astoran outskirts, Carlisle had yet to establish proper defenses to keep them out. For the most part, the men and women who would take up arms to defend the village were enough to subvert any attacks. They were but minor skirmishes, though their frequency in recent days has risen alarmingly. The makeshift barricades the woodworkers and carpenters managed to build for them would not hold for long, especially not against the hive-minded yokai – whose groups could flow like water and maneuver with unparalleled cohesion.

They had sent word to the King a week before, begging for aide. But Marian had heard nothing of any plans to send a dispatch of Knights to them.

Her fingers twitch as she holds the door, wanting nothing more than to join the villagers that rush up from their homes to meet the horde. Her quiver hangs at her hip, her bow presses into her back, insistent.

Startling her out of her thoughts, a body slams down beside her. Lifting the weight from her body, Marian feels the person settling in beside her before she looks back, her gaze meeting that of the Choir Mother. Her face is twisted with concern, her dark eyes urgent as she shouts over the noise, "You must help them!"

It is all the encouragement that Marian needs. Sliding along the door, Marian bursts into a sprint around the crowd. In a fluid motion, she draws her bow and an arrow from her quiver. The half-elv makes her way to the barricade, which thrashes with the weight of large bodies throwing themselves into the centers of the fencing. Dozens of people stand atop it, firing arrows down at the yokai, though they hesitate out of concern for shooting their own people.

Marian has no need of hesitation. Leaping up onto the barricade's highest platform, she allows herself half an instant to aim as she draws her arrow. Her blue eyes grow frigid in focus as she picks out one yokai, a ram-headed beast with the body of a lizard, and looses her arrow in a blur. Her shot pierces through the ram's eye, and the yokai's body shivers as it crumples against the barricade.

She is about to continue to fire when she notices a bird perched at the support beam nearest to her. It is white, with two sharp tails. The swallows gazes at her with one gleaming blue eye. Furrowing her eyebrows, Marian can't help but be puzzled by it. The bird remains, despite the slamming of monsters on the barricade, fearlessly, as if there were no turmoil at all beneath them. It does not move aside from shifting its tiny wings, its chest expanding as it breathes. It is the picture of surreal calmness, and seems to be calculating Marian with its gaze.

Shaking her head, the half-elv returns her focus to the fighting at hand. Each of her arrows find purchase within the skulls of the yokai, and the villagers shooting alongside her seem to realize the necessity of her continued assault – yelling down to the people supporting the barricade with their weight to restock her arrows.

Creator, preserve me.

With every shot, the world seems to quiet. Marian sees only her arrow and the next target, the sounds of the battle drowning as she fires with unrivalled precision. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registers that there are simply too many for one archer to fight all at once. But she stays even as some archers begin to fall back, retreating to the Choir as the fighters on the ground begin to trickle back as well – their forces pushed steadily backwards.