Lightning split the sky as far as Nexxa could see, every moment filled with yet another damned monster.

The dragon was finally dead, and oh how that would’ve sounded so glorious to her a month ago.

She knew better now.

Spinning to the side, she avoided one of the shrieking bug-things that’d been pestering her all throughout the fight. With the storm dragon dead, it was the work of seconds to clear it and every other monster within a quarter mile of her from the sky.

Which only left the thousands of monsters beyond that had built up during her fight. While some of them were fighting each other, most were simply running side by side, as though fleeing something worse.

Except she knew better. They weren’t running away, they were honing in on their target.

There was no chance they’d leave her camp alone. She’d had that lesson beaten into her head. If even a single monster slipped through, they made their way directly towards the beacon.

It had always been there, in its name, its true purpose, Nexxa had realized. A beacon to all the monsters.

The storm had waned, and Nexxa found herself struggling to stay in the air with the loss of the extra mana. At least it had held until she’d slain the dragon. A quick glance confirmed that the beast had already been torn to shreds by the monsters around it, only the durable skeleton left unscathed. A veritable fortune and she had to leave it sitting there cause she didn’t have the time to harvest it.

Without enough energy to be angry, Nexxa scoured the horde with lightning, leaving the earth blackened beneath them. When she’d first arrived, the mountains had been green and vibrant, full of life.

Now they more closely resembled a scorched battlefield. Just another one of her failures.

Nexxa arrived back at her beacon exhausted, wet and frustrated.

Every day, she swore the horde was getting thicker. It was taking everything she had, just to hold them back. Until the dragon, she hadn’t needed to shield herself for days. Most never got close enough for that to matter. But there were so many of them.

What were the fools at the Front even doing?

If she had more time, she'd have gone to check. With the storm, she could be there and back in a day. But she barely had time to eat. Even sleep felt like a luxury, though she knew she had to get at least a few hours. Showering at least, she didn’t have to worry about, as she’d long since let the storm wash over her.

Frontier living, at its finest.

When she looked up at the camp she'd grown to know so well over the last month, bracing herself for another meal of carefully roasted, but still bland, monster meat, she hesitated. She looked over her shoulder to confirm that, yes, that was her beacon. And yes, the river was in the right place. Those were the same mountains that braced the setting sun through a gap in the storm.

She blinked and looked forward again. The camp was gone. In its place was… a fortress. A walled fortress compound with a gate, and towers and…

Had Books finally sent the help he'd promised her over a month ago? It was later than she'd expected, but Front if she wouldn't kiss the annoying twit next time she saw him.

With an unexpected spring in her step, Nexxa bounced to the arch over the stone gate, riding a little bolt of Lightning to the top, drying herself as she did so.

Smoke was rising from a chimney. Only one, but that wasn't too surprising. Even with the solid walls, wood was hard for her team to get down to the central valley, and the cooking enchantments she'd arranged had never arrived. Besides, she suspected Books' mage had wiped themselves out building the fortress. Most mages didn't have a strong Storm affinity like she did, and the Earth well was right in the thick of the fighting, most days.

Combined with the lull in the Storm mana, they’d need some time to recover.

When she saw her people sitting up, no longer huddled against the cold, Nexxa resolved that she wouldn't just kiss that twit, she'd give him a hug strong enough to crush the life out of him. Not that it would take much. Books wasn't exactly the fittest mage she'd ever met. Even Perry had surpassed him by the time she’d visited him out east.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Hash, I see help finally arrived," Nexxa said, spotting the blue-skinned man talking with her lead adviser in the corner. Both had been key in keeping things from falling apart. Nexxa probably would've been stuck there alone if not for their help in keeping things running.

"Nexxa, yes. Help family arrive!" Hash called, mispronouncing his words as usual.

“Finally,” Nexxa corrected automatically, bumping his elbow with her own in greeting as she went to retrieve a bowl from the fire.

The cook, an older lady Nexxa had come to appreciate for her warm smiles and encouraging words, handed her a stone bowl. Nexxa took a moment to admire the simple but functional bowl. They'd had several far better not a month past, but a swarm of tier one monsters had slipped past her while she'd been fighting for her life against a lightning resistant Worlds wolf.

They'd lost a lot more than a few bowls in that attack. Nexxa turned towards the overlook. The names there exceeded those who still remained in the camp. Even more had set sail downriver, deciding to take their chances with the civil wars rather than stay on the edge of the frontier under a Magus Dominus who couldn't protect them.

Nexxa hadn't blamed them. She'd gone so far as to escort them to the edge of her territory, though it had cost her a night's sleep and delayed her patrol. She’d just about died to a wyvern of all things that day. Skipping sleep had a cost, even for her.

Shaking off her thoughts, Nexxa dug into the bowl, receiving yet another surprise. There were tubers and greens mixed in with the meat. Not many, but enough to add some much needed variety. That had been lacking the last couple weeks as well. Meat was easy, at least for her, but it took time to grow things, and the Howling season had arrived early, wiping out the crops they'd sewn throughout the valley before they could be brought in.

And then the swarm had destroyed the rest.

"So, where is this help?" Nexxa finally asked Hash as she finished her bowl, glancing around the room. All of her people were there, but there was no sign of anyone new.

"Said need we a house that is green. A brother over there," Hash said, waving one of his big blue hands towards the back of the fortress compound that had risen while she'd been out.

"Another? More than one greenhouse? So he wasn't out of mana after all this?" Nexxa asked, arcing her eyebrow as she looked around. Was he a specialist like her?

"Mana no problem, he say. Has trick," Hash said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Wants see you, but you needed eat first."

Nexxa rolled her eyes at the blue giant of a man. Of course he'd made sure she ate before he’d told her where the new mage was.

Pushing to her feet, Nexxa was glad her legs didn't betray her. Bestow Health was great for keeping her intact, but it didn't do crap for the fatigue that built up throughout the day.

She really should've picked up that spell of Perry's, the one he called Minor Heal. It was only a first order, but it could still help with the little things. She'd dismissed it, cause Bestow Health was better for combat, but…

If only she had the time to visit him.

Nexxa shut that thought down. Hard. She didn't have the luxury of time. Even with the new mage to support her.

With no more hesitation, she went back out to find the storm had returned in full force. It welcomed her, and Nexxa relaxed. The heart of the storm was where she belonged.

At a more relaxed pace, Nexxa made her way to the north end of the complex, taking in the surprisingly robust complex. When she got close she stopped in place, her mouth working silently as she took in the buildings ahead of her. The pair took up half the fortress. That, by itself, wasn't enough to make her stop. What had made her stop were the transparent panels that made up the walls and roofs. She remembered how much those had cost. Even her father's pet Earth mage had complained about how much effort they'd been to make.

And even that wasn't the most ridiculous thing about the greenhouses. No the most ridiculous part was that they were full of luscious plants.

She knew that was normal for a greenhouse, but these hadn't even existed when she'd left that morning. For them to be full of life, that meant there had to be a Nature mage inside. One with a higher affinity than her.

It was only then that she noticed the Storm mana in the area was streaming past her towards a point near the far corner of the greenhouse on the left. Following the flow of mana, Nexxa stepped inside. She was startled to realize she recognized most of the plants growing inside. They were the same plants she'd grown up surrounded by. Mundane plants meant for feeding mortals. She hadn't seen any of the produce flourishing within the greenhouse since coming to the Frigid Peaks.

A strange suspicion started tugging at her. One that made no sense.

Someone from her family had come.

It wasn't impossible. Her father had sent her and Perry halfway around the world. It was possible he'd sent another. Maybe one of her siblings had taken the oath and been shipped over. Or they’d figured out what they were doing, much like what her father had feared for Perry.

The thought slowed her steps, and she looked around the room again. Yes. They were common plants back home. Was it… had whoever come wanted to help… or to make her feel indebted to them?

If it was one of her half-siblings, it wouldn’t surprise her.

That was a common tactic among the nobles of the Hundred Kingdoms, Nexxa knew. To offer unasked for help, then make demands of the recipient that they wouldn't have otherwise given. At that point, to refuse would damage relations among the other nobles. It was a game Nexxa had despised.

While still lost in thought, a figure suddenly stepped out of the blooming plants at the far end of the room, brushing a lock of black hair out of his eyes.

For a second, a chill went down her spine, as she thought her brother Barreth was standing there.

But no… the chin was a little too round, the hair a little too mussed and the eyes shone with a light she'd only seen in one member of her family.

"Perry?"