any of the autopsies been completed?”
The Fae don't have doctors. They never got sick and if they were hurt beyond what their immortality could heal, they were goners. So when autopsies needed to be done, they were done by humans.
“Not yet, my lord,” the Major said. “I will bring you a report as soon as they are. I can tell you that so far, the internal damage coincides with what the Valorian has reported. It looks as if they were burned internally but not externally. Their organs are blackened.”
“Blackened or burned?” Kardri asked.
I went still; that was a good question.
“I . . . uh, I'm not sure, my lord,” Kenval stammered. “They were black, which I assumed to mean burned, but, as I said, the autopsies are not concluded.”
“Well, find out, Major Kenval,” the Leopard Lord snarled.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Now, Major!” Kardri roared.
Major Kenval jumped to his feet and ran from the tent.
“Double the watch on the Bellor Sea,” Kardri added. “I don't want a single inch of shoreline unguarded. In fact, build a tower on the beach. I want someone in it at all times.”
“Yes, my lord,” General Liese said.
A few minutes of weapons talk, tower construction, and tower placement went by before Major Kenval came barreling back into the tent.
“Yes, Kenval?” Kardri demanded.
“Blackened, my lord,” Kenval panted. “Not burned. The organs are shriveled. I would call them dehydrated except for their color. It's almost as if they were leeched of color and water.”
“What the fuck?” I whispered.
Kardri looked at his fae general and nodded. “As I suspected.”
General Liese grimaced. “They are Farungal, after all.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“The green fire is death magic,” Kardri said grimly.
There was a heavy pause, during which, I looked around the table and scowled. “Um, yeah, I thought that's the only kind of magic the Farungal did?”
“The terms 'spells' and 'magic' can be confusing as they're often used interchangeably. But to be precise, they are two different things; spells create magic. Faeries simply perform magic, we don't have to craft spells to call forth our power. The Farungal, however, have to cast spells using tools, chants, and such to create magic. They generally perform dark spells, also known as death spells. These spells require the sacrifice of a victim to power them, but they can produce all sorts of magic. Sometimes they even produce another spell, which must be activated for the magic to be released.”
I made a face at him.
“As I said, it's confusing,” Kardri admitted. “Look, we've already determined that the green fire is a killing magic. But now we know it's also a death magic—magic that targets or feeds on life.”
General Liese took pity on the confused doctor and explained, “The blackened state you described, Major Kenval, is not a result of water loss but the loss of life—the energy that animates us. The death magic fed on the life inside the victims, using it as fuel.”
“It's not a revelation, merely a confirmation,” Kardri said. “But it also gives us an idea of what this magic does. If it consumes life, it was likely created to target life specifically. In other words, it wasn't just made for rampant destruction. Burning our tents was merely a bonus. That magic was a life-seeker, that's why no one survived. Once the green fire made contact with skin, the target was as good as dead.”
“So how do we counter it?” I asked.
“There is no counter.” Kardri's eyes twitched. “None beyond what I did to save you. In a way, sharing my soul was like life-seeking magic but in reverse. It sought the invading magic and exterminated it. I know of no other magic that can do that. If there were one, sharing a soul wouldn't be such a rare occurrence.”
“But defending against the green fire seems simple,” I murmured. “Why create a weapon that can be guarded against so easily?”
“The solution is simple but crippling,” Kardri pointed out. “If our fae soldiers have to remain in Sidhe form when they fight, our greatest weapons are blunted.”
“And that may be the very point of the attack, my lord!” General Liese said in epiphany. “They wanted us to figure out what it was and how to defend ourselves against it. Whether we shield against it and cripple ourselves or not, they have a better chance of killing us.”
“But if the green fire requires sacrifices to create it, that makes it a costly weapon,” I argued. “Either they'll have to capture those sacrifices or kill their