A/N: EDIT, I merged the first three chapters into one because my headass thought i could do this all in two more chapters lmao

Part I // Victoria Lee

The world outside the Wall looked as if right out of one of my mother’s paintings. Long expanses of long green grass that ruffled in the wind, creating a pattern that corresponded with the air currents where the permanently cobalt sky met the emerald land proudly at the horizon where the white sun dipped below each night.

The wind snatched up the hair on my shoulder and threw it behind me as I inhaled the fresh air from outside the Wall. I stood on the Wall walk just above the only entrance, watching as the sun rose and feeling the usual pull of the land.

It had always been there, even before my father took me up to the Wall walk for the first time at ten to see what was beyond it. He told me the story until the day he died, on my fifteenth birthday. I’d demanded to be stood up on the stone rail, wide as I was tall, and so moved by the view outside, I had begun to cry. His daughter; born, bred and trained to be one of the finest Wall Walkers. Scared of nothing, not the risk of fall nor the creatures that inhabited the land outside and forced humanity into pens, to retreat terrified behind Walls.

Suddenly, my gaze was pulled towards the left of my peripheral vision just in time to spot the white tail of a creature. avaritia by the mad sorceress who’d first brought them to life in northern Europe, the creatures had only grown in population as human population decreased. There was nothing much, barely larger than the average woman and traveled on all fours. and animal caught between a lion and lizard. But their thirst for human flesh drove them to insanity and they possessed only two weakness. Named bodies were skeletal and blindingly white, mimicking There

My hand reached for my quiver, selecting a propulsion arrow and leveled my bow. It whirred to life, unfolding in my fingers as I nock the arrow and waited. I could it was there, crouched in the slight dip of the land. My finger tingled at the first sight of white flashed against the grass. I released the arrow and watched as it soared through the couple hundred meters, sticking into the blur of white. I watched as the creature shuddered and collapsed, my arrow sticking out of its right ear.

I’d always been good at judging distances, my aim had always been perfect during practice but once I was assigned to this position as a Wall walker, where the most avaritia activity could be found, I’d discovered that I didn’t need to see the creature’s soft spots to take it down. It was as if I could sense it, to me it seemed as obvious as if there was a target painted on its back.

It was a secret I hid with my life, I only allowed myself to shoot such a long distance when I stood alone on the Wall. Any affinity that I had above the rest of the walkers could tie me to my heritage, to the sorceress blood that flowed through my veins, the very same sorceress’ that summoned the avaritia. I would be hung like the rest of my ancestors.

Every last one of them. I shut my eyes, pushing away memories of my smiling, innocent mother.

“Victoria Lee,” I turned to the voice and my eyes register my legion commander and three of the new walkers that he was still in the process of training. Wide-eyed but with set shoulders, they bowed shortly to me with respect as I met my commander’s eyes. There was nothing to be respected about him, constantly buzzed on poisonous concoctions he bought with the precious coin that he ripped from the poor of the outermost sector of the Wall. “You watch was over twenty minutes, what are you still doing here?” He asked, his voice clipped.

“No one arrived to relieve me of my position twenty minutes ago, Commander Steiner. ” I calmly explained, stepping down from the rail, allowing my bow to fold back into my arm guard. Our high commander was my close friend, Commander Steiner had learned that when we’d both arrived late to a legion dinner with a fresh bruise over my eye.

Namjoon had refused to allow him to dine with the rest of the commanders and he’d been forced to sit with his lowly Walkers.

“I was training the new Walkers. I trust that our most benevolent high commander will not hear of this.” Commander Steiner’s eyes spoke the volumes of hate he held for me.

“Of course, commander,” I bow shortly to him and step away, adjusting the thick velvet fabric of the cloak that rested on my shoulders. I can feel his eyes drilling holes into my back as I walk away, towards the small wards in the Wall that house the walkers.

Namjoon and I had been friends since birth, if I was born with a bow and arrow clasped in my hands, he was with a sword. His talent was unmatched, and I learned everything I know about short-range weapons from him. We’d entered the military at the same time, and received the promotion to commander, however, I preferred to stay in action on the Wall while Namjoon discovered a capacity for dealing with royals in a way that other high commanders could not.

He expressed himself in words in a way that I could not. Two people occupied the high commander position and he offered it to me, but I couldn’t imagine myself living a life inside the castle rather than running along the Wall.

As I pushed the ward door open, scanning my identification bracelet quickly, my nose was immediately filled with the scents of royals and I understood why Commander Steiner was so drunk. Royalty here traveled with feasts. Whenever a royal visited so did a feast, and for that night the walkers were able to have decent meal.

The small ward was packed, busy with excited walkers and even more excited castle staff.

"Pardon," I reached a hand out on a passing server's arm. "Which royal is here today?"

She was a young girl with a mischievous smile on her small face. "The Prince." She told me, pushing sweaty hair away from her face. "First time seeing him, a handsome one at that."

"Thank you," I say as she squabbles away.

The Prince? Why would he be so far away from the castle? Especially with the king ailing, his time to rule would come soon and he was in the one place that only meters of stone separated him from the creatures? 

I walked forward, searching the tables laden with food for royalty but it's not long when I hear my name being called by my ward mates and I was pulled to take my seat beside them on the table.

"How was watch? I know how much you enjoy your quiet evenings," Minhyuk, one of the three men I shared a room with, asked.

"Stimulating," I respond, taking the orange juice from him before he can add liquor. "And yourself? I saw Sanjana on my way."

"Stimulating as well," Minhyuk said with a wicked glint in his eyes, "Though I'm sure not nearly as stimulating as a four-hour patrol in the middle of the day."

"No, it was disgusting, Minnie," Angel says, the quietest of the four of us and a devoted follower of God, wrinkling his nose and turning to look at me. "He made us all stand outside while he ed, we could hear everything." I raise an eyebrow at our man- of a wardmate.

"Would you have rather been inside?" Minhyuk shrugs, taking a basket of fresh roles from Markus, our final and loudest wardmate.

"Actually-" Markus says, taking the empty seat on my right elbow. Minhyuk recoils from him, disgusted by the thought. Minhyuk was all bark and no bite, Markus was all bark and all bite if he said he was going to do something he would follow through.

"Please," I muttered darkly, grabbing the roll that Markus was buttering. "I'm trying to have a meal."

"What's her deal?" Markus asked our table. I reached for my butter knife and he flinches as I spin it between my knuckles.

"I had to see Commander Steiner, you'll have to excuse me just seeing his face pisses me off," I say taking a bite of Markus' roll.

"Did he say anything?" Angel asks.

"Of course not, but just the way he looks at me makes me want to rip his eyelashes out. It's not my fault that the high commander took baths with me when we were babies." I grunt. Minhyuk immediately takes the opportunity to talk about amazing shower he had the other day and I'm grateful to fall silent.

I wasn't usually this quiet, especially at dinners with all this food and alcohol, but I wasn't feeling very social after seeing our commander's greasy face. My about to give in and pour myself a drink for the glass bottle of liquor when a burning sensation erupts on the back my neck.

I drop the bottle just as the loud distinctive cry of an avaritia erupts, quickly followed by a chorus of returning calls and a loud creak erupts as the meters thick stone Wall shudders. I push myself to my feet, reaching to sling my quiver on my back and shove my blades into their sheaths.

Something was wrong. The avaritia never traveled in packs, it was the one thing that allowed humanity to regroup and build defenses against them. I pushed away from the table, shooting past screaming servers and equally terrified looking royalty guards towards the ward exit and the Wall walk. I could hear my ward mates rushing behind me.

The night air hit my skin, sending goosebumps up my exposed arms.

"Lights!" I yelled to the trainee walkers that worked on the lamp towers as I jumped up to the rail. Immediately strong white lights shone down and lit the bodies of several hundred -- that milled around the grass. They pawed the soil like dogs, but reared their heads wildly, paranormally. The sheer number was overwhelming. We'd had small groups of them try to scale the Wall, but they were easy to pick off. This large of a group looked like they could knock the Walls down.

"What the hell," Minhyuk muttered, joining me on the Wall.

"They," I swallowed as I watched them arranged themselves, "they're waiting."

Minhyuk nocked an arrow and let it fly. It took one down without so much as a wail and it was immediately replaced with another.

"What are you waiting for!" Commander Steiner yelled from behind us, sounding terrified. "Load, nock, release."

I reached behind me, selecting one of the many thin short distance arrows and took aim. Before I could loosen, one let out a haunting cry. I couldn't even tell where it was coming from, but shortly after it was taken up by them all and Commander Steiner's orders were drowned out. I reached behind me again, pulling out four more arrows as the avaritia charged and behind scrabbling to get up the Wall.

I loosened arrow after arrow, quiver after quiver, each hitting their target, but it seemed that for every avaritia I took down it was replaced by two more and they just got closer and closer to the top of the Wall.

"This is insane," Markus yells at me, slashing his ax into the skull of an avaritia that had gotten too close to us.

"Quiver here!" Angel calls for someone to replace his empty quiver, but it remains empty and instead, somebody from another team yells something at him, "Damn it, they ran out and the next shipment isn't for two minutes." He grabs the sword at his waist, but I can tell he isn't comfortable with the weapon.

"Cover me," I said, ducking down and sliding off the stone rail before they can say anything. My hands trembled from exertion, but they moved deftly as I reached into the slot below the rail that held the harness for the automated pulley system.

We hadn't needed to use them for two years, I'd hardly have any experience with them, but if I could confuse them for just a moment and allow my team to rearm, I was going to try my luck. I'd always wondered, what real grass felt like.

"Move," I step up to where Minhyuk had replaced me on the rail, stepping into the harness tightened around my waist and s around my thighs snugly.

"You're crazy," Minhyuk says, his eyes widening.

"Crazy enough to buy us two minutes," I shoot back, reaching for the reload quiver set up beside me and split the short distance arrows inside in half.

"Here," I shove one half in the quiver between Minhyuk and Angel. "Make them count." I slide the rest in the quiver on my back and aim for an area heavy with dead avaritia bodies.

I allow my bow to fold back into my arm brace and propel myself off the Wall.

"Victoria!" Markus calls after me, panicked but has to deal with an encroaching avaritia and cannot stop the jump. Several of the avaritia just moments away from reaching the top, jump off with me. In fact, half of the avaritia on the Wall, jump after me. For a second, I soar silently, directly towards the area that I'd picked out.

I land, the harness softening the blow and I roll several meters before popping up. Not wasting any time, I begin gathering arrows hanging out of avaritia bodies and littered on the ground. I can feel them on the ground as easily as I could on the Wall and for once in my life I thank the sorceress blood within me, keeping me from panicking. I pick the bodies until my quiver is full and then I begin shoving arrows into the soft ground beside me.

The first one to reach me isn't a surprise, I nock an arrow and it flies for only a heartbeat before burying itself in the avaritia’s ear.

I could feel every avaritia within a hundred-meter radius turn towards me. They scrambled off the Wall towards me, their heads high in the air, tasting my scent. Shutting my eyes, I reach for the next arrow. It feels like hours, but I know that little over a minute has passed and I unload arrow after arrow. Bodies begin piling up around me. My arms shook with exhaustion, my muscles screamed at me. I just needed to hold on for thirty more seconds. I reached up for my next arrow but grasped air.

.

I