After the liberation of Tlaxor, Ella had realised she needed a weapon to take into battle. She didn't want to ever again be in another situation like she had when Bartolo had rescued her and Shani at the Poltoi Palace.

It had been a long time since enchanters had themselves fought in battle. Unlike animators and elementalists, who were both the rune-makers and the users of their magic, enchanters created a much wider range of items, but typically preferred to stay clear of battle.

Yet there had been a time when enchanters fought; before bladesingers, zenblades and armoursilk. In the time of Maya Pallandor, the greatest enchantress who ever lived and the woman who invented armoursilk, there were objects that were common in those times but had since fallen out of use.

Wands.

The prince wouldn't give Ella any more essence, even after her success at Tlaxor, so she had simply lied, telling Jehral that rather than saying no to her request for more essence, Prince Ilathor had agreed whole-heartedly.

Jehral hadn't been too pleased with Ella when he'd discovered the deception, and the prince had been furious. Ella ignored them both and finished her work.

The wand Ella now held in her hand was as long as her forearm and tipped with a prism of gold-flecked quartz. It was made of dark hazel wood, with three facets rising to the tip, and was strangely warm to the touch. Tiny symbols covered its length, so small that Ella had needed a lens to draw the runes with the finest of scrills.

Ella fought to control the quail in her voice as she began to chant. The revenant thrust its sword up at her head, but she turned and it instead hit her dress with a blow that would have skewered her through. Ella chanted the runes without pausing, still muttering under her breath as she pointed the wand at the soldier's rotting face.

A bolt of energy left the wand, tearing a coin-sized hole in the revenant's neck. Ella chanted some more and a second circle of white fire left the wand to strike its forehead. The warrior fell down, twitching once before lying still and unmoving.

Ella looked around her at the battle. A ball of fire flew through the air, sizzling with red energy before it struck a revenant warrior. The draug burst into flames, and Ella's eyes traced the fireball back to its origin to see Shani standing nearby, the palms of her hands centred over another growing bud of fire as she prepared to launch another.

Ella continued to chant, keeping the magic of the wand alive, even as she knew it would drain rapidly. Two revenants ran at Shani, one bursting into flames, the other crumpling to the ground as Ella's bolt of light created a fist-sized hole in its chest.