Darkness by Elle Simpson-Edin and Fiona Simpson-Edin

After the Fall Book 1

Embla, the second planet from the Sun, revolves under a relentless cycle where day and night each span 56 days. In City Six, a colossal metropolis with a population of 230 million, darkness reigns, both literally and metaphorically. Light mages, with their devotion to the sunlit world, are outsiders in this shadowed labyrinth dominated by Dark mage guilds.

Amid the lawlessness, tensions escalate. A battle mage seeks solace and meaning in the quiet of asceticism and research, while a young Dark mage grapples with her awakening power. Far from the shadows, a Light mage team ventures into the city to uncover secrets, and a weary pilot navigates the fringes of interstellar trade, just trying to survive. Elsewhere, a Life mage hunts for a key to untold power.

These disparate lives spiral toward an unavoidable collision as the ancient struggle between Dark and Light threatens to engulf not just the city but the entire system. Among them, Sinn—a formidable battle mage with a flair for chaos—embodies the ferocity of their kind. When intruders breach the mage’s compound, they ignite a confrontation that is anything but balanced. The scene erupts into a violent dance of fire, stone, and unrelenting magic, testing the limits of loyalty, strategy, and sheer survival in a world where power means everything, and alliances are forged in fire and blood.

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Excerpt from Darkness © Copyright 2024 Elle Simpson-Edin and Fiona Simpson-Edin

THE large screens of the security center showed an unusual sight to the two mages carefully scrutinizing them. Sinn, sitting alone by the fire in the middle of the cavernous space that they now called home. Gere was at Masan’s side in their ascetically decorated room, illuminated to a level that would leave non-mages blinded for hours. Between them, on the glass table, sat a large bowl of assorted treats. Gere snatched up a small hard candy and tossed it in a wide arc, catching it in his mouth. “I still think you should have let me do this…”

Masan let out an exaggerated sigh, “We know they won’t do anything to us when we’re there. When I say we, I mean you. It doesn’t take a genius to detect the danger of attacking you.”

“Meh, so just because I’m big Sinn gets all the fun?”

“Yes, exactly,” Masan affirmed. The problem with battle mages was that they were petulant if you left them out of a fight.

“I guess we’ll at least get a show,” Gere smirked and flicked another candy into his large, grinning mouth.

“Seems very likely,” Masan agreed, gesturing at the screen. Three figures had shown up on the detectors outside the compound and were now hacking the lock of the main entrance with some cheap contraption.

“So, this is why you asked me to shut down all the extra security?” Gere asked unnecessarily. He already knew the answer, he just didn’t like it.

“They need to get in for us to take the confrontation, no chaos on the street.”

Even though only the old code lock installed decades earlier was the only active security measure, the men took several minutes to breach the gate. Masan was getting worried they wouldn’t succeed at all.

As the door swung open, two of the men moved in towards Sinn’s position, and the third disappeared from the sensors. The screens flickered between different cameras, constantly finding a perfect angle to keep the two men in sight. On a different screen, Sinn sat, back turned to the entrance in a seemingly casual and relaxed pose reading a book by the fire. A shimmer on the monitor gave away the activation of a shield.

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Blonde hair flowed in an almost liquid way through the air as Sinn spun around on their seat to face the intruders. Sinn gave a small sarcastic salute at the two men draped in shadows at the edge of the room. “Welcome, I thought we had locked up, but I must have been mistaken.”

The men walked into the open space with confidence in their steps, both in what could generously be described as armor; their multicolored rifles held at their sides painted with what Masan figured was some sort of gang decal.

He gave Gere a meaningful look and the huge man smirked. “I feel like there’s some sort of lion’s den comment that would be appropriate here.”

Masan thought for a second. “Sinn always reminded me more of a mantis or scorpion than a lion.”

“I guess you would know.” Gere winked at him.

Masan made a hand signal at the screen to increase the volume as the pair turned their attention back to the scene.

The older of the two intruders spoke first in a gravelly voice, “You people have been doing business in our territory. That’s a really bad idea.”

Sinn looked him in the eyes across the open space. “Why would that be? Last I heard this is a free world, for free trade.”

The same man replied, “The world might be, but you know damn well that the neighborhood isn’t.” He raised his gun and pointed it at Sinn’s face. “We’ll send a message here, and hopefully those other assholes you hang with will get the point.”

Sinn couldn’t contain themself and burst out laughing, they almost slid off their seat as they folded over in stitches.

“What the hell is so funny? You’re about to die you bitch!” The words came from the younger man.

Sinn looked up at him. “I am, am I?”

The older man must have seen what they had planned and opened fire, but as the hail of bullets came, Sinn was already moving. A few rounds made contact, but at an angle, and they were easily deflected off the silvery mesh that coated the laughing mage. They ducked and got into the cover of the heavy makeshift bar made from stone slabs that had been dragged out from surrounding access tunnels. They were still laughing. “See this, Gere? This is why you’re not allowed to come out to play, I’m no threat you see.”

Gere swore over the comm, but there was a clear hint of sarcastic joy in his voice.

Sinn was putting on a good show.

Metal splintered and cracked the stone that was protecting Sinn, the railgun-make of the rifles lent a lot of destructive power. Over the bursts of bullets, Sinn’s silky voice taunted the attackers. “Really? Ganging up on a poor defenseless mage? Such bad form!”

As Sinn taunted the men, Masan saw the third one return on the outside sensors, now in a much more intimidating form. He was wearing an old model of Kras power armor. Masan got on the comm, “Incoming, we were right, they’re sending in the one with the armor.”

He saw a smile on Sinn’s lips past the stone dust on the monitor, “Excellent!

Then it’s go time?”

“Absolutely,” Masan replied and flipped a switch which ignited the hundreds of floodlights of the compound.

Sinn rolled out in the open, moving quicker than any ‘dim’ could have expected. They lifted a hand in the direction of the two men across from them, and fire exploded from the ground, engulfing both figures with what looked like a bright shining tornado. The firestorm only lasted for a second and as it fell silent all surfaces of the structure went back to normal. The intruders who’d been caught in it, however, kept screaming. Every inch of their skin was ablaze as if covered in burning napalm. Their weapons lay useless on the floor and the men crashed down next to them, rolling around to try to extinguish themselves, hands covering their faces. Any relief they found this way was momentary, as any movement exposed previously covered skin, setting it on fire anew. Sinn frowned at the screaming and gestured twice in rapid succession. Stone shards leaped from the floor next to the destroyed counter and darted straight through the skulls of the two men. The screams were abruptly cut off and the bodies twitched a few times before going still.

Without warning, an explosive shell hit Masan’s lover and flung them across the floor of the giant room. Masan jumped out of his chair, in a futile attempt to get a better view, but there was so much debris and dust that the infrared was scrambled from the fires and explosion.

Gere put a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Sit down, chill, they can take care of themselves.” As if that had been the cue, a loud roar shook the speakers.

Sinn lit up like a beacon as they threw themself out of the path of the next explosive round, most likely due to the confusion of the power armor wearer.

Dodging rounds wasn't a feat seen often, even by battle mages.

“They activated their experimental shit didn't they?” Gere's question was obviously rhetorical, but Masan nodded. He didn't like when they took risks like this.

The giant figure of the armor-clad man scanned the room with his large launcher, looking for an opening. Sinn darted from behind some crates that had concealed them and the gun boomed as another grenade came flying. Sinn was moving quicker than he'd accounted for and again he missed.

The shimmering mage didn't get back behind cover as a sane person might be expected to do in the face of an overwhelming enemy. Instead, they zigzagged in the direction of the mechanized suit weaving between bullets and grenades. They slammed into the hulking beast with a loud slam and brought it to its back. The man inside the suit was obviously panicked at this point, servos whirring as he tried to get the wiry mage off his chest. As the robotic arm came up Sinn grabbed it in an impossibly strong hand, the fingers digging into the metal, oil, and hydraulic liquids spurting out of severed lines.

Masan caught a glance of Sinn's face on one of the monitors and shivered, so beautiful, and so terrifying. Wild eyes shone as miniature suns, and the face was distorted in a violent grimace. Their normally impeccable hair rode streams of leaking magic, forming a bright, blonde halo.

The moment passed.

Sinn got a hold of the second arm and ripped something loose in the armpit, making the mechanisms pull it into a strange and painful-looking position.

They then started slamming fists down on the chest of the disarmed intruder.