Funeral Pyres

His leather armour stank.
It was pitted with scratches and scorch marks, and the acrid stench of the damaged material hung heavy on the air. Ash coated the usual blacks, and produced a mottled grey where the white dust had worked its way into the damaged points.

Noodok stretched his arms slowly, feeling sense returning to them despite the cold.
Sanasta had been destroyed.

The dragons were spreading thin, it was getting harder to protect their territory, the more they pushed forwards, the more battle fronts were opened.
Every move the corps made was always a cost for someone.
Each city they held, was a bastion for the ones that they did not, but the grip on the generals control of the land where they had been was slipping.

He passed a pile of bodies stacked at least a few meters high.
At least 50. Two soldiers garbed in maroon worked before him, silent in their task. Clean up crew was never a good job, but it would not do to leave the dead around, and give corruption the opportunity to spread.

He paused for a moment to rest his legs.
Noodok wished he had a horse, but they were rare in the corps. It was lesser men who chose to force stallions to be beasts of burden, and rely on them. The exception was only made in rare circumstance, when an animal showed enough promise and intelligence to be treated as an equal, a comrade if not in arms, in spirit.

"It grows dark. Light the fires."
One of the men nodded, and struck a flint across one of the bodies armour.
Within seconds, the oil that had been liberally applied to the dead took, and the heat of numerous infernos took Sanasta, each funeral pyre also a signal for those out of ear shot to light theirs.

Many columns of smoke rose into the sky.

Each pillar of smoke had a Mage administering rites to each pyre.
The task for the mages was twofold, both the safe passage of the dead, and to read the smoke and see if signs could be predicted of success or failure in the future.

He watched as one of the mages stepped through the funeral pyre, and walked out the other side unharmed, in a spinning dance.
His clothes caught fire and began to fall away as the man danced, until he was naked. He stepped through again, and out the other side. The flames flashed gold with a sudden intense heat, then flickered out immediately. The wind picked up, and the ashes were taken to the sky, covering everything around them.

When it had settled, Noodok wiped some of the dust from his face and knelt.

"Lo... I implore you, grant the dammed safe passage."

He stood and rose, watching as the soldiers brought the shivering Mage fresh clothes.

It was going to be a cold night. 

(img source =  BaSHeL1K on deviantart)