A loud warbling screech woke Nym from a dead sleep. He flailed in place, trying to free himself from the tangle of his blanket, before falling out of the bed completely. Arcana filled his soul well and he immediately cast several scrying spells with a focus on anything dangerous in his immediate surroundings.
His door burst open and Jharn came through. “Get ready,” he said sharply. “Undead have breached the walls and will hit us in high numbers. Every mage who can fight needs to report in.”
“Um…” Nym stared at the mage, then past him to where Analia was standing in the kitchen with her mouth hanging open looking at him. She was wearing a purple night gown that fell past her knees. He was wearing… not much of anything. He snatched up the blanket he’d been fighting against.
Red-faced, he mumbled, “I’ll be out in a second.”
Jharn blinked, then realized that Nym was naked. “Oh! Sorry about that.”
He closed the door behind him, leaving Nym to mutter to himself while he jerked his clothes on. They hadn’t been cleaned, but he expected if there was more fighting that they would end up dirtier than they already were. There was no sense in soiling another set of clothes.
Fully dressed now, he grabbed the new coat he’d had commissioned to hold his weapons. It was still leather, but significantly lighter than his previous one. It was a bit hot on the ground, but perfect when he was flying. The blades were already strapped in, providing a solid weight around his sides when he put the coat on.
Jharn was similarly dressed and waiting for him. Analia had disappeared, for which Nym was silently thankful, and Navarim was off that night. He had his own home back in Zoskan, which hopefully wasn’t being threatened like Ebalsan was. “Where are we going?” Nym asked.
“To the keep. They’re organizing the defense from there. My guess is we’ll be manning the walls to repel ghouls. Hopefully it’s just ghouls.”
Nym shuddered, remembering his own encounter with a wight-controlled ghoul swarm. He didn’t hear much about wights, but every now and then some horror story of a geist made its way through the soldiers. Nym had yet to see one in person, and if he was lucky, he’d keep it that way. If he did see any wights though, he’d learned a few new anti-undead spells to help. It turned out that having thousands of them nearby has spurred a great many mages into sharing spells to help fend them off.
Analia came back out of her room, dressed in for perhaps the first time ever a pair of sturdy leather pants, low boots, and a pastel blue blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had a set of palm-sized rings sharpened all the way around in a hip holster. A pair of wands were sheathed on the opposite hip.
“Are we all ready?” she asked.
“I… yeah,” Nym said, eyeing the outfit. He almost didn’t recognize her. “You look good. Very dangerous.”
Nym thought he saw her lips curl up into a smile for just a moment, but it might have been a trick of the light. “Thanks,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Behind them, Jharn snorted and shook his head. “Kids,” he muttered, making no effort to keep anyone else from hearing him.
They took off flying as soon as they were outside. Without even trying, Nym could count at least twenty other mages doing the same, all heading for the same place. The whole town was lit up, so much so that it didn’t even occur to him to use night vision until he tried to look past the wall into the forest. There were already people lined up on the walls and he heard the distant sounds of combat.
There were two tables set up next to each other in the courtyard of the keep, each manned by two soldiers. Between them, a giant map had been pinned up on a board and was covered with marks. As mages landed, they were directed into one of the two lines in front of the tables. Nym, Analia, and Jharn joined the right side, though both were moving so fast it didn’t make much difference.
The soldiers at the tables asked each person or group a few quick questions, then directed them to either the east or west wall. When Nym’s turn came up, the soldier asked, “How many?”
“Three,” Jharn told the man.
“Fight as a group of individually?”
“As a group.”
“Anyone third circle?”
“No.”
Nym and Analia glanced at each other when Jharn said that, but they kept their mouths shut. The soldier directed them to the west wall with instructions to report to the sixth section, which would have two blue pennants flying from a pole. All three of them took off, leaving the whole thing behind while the soldier they were talking to started questioning the next group and his helper went and marked off another section of the map.
The wall itself was about ten feet wide with crenellations four feet high. There were thirty soldiers there, and they were responsible for a hundred feet long section. The lieutenant in charge was busy organizing them into units of five and spreading them out when the three mages landed.
“Oh God, civilian reinforcements,” the lieutenant groaned. “Great. Just go stand in the middle and try not to get in our way.”
“We can hold-” Nym started to say.
“Don’t care. Ghouls are already hitting us in waves. We’re down ten men already and I don’t have time to deal with you. Take your spots in the center and try not to get killed.”
“But-”
“Come on,” Jharn said. “We’ve got our orders.”
They flew over the soldiers’ heads, stopping in the air above the center of their section. “Right,” Jharn said. “That guy is going to be no help, so our options are to stay grouped up and keep ourselves as safe as possible, or spread out a bit and keep as many soldiers as we can safe. Opinions?”
“Soldiers,” Analia said immediately. “We can be mobile reinforcements. We’ll cut this section of the wall in thirds and help wherever the line starts to buckle.”
“A good plan,” Jharn agreed. “I’ll take the northern most stretch, Nym in the middle, and Analia on the south end.”
“Put Analia in the middle,” Nym said.
Jharn frowned. “My job is to guard you. I’m already stretching that order letting you fight so far away.”
“Please, it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve fought,” Nym said. “She doesn’t have live combat experience with ghouls. She needs to be in the middle where either of us can help if needed.”
“I’m flattered at how highly you think of me,” Analia said dryly.
“It’s not an insult,” Nym told her. “You don’t go out and fight multiple times a week. Both of us do. I’m not saying you’re not a good mage. I’m saying I’d feel better if both of us were able to help if you need it.”
She sighed and shook her head. There was a faint smile on her face. “Fine. I’ll take the middle.”
Jharn said, “I don’t like it, but Nym’s not wrong. You are the least experienced, and besides, if you get eaten by a ghoul, who’ll restock the cookie jar?”
“Wait, you’re the one who’s been stealing my cookies?” she demanded, spinning fully to face him. “I’ve been blaming Navarim!”
“Gotta go! Looks like the ghouls are coming in,” Jharn said. He flew off to take his section of the wall.
“This conversation isn’t over yet!” Analia yelled after him. “There will be a reckoning!”
“Be careful,” Nym told her. “Shout for help if you need it.”
“I’ll be fine. Go on and take your place. He wasn’t wrong about the ghouls.”
Nym flew over to the southern-most section of the wall. There were twelve soldiers there, spaced more or less into a single file line every few feet. All of them were looking nervously into the darkness, some surrounded by auras, but not all. Nym quickly identified two night vision spells and a bunch of reflex enhancement spells among the group.
The torches lit up the tops of the walls, but the soldiers wouldn’t know the ghouls were on them until they climbed all the way up. Other sections were better illuminated by mages throwing out light spells, and Nym decided to do the same. He didn’t have the time to enchant anything, but for a little while at least, he could brighten up the woods.
He pulled hard on his conduit and started channeling arcana into light constructs, then cast them out over and over again until there was a bright orb of light hanging out in the open air near the forest every ten feet or so. There were probably twenty or thirty ghouls hiding in the trees, waiting for some reason to attack. Hopefully it wasn’t because a wight told them to.
The lieutenant stomped over, already screaming at Nym. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re ruining my men’s night vision! They’re going to be fighting blind as soon as you drop those lights, you worthless excuse for a mage!”
“I’m not going to drop the lights,” Nym said absently. He was too busy counting ghouls to listen to the soldier’s rant. “Twenty-eight, twenty-nine… What are they waiting for?”
“You can’t hold those lights for another 3 hours until dawn, you idiot!” the lieutenant said.
“I can if I have to,” Nym told him. “Stop bothering me.”
It was a good hundred feet to the tree line. He could probably get his blades out that far, but it would be pointless. The ghouls would just collect the severed limbs and retreat farther behind cover to reattach them if they had a wight commanding them, which Nym suspected was the case. Obviously, no one was going into the woods to dig them out, so there was no point in hiding to wait for an ambush. They would attack if nothing smarter was controlling them.
The lieutenant kept ranting at him, but Nym ignored him until the man tried to grab him. Then Nym gave him a telekinetic shove backwards out of his space and fixed the soldier with a frosty glare. “You weren’t interested in working with us. I’m staying out of your way. Return the favor and stay out of mine.”
“Get this kid off my wall,” the lieutenant told his soldiers.
“I wouldn’t,” Nym said when one hesitantly reached out to grab him.
“This isn’t a game. Get out of here before you do any more damage. People are going to die because of your stupidity and I need to minimize the damage.”
“Too late for that.” Nym pointed at the forest. The number of ghouls had doubled since he’d cast the light spells and there were all pouring out from between the trees at a dead run. “You’ve got a few seconds before they reach the wall.”
“God damn their bones! Brace for the next wave!” the lieutenant bellowed. He spun to face Nym again and said, “This isn’t over!”
“How are you handling the burning?” Nym asked the closest soldier as he sent all four of his spinning blades out to meet the first line. It was so much easier to chop the ghouls up than to try to push them back with air spells. If he’d known this spell months ago, his life would have been completely different.
“We’re not,” the soldier said. “Too risky to send someone down there.”
“Of course,” Nym muttered. He flew up ten feet and yelled, “Jharn! Can you start a burn pit in the middle of the field for us?”
With a surge of elemental earth magic, Nym ripped top soil away, then started digging straight down. It wouldn’t hold a ghoul for very long, and it wasn’t pretty, but a four feet hole with dirt heaped up around it might just serve to keep a pile of writhing body parts contained for long enough.
Flames rose from the pit, fed by Jharn’s arcana, and Nym flew out over the open field to release his blades and hack through closest ghouls. He launched parts into the pit telekinetically, but that didn’t stop them. They simply hobbled on any way they could, even if it meant crawling through the grass. The limbs in the pits scrambled and clawed if they had the power, each one struggling to drag itself back to its owner.
Nym sighed and shook his head. It was going to be a long day.
A loud warbling screech woke Nym from a dead sleep. He flailed in place, trying to free himself from the tangle of his blanket, before falling out of the bed completely. Arcana filled his soul well and he immediately cast several scrying spells with a focus on anything dangerous in his immediate surroundings.
His door burst open and Jharn came through. “Get ready,” he said sharply. “Undead have breached the walls and will hit us in high numbers. Every mage who can fight needs to report in.”
“Um…” Nym stared at the mage, then past him to where Analia was standing in the kitchen with her mouth hanging open looking at him. She was wearing a purple night gown that fell past her knees. He was wearing… not much of anything. He snatched up the blanket he’d been fighting against.
Red-faced, he mumbled, “I’ll be out in a second.”
Jharn blinked, then realized that Nym was naked. “Oh! Sorry about that.”
He closed the door behind him, leaving Nym to mutter to himself while he jerked his clothes on. They hadn’t been cleaned, but he expected if there was more fighting that they would end up dirtier than they already were. There was no sense in soiling another set of clothes.
Fully dressed now, he grabbed the new coat he’d had commissioned to hold his weapons. It was still leather, but significantly lighter than his previous one. It was a bit hot on the ground, but perfect when he was flying. The blades were already strapped in, providing a solid weight around his sides when he put the coat on.
Jharn was similarly dressed and waiting for him. Analia had disappeared, for which Nym was silently thankful, and Navarim was off that night. He had his own home back in Zoskan, which hopefully wasn’t being threatened like Ebalsan was. “Where are we going?” Nym asked.
“To the keep. They’re organizing the defense from there. My guess is we’ll be manning the walls to repel ghouls. Hopefully it’s just ghouls.”
Nym shuddered, remembering his own encounter with a wight-controlled ghoul swarm. He didn’t hear much about wights, but every now and then some horror story of a geist made its way through the soldiers. Nym had yet to see one in person, and if he was lucky, he’d keep it that way. If he did see any wights though, he’d learned a few new anti-undead spells to help. It turned out that having thousands of them nearby has spurred a great many mages into sharing spells to help fend them off.
Analia came back out of her room, dressed in for perhaps the first time ever a pair of sturdy leather pants, low boots, and a pastel blue blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she had a set of palm-sized rings sharpened all the way around in a hip holster. A pair of wands were sheathed on the opposite hip.
“Are we all ready?” she asked.
“I… yeah,” Nym said, eyeing the outfit. He almost didn’t recognize her. “You look good. Very dangerous.”
Nym thought he saw her lips curl up into a smile for just a moment, but it might have been a trick of the light. “Thanks,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Behind them, Jharn snorted and shook his head. “Kids,” he muttered, making no effort to keep anyone else from hearing him.
They took off flying as soon as they were outside. Without even trying, Nym could count at least twenty other mages doing the same, all heading for the same place. The whole town was lit up, so much so that it didn’t even occur to him to use night vision until he tried to look past the wall into the forest. There were already people lined up on the walls and he heard the distant sounds of combat.
There were two tables set up next to each other in the courtyard of the keep, each manned by two soldiers. Between them, a giant map had been pinned up on a board and was covered with marks. As mages landed, they were directed into one of the two lines in front of the tables. Nym, Analia, and Jharn joined the right side, though both were moving so fast it didn’t make much difference.
The soldiers at the tables asked each person or group a few quick questions, then directed them to either the east or west wall. When Nym’s turn came up, the soldier asked, “How many?”
“Three,” Jharn told the man.
“Fight as a group of individually?”
“As a group.”
“Anyone third circle?”
“No.”
Nym and Analia glanced at each other when Jharn said that, but they kept their mouths shut. The soldier directed them to the west wall with instructions to report to the sixth section, which would have two blue pennants flying from a pole. All three of them took off, leaving the whole thing behind while the soldier they were talking to started questioning the next group and his helper went and marked off another section of the map.
The wall itself was about ten feet wide with crenellations four feet high. There were thirty soldiers there, and they were responsible for a hundred feet long section. The lieutenant in charge was busy organizing them into units of five and spreading them out when the three mages landed.
“Oh God, civilian reinforcements,” the lieutenant groaned. “Great. Just go stand in the middle and try not to get in our way.”
“We can hold-” Nym started to say.
“Don’t care. Ghouls are already hitting us in waves. We’re down ten men already and I don’t have time to deal with you. Take your spots in the center and try not to get killed.”
“But-”
“Come on,” Jharn said. “We’ve got our orders.”
They flew over the soldiers’ heads, stopping in the air above the center of their section. “Right,” Jharn said. “That guy is going to be no help, so our options are to stay grouped up and keep ourselves as safe as possible, or spread out a bit and keep as many soldiers as we can safe. Opinions?”
“Soldiers,” Analia said immediately. “We can be mobile reinforcements. We’ll cut this section of the wall in thirds and help wherever the line starts to buckle.”
“A good plan,” Jharn agreed. “I’ll take the northern most stretch, Nym in the middle, and Analia on the south end.”
“Put Analia in the middle,” Nym said.
Jharn frowned. “My job is to guard you. I’m already stretching that order letting you fight so far away.”
“Please, it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve fought,” Nym said. “She doesn’t have live combat experience with ghouls. She needs to be in the middle where either of us can help if needed.”
“I’m flattered at how highly you think of me,” Analia said dryly.
“It’s not an insult,” Nym told her. “You don’t go out and fight multiple times a week. Both of us do. I’m not saying you’re not a good mage. I’m saying I’d feel better if both of us were able to help if you need it.”
She sighed and shook her head. There was a faint smile on her face. “Fine. I’ll take the middle.”
Jharn said, “I don’t like it, but Nym’s not wrong. You are the least experienced, and besides, if you get eaten by a ghoul, who’ll restock the cookie jar?”
“Wait, you’re the one who’s been stealing my cookies?” she demanded, spinning fully to face him. “I’ve been blaming Navarim!”
“Gotta go! Looks like the ghouls are coming in,” Jharn said. He flew off to take his section of the wall.
“This conversation isn’t over yet!” Analia yelled after him. “There will be a reckoning!”
“Be careful,” Nym told her. “Shout for help if you need it.”
“I’ll be fine. Go on and take your place. He wasn’t wrong about the ghouls.”
Nym flew over to the southern-most section of the wall. There were twelve soldiers there, spaced more or less into a single file line every few feet. All of them were looking nervously into the darkness, some surrounded by auras, but not all. Nym quickly identified two night vision spells and a bunch of reflex enhancement spells among the group.
The torches lit up the tops of the walls, but the soldiers wouldn’t know the ghouls were on them until they climbed all the way up. Other sections were better illuminated by mages throwing out light spells, and Nym decided to do the same. He didn’t have the time to enchant anything, but for a little while at least, he could brighten up the woods.
He pulled hard on his conduit and started channeling arcana into light constructs, then cast them out over and over again until there was a bright orb of light hanging out in the open air near the forest every ten feet or so. There were probably twenty or thirty ghouls hiding in the trees, waiting for some reason to attack. Hopefully it wasn’t because a wight told them to.
The lieutenant stomped over, already screaming at Nym. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re ruining my men’s night vision! They’re going to be fighting blind as soon as you drop those lights, you worthless excuse for a mage!”
“I’m not going to drop the lights,” Nym said absently. He was too busy counting ghouls to listen to the soldier’s rant. “Twenty-eight, twenty-nine… What are they waiting for?”
“You can’t hold those lights for another 3 hours until dawn, you idiot!” the lieutenant said.
“I can if I have to,” Nym told him. “Stop bothering me.”
It was a good hundred feet to the tree line. He could probably get his blades out that far, but it would be pointless. The ghouls would just collect the severed limbs and retreat farther behind cover to reattach them if they had a wight commanding them, which Nym suspected was the case. Obviously, no one was going into the woods to dig them out, so there was no point in hiding to wait for an ambush. They would attack if nothing smarter was controlling them.
The lieutenant kept ranting at him, but Nym ignored him until the man tried to grab him. Then Nym gave him a telekinetic shove backwards out of his space and fixed the soldier with a frosty glare. “You weren’t interested in working with us. I’m staying out of your way. Return the favor and stay out of mine.”
“Get this kid off my wall,” the lieutenant told his soldiers.
“I wouldn’t,” Nym said when one hesitantly reached out to grab him.
“This isn’t a game. Get out of here before you do any more damage. People are going to die because of your stupidity and I need to minimize the damage.”
“Too late for that.” Nym pointed at the forest. The number of ghouls had doubled since he’d cast the light spells and there were all pouring out from between the trees at a dead run. “You’ve got a few seconds before they reach the wall.”
“God damn their bones! Brace for the next wave!” the lieutenant bellowed. He spun to face Nym again and said, “This isn’t over!”
“How are you handling the burning?” Nym asked the closest soldier as he sent all four of his spinning blades out to meet the first line. It was so much easier to chop the ghouls up than to try to push them back with air spells. If he’d known this spell months ago, his life would have been completely different.
“We’re not,” the soldier said. “Too risky to send someone down there.”
“Of course,” Nym muttered. He flew up ten feet and yelled, “Jharn! Can you start a burn pit in the middle of the field for us?”
With a surge of elemental earth magic, Nym ripped top soil away, then started digging straight down. It wouldn’t hold a ghoul for very long, and it wasn’t pretty, but a four feet hole with dirt heaped up around it might just serve to keep a pile of writhing body parts contained for long enough.
Flames rose from the pit, fed by Jharn’s arcana, and Nym flew out over the open field to release his blades and hack through closest ghouls. He launched parts into the pit telekinetically, but that didn’t stop them. They simply hobbled on any way they could, even if it meant crawling through the grass. The limbs in the pits scrambled and clawed if they had the power, each one struggling to drag itself back to its owner.
Nym sighed and shook his head. It was going to be a long day.
