Chapters 79-92
Unspoken Words of Magic by Halosty
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Lucy hadn’t really had a good picture in her mind for how heavy the portcullis was, except just that- heavy. As Lucy pulled on the mechanism, she found out she was right… and she was only feeling a portion of the weight. Her arms were providing half of the force, and magic the other half… and even with the effective weight reduced by pulleys, she found herself struggling. Maybe if she’d gotten a proper night’s sleep, or maybe if her ankle wasn’t twisted… but she couldn’t give up. She pushed herself as far as she could… glad she had been required to exercise, because she’d been quite weak before. Now, while she wasn’t strong by any means… not being weak could be good enough.
Lucy pulled and pulled until she couldn’t pull anymore. Her arms strained, her magic strained… her invisibility spell was long forgotten. It felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been very long- no soldiers had run in from either side to see the commotion. Certainly, many of them were busy with those climbing the walls on one side of the gatehouse and perhaps more enemies approaching the gate… but she couldn’t bet on them not noticing. Lucy pulled, her arms straining, and then she could pull no more. No matter how she tried, the wheels wouldn’t turn a single inch further. Was that all she could do? Was she going to give up? She just needed to… Lucy blinked. Inside her mind, she replayed the sounds she’d heard recently. Mostly, yelling from the walls and her own heavy breathing and grunting… but also a click. Like… mechanisms locking in place. Lucy let go… and nothing happened. The portcullis was up.
Just after that moment, she heard the thud of a battering ram… and the gates below swung open. They’d reached the gates… Lucy hoped shoving the wizard off the battlements helped. She hadn’t exactly been paying attention to him, but it couldn’t have hurt. The ram had made it to the gates after all, and people were pouring through.
About this time, there were supposed to be archers in the gatehouse shooting through some holes down at the people below. At least, that was what Lucy had heard. However, there weren’t any. Then again, all the archers had been at the walls… and if they hadn’t received orders, they probably didn’t even know they were needed.
Lucy slipped out of the gatehouse and down some stairs- those with ladders had only partly made their way onto the walls, but that left one side extremely distracted. Reinforcements were coming from other parts of the walls, but all in all the battle hadn’t been that long yet. What was it… five… ten minutes? She’d honestly lost track of time. As she walked down the stairs carefully, Lucy kept an eye out for any soldiers… or mages. She felt fewer of them on the walls, but whether that was because they were dead or her senses were dulled, she couldn’t be sure. Lucy did feel Isabel, however, coming through the gates.
She spotted Captain Blecher as well, ordering men to secure the gates as well as to storm the walls. Some defenders were already fleeing or surrendering, and Lucy knew that would only increase.
Had they really won? It wasn’t a real castle, just city walls, but it had seemed so impossible. There were fewer mages than she had expected, and honestly not that many soldiers. Lucy thought about that as she took a rest over away from the fighting. She didn’t have any more spells that would help, and even if she’d had time to prepare more she barely had any magical power left. She hadn’t quite exhausted herself on the mechanisms in the gatehouse.
Isabel rode over next to Lucy, along with Lucy’s horse. “That was an excellent usage of non-magical force to defeat magical force,” she commented. Isabel looked herself over, presumably studying her shields- they were faint and tired, like she looked. “I need to consider falling impacts.”
Lucy nodded slightly. That wouldn’t be relevant in all situations, but if they didn’t at least consider solutions then they wouldn’t improve. “Wait…” Lucy stood up. “Come.” She pulled her horse into they alley near where they had been waiting, and Isabel followed. Lucy crouched down behind a broken crate, the horses concealed further in. She saw Major Aylmer ride through the gates, along with Magnus. Magnus was acting as the personal bodyguard to Major Aylmer. Lucy didn’t think it was necessarily inappropriate to have a mage providing shields to a senior officer, but Major Aylmer hadn’t even been near the frontlines. It would have been something else if he’d made sound tactical decisions, but instead he’d made everything worse. It had even kept out one of the few good mages they had- Lucy didn’t want to admit that of Magnus, but Magnus really did have some ability.
Major Aylmer said something to Captain Blecher, who responded promptly- only showing her displeasure when Major Aylmer turned away. Then Major Aylmer continued riding into the city. “Lucy-” Isabel started to speak, but Lucy put her hand over Isabel’s mouth.
“Shh. I know. This way.” Lucy staggered further into the alley, and pulled Isabel with her. She didn’t really know the alleyways, but fortunately they found a branch to the side that led in the direction they’d sensed another mage. An enemy mage. From where they were, they could see a city square- not the main square, but a smaller open area not far from the northwest side. “Save your remaining magic in case you need it.”
Major Aylmer was leisurely riding through the small square when a bolt of fire washed over him and his horse. When that failed to take him down, there was another. The shields from Magnus covering him broke, and both horse and man cried out in pain. Lucy winced, but there was nothing she could do about it. That poor horse.
Magnus responded with a lightning spell at the mage who had stepped out from behind a corner, but it failed to break through the man’s shields. Lucy frowned. She had one spell left, a general dispel. Maybe it wouldn’t work perfectly well because she was exhausted, but it could do something. As another condensed bolt of fire flew towards Magnus, she considered using it… but she decided against it and just let it wash over his shields. Unsurprisingly, they withstood the first bolt. However, both sides wouldn’t be able to keep up their level of output. Lucy could feel how much they were pouring into each offensive spell and their own shields.
After another exchange, Magnus attacked with a bolt of pure energy- it wouldn’t catch anything on fire or penetrate through armor, but such an attack could break ribs. Lucy reluctantly used her final spell, aimed at the enemy mage. Her dispel struck immediately before Magnus’ spell, and the mage who hadn’t been prepared to dodge only managed to lean to the side, and was sent spinning and tumbling to the side of the street, coming to rest against a storefront.
Magnus turned to see Lucy. “You!” His eyes narrowed, “You neglected to protect the major! That’s-”
“Your job, isn’t it?” Lucy raised an eyebrow, “Though you really should have been under the direction of us senior mages, we allowed you to take up that position at his request.” Lucy flexed her shields, trying to make them seem more powerful than they were. In fact, if it was possible for them to be felt at all… it was more powerful than they were. If it came down to it, she had to hope Isabel backed her up. “Don’t forget to refer to me by my title, Mage Magnus.”
Magnus glared at her… then looked over his shoulder. The squad that should have been riding with Major Aylmer but had been left behind at the gates was rapidly approaching, as were a number of other soldiers- and Senior Mage Lundgren. He turned back to Lucy. “Of course, Senior Mage Lynwood. My apologies. This incident likely caught us both unprepared.”
“Indeed it did.” Lucy took the insincere apology at face value and turned towards the soldiers. “Now then, I must meet up with Senior Mage Lundgren so we can prepare a report to… Major Erling, I suppose is next in line.” She did her best not to wince as she stepped over to the side of the road.
//End Chapter 79
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In the aftermath of the battle and Major Aylmer’s death, Major Erling had the opportunity to take control- at least for the moment. Perhaps a replacement would be sent later, but at least he could adequately resolve the situation at hand. Though she already knew she would find him more suitable, Lucy was still pleased to find how immediately his leadership was a step up. She and Senior Mage Lundgren were in an office- just a building in Rifton they had temporarily taken over, but it was better than a tent. “I received Mage Magnus’ report earlier. Comparing with Senior Mage Lynwood reports and those of the soldiers, it is clear Major Aylmer ordered his guard to stay behind at the entrance to the city before it was made secure, then was attacked by a Scoubarran mage. He was protected by Mage Magnus’ shields which were eventually overcome, and Mage Magnus fought back against the mage before slaying him- with some help from Senior Mage Lynwood. Anything beyond that is speculation and will be left out of the official report.” Major Erling pushed a paper to the side of his rather small desk. “However, I would be interested in hearing any speculation relevant to the situation. It also appears you have something to say.”
Senior Mage Lundgren nodded, “Yes. Major Aylmer’s handling of magely forces under Bryrian command was… negligent at best. He left us out of the decision making process, but still expected us to provide results. In the last battle, he ordered an attack and then even stepped up the timeframe not allowing us to properly prepare spells in the morning, even though he had been made aware that time and rest were required. It wasn’t an emergency situation that warranted such action. Given another day or two, Senior Mage Lynwood could have come up with a method to enter the city with smaller loss of life and without as much risk on her part. It almost felt like he wasn’t even working for our side, with how he ordered a scouting company to take part in the main offensive attacking the gates.”
“Hmm, a serious accusation, to be sure.” Major Erling nodded, “Unfortunately, that is only speculation that we cannot know. What of his death? Mage Magnus thought he could have been saved if other mages,” his eyes flicked to Lucy, “had arrived to assist sooner.”
Lundgren answered that question, “There weren’t any in a position to assist except Senior Mage Lynwood, who used the last of her resources to assist in defeating the enemy mage. Apprentice Isabel had been involved in the frontal assault, and the rest were at the gates or still outside the walls.”
Major Erling nodded, “What about Mage Magnus’ efforts? His shields failed and his attacks didn’t finish off the enemy mage until after Major Aylmer’s death… could he have been saved?”
All eyes shifted to Lucy, who had been the only one able to observe from up close. She shook her head, “No, I don’t think so. Unless Mage Magnus had chosen not to defend himself- in which case he would have been killed first instead, and then the Major. The enemy mage was enough to overpower him alone. Even if I were to speculate… Mage Magnus would have preferred Major Aylmer alive. He gained some position outside of the proper chain of command that way. Likewise, in my opinion Major Aylmer’s leadership wasn’t something Scoubar would have been worried about- his death would only mean he was replaced with a different Major, though the loss in morale might be a factor.”
Lundgren added, “For all that his actions have bordered on insubordination, Mage Magnus is an intelligent enough fellow to understand that working with Scoubar wouldn’t be in his interests. The same wouldn’t necessarily be true for Major Aylmer, since they treat non-mages they subjugate… similarly to the people in Scoubar itself. Though it is then unclear why he was killed.”
Major Erling replied, “I see. In that case, if he was to attempt some sabotage of the mages, perhaps he was not effective enough… otherwise, he was merely careless about his entrance into Rifton.” He paused, “What did you think of the enemy forces… specifically the allotment of mages?”
Lucy thought for a few moments then answered, “Their abilities were certainly adequate, but there were fortunately fewer of them than I anticipated. Likewise, the other forces were not as numerous as expected.”
Major Erling nodded, “Yes, it is possible most of their forces withdrew, determining Rifton wasn’t worth defending. In that case, the other forces might face more resistance, and trouble with mages. Or it might come later. It is unlikely Scoubar will merely give up all the ground they’ve gained over the past half decade.”
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Taking back Rifton had been the immediate orders of the battalions under Major Aylmer and now Major Erling’s control. Now their job was to stabilize the city- though for the most part Scoubar had left it untouched. Travel had been limited, of course, and there had been burdensome taxes levied… but they hadn’t burned down sections of the city or killed people randomly- though it wasn’t as if the city was entirely unscathed either. People were still nervous going outside for market day and the city was low on some supplies- Scoubar had hoarded many of the supplies and taken them away as those forces left. This was something that could have been determined before the attack if proper time had been allocated for scouting, though the seemingly small numbers of defenders had been reported to Major Aylmer- he just hadn’t discussed that information with Major Erling or the captains under their command. Major Erling only found out by bringing in the scouts to question them and reading through what reports he could find.
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Both Lucy and Douglas were happy when they were reunited- with Rifton properly under control, the noncritical support personnel rejoined the rest of the army. While cooks were very important to their continued functioning, soldiers could also survive on rations for a time, though it wasn’t good for morale.
Along with that, Lucy was assigned quarters in Rifton. It was just a long term inn room, but it was more comfortable than a tent and had a real desk to work on. Douglas often came to visit… partly because he wasn’t as busy with his cook’s duties since some of the work was taken care of by those from the city. Of course, he did want to spend time with his sister… but he also wanted to use a real desk. That said, scribbling magical notes next to each other brought their thoughts back to the better times of their lives, in Irieby and even before that in their home in Pendle.
It was the job of the mages firstly to completely determine the effects of the enchantments on the walls. The city certainly couldn’t rest at peace with unknown enchantments on the walls… but it only took a day of carefully looking over things to determine they were safe- they couldn’t easily be unraveled by the enemy, but they might want to modify them regardless. That became their next task… and though Douglas couldn’t officially participate, he was able to guide Lucy in that area, since he had more experience in that field from his time in the Endless Library. With that, they spent time in relative peace waiting for whatever the next orders might be.
//End Chapter 80
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Neither side found much point in fighting over smaller towns, so Bryrian forces were able to advance steadily in many areas. However, that was only the forces under Major Erling’s command. Elsewhere there were other cities that had some strategic value, and the armies there had more trouble. Occasionally, they requested the assistance of mages- and it was there that they began to see some losses. So far, Bryria had actually been rather fortunate with the lives of their mages but one full mage and a few apprentices died in battle as Bryrian forces reclaimed lost territory. It wasn’t without cause- their assistance had been paramount to the success in several battles, but it wasn’t possible to go without any deaths. In terms of Scoubarran mages, they killed at least a dozen- which further solidified how little they cared about any individual mage. Or perhaps it could best be said that they didn’t care about those mages. It was mostly speculation, but there was some reason to believe the mages were being tested. So far, they had mostly failed- though several escaped alive, and other Scoubarran mages gained small victories, though they still had to retreat eventually. Bryrian forces didn’t have to pass through a whole country to get reinforcements.
The central army remained under the command of Major Erling for the moment, and their next task was to take back the city of Agrila. It was better fortified than Rifton as it had strategic significance- it sat on the Brentgar river, which flowed from the mountains northeast to the ocean south and west, separating the final stretch of Bryria from the rest of the territory. It had been a significant loss when it was taken over, but Bryria hadn’t been ready for war in time.
Laying siege to the city simply wasn’t possible- since Agrila controlled the river, soldiers and supplies could freely come and go on the far side. The next significant crossings were days in either direction, and while it was possible to ferry an army across the river it would cut off their supply lines. They couldn’t ignore the city, and while progress was being made on the other fronts recapturing Agrila would allow for a significant leap in control of the area- with its positioning they could send soldiers to either of the other fronts. If Agrila wasn’t recaptured, the enemy would instead have that advantage- and while Bryria controlled one side of the river, that control wasn’t yet absolute. They would have to keep forces allocated to countering whatever came out of Agrila, reacting to whatever happened instead of acting.
Lucy was glad that Major Erling was willing to explain things like that to the mages, and then asked how they could contribute. Senior Mage Lundgren gave a basic breakdown of the situation. “Without mages scouting the city, we can’t be completely sure what defenses they have. However, since Scoubar has been in control of Agrila for a longer period than they controlled Rifton, and it’s location is more significant… it can be assumed they have fortified it with more magical enchantments. What they are can’t be certain, but if we are given adequate time we can greatly reduce the difficulty of an attack.”
Major Erling nodded, “Of course. We don’t have cause to rush, but we would do well to have Agrila back under our control before harvest.” Scoubar had more or less let farmers continue about their business- the more food produced locally the less they had to bring in.
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Technically, Douglas should have been working. However, as the brother of one of the Senior Mages he could get away with quite a bit of absence… with the understanding that he wouldn’t be paid when he didn’t work. That suited him just fine. At the current moment, he was observing the walls of Agrila. Obviously, all of the interesting stuff was inside the walls, but he could get an idea from the outside. Nothing particularly exciting from what he could tell- just fortifying spells, alarms, and the like. The walls were taller than those of Rifton, and they looked more difficult to climb, though Douglas hadn’t actually attempted either of the walls. He trusted Lucy’s word, though.
If he stood at just the right angle, he could see the closest river gate recessed into the wall. Any attack by boat would be pointless, as the walls weren’t any weaker. Trying to break through any of the river gates into the city would be fruitless, especially with the enchantments fortifying them. It wasn’t worth trying and would only result in being filled with arrows. Douglas looked out across the river- maybe fifty meters wide- to the other side. In theory, the enchantments were the same on the other side of the river. In practice… Douglas wouldn’t bet on consistency. He couldn’t feel the enchantments at his current distance- which didn’t mean they weren’t there or even that they weren’t strong, just that he couldn’t say.
There was just one thing that Douglas knew. People liked to save money. Permanent enchantments cost money. If the rear of the city wasn’t going to be attacked, it wouldn’t need as many defenses. Douglas knew it hadn’t been enchanted before Scoubar took it over, because basically nothing in Bryria had been.
He couldn’t check though. Even if he could, would it matter? They couldn’t get an army over there, and it would just be to satisfy his curiosity. An army who crossed over wouldn’t have the necessary siege tools… though he supposed with wizards it might not matter. If the walls weren’t enchanted. The only problem was Douglas wasn’t going to try to climb over the walls, he didn’t have a boat, and he couldn’t swim- even in still water, and this was a river. It wasn’t rapid, but he also didn’t want to end up kilometers downstream… or more likely, end up underneath the surface and drown. He couldn’t wait for the river to freeze, so he couldn’t just walk across.
Douglas squinted his eyes. Fifty meters. That was what, twenty-five people? It wasn’t an impossible distance to affect with magic by any means, though it would depend on what sort of magic. He certainly didn’t have anything to go across now… but he had time. Maybe he could find some sort of weakness to help out Lucy. He didn’t want to let her experience any danger she didn’t have to.
//End Chapter 81
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It wasn’t exactly easy for Douglas to hide what he was doing from Lucy. When he was actively working on a new spell, she was almost always around- unless she was out doing some training for herself or for others. The point was, he used her materials so it wasn’t a secret that he was doing something- and refusing to share what he was working on would be suspicious. Thus, Douglas had to work on different things most of the time, spending the time he worked as a cook thinking about magic without being able to write it down. He hadn’t really come up with a good idea yet anyway.
How to get across a river? Fly? While flight was possible with magic, he found it unlikely he could do it very much… and doing it invisibly was another issue as well. Concentrating on two complicated spells at once was… difficult. Each was a complex puzzle to hold together on its own. The amount of magic required to fly was also quite high- Douglas didn’t actually know exactly how much, but he’d previously put together a levitation spell… which was like a flying spell without any mobility. He hadn’t been able to be high off of the ground, and for less than a minute. Moving horizontally at the same time would be difficult. And… if he was using that same technique, it probably wouldn’t work over water.
Douglas stared at the pot in front of him, bubbling and boiling. Chunks of potato floated on the surface. Was that it? First, his brain went to learning to swim. He probably should, but starting in a large river, even a relatively tame one like the Brentgar river? That wasn’t a smart idea. Unfortunately, he didn’t have anywhere else to try swimming at the moment. So, back to the potatoes floating. If that wasn’t him, then… he pressed down on a chunk with a spoon. It resisted going under the surface.
Freezing large chunks of ice in the river was… an even worse idea. He didn’t like the idea of slipping and sliding on bobbing chunks of ice as he tried to move across the river… and that was without even taking into account its flow. Plus, freezing enough ice to keep him above water? Doing that for just one step would probably take most of the magic he could do in a day, and assuredly wouldn’t get him across a fifty meter river. Likewise, he couldn’t freeze just the surface of the water- it wouldn’t be thick enough to support his weight even if it didn’t have to float. Fifty meters of ice a few centimeters thick and fifty centimeters wide… actually, that was about the same as one block of ice that could hold him up. The only problem would be water splashing over his ice melting it and the fact that he might not have enough magic to return. Also, it would be pretty obvious to anyone looking if he created an ice bridge, even a thin one. If it messed up- which it easily could- he would be somewhere in the middle of the river and still unable to swim.
So, what, how did people normally get across rivers? Boats? That was… actually a lot easier. Douglas already had half of a potential spell formed. He’d been thinking like he had to use magic to make something not magical to help him across. Now, he didn’t know where any boats were and they would still be visible… but he could also use magic to simulate a boat. Basically, it was easier to just displace more water to hold him up compared to turning water to ice to perform the same task. That was basically just a big bowl shaped shield, though his normal shields allowed water through usually. This one would only prevent water and himself from going through. As long as there weren’t any violent impacts it would work… though if he didn’t propel himself fast enough he’d end up downstream. He had almost missed that part. He could also push at an angle against the current… well, he could figure that out later. For now, he would put together as much of the spell as he could in his head so he could quickly write down a real version later… as soon as he prevented the soup from burning.
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Douglas stood half a kilometer downstream from Agrila. He had considered the upstream side, because then the water would push him closer to his eventual destination… but that also meant if he messed up he would end up right next to the city and wizards who could potentially sense him. He was trying to maintain his distance enough that it would be harder to sense him- even if he concealed his magic, it wasn’t impossible to pick up on it. Distance would mitigate that. If that meant he had to walk an extra kilometer or two… well, it would turn into a longer trip, but hopefully it would be worth it.
He’d already done a test the day before… he’d ended up much further downstream than expected, and had to turn back before he reached the far side of the river. He hadn’t propelled himself fast enough… and trying to fight against the current was just a waste of energy. He also hadn’t been expecting the ride to be so… bumpy?
Douglas set up the river crossing spell. It was basically a half-sphere starting at his feet and ending parallel to his knees, more or less. Just a bit above them, to displace more water than necessary to hold him up. He hopped into the river and activated his other spell to push himself across. The half sphere remained perfectly level as it was supposed to, with no rocking back and forth… but the up and down motion was somewhat jarring. Since the spell resisted motion in other directions, more force likely affected him in the directions it could go, pushing up and down instead of tipping.
It took a good two minutes to cross the river, after which he was another two hundred or so meters downstream. Douglas took some time to collect himself, before checking his invisibility and starting his walk. Hopefully, he would find something useful.
//End Chapter 82
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The sound of his steps impacting the dirt under his feet sounded far too loud. Only the occasional chirping bird provided additional sound. Douglas couldn’t get too close to the walls for fear of being heard… but then again, he could also be noticed by wizards. There was one up on the walls now. Douglas wondered why they were so obvious… but then again, they didn’t really have reason to hide. Maybe they could, and decided that increased strength of shields was more relevant. Lucy had mentioned the one wizard inside Rifton… though they hadn’t been invisible, they also hadn’t been noticed until they attacked.
As Douglas approached the walls, he started to become worried. He couldn’t really feel the enchantments. If he couldn’t feel them, how could he discern their effects? He wasn’t going to climb over the walls to look at the inside. Lucy had done it, but that had been out of desperation… and in a less fortified city. Agrila was much bigger than Rifton, and more important. Scoubar had also controlled it longer.
Douglas finally sensed the walls when he was only thirty meters or so away. There were indeed wards there, but he could barely feel them. It seemed they were better concealed than the others. Were they really worried about an attack from behind? That made sense, because Douglas was thinking about it. Or… there was a more reasonable alternative if they weren’t thinking the same way as Douglas. The wards could be less easy to sense because they were weaker.
He concentrated for a few moments, and felt the wards on the other side of the river- faint, but radiating more strength. On the other side of the river he hadn’t felt those on his current side… not because they weren’t there, and probably not because they were concealed. Realistically, it was just a waste of effort- and money. Permanent enchantments cost money, and everyone hated spending money for good magic. Except wizards, but nobody let wizards handle finances. Maybe not even Scoubar.
The only issue was being sure. He couldn’t be wrong, and instead have concealed wards that were just as strong or stronger. Unfortunately, testing the wards to figure them out wasn’t possible. Throwing an attack at the wall would obviously trigger alarms, but so would his normal spells for that sake, from exploring the lower levels of the Endless Library and the wards there. Douglas didn’t like to guess… so he theorized instead. He carefully walked along next to the wall- invisibly, of course. At least he was far enough away that he didn’t have to worry as much about small aberrations in visuals, though it wasn’t as if he didn’t have to keep aware of his surroundings and keep his concentration half locked on maintaining the spell. Not that it significantly hampered his investigation- splitting his thoughts was something he had been doing for most of his life now… so it felt natural to do so.
Douglas walked the whole way past the city walls and back. His legs were getting more tired than his brain, but then again he’d long grown used to spending hours invisible and not quite so many walking around, because in the Endless Library there were plenty of places to rest his legs. Well, he wasn’t in such poor physical shape that merely walking a couple kilometers would be too much. It just limited from going back for another pass.
His final conclusion… either the wards were expertly faked to feel like weaker ones, or they were truly not as strong. As for why anyone would spend more effort on the harder to attack side of the city… unless they could guarantee an attack from the rear there was no point. With the effort of ferrying an army across the river, it was likely just as it appeared- it wasn’t as if the rear of the city was undefended, either. Just less well warded. Still, it opened up some options.
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Lucy sighed when Douglas came back to report to her on what he had done. She couldn’t exactly scold him. He was a competent wizard and old enough to assess the risks for himself. She just wished he’d told her… but if he’d told her maybe she would have insisted on doing it herself. She could see the thought process there. “Can you sketch out any weaker regions you found?”
Douglas did just that- they already knew the entire ‘front’ of the city was well equipped with defenses. Douglas hadn’t really noticed any gaps in enchantments there. The section of wall over the river, however, was different. In Douglas’ estimation, the wards there were between the front and rear of the city in quality. That made sense- they had to have some defenses if an attack came from the river, but it would also be harder for any assaulters to do anything while on the river. The lines blurred somewhat around the river, but it wouldn’t really be effective from anyone on land to attack the river gates and anyone on the river would find dealing with the actual walls very difficult. Douglas hadn’t really noticed any gaps, but there were slight lulls in power of defenses, more or less in the midpoint of where two wards were made. Maybe every fifteen meters or so from the corner towers. Douglas took notes about the various features.
“So, if we could attack from behind… it would be easier. But it’s not exactly easy to get an army there.” Lucy shook her head.
Douglas nodded, and pulled out his notes on river crossing. Some things became more practical with additional mages, and maybe Lucy would think of some other way to cross the river or exploit the defenses. They would have to come up with a method soon if they wanted to create a good spell… well, the army couldn’t wait forever. Even the patient Major Erling would want to begin the assault within a few weeks, and that meant either coming up with a trick or just preparing spells to overcome the defenses on the walls. Whatever they could do best. Not that Douglas would be involved in the battle. With Vospians around it was best to avoid attracting notice in case he was recognized… because it would result in annoying politics.
//End Chapter 83
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After a meeting between the senior mages and Major Erling and the other higher ranking military officers, there was work to be done. Neither Lucy nor Senior Mage Lundgren had immediate answers, so they separated to try to think of ideas which they would compare later. Lucy involved Douglas, because more brains working on the topic would be useful, and he was already involved in gathering information.
“Some assumptions we have to make,” Lucy explained, “Are that there will be at least as many of their mages as of ours. So far we’ve been lucky to have few losses, but they have more to lose than we do. A frontal assault on Agrila would be… too risky and too costly, both in the lives of the regular soldiers and our mages. However, that may be what is required.” Lucy nodded her head slowly, “Some assumptions we have to make… we can’t transport the whole army across the river unnoticed. They would either see it happening- or notice the army missing from the camp if it marched a day or two away. I don’t believe we could keep up an illusion for so long, especially not one that wouldn’t be obvious to wizards watching.” Lucy shrugged, “Even with the help of magic that might be faster than ferrying men across on rafts, it would be pushing it, and using all of our effort to get the soldiers across and have nothing left to deal with the walls… would be relatively pointless.”
Douglas nodded. He understood everything so far. It seemed they needed to either find a weakness in the ‘front’ walls, or make do with a smaller number of troops to deal with whatever exploits they could create elsewhere. The problem was what they could do.
The two of them sat in silence thinking for a time. The rear defenses were nearly as strong as the defensed in Rifton- and while they might have been able to break through the defenses there given proper time, that would have required the devotion of mages almost exclusively to that. It probably would have been better than what actually happened, or Lucy could have done the same thing with more preparation… but the point was, even if they broke through the rear walls using half of their magical forces, there might not be enough troops to do anything with only exhausted mages.
“We can’t just hope for an earthquake or flood…” Lucy shook her head. “It’s the wrong time of year for floods, and the city is prepared for that anyway. Besides, we want the city basically intact, and especially the citizens.” The two of them looked at Douglas’ map of the defenses, but they already knew there were no glaring weaknesses. If Douglas had noticed anyway, he would have mentioned that first. “The walls are higher and harder to climb, so a similar vein of sabotage won’t work as well. With more enchantments…” Lucy shook her head. “But we can’t just dig under the walls. That would take a team of men months that we don’t have, and magic wouldn’t speed that up very much. Moving tons of heavy material is… difficult.” Lucy tilted her head, “Maybe breaking through the river gates? We could float some people and… that’s just what boats do. We might be able to break through, but there wouldn’t be enough soldiers. Doing something with the rear walls might be easiest, but we can’t do anything with that.”
Douglas concentrated on the map he had drawn. There was a problem with it. It was flat. Even though he’d repeated the section with the river gates to show their locations under the wall, it was still wrong. The real walls were three dimensional and couldn’t fit on a simple drawing. Did it matter? Probably not. The walls extended into the ground, making it even more difficult to dig under them or use magic. Even at the side of the river they… Douglas stood up and looked around. There wasn’t really anything to find- they were in a tent, and the fact that there was a small cot and a desk made it luxurious by the current standards. He wanted blocks, but he settled for getting some sticks from outside. Sticks were everywhere. Douglas stuck his head back in the tent and signed to Lucy. “Come outside.” He lay sticks on the ground, “These sticks are the walls.” He shuffled them back and forth until they were slightly buried in the ground. “Here’s the river…” he dug out some dirt with his hands, “Without water, anyway. But look.”
Lucy looked. Indeed, there were sticks and dirt. The sticks weren’t even the right size to be the walls, but she looked where he gestured. At the river. Her brain couldn’t quite find what point he had. “Hmm, I don’t think I get it.”
Douglas frowned, since he couldn’t really put it into words. It probably could be easily put into words, but his brain wouldn’t do it. He gestured towards the sticks, then signed more. “The walls are magic. Make them magic.”
Having used the language of magic as her only language for a handful of years, Lucy could improvise spells. They weren’t very durable and they wasted magic, but doing something simple like making the sticks glow was just that- simple. It was just stretching out a light spell around an object- or a couple of them. Then she looked. The sticks glowed. There weren’t many pieces of the puzzle to fit together. Douglas had dug out under them where the river went through the river gates. And the sticks glowed above that. “The ground beneath the walls isn’t enchanted… and neither is the river. We can use the river to pull away the dirt and weaken the walls.”
Douglas pointed and nodded. That. Those were the words he couldn’t form. In fact, he hadn’t necessarily had the whole idea. It was just… the river was strong and the magic stopped at the walls. He’d known that was the weakness, and it really was simple to explain… but also he hadn’t been able to say it.
“This…” Lucy nodded, “This is something we can use. Maybe on the stronger side the enchantments will prevent the dirt from eroding better… but on the weaker side… we can encourage the river to do our work for us. Conserve our energy for dealing with the mages…” The gears in Lucy’s head were turning. It was something she could bring to Mage Lundgren, at least, and they could discuss how feasible it would be. It wasn’t as if they would be free to use their magic, but it was one thing to move all that dirt on their own and another to encourage a river that was already moving huge amounts of sediment to do the same.
//End Chapter 84
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The biggest problem with their plan was that it couldn’t be tested. When would they even have the chance? If they tried, it risked the lives of whoever was doing the testing- and would give away their plan. While someone might invisibly approach the wall, once they tried influencing the river to dig out under a wall it would be noticed no matter how well concealed other magic was.
Then the decision had to be made: was it good enough to take down the walls on the Bryrian side of the river? If so, it would be easy to send troops through the fallen walls. However, with the walls being more enchanted, even if the wards didn’t extend to the ground below the walls would be less prone to crumbling. If they committed several of their best mages to the attempt and they failed… they would have wasted all of their magic. Even if they retreated to recover and the losses to the army were minimal… the enemy would then know the plan. That was the problem- they could prepare for things because the enemy didn’t know what they would be doing. They didn’t have enough wizards to overpower defenses that were made to counter them.
With the difference in the level of enchantments on the walls, they could only be certain about dealing with the far side. There was little doubt they could bring down some of the walls there… but in that case, they had another problem. Their troops weren’t there. They couldn’t just get a squad there, either- it had to be a whole company of a hundred men. Anything less would be risky. Anything more would probably be missed on the battlefield.
Fortunately, that wasn’t something that needed to be solved by magic. It would be a slow and rather obvious process to transport an entire battalion of a thousand troops or more across the river… but just a portion of them could be managed much more quickly. Even with smaller boats, it would just take a handful of trips. As for where they would get the boats? They had tools available to construct them, and a few boats wouldn’t be noticed easily among the other work they were doing. They were still constructing siege ladders- while Major Erling was confident in the mage’s abilities, relying on just one specific course of action succeeding was foolhardy.
Then they would just carry them and plop them down in the river. As for why they couldn’t do it with more- besides it being more noticeable, having too many boats crossing the river at once was just inviting trouble.
Lucy was relieved the mages didn’t have to come up with a solution to that. Sometimes, regular manpower was the correct answer to a problem. Saving magic for where it was needed was the best choice.
Now the only difficult part was creating the spell to do what they wanted. It needed to primarily target below the wall, though it wouldn’t hurt if it also carried away more dirt. It had to both guide the water and empower it- if redirected, it would undermine the wall, maybe in only a few hours, but they couldn’t afford to wait that long. Especially not with enemy wizards watching and ready to kill them. The faster the better… but it also needed to be a stable enough spell that it wasn’t easily dispelled. If any standard unraveling magic worked, then it would almost certainly happen. They might get lucky and have all of the wizards on the ‘front’ walls, and maybe they wouldn’t notice… but they didn’t want the plan to depend on getting lucky.
Then there was the issue of having multiple wizards working together. Just one wouldn’t be able to output enough magical power in a short time, and if they had to defend themselves against attacks at the same time… they’d have a company away from the rest for nothing.
Fortunately the particular sort of spell they were going for would work in parallel for the most part- but that didn’t mean they didn’t have to work out how to keep people from trying to control the same water and/or dirt. If their spells tugged against each other, even if they were controlling in the same general direction they would waste precious magical reserves.
If the spell was a combined spell such that each mage had a specific part, it wouldn’t have that problem- but then any single one of the mages losing concentration would ruin the whole spell. It was also quite difficult to construct such a spell, though they did have. Sadly they didn’t have the reference book for group magic- only Douglas had seen that and read it, not thinking he might actually need it.
In short, they decided that having one generic version of the spell would be good enough, and they could coordinate their efforts, with whoever was going concentrating on one part of the river and bank.
As for who would actually be going… it was decided that Lucy would be one of them. It was an important job, and she was the only ‘senior mage’ besides Lundgren. He would be with the main force, because he was the most senior… and because Lucy would probably be more effective. The next most powerful was unfortunately Magnus, but it was decided he would stay with the main force as well- they didn’t think he would cause trouble, but Lucy didn’t want to make him feel important either. However, she would be taking Jonathan Herbert- the rather unassuming vospian mage who was similarly powerful. At the very least he had never been openly antagonistic, and he was quite competent. Isabel would be coming along as well- not as part of the wall destruction effort, but just as backup firepower. Since it was better to have more backups, they would also be bringing along Morgan Altair, an apprentice wizard whose only real fault was that he was young. Lucy judged his level of talent to be similar to Isabel- though with Isabel being a sorceress it was hard to make a direct comparison. It wasn’t that he was much younger than Lucy herself, either, but he hadn’t started studying magic in his early youth. He only had a few years of study before being called to war- whereas Lucy had a decade and a half.
That left the rest of the mages with the main force, and hopefully a few missing mages wouldn’t be noticed too early. If they were lucky, the enemy didn’t have an accurate count of their numbers.
Once the plan was set, all that had to be done was finishing the development of the spell… and while they couldn’t practice on the real thing, they could at least do some work downriver. There was a lot of riding away from the city involved with that testing, but it was worthwhile to iron out some issues they ran into- and real practice was important. Lucy just hoped eroding the river bank easily translated into walls collapsing.
//End Chapter 85
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It was hard for Lucy to believe they were actually doing a night assault. Compared to waking up early in the morning for a midmorning assault, it actually seemed like it might be more difficult… but that would only be if it wasn’t planned. Wizards needed proper time to prepare spells and rest… but nobody said that had to start in the normal morning.
In short, Major Erling had actually listened and considered the enemy mages a significant enough threat to work around them. They didn’t know an attack would be happening, and their side did. Lucy and the others had a few days to get used to sleeping during the day before the battle. While Scoubar had enough mages that some of them would always be on the night shift, especially when anticipating an attack, fewer of them would be prepared. The others might wake up with half their spells prepared and either have to spend time rememorizing the rest or come out to battle without a full complement of spells. Lucy doubted they would be careless enough to be completely useless even if caught off guard, but every bit of delay or weakness they could cause to the mages was good enough. A normal soldier could be roused quickly enough and be functional even in the middle of the night, but magic was a bit more delicate.
The main force would be attacking the walls soon- but Lucy’s team was already crossing the river. Doing so at night was more risky, especially without light, but the Brentgar was relatively calm at its current point- and deep enough that there were no rocks or strange currents to worry about. Lucy went over on the second of three boats, each carrying more or less ten people. They didn’t expect to run into any issues, but even so they had decided to take the mages across separate from each other.
Once they reached the far side, the boats were pulled upriver slightly and two soldiers rowed each boat back across. Thus, in total, even though the boats carried ten soldiers only eight made it across per boat per trip. Out of a company of one hundred, about half of them plus all of the mages were across at the end of the second trip. Lucy trusted the captain to continue as planned, and she led the mages on their short hike up-river.
They needed to arrive before the company with them- if they wanted anything to be a surprise. Even at night a company would be easily noticed approaching the walls of the city. When they could just barely see the city walls through the edge of the trees- which were kept cut back almost half a kilometer- they cast their invisibility spells. Isabel had managed to learn one, and Morgan could also cast one as well. His wouldn’t be as difficult to detect, but they just needed to reach near the walls before anyone noticed.
They walked along quietly, but everyone’s footsteps rang loudly in Lucy’s ears. Fortunately, their timing was right… the attack was just starting on the front of Agrila. She could hear the sounds from there and see some of the soldiers approaching the walls. They would be doing their best to take minimal losses while still seeming like a real threat… and perhaps they could succeed without help. They outnumbered the enemy, but Lucy could feel magic being cast… and the defensive walls likely made up for the numbers.
But that was what they were for. They were nearly to the walls. Lucy only saw one mage standing watch over the river. It was unfortunate he hadn’t been called away to the battle… but they apparently maintained a level of caution. Smart, but annoying. Even so, he was about halfway across the river… it was still maybe fifty meters from where they would be. There was no way he wouldn’t notice once they started doing magic, but… “Watch out for him, Isabel. In the middle of the wall.”
There was a pause, then Isabel replied, “I see him.” She had nodded her head, but they were currently still invisible. Not for long though.
They stood right at the base of the wall- a few meters back from the wall and to the side of the river. Lucy dropped her invisibility- if nobody was peeking over the walls down at them, they wouldn’t be seen… and it wouldn’t be long before the mage noticed them. She began to cast her spell, and before she even finished the words there was a cry of alarm.
Morgan’s magic had perhaps been excessively obvious, but he still needed more practice… and once Lucy’s spell started worming its way into the water and soil it became more obvious still.
Fortunately, most of the guards were dealing with the battle. There were only a handful of archers and the mage nearby… since they had to watch several kilometers of wall, there was only so much that could be done unless they had thousands of troops. If they’d had that many, then the attack wouldn’t have even been considered. Even attacking with ‘only’ about four times their numbers- two thousand versus five hundred- was considered risky.
Arrows started flying down from the walls, but everyone had shields that could stand up to a few arrows. A quick bolt of fire from Isabel washed over one of the archers- perhaps he didn’t die, but his clothes and bowstring caught on fire and he disappeared from view. The mage was running along the walls up above- fifty meters was outside of comfortable range for most spells. Lucy wanted to do something, but she chose to trust Isabel and concentrate on her magic. She felt the ground wearing away… but it didn’t feel fast enough. Nothing felt fast enough in combat.
Isabel shot another bolt of fire at the mage, but he waved his arm and deflected it. That was one improvement to the wall’s defenses they hadn’t been sure about… and while it seemed to take some effort to activate, even a relatively small supply of magic could outlast a few mages without compromising the integrity of the wards.
Lucy ducked to the side, feeling heat wash over her from the mage on top of the wall countering with his own bolt of fire. Her shields had reduced the effect, but her left arm was still uncomfortably hot. She tightened her grip on the spell below the wall and increased her flow of magic to it, and she could feel Morgan and Jonathan do the same. The company should be marching in behind them… and reinforcements would be coming from the city. They had to hurry, and they couldn’t keep up their efforts while under attack. Huge amounts of sediment were being carried away by the river, but it just wasn’t enough yet.
Isabel directed more fire towards the mage, but he once again deflected the fire above him. That effort hadn’t stopped him from the spell he was in the middle of either, one Isabel had been trying to interrupt. A large mass of energy flew out from him, in the form of a larger fireball- the four mages down below were all relatively close to each other. Lucy almost gave up her spell… but Isabel stepped forward.
A shield spell? Could she really safely block so much? Lucy almost felt like she should have made another decision, until she felt the shield meet the fireball halfway to them. Isabel’s shield didn’t have much power behind it… but it made the fireball explode as it impacted. Smaller streaks of fire continued from, but as one landed next to Lucy she could barely even feel it. Isabel countered with another quick spell of her own- her mouth moved quickly, magical runes swirling about her, and she launched another bolt of fire. This one was weaker… but faster. The mage on the wall moved to deflect it, but it curved slightly to hit one of the archers next to him. Even so, he half-deflected that, leaving the archer merely signed and with a functional bow.
“Aaargh!” Isabel shouted. “I hate this.” She kicked the ground, her eyes staying on the walls preparing to avoid arrows or magic. Then she suddenly bent down and grabbed at the ground. She picked up a rock and chucked it at the walls. To her credit, it caused the mage to duck out of the way and not cast a spell, but Isabel just stomped her foot in frustration. At the same time, she used a firebolt to take out another archer as an arrow scraped past her ribs, deflecting off of her personal shields.
Lucy wasn’t sure if she should intervene yet. Things weren’t going well, and she had the best chance of stopping the mage on the wall… but she was also needed to attempt to bring down the wall. It wasn’t enough yet...
//End Chapter 86
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One mage on the wall, basically untouched. A handful of archers, with more moving in- and another mage. The walls showed no signs of collapsing, but the company was already on the way, expecting it to be done.
They should have brought another mage. Isabel was competent and useful… but there was just one of her. Maybe two more. They couldn’t afford to fail. Lucy almost wished she was climbing over a wall with a twisted ankle. At least there nobody had really been expecting success because she hadn’t been supported in her endeavors. Failing when she was actually given the chance to do things right…
Lucy grit her teeth, reasserting her grip on the undermining spell. A lapse of concentration would be even worse. She couldn’t afford to try any real magic, but she could shout profanities… or maybe even better. With a few words, Lucy stretched out an arm to the side and a huge cloud of dust raised into the air. Half of it hadn’t gone as high as she had hoped it would, but at least it somewhat blocked the vision of the approaching mage and archers. It wasn’t a great spell… but what was the point of actually speaking magic like a language if she didn’t use it sometimes?
Up on the wall, the attacking mage stood confidently, even as another of his archers was brought down by Isabel. He was preparing another spell, and seemed ready to activate the wall’s defenses as necessary to protect himself. Lucy saw Isabel scrambling around on the ground again. Another rock? Would it do any good if the mage thought about the fact that he had shields?
Lucy took a deep breath. The mage’s spell was strong, but any of them could survive it… hopefully. Morgan’s shields were a bit weaker, and his power was mostly concentrated on the undermining spell. She really needed to keep concentrating as long as possible.
Isabel chanted another spell, her left hand pointed at the mage to release a firebolt. It was unlikely he would be surprised enough to flinch as he merely gestured to raise the wall’s defenses in front of himself. Then Isabel’s right arm swung over her head, hurling the rock she held directly at the wizard. Isabel was basically fit, but even so such a heavy rock would probably barely reach the walls. That was what Lucy thought, but her brain hadn’t finished processing everything before the rock struck the wizard in the face, knocking him back. Lucy hadn’t felt the man’s shield’s break… but the wall’s defenses had been… ignored? Lucy felt the trace of lingering magic from the rock’s path… which meant Isabel had used a new spell in the heat of battle. It shouldn’t have been impossible, but as a sorceress she couldn’t easily cast new spells… and she was fairly new to learning magic as a language.
But it didn’t matter. What mattered was she got results… the mage on the wall must have lost his accumulated power and the memorized spell. The wall… Lucy could actually see underneath it, as the ground melted away at the river bank. The earth underneath it should have been pulled away further than they could see, maybe three or four meters? That meant it would be hanging on nothing instead of supporting itself. Lucy felt magic straining on the walls, but it hadn’t fallen yet.
Suddenly she felt two new sources of magic. One from the right, one from the left. Or rather, the one on the right was the mage who hadn’t been delayed long enough. Lucy made up her mind. “Jonathan! Morgan! Keep up with what you’re doing!” Lucy trusted Isabel, but there was a difference between fighting a mage in a disadvantageous position and fighting two of them.
Lucy dropped her concentration on the undermining spell. The other two were continuing to work on it, but it was almost sustaining itself at the current point. The wall hadn’t fallen yet, but there wasn’t much good worrying would do about it. As quickly as she could, Lucy chanted the words to her ‘standard’ dispel. It was meant to punch through most shields and damage the mages behind them as the energy twisted out of shape. She aimed at the new mage on the right, hoping her haste would catch him off guard, if only slightly. The two archers with him were already drawing back their bows now that they had a good angle from a nearby projection of the wall.
The mage flicked his hand, and the wall’s power formed a shield in front of him. Lucy cursed, but her spell was already leaving. The mass of power flew nearly instantly from her hand to the mage… and through the shield. Lucy felt she hadn’t overpowered it and she certainly hadn’t known the right trick to break through it, but it shattered. Both she and the mage were surprised, but the mage was even more surprised when his personal shields twisted inward on themselves and shoved him backwards… off the wall.
Then, there was a loud crack, and the wall sagged. It became extremely obvious why drawing on the wall’s power to shield the mages had suddenly stopped working so well. The walls were basically out of power… as evidenced by not being able to hold themselves together any longer. Another crack, and the wall slumped more… then stopped. While it had seemed like a very large shift, Lucy couldn’t actually say how much it had dropped- less than a meter total. Certainly not a total collapse as they had wanted.
As Lucy felt Isabel’s magic once again- and saw her chuck another rock at the first mage who dove behind the wall for cover- she recalled the third mage. They were over to the left, on the water. No, that wasn’t right. Lucy should have looked over there for confirmation already, but her brain hadn’t processed it yet. The magic wasn’t from atop the wall, but there wasn’t a mage on the water either. Instead, there was magic out in the middle of the river… the same spell she and the others had been using, on the first support away from the shore- perhaps twenty meters out. But there were no other mages to- Lucy clicked her tongue. No reason to make a fuss about it now… and plenty of reasons not to. The important part was, the first support was starting to lose structural integrity as well.
The mage on the wall was preparing a spell while crouched down. Lucy could feel it, and was ready to react… when a great cracking sound came, even louder than before. “Everyone back!”
Even as she said that she moved and the wall started crumbling and falling. While they had been a handful of meters away, where they had been standing a moment before was littered with pieces of the walls as they twisted and cracked and fell- a portion into the river, towards them, and into the city. Lucy looked up from where she had basically flung herself to see boots. She carefully got to her feet and wiped herself off. “Captain. The walls are handled. I trust you can take it from here?”
The captain of the company saluted. “Excellent timing Senior Mage Lynwood. We would appreciate assistance with any mages, but it seems our operation will be successful. Men! Let’s move!”
The company of a hundred men scrambled over the remains of the section of wall- it wasn’t exactly optimal terrain, but there were only a pair of archers left on the walls nearby. The rest had either already been killed or died when the wall fell. There were even a handful of other soldiers buried in the remains of the wall… Lucy didn’t want to think about that, so she followed after the company. She had a bit of magic left… as she passed the wall she saw the second mage- who had been flung off the wall. He was semi-conscious on the ground. Lucy was about to ready a spell to deal with him, when the captain kicked the man in the stomach. Then he shoved his gauntleted hand in the mage’s mouth while two soldiers helped bind and then gag the mage. That… was probably a better solution. Lucy would have preferred to kill the man, but then he couldn’t exactly be interrogated for information.
-----
After the walls fell, the strike company started their way up onto the walls to attack the enemy from behind. While their numbers weren’t enough to defeat all of the defenders, it caused great panic. Men started fleeing- and with the mages. Instead of trying to stop them, they were given the chance to flee- fighting cornered soldiers wouldn’t be a good expenditure of men. Even if the soldiers- and some mages- were encountered later… it wasn’t a prime opportunity to finish all of them.
Lucy watched all of that, helping some against mages on the walls… and then she had to go report to Senior Mage Lundgren. She could see his exhaustion from far away, and she would likely feel the same soon. Before everything was over, however, she had to say something to Douglas. What, she wasn’t sure… but something. What was he even doing on the battlefield? Well, it helped but… Lucy frowned anyway.
//End Chapter 87
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While losses would have been much higher without the secondary attack from the rear, it wasn’t as if they came away without any losses. There had been no certainty of that plan working, so the attack from the front was a real assault as well, which involved actual soldiers dying. And mages. Another two apprentices as well as one full mage. Since they killed three full mages, it could be said they came out ahead… but Bryria was still severely lacking in mages, no matter how much they tried to find any remaining ones.
If the Scoubarran mages hadn’t been more interested in killing Bryrian soldiers and preserving their own lives, more probably would have been lost. But… they had taken back Agrila. That was an important step. However, taking back the city didn’t mean everything was perfect.
The defenses were still weaker on the far side of the river, even not including the toppled parts of the wall. During the early years of the war, while Bryria was still unprepared, Scoubar had been taking over various cities with relatively few troops. The same had been true of Agrila, and while they had fortified the walls some, keeping the city apparently wasn’t worth the cost of leaving more troops. According to the estimations of Major Erling, Scoubar would be massing forces in Fort Cremouth, which resided in easiest pass through the Menshall Hills to the east, close to the border with Dalgare. Pendle was still further than that, though perhaps the border sat more naturally at the Menshall Hills. Lucy wanted to see the town again, but it wasn’t tactically relevant… and Bryria just wanted secure borders again. It was possible they would let it remain under Scoubarran control.
While marching directly on Fort Cremouth might seem like a good idea, securing their advances was deemed more important at the moment. That meant spending the upcoming winter months in the city.
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There wasn’t much need for Douglas to work as a cook in a large city, since many of the soldiers were getting their fare elsewhere. That suited him, because it left him more time to work on whatever he wanted. First, he wanted to study the wards on the walls. Once he got to take a close look at them from the inside, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to attune to them for the sake of personal shields. Even if it didn’t last, they could protect against a significant amount of damage in an instant. It should only work from the walls… but it still seemed to be a weakpoint in the defenses that could be exploited if they didn’t change things up slightly. He would advise Lucy on that… once they got the river back under control.
It wasn’t really spreading that much from where they had left it… but it was certainly digging away at the walls a little bit at a time. He couldn’t directly help with that, because he wasn’t supposed to be able to do magic. Using magic to return the proper amount of dirt to its place might be possible, but it would be easier to just keep the river in check while soldiers shoveled dirt. It turned out that having thousands of free hands made up significantly for those people not having magic.
There were a number of other problems that weren’t Douglas’ business. Collecting taxes from the city was important to Bryria, but Agrila had already been taxed by Scoubar, either in terms of coins or goods. As they had retreated, they’d even burned some fields past Agrila which meant some people had nothing to pay with. In the end, it was impossible to say how much people should pay and who needed to, but apparently it was still decided that someone needed to. There were some wealthy landowners who could pay more, but should they? Douglas didn’t even want to have to consider that. But he had to, at least a little bit.
Lucy had been tasked with using magic to determine the truth of people’s statements… if it was possible. Douglas hadn’t studied that particular area much, but from what he had read about various kinds of mental control… it wasn’t necessarily reliable. It didn’t take a lot of comparing to find that different people thought differently about things. Thus, placing one's own thoughts on someone else would generally have them dismiss them. The same came with trying to read or understand someone else’s thoughts… if it worked at all it was a delicate process that came through with very little information. Trying to compel someone to tell the truth would more often than not just make them say what the one with the truth spell already thought was the truth. That was the theory, and Douglas had no practical experience.
With that in mind, Lucy still came up with a functional plan. They didn’t need magic that forced people to tell the truth or concretely determined if statements were true… they just needed people to believe that they could do it. The only problem was convincing people of that. That meant talking to people and catching a few people in lies… which wasn’t Douglas’ job. Talking to people at all was completely unrelated to him.
Douglas had time to work on new spells… and he had ideas of what he needed to do. Going with the assumption that Fort Cremouth would be enhanced in similar ways to Agrila, but more so… was it possible to wrestle away some of the defensive magic to protect mages attacking? If so, would it be more effective than using the same amount of effort on a personal shield spell? He supposed it depended on how easily it worked. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something that could be tested, so he kept the idea in his back pocket for the moment.
While the Scoubarran forces took most of their spell books and magical notes with them as they retreated… they clearly had been expecting to repel the attack. Some of their notes were left behind, and with those to work from… they could learn something. What that something was became more complicated by the fact that none of the mages spoke Scoubarran. All of the magical symbols were still the same, of course, but the notes on why they were used were just as important. The army did have a few people who could speak and more importantly read the language… but they weren’t well versed in magical jargon. Why would they be? There wouldn’t have been any chance to learn it. Still, they worked together with the other mages to try to decipher things while Douglas worked alone, usually in Lucy’s quarters to take advantage of having a real desk.
It came down to Douglas to do some guessing of what would be helpful in a siege on a hill fort. Flight? Sure, bombarding people with magic from the sky would be great. Also impossible or at least extremely difficult. Very, very magically expensive. Douglas supposed he could lift himself into the air for a few moments already, but that barely counted. It also required anchoring to a different point instead of to yourself… he shook his head. Not enough power for that, and then they would just be a floating target in the sky for enemy mages and archers.
What about undermining the walls of the fortress again? Unfortunately, there were several difficulties. It was possible survivors of the attack had been able to report on what happened, and even if they didn’t exactly understand it knowing the river flowed under the walls could give the mages a hint at tactics. The issue? There weren’t any rivers to use, which meant all that earth had to be moved with magic. Nudging the river water in a different direction was quite different from generating all that power themselves. Even loosening up the earth to let the water carry it away had been difficult enough… though he supposed doing so while invisible also made it harder. Lucy had complained about his presence, but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t old enough to make his own choices… and his assistance had probably been critical. It was clear she was just worried about him, but he worried about her as well.
So what else… earthquakes? That was an even more ridiculous use of magic, and inefficient to boot. Unless there was one that was just about to happen anyway and it was encouraged… but even such encouragement would be very difficult and not at all targeted. Hills and mountains often had the sorts of faults that might go along with earthquakes, but there was no guarantee that the important parts weren’t miles down into the ground.
Douglas wished he just had to counteract something he knew the details of. While they had a report on the dimensions and layout of the fort- or at least, Lucy had received it and made a copy for him- there wasn’t much he could do about it. So he didn’t. Maybe he could make a better contacting spell that went a longer distance… that would be useful. What else… Douglas had so many ideas, and if someone came to him with a concrete problem, he could actually try to solve it. Like stitching the stones of a wall back together… but the soldiers and masons already knew how to do that, even if it took a while.
//End Chapter 88
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There weren’t very many people Douglas interacted with, especially since he was doing very little work with the cooks at the moment. He occasionally helped to prepare preserved food for scouts, but beyond that Agrila had sufficient people who wanted work that having one more cook was extraneous. The army didn’t mind him not working if it wasn’t necessary… as long as it meant they didn’t have to pay him. Technically it cost Lucy some of her pay to provide for him, but he contributed more value helping her with magical studies, even if it was just for a short time each day… and sometimes, when there was a particular problem, they spent long into the night working on things. If they had really been concerned about money… well, Douglas was a sufficiently trained tailor, at least from the repairing side of things. Even without magic.
He could do it without magic. And since he preferred to not draw attention for the most part, he remained cautious about where he used magic. It was especially important around Magnus and the others from Vospia. While Lucy had determined Jonathan Herbert to be a fairly reasonable fellow, he was included on that list. Perhaps he would be interested in a reward from the Hunnisetts or Librarian Oswald. Or, maybe, they didn’t have enough influence for that. Maybe he would be fine if he were found out… at least from the Vospian side. Maybe he hadn’t been officially charged with murder or maybe the people present didnkt now. Then what would he say to Bryria? He just happened to learn how to do magic and he and Lucy hadn’t been hiding it? Who would believe that? Douglas actually latched onto that thought seriously. Who would believe that?
The default thought among people was that because he couldn’t speak, he was unintelligent. Even mages probably thought that for the most part… though they should have been at least somewhat aware of why he couldn’t speak. But, most people wasn’t everyone. Senior Mage Lundgren was smart. Major Erling was smart. Did either of them already know? Suspect? He was often around Lucy as she worked, coming up with new ideas. He wasn’t going to say she wouldn’t have solved all the problems on her own… but he could definitely say his presence and their work together made things faster. Would others have noticed that, or would they think the presence of her brother was just a calming effect?
This was a puzzle that Douglas didn’t know the number of pieces, their shapes, or even if it had a solution. So he tried to solve another simpler problem ahead. What would be a reasonable course of action? If he suddenly stopped his time with Lucy, that would be quite suspicious. Especially since he wouldn’t really be replacing it with anything. He could declare he was a wizard and be sent out to the battlefield like the others… but while maybe he could do that, it would be too sudden of a change. He wanted to support Lucy though, and thus he needed to have some reason to go out to battlefields besides following along behind the army.
What he needed was to not change what he was doing but receive some support for it. He didn’t have the entire solution on his own, and the decision didn’t just involve him. Lucy might have a better idea.
-----
In the office of a merchant who had refused to pay taxes to Scoubar- and thus was no longer living- Senior Mage Lundgren placed a nearly blank piece of paper on his desk. “Thank you for the report, Senior Mage Lynwood.” Upon seeing that she hadn’t turned to leave he asked, “Is there something else?”
“Actually…” Lucy started to speak. “Do you remember my brother Douglas?”
“Of course, he enlisted as a cook to come along with you. I’ve seen him around, and with you. Is something wrong? Does he want to be relieved of his duties and return home? He’s not in a position where that would be difficult.”
Lucy shook her head, “No, it’s not that. Actually, you are aware he is mute… because of our magical bloodline. Thus, he can’t perform chants for spells. However, some years ago I started to teach him the runes…” All of that was technically true. It was just more years than she had let on… and eventually he’d started to teach himself. “He has a very good mind for them, and is quite helpful with puzzling out how magical formations might be countered. I would like to take him with me on scouting missions, especially related to Fort Cremouth in the future. I can cover both of us with invisibility and shields, if necessary.” It wouldn’t be, of course. He could do those things for himself. Lucy didn’t like the idea of bringing him into battle and exposing him to danger… but if he was going to do it anyway, it was better to have some support. Especially if he wanted to have any publicly acknowledgeable position as a wizard later in life. “One thing I must say is while we were… separated… he had some conflicts with Vospians.”
Lundgren folded his hands in front of him, keeping his face neutral. “So you’d like me to keep things secret, more or less? I certainly have no desire to tell Magnus anything he doesn’t need to know. If the scouting missions are just the two of you, I can arrange for an excuse for his disappearance. That said, I will need to inform Major Erling… and evaluate his abilities.”
“Of course.”
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The two siblings had decided that Douglas should display most of his abilities. After all, if he was assisting Lucy, he had to be good. Since he would be under close scrutiny, Douglas decided to forgo any shields… though he still had a number of spells memorized. Neither of them thought Lundgren would be a problem, but he might want spells ready for something else. It wasn’t like there was a way to detect if someone had prepared spells. Douglas took a mental note to try to figure out if he could do that. In theory, a spell in someone’s head, properly prepared… well, it was magical. It was just like the runes on a paper, but probably harder to discern. But that wasn’t important at the moment.
What was important was dissecting the formation in front of him. He had to do it without magical assistance, but if he could see it that didn’t matter much. He wasn’t negating it- just figuring out how it worked and then explaining it to Senior Mage Lundgren. Through writing, Douglas didn’t have another way of communicating with him. Douglas carefully took up his pen, scratching out the answers on the page. Actually, it was an easy formation- this one was probably just to see if he actually knew anything.
He quickly finished that test, and the next, and the next. The only part he held back on at all was creating a formation of his own. He didn’t want to give away too much of his ability to actually perform magic. Thus, he made his little formation slightly suboptimal and a bit simpler, and of course he didn’t activate it himself. It was a simple little formation that would float a rock- or whatever else was placed in its center- for as long as sufficient magic was supplied before collapsing.
Actually, most formations collapsed upon loss of magic. That was because it was like other magic. When read from a scroll, the runes would burn away. When spoken from memorization, the same happened from the brain. The thing about magical formations- at least long-lasting ones- was that they never actually finished the spell. When low on power or ‘deactivated’ they might switch to an inactive, very low usage state during which they could survive off of ambient magic in the air or a tiny bit of stored magic. If they completely had no magic, however, they were prone to failure like other things. That had actually happened with the formations on the walls of Agrila, though since they were already collapsing it wasn’t very noticeable. The runes also hadn’t taken up enough of the structure to make it unstable if the formations failed… though it would leave behind a relatively weaker point with thinner stones- but on the backside of defensive walls, it was basically irrelevant.
There didn’t seem to be a way to weaponize it… unless the creators of a formation were exceptionally careless and carved deep runes into main structural supports. There were a few old books that had mentioned wizard towers so suffused with magic that upon the destruction of their power sources the towers had crumbled to the ground. Most of those stories were probably false, and it was more likely the fact that the towers weren’t stable without magic to begin with- held up too tall without proper engineering in place. Douglas smiled at the idea of a tower so infused with magic it couldn’t stand. Then his thoughts drifted to the Endless Library. The lower levels had proper supports, right? Probably. There were some at least. That whole place was a mess of magic though. Enduring, powerful, messy magic.
//End Chapter 89
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While the Bryrian forces had a layout of Fort Cremouth, it wasn’t much good. It was an old fortress that had passed back and forth between Bryria and Dalgare many times over its history. That included slight changes to its structure from walls crumbling during a siege… but there wouldn’t be major changes on the Bryrian side.
There were no secret entrances to be had, and it was the best pass through the Menshall hills- the only one that could comfortably support an army passing through. Its gates had stood open for many years before the war, and though the Scoubarran forces had been noticed approaching, there hadn’t been a significant enough complement of troops to hold them off. Lucy thought it seemed like a dumb mistake, assuming Scoubar wouldn’t have designs on Bryria after taking over Dalgare… but it was also reasonable to assume they would have spent longer stabilizing their hold before attacking. Even so, the response had been… very slow.
Lucy shook her head. It was far too late to deal with any of that. The point was, many Scoubarran forces- and mages- had successfully retreated to the fort from Agrila and some of the less important locations, reinforcing whatever troops had already been there. While it wasn’t an unassailable fort, with well prepared forces it would be a very difficult battle. Fortunately, they were already assembling siege weapons for when spring arrived. Major Erling knew that mages wouldn’t be enough, especially not since the Scoubarran mage numbers at least equalled theirs.
That was actually a concerning detail. So far, they’d actually had more victories against the Scoubarran mages than losses. It wasn’t that it couldn’t happen, but they had been training their mages for much longer. On the other hand, since the only ones allowed to actually be mages were princes… maybe their numbers were more limited than they thought? However, the current Mage-King of Scoubar had been in power for four decades, and had likely been… producing heirs for that entire time. They had conquered several nearby countries including Dalgare, and even in Bryria dozens of mages had been abducted or killed- maybe more that they didn’t know about.
That was the thing though. None of the mages were old. How could they be? That said, age wasn’t the only factor in power. Lucy herself was proof of that. Surely some of them should have been more powerful. Unless that was the point. Maybe Scoubar had never taken this war seriously. Would the Mage-King of Scoubar send his own sons into a war to probably die just to see if they would become something? Based on what she knew about how the country operated… yes he would. Even with that unpleasant thought in mind, they still needed to win and take back the fortress… without dying themselves. That meant a scouting mission… though it was far too early to risk going close to the fortress. Still, looking at it from a through a spyglass might provide some insight.
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Prince Cletus looked down from the walls of Fort Cremouth. As the lieutenant-commander of the fortress, he still had to stand guard duty occasionally, like all the other mages besides the commander. Hale- Prince Hale, since Cletus was lower ranking- of course never had to stand watch. There would be no complaints, however. In a way, Cletus didn’t mind. It gave him something to do, and Fort Cremouth was secure… and free from the influence of The Reaper. Though his encounter with the man had resulted in Cletus’ victory from a certain viewpoint, he preferred not to have to deal with such a battle again. However, just because he preferred that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready.
It seemed like a waste to prepare half of his spell silenced, but it was good practice for expanding his mind. It meant his overall evaluations were lower, and it was only through others’ incompetence that he had obtained the position of lieutenant-commander of the fortress.
Did he believe The Reaper could get into Fort Cremouth? No. Had other people believed they could deal with The Reaper and then died? Absolutely. It would be a mistake to believe that only he had learned from that battle, and while news of The Reaper’s activities had diminished, believing he was gone would be foolish. Scoubarran forces had just become more prepared to deal with his activity in some areas.
Still, he’d never attacked a fortress, and there was no reason to believe he could without an army. Since he relied on the element of surprise, that was a contradiction in methods. Thus, Fort Cremouth with its wards would be safe. That was what Cletus had to believe to sleep at night… but he was also gaining experience with personal wards in his room. There was no harm to it… especially if one of his brothers wanted him to have an accident in the night.
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Douglas wondered if he could make a better spyglass with magic. That had to be possible, right? This one certainly helped, but it was still kind of hard to see… but it was just bending light. That wouldn’t be too hard. It might even be easier than invisibility. Yes, he could-
“You’re not even looking through it.” Lucy poked Douglas’ shoulder. “In that case, hand it back to me.” He did, and she started to look through it, at the winding path leading up to the fort. The path wasn’t even like that specifically for defense- though it certainly did leave people open- but merely because that was what was required to climb the slope towards the pass. It didn’t bode well for siege weapons, but it wasn’t such a high rise that it was impossible to use them either. Of course, Major Erling already knew that information. They would be gathering forces from around the country and recruiting new soldiers for the assault in spring. It was more likely to be a protracted siege instead of a single battle, but the problems came in with mages.
At various points in time Fort Cremouth’s walls had been enchanted with wards, but never seriously. Neither Bryria nor Dalgare had deep magical traditions, but at various points they had greater numbers of wizards. Then through decades of neglect and possibly battle the walls and the wards had broken down and the wards weren’t always replaced. Now with Scoubar fortifying the fort, it would likely be stronger than any time before. There weren’t any easy weaknesses she could spot, even in terms of ways to exploit magic. The foundations of Fort Cremouth were much deeper than Agrila, and there wasn’t the power of a river to exploit.
Trying to scout around the other side… would be dangerous. Without support, if a mage was noticed by an enemy mage they could easily kill them. They couldn’t just send more people, since that would make it more obvious. If there were any things to easily exploit then it would likely be known about anyway.
That left the harder things. Nearby cliffs? Not close enough to do anything with. The walls of the fort stretched across the whole pass, and natural rock continued past them. It wasn’t impassable terrain, but it wasn’t something soldiers could go over in numbers or that supply wagons could pass at all. And putting mages up above… either they would be too far or very exposed. If they could just get siege weapons up above… or fly… or if the enemy would just leave the fort behind and let them in.
Perhaps the best they could do would be to reduce the effectiveness of the enemy mages. Lucy sighed. She didn’t like that thought, but they would have a few months to think about possibilities. Unfortunately, the enemy would too.
“What are you doing, Douglas?” He was holding his hands out in front of him, forming a circle with his fingers that he was looking through. He wasn’t even looking at the fort, but off to the side. “Is there something about the hills there?”
Douglas turned his head, then tilted it to the side. He signed with his hands, “Hills? Nothing particularly. How far do you think that is? Bending light at that distance seems difficult.”
“I’m not sure I understand why that matters.”
Douglas held up the spyglass she had just been looking through, then handed it back to her so his hands were free. “That bends light. I could bend the light here to make a better version of those. But if I could bend the light over there, we could look down from a different angle. It’s just very far.”
Douglas was right… about both of those things. If he could bend the light from above the fort, he could look down from above- but it was also very far. If they wanted to be safe, they needed to be at least a kilometer away… and magic grew more difficult with more distance. It was like holding a rock versus holding the same rock on the end of an outstretched pole. It wasn’t technically any heavier, but it was much more difficult to lift. “It might be impossible. But… what you were saying about the better spyglass? That could be a very useful spell. It just requires focusing a large amount of light to a smaller area but not being far from us… so it could be done. Though maybe we’d just get to look at the walls up close. Still worth trying.” They had to do something after all, besides sitting around in Agrila. Even if the spell wasn’t useful there, it could be later.
//End Chapter 90
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Going from Agrila to Fort Cremouth wasn’t a short journey, but staying nearby in territory where they could be attacked was a terrible idea- even if the Scoubarrans so far hadn’t really left the safety of the fort, it was better not to risk it. That meant making sure the spyglass spell worked while they were still in Agrila… or nearby, because it had to be done outside and Douglas didn’t want to be seen. First, though, he and Lucy worked on a version she could use… the regular version. Douglas would find it more efficient to directly make a silent spell for himself, but that wasn’t practical for sharing with anyone else. Lucy could use it, but not as easily as a normal spell… and nobody else could. Theoretically if Douglas could talk, he would also find silent spells more difficult than regular spells. However, since it was the only way that worked it was the only experience of using magic he had.
The first attempt at the spell was… blurry. It was amazing what tiny imprecisions did when scaled up to a meter across. They didn’t technically have to try to make it so big… but if they were making a better spyglass, why not make it effective? Of course, blur wasn’t the only problem. If they stood right in front of the magical lens, it didn’t relay the correct information to their eyes. If they stood far back where it was actually focusing, it barely helped with making the image closer. If they made the lens bigger… it would take more effort to use and at a certain point it would be obvious to observers that something magical was happening. Since they weren’t actually reaching out with magic to their target it wasn’t actually something where those a kilometer away could easily sense the magic, but if the enemy got a good look at it… maybe they could figure it out. Maybe they already had spells that did something similar, but it was better to not let the Scoubarrans know Bryria could gather information that way.
The spyglass spell had all of the problems of a regular spyglass plus a few more to work out. First, it could only see what was there… in a straight line. Bending light around objects in the way wouldn’t work unless they could reach out over a very far distance, which would be both incredibly draining and magically obvious. So they needed a good vantage point. A secondary issue was that moving the lens was difficult, since it had to be lined up with its viewer… and factors like personal height and terrain started to come into play. That meant personal adjustments were necessary for each individual… but they could workaround that by tying the positioning to the caster’s eyes. Unfortunately, that also meant it was difficult to let someone else see the right image, since being slightly off on the angle could cause huge distortions.
Eventually, though, the spell worked. Some factors couldn’t be avoided without making the spell extremely cumbersome to cast. For example, if someone they were watching was looking in the direction of the caster, they would see a distortion. Since the target would be far away, they might not know what to make of it but it would potentially reveal their position like the glint of a spyglass… perhaps larger but less directly reflective. The enemy knowing they were being watched didn’t necessarily mean it wouldn’t be worthwhile, and they would be at a safe distance… but it was a factor nonetheless.
Douglas wanted to ride back Fort Cremouth with Lucy, but with the spyglass spell having been finished- and the knowledge distributed to other mages- the first group was somewhat more numerous, filled with scouts and mages. Douglas would still have a chance later in the season… though riding through the increasing cold and probably snow wouldn’t be exactly fun. Still, if he got a useful piece of information, it would be worth it.
-----
Lucy shrugged as she told Douglas about the scouting expedition. “We didn’t learn that much helpful from a magical perspective. We confirmed the locations of arrow slits and the like, the layout of the walls, the condition of the gates… Unfortunately all were in fairly good repair. We spotted some mages atop the walls, confirmed to be some of those who fled from Agrila… but that was already assumed.” Douglas nodded. “We didn’t really get anything about the enchantments, except of course confirming the effects aren’t visible from the front. It’s not like we can see through the walls. Douglas?” Douglas had stopped responding, staring off into the distance. She waved her hand in front of his face.
The movement brought Douglas back, and his hands got to work. “Why can’t we see through the walls?” Douglas asked.
It was the sort of question a little kid would ask. Douglas probably already knew the answer… but perhaps it would help to say it anyway. “Because they’re solid and light can’t pass through them.”
Douglas nodded, then closed his eyes. Lucy felt magic flow out of his hand, runes dancing around his fingers, the magic pressing against each of them in turn. That continued for a few moments before Douglas dropped the spell and opened his eyes. He folded his arms in front of him, then had to immediately unfold them to sign to Lucy. “I could see the runes with my eyes closed. Sort of. Maybe it was just their brightness. Or my imagination.”
“Or mages can see magic runes by more than just the light they give off. Close your eyes and I’ll try a spell.” Douglas closed his eyes, and Lucy made sure the magic was in front of him, presuming he was looking straight ahead. She saw Douglas frown, and she finished the spell- just a small telekinetic spell similar to what he had used. “What’s wrong? Can’t see it?”
His eyes opened again. “I could. But I could also hear you… and I know what the runes are supposed to look like.” Douglas spun his hands around each other some then continued. “I could even imagine them from different angles. But I do that for my spells all the time, so…”
“So we need to try more. Let’s do it.”
-----
After much experimenting, they determined a few things. First, it definitely wasn’t just Douglas imagining things. Either of them could make out runes with their ears covered. However, distance was a factor… as well as barriers. That included eyelids. If they were specifically watching for it, they could see runes through the walls of a building… but anything much thicker meant they couldn’t see anything at all. That immediately put a damper on their plan to see the runes through full keep walls but… Lucy still had some thoughts.
“Can we just gather the magical emissions like a spyglass?” It was a pretty normal occurrence to just use whatever tool had come up recently to try to solve any new problem… but that didn’t mean it was always wrong. It was related, after all.
Douglas looked at his hands, then closed his eyes. He was lost in thought for a time, before finally opening his eyes again and signing. “I have no idea how magical emissions work. Is it even like light at all? Does it fall off in intensity at the same rate? Does only the thickness or kind of material matter? Can its trajectory even be changed?”
Lucy nodded to herself. That was definitely her little brother. So many questions… most of which she couldn’t answer. Unfortunately, she also didn’t have access to any books that had the answers either. That meant they had to come up with the answers on their own… but at least she could ask Senior Mage Lundgren for help, and Isabel. Maybe Jonathan Herbert… but she really didn’t want to include Magnus even if she had to admit his abilities were quite good.
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After more experimentation, it was very clear that the sort of material mattered greatly. In fact, it had to be considered that even air was a material… just because light passed through it mostly unhindered didn’t mean it wasn’t as real as anything else. Density was the main issue, which still brought up problems for seeing through keep walls… but hopefully that would be counterbalanced by the stronger power behind it.
It took an entire month of dedicated research from multiple people, but eventually they came up with a somewhat functional way to lens magical emissions. It was hampered significantly by the fact that the very act of using magic to gather magical emissions gave off more magical emissions, and because different materials bent the emissions in different ways- like light entering water- they still had to basically have as straight and unobstructed of a line as possible. They’d only been getting distorted images for a week before they finally made the water connection but after that things progressed… more or less smoothly. Now the only thing they still had to do was actually make use of the spell… and it was even more important that it not be discovered.
//End Chapter 91
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The winter months seemed to pass quickly and simultaneously at an intolerably slow rate. When Douglas was busy, time seemed to disappear… and when he was waiting for Lucy to return from a trip time slowed to a crawl. Then she returned with more information for him to work with… and then she would be gone again. She never went off alone- this was a project that the mages in general needed to deal with. Thus, Douglas stayed in Agrila… because while Senior Mage Lundgren knew he was able to help work on runes and the like, that didn’t mean him going out into enemy territory would help. Douglas almost wished he’d been born normal like everyone else… but then he felt his tongue moving around in his mouth, and he amended that wish. He wished he’d been born in a world without Scoubar and with the ability to speak.
It turned out his presence at the walls would have been unnecessary anyway. Lucy and the others were able to copy down a sufficient amount of the runes beyond the walls. While they were made of thick stone, there was also significant power there- and thus it could be detected through more material.
As for how useful having a nearly complete map of the runes… it didn’t seem to be of much use. Even with a slightly incomplete understanding of the defenses, unless Scoubar had intentionally placed weaknesses there was little point in knowing more than they did. The defenses were solid. They could be undone, but only through a commensurate amount of power. It didn’t seem like it would be possible to wrestle for control of the defenses, either. In Agrila it would have been difficult even if they knew the full formations beforehand, but Fort Cremouth seemed to have even more secure defenses making it virtually impossible. Unless they could get someone up on the walls for a while… but they weren’t so easy to climb as Rifton’s had been. At least, they didn’t look like it, and the magic wards seemed more able to remove people trying to climb the walls.
Where could they get that much power? Scoubar clearly had a large collection of magical materials that could store or potentially even gather magic power… otherwise they wouldn’t have been willing to spend so many and yet put up relatively weak resistance so far. They might be able to cannibalize some of their own from Agrila or Rifton… but taking apart already constructed formations was a tricky process that usually resulted in the loss of power. It wasn’t like they could just pull out a chunk of stone with a rune and stick it in somewhere else. Could they? Douglas thought about that, and decided it wouldn’t work very well because the stone it was in wouldn’t be connected. Perhaps with the right mortar it could function, but it would be hard to say it would be good. Unfortunately, Bryria hadn’t been paying much attention to magic until they needed mages to counter Scoubar. A country could run itself just fine without magic- and even in Vospia Douglas doubted the overall benefit of The Endless Library. Though that wasn’t necessarily because magic couldn’t help a country as a whole… but that nobody really bothered to do it. Douglas vaguely remembered seeing a few books about magical agriculture, but he hadn’t read them.
Vospia had some amount of magical materials, but most of those were in use by the mages of the academy in Kheles, and fortifying their noble houses for… reasons. Well, it was possible they had enemies elsewhere. Douglas hadn’t really been paying attention except to know Vospia hadn’t been at war. Though they had at least showed some concern about Scoubar… enough to send a few mages to help Bryria. Either way, materials from Vospia would be expensive if they were available.
Were there any other power sources available? If they could focus all of the energy of the mages they had together they might accomplish something… most probable of which was exhausting all their energy to maybe bring down a section of wall, while the enemy mages still had plenty of viable wall to lob fireballs and other death down on their army from. Alternate power sources included the sun… which was an extremely inefficient way to collect energy that usually resulted in net losses. At least, according to what Douglas had read… and he could see why that would be. A far reaching spell would be required to gather the energy, but the further the spell went from the user the more it took to maintain…
They’d already determined there were no convenient rivers, they couldn’t count on the mountain suddenly having an earthquake, and if they tried more undermining tactics the enemy would likely be prepared, since most of those from Agrila had survived… though they weren’t sure if anyone who was present in that section of city had noticed. But again, that had been powered by the river. If they were to manually do the same, it could take… a very long time. The hills were very rocky and with dense dirt, not easy for mage or soldier to dig. If they had to start somewhere out of sight of Fort Cremouth, it would take months- more months than they had- just to get close. And if they were noticed, the mages could just collapse their tunnels away from the fort. Maybe that was the best option. There were really no other sources of magical energy in the area besides the fort.
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Douglas couldn’t sleep. Unless he had fallen asleep, and was still solving the same puzzle in his dreams. He couldn’t exactly put it past himself, but he still felt tired. So, if he was asleep, what was the point? Douglas couldn’t stop thinking about a puzzle he had already determined was impossible. The worst part was his brain wouldn’t move past the point of “finding a big enough power source.” He continuously tried to make things fit, finding them both the wrong shape and not nearly big enough to work with… well, any sort of spell he could think of.
Finally, he managed to shove his brain into thinking about Fort Cremouth itself, trying to deconstruct it. He had seen maps of the layout, which should have been at least mostly accurate. Walls, buildings, storage areas, roads leading up… the other side was not any better or worse to attack than the side they were on.
There were a sufficient number of soldiers and mages to make their losses significant, maybe too costly… and if Douglas were to be honest he was worried about some of those losses being Lucy or Isabel. He also cared about himself, but he wasn’t supposed to be involved in the battle, even if he might be anyway. Some of the other mages were fine, and the common soldiers probably didn’t deserve to die. Douglas wasn’t sure about the common soldiers of Scoubar, but certainly some of their more elite soldiers were deserving of all sorts of horrible death so he didn’t care about them.
What if the soldiers were over here? Enemies on the walls there? Mages drawn to this side, friendly forces spread out. Douglas moved people around in his head, and all it did was make him more tired.
What if they removed this section of wall… or this one? If they could just remove the gates, things would be easy… if they could do it without expending all the power of their mages, and instead just do it by snapping their fingers. Spies in the keep? Probably not with the magical defenses detecting anyone approaching too close, and he hadn’t heard of anyone already inside.
Moving a chunk of wall from here to here? That… wasn’t even sensible or possible. Take the enemy’s power and drain it… or use it for themselves. A great idea, but of course they power stores were also protected by the same wards they powered so they would only be accessible once the wards were down. Right?
Douglas began scribbling madly on parchment, sometimes so hard he tore it… but in that case he just grabbed another piece. Like this? Inverted? Or if they created a sort of antiward… no that required both a structure of some sort and as much power as a dispel of some sort. What if… what if…
Darkness crashed on top of Douglas, and he found himself drowning in the sea. He hadn’t ever seen the sea… hadn’t been immersed in water more than a small lake… but he knew the idea. Drowning was being unable to breathe. It hurt. Douglas. He needed to figure out how to swim. Was there a spell for that? He started to speak the words of a spell. Douglas! Damn, his spell failed… he should have first tried to make air…
“Douglas, wake up!”
Douglas woke up, feeling his wet face. One side of it. His hand touched it and came away covered in ink. Lucy was standing over him. He waved.
“Are you alright?”
He nodded, and looked down at the ink-stained parchment under him. The parts that weren’t covered in ink were utter nonsense. Half of it wasn’t even magic runes, but Vospian or Bryrian letters arranged to make shapes. So, just like his spells… but without any magic. Or sense. He signed, “I was thinking about how to use their own power sources against them, but I don’t think it would work unless they were nice enough to let us do some chiseling on the inside of the wall or something.” Douglas breathed out heavily through his nose, splattering a bit of ink down below.
Lucy grinned, “Well we haven’t tried asking nicely yet…”
“I don’t speak Scoubarran,” Douglas shook his head and his hands. “Or speak.” He let his head and body fall back over the desk, splaying out the papers. Then he picked himself up. As he looked down at the desk, he saw it was still utter nonsense… but the way the pages overlapped and their contents blurred into each other gave him an idea.
//End Chapter 92