The Lightbearer's Gift

The Baroness, her commanders, and the fire mage whose name I never bothered to learn stood atop the wall above the main gate, watching the encroaching army. It was a rather surreal experience being on the other side of a siege. 10 Regeneration orbs were spread out along the walls, glowing brightly. These would serve as refuges for injured soldiers.

Everyone in our main group had the strongest radiant carapace I could conjure. My skills had progressed to the point where the carapace was so charged with ether that it couldn’t become completely invisible. So, there was an almost imperceptible golden glow about them. Every archer also had a barrier placed on them, but it was orders of magnitude weaker than ours. With some testing we determined that it could block around 10 arrows before it broke. It wasn’t very impressive, but it was better than nothing. It took almost 12 hours to set everything up.

I still had not managed to learn every spell within the grimoires since I spent much of the time preparing for the siege. So, I decided to learn spells that could be used in defense and save the rest for later. Of those I learned Ice Barrier, which summon a literal wall of ice whose size and thickness I could alter as I desired. This would be useful for closing gaps in the city wall. As well as ice storm which summoned a rain of ice shards over a large area.

The final spells I learned were the second master level spell, Tornado, and air scythe. It does as the spell suggested it creates a tornado whose size and power I could alter. While it was certainly impressive, I had no interest in inflicting large scale destruction on the army. That brought the number of spells I knew to 34. Having so many spells to use only increased decision fatigue so it would be best if I simply stuck to a small number of core combat spells. Benny spent the entire time learning air scythe, the final journeyman spell. It summoned a crescent shaped column of air that could slice through flesh, if overcharged it could slice through stone.

Benny didn’t have the absurd learning rate I did so it is little wonder she only managed to learn one spell in the weeks spent in preparation.

I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t see an effective way to get another increase in my power. It wasn’t until she was going over strategies for the end of the war that I began to see an opportunity. My idea for attacking shipments of supplies or reinforcements from the sky was taken wholeheartedly. Benny would be needed for defense so it would be a solo mission. That’s when the thought occurred to me. They would be perfect targets, small, isolated groups of people carrying supplies. They were ripe for the picking. No one would be around to see it happening and all I would need to do is turn the area into a molten ruin after I was done.

Noone would question why everyone in the supply chain was killed or why they were attacked. The answer was always going to be, ‘they were in a war.’ It would be quite an awkward affair since I had to lay my hands on each person to drain their life but regardless this was a chance.

“The Towers, let them reach close to the walls before disabling them.” the baroness said.

She was talking about the 4 massive siege towers that were being rolled along the plain towards the wall. The task for the battle was simple, but complex in execution. We had to use our superior defense to drain as much as we could from the enemy, but not so quickly as to make them lose hope.

“Perhaps we should let one get close enough to start delivering troops atop the wall.” I suggested.

She considered the idea and glanced at the 4 towers.

“General Feyrun.” She said,

The man stepped forward and saluted. “Have your best guard against an influx of troops from that tower.”

She pointed at the one furthest to the left.

“Take Barian with you as artillery only destroy the tower if there is a chance you could be overrun.” She ordered.

My role in this battle would be to shield the main gate against magic and protect the Baroness if she ever has to move position to repair a breach in the wall.

Benny was to my left; her task was to bombard mages that were firing on the wall or defending the towers. She specifically had to reign in her destructive tendencies to minimize casualties. The wall was 25 feet thick so there was plenty of room to maneuver. We had roughly 2 or 3 hours before they would be in range of our archers and mages.

Their army was split into 4 battalions each assigned to a siege tower. It seems that their strategy was to overwhelm the defenses with numbers. 3000 defenders stood waiting, eerily silent as the over 25,000 strong army marched towards the wall.

“Archers Loose.” General Feyrun shouted.

Over 2000 archers loosed their arrows in the same instant. From our elevated position their longbows had a range of over a thousand feet. Arrows rained down on the incoming force. Archers would loose and knock an arrow every 5 seconds. Runners would quickly replenish their depleted quivers with more arrows as soon as they ran out. The enemy force raised their shields in response, blocking most arrows, but occasionally one would make it through, and they began to take losses.

The Baroness turned to me “Please have your Apprentice see to the other tower.”

I nodded.

I turned to Benny and said “Benny, remember to cripple the tower, not destroy and watch out for enemy mages.”

Benny saluted and shouted. “YES MASTER” then ran off.

She had been spending too much time with the soldiers.

The Baroness said to me, “I’ll see to the last two towers. I'll trust you to defend the main gate.”

“I see to it,” I said, waving her off.

She left with most of her guards leaving me with Vanya and Stefen, they had been assigned as a personal guard, a role that they seem to take pride in.

“You two ready?” I asked.

“Yes, sir mage” they answered in unison.

The enemy commanders decided to space out the towers along the wall to divide the force. When the mages were in range, I began to see an exchange of spells. Mages, who seemed to be taking cover behind the siege tower popped out of the rear and released balls of fire, spires of ice, air blasts or boulders, they seemed to have at least one mage per tower. That begs the question where the other two were.

Benny returned fire dialing back power to give the illusion that she wasn’t as strong as she actually was. While I was going along with the Baroness’s plan, I had standing orders for Benny that if she ever felt she was in even the smallest amount of danger then she should unleash her full power. Her air blasts blew away dozens of soldiers every time one landed in their line. Mages would return fire, but she would simply duck behind the fortifications to avoid getting injured. Her constant bombardment was enough to stall the progress of the siege tower. She could of course destroy it with a single overcharged air blast but that was for later.

As I was observing Benny's battle with the air mage I felt a large pulse of ether near my position. Not even bothering to check if I was actually being attacked. I cast a massive shield just large enough to encompass the entire main gate. Just as it finished expanding a massive ball of fire exploded against the shield. Around a hundred feet in front of the gate. At least I knew where the rest of the mages were.

We were not without losses, however occasionally a well-placed spell would detonate along the battlements. Sending archers flying, as they were trained to do, the soldiers would drag the injured to the regeneration orbs and reinforcement would fill their position. While under the orb medicants would see to their wounds.

A massive pulse of Ether came from my left and I watched as a spire of earth erupt from below one of the siege towers the baroness was handling and exited out the top. So much for holding back, I guess. I shrugged, not really caring either way. There was another spell cast at the main gate that I easily shielded. From the battlements I could just make out the position of the mage. I shrugged and released an air blast close to their location.

To my right I watched as large spires of ice began to rain down on the soldiers along the battements. It only took me a second to realize that was most likely the same mage that attacked the caravan. Barian returned fire, his retort left me unimpressed, though it was enough to end the rain of ice.

After blocking over a dozen spells aimed at the gate, I began to feel rather bored. Things didn’t get really exciting until the enemy force began to raise ladders. They were just tall enough to reach the crenelations. Now it was time to begin the second stage of the defense.

“Stage two” someone shouted. That call echoed along the walls until it reached my ears.

Benny, who was trading spells with the enemy mages upon hearing this, redoubled her efforts and started overcharging. Now instead of dozens dying every time she unleashed a spell there were hundreds. I followed suit.

Standing near the edge of the crenelations I dual cast fireball. Then released the spell on my left then right. The spell detonated in the enemy lines killing dozens and setting many humans on fire. With my high casting speed and dual casting, I could release a fireball every half a second.

I would take aim at a large cluster of soldiers, release the spell and repeat. This completely destroyed the enemy formation. I finally spotted the enemy mage in the middle of casting a spell. Aiming a few around 20 feet to their right I released an air blast much faster that he could cast. It detonated, interrupting the spell, and sending them flying. They probably would survive that.

The tower Barian was defending however managed to reach the wall. It was only a few hundred feet away but even from this distance I could see the bridge lowering and soldiers beginning to stream out. This was also expected so they immediately met heavy infantry and were cut down almost as fast as they exited.

It wouldn’t be long before retreat sounded, and the battle would be over for the day. With the death or maiming of the mage no one else was firing spells at the main gate. So, the only thing I did was fire a blast to destroy any grouping of people attempting to raise a ladder. Glancing over to Benny I could see that she was a bit overzealous with her spells. Almost 800 laid dead so much loss in life led to that battalion retreating.

Screams from the battle with the one Tower that made it to the wall caught my attention. 4 knights were decimating soldiers along the wall. Their blades cleaving through leather armor and plate like butter. One knight made a gravity defying leap over the defenders and brought their sword down on Barian. There was a large flash of light as a considerable amount of the energy in the radiant carapace was depleted. They both fell to the ground, Barian landing on his back. The knight deftly landed in a roll and hopped back onto their feet.

An Etheric knight? It had to be.

Barian countered with a stream of fire after he realized he wasn’t dead. The fire engulfed the knight completely, even ally soldiers were caught in the inferno. An instant before the wall of fire hit a radiant barrier popped into existence around the knight. Curiously there was no spell circuit or pulse of Ether. It was a rather crude implementation of the spell, but it was good enough to block the fire. After the spell ended, they sprinted forward shield first, bowling the mage over and ran towards me. They were only a few hundred feet away at this point. A line of soldiers formed to block their path and the knight pointed their sword at them.

An air blast emerged from the tip and sent the line of soldiers flying. I could have stopped the knight earlier, but I wanted to see more. Then the knight with formidable speed sprinted towards me. Unfortunately for them they were in range of my radiant lance. Pointing a finger forward, I summoned a spell circuit, overcharged, and took aim. I can always examine their corpse.

“Die” I whispered. Then fired.

An instant before I fired the knight changed course, throwing off my aim. Instead of hitting center mass I only caught an arm severing it completely. Then with another supernatural burst of speed they leapt off the crenelations. I dismissed the spell and rushed over to watch the fall. And to my surprise they landed in a roll and sprinted off leaving their arm and shield behind.

“What was that?” Vanya asked.

“An etheric knight, I’ve never seen one in action before today. I’m impressed.” I said.

“Glad you took care of him.” Stefen said.

The rest of the knights followed suit and leapt off of the wall following their comrade. With this windfall the rest of the troops along with Barian were able to push back the stream of enemy soldiers. While others were dragging the injured into the range of the regeneration orb. Ignoring the fight occurring about 500 feet away from me I went over to the severed arm and shield. I examined it in the ether.

The metal kite shield had lines of mithrite one the back shaped into spell circuits. At the center of each spell circuit was a pathetically weak etheric gem. Radiant shield, invigorate, air wall, and a fourth I couldn’t recognize. I knew it was a light magic spell and the sigils making it up seem to suggest that it temporarily strengthens muscle and bone.

I couldn’t cast it properly without knowing exactly what it did but if I had to guess this is where the superhuman strength and speed came from. I kept the shield with me resolving to memorize the circuit regardless and toy with it in my free time. Maybe I could figure it out with trial and error. Turning my gaze to the arm I could see that the plate was enchanted. After removing the severed arm from the armor, I noted the intricate tattoos that adorned it. It was black ink though I could see a small shimmer of blue. Switching my gaze to the ether I realized it was Mithrite. They were tattooed with mithrite lased ink. Why? I could only guess.

The battle went on for another two hours but at this point their mages were drained and the route to the wall from the only siege tower was little more than a death trap. The ground around the area was soaked in blood and hundreds of bodies littered the walls, mostly enemy but there were some who either were not able to be brought to the regeneration orbs in time or suffered injuries that lead to quick deaths.

Horns sounded in the distance in a repeating pattern signaling retreat. Soldiers started to cheer as the entire enemy force was routed. If I had to put a number on it, there would be almost 3500 dead. Most being outside the walls. Without a proper way of defending against magic it was little more than one-sided slaughter. Standing orders were to cease all hostilities once they started to retreat.

The baroness came running over. She looked rather brilliant in her plate armor; Hers was actually practical though it did have some embellishment to make everyone know it was a woman underneath.

“Gather up the wounded, both allies and enemies. Bring them to the orbs” she ordered her soldiers. The command was spread through the army.

I knew what she was doing even without explaining it. After all, she would be ruling over these people in the near future. Why not make a good first impression?

“How was the defense of the gate?” she asked while giving the severed arm and shield I was holding a curious glance.

“Simple enough though I believe they hired a group of etheric knights.” I said.

“Really now? That must have cost a significant amount of coin.” She said,

“General Feyrun can likely tell you more.”

The man arrived not a moment later with Barian.

“Sir moon is correct, Baroness, the had Etheric knights, I thank you for the Carapace” Barian said bowing to me.

“I will second that sentiment, it seems our enemy was gambling that they could eliminate the mages on the wall” Feyrun said.

“It is fortunate that they have failed. For now, see to the injured, they are unlikely to attack again today though keep the scouts on alert. Let’s retreat to our command tent and discuss strategy.”

A week later.

Over eight days of constant fighting ensued with repeated failure from the enemy. Their casualties were mounting and beyond a large amount of cosmetic damage to the wall, they had not gotten any closer to breaching. Even their surprise sorties to destroy a part of the walls failed since it wasn’t really difficult to close the breach. Now we were at the tail end of another failed push to breach the wall.

The baroness stood next to me on top of the gate watching the fighting. They lacked the vigor they showed the first say so I had to assume it was time.

I turned to the baroness. “Perhaps it time we destroy their hope.”

She gave a searching glance at the troops below there were still almost 17,000 men below. In truth the fighting was rather boring.

“Yes, it is time, I’ll take the left flank. Do what you wish with the center.” She said and walked off.

I shouted over to Benny who, unlike me, was having fun. “TIME TO GIVE THEM A DEMONSTRATION.”

“FINALLY.” she shouted back. And immediately started overcharging a circuit. She and Barian were dealing with the right flank.

I started casting tornado, it was an incredibly complex spell that took me almost 10 seconds. Aiming down in a large cluster of enemies I released. Nothing happened at first but slowly where I designated the air started spiraling, increasing in speed until a 100-foot tornado formed. Enemies started to be thrown around as they were sucked into the tornado then tossed hundreds of feet into the air. Then I began to overcharge the circuit giving the tornado more fuel. It grew 4 times larger, towering over the wall. The wind was so violent that it took some effort for me to stand upright. I had to brace myself against the crenelation to not get dragged towards the twister.

“Oh no, I’m not done yet” I whispered to myself.

Raising my left arm, I cast a fire stream as powerful as I could make it. I shamelessly copied my assassins. What it lacked in practicality it made up for in sheer spectacle. The massive cone of fire collided with the tornado and began to be sucked in. It swirled around as both my magic and the upwards convection of air acted as fuel to the fire. This made the tornado grow even larger at around 500 feet tall. The massive flaming tornado caught the attention of most of the soldiers along the wall. They stared dumbly; others seemed to be thanking whatever god they prayed to that I were on their side.

A massive pulse of ether brought me to the baroness who was using her amplifier to cast a spell. She had kept it hidden for all of the fighting until now. She channeled a rather terrifying amount of magic into the spell circuit and released it. For hundreds of feet under the enemy the earth simply shattered and exploded. Thousands of boulders were launched into the air and then faster than faster than gravity would have allowed rocketed towards the earth. It repeated 4 more times until the spell ended. The ground shook as if there was an earthquake. Before there was grass, thousands of soldiers, and enemy equipment, now there was simply brown earth and rocks.

Benny released and dropped to her knees almost immediately. Her overcharged air blast detonated, turning the hundreds of humans near the center to mist, and sending hundreds more flying through the air. Soldiers on the wall had to duck as some came flying towards them and landed within the city. I ended my spell soon after. As the flame tornado ended, I could hear the panicky sounding of horn retreat. After the wind and flame dissipated little more than charred and blackened earth was left. I had to guess the deathroll in the space of a few minutes to be almost 5000. Hopefully, this was enough to crush their spirits and I could go hunting.

Over the week of fighting, we lost close to 800 soldiers where the enemy lost well over 10000. It just goes to show how futile it was to siege a fortified city. Due to the use of the regeneration orbs and my abilities most injured soldiers were in full health by the time morning came. And the more enemy soldiers died the more confident the men of Hearthaven became. Now we stood upon the wall on the ninth day of the siege and from what we could see there was no attack incoming.

They had finally decided to starve us out.

“Is It time then.” I asked the baroness. as I looked through the looking glass.

“Yes, they have entrenched themselves against counterattack.”

“Excellent. I’ll begin the operation before sunrise.”

The baroness chuckled at my enthusiasm and said, “You didn’t seem the type to enjoy war.”

“I don’t care much for it, but what I do enjoy is flying,” I said.

It was a simple operation really. I would fly out in the early hours of the morning and search along their supply lines for any transport. Then I would simply dive bomb them from the air and fly away before anyone would notice. I even negotiated a hefty bonus since this was far beyond what I had originally offered. I would return to the city every few days for supplies but from now until they surrendered or died from starvation, this would be my plan.

Of course I had ulterior motives. I had no intention to simply kill then fly away. This was a perfect opportunity. The accepted truth would be that these people died in an attack on the supply line, a common tactic in war. It was the perfect cover for my actual intention which was to rip the life from everyone in the supply train until I broke through my second barrier. They were isolated from the main army and with Noire I could fly away without anyone the wiser.

“Well, we have most of the rest of the day before then” the baroness said. glancing at the sky I presumed we had a few more hours of sunlight. With the strategy of food distribution during this period put in place long before I arrived, she didn’t need to give much direction to her men.

“Whatever will we do with that time?” I asked suggestively.

“I think it’s time you take me flying.” She said,

An hour later the Baroness and I were strapped to Noires harness. She sat behind me since being the same height she would obstruct my view.

“How do you actually direct her without a bridle and reins.” She asked.

“I just tell her where to go.”

She looked dubiously at me and said, “More mysteries I see, well, let us be off then.”

Her commanders and advisors had enthusiastically advised against flying but one look from her was enough to end their complaints.

“Fly,” I said to Noire.

Noire flapped violently and launched us into the air. The baroness who had changed from her plate into leather armor clung to me tightly through the violence that was Noire’s takeoff. It took less than a minute for her to get to proper speed and soon enough we were gracefully soaring through the city skies. Having a beautiful woman cling to you for dear life was an enjoyable process. Soon enough she calmed down and observed the city below.

She was largely silent as I flew Noire in a loose spiral upward eventually leveling out around 5000 feet.

“This is beautiful.” She finally said.

The sun was just starting to set, and the sky was turning from blue to orange to purple. It was a stunningly beautiful sight. One I tried to see as often as possible.

“There is truly nothing like it.” I said caught up in the sight, even though I have seen it a dozen times already.

“Let’s do some actual scouting.” I pointed Noir to the lake and had her pickup speed.

Allyssia wrapped her arms around me and rested her chin on my left shoulder.

“Lead the way,” she said playfully.

Around 50 miles towards the sea we could see the blockade. It was a stretch of around 30 ships of varying sizes that floated in the lake. Only 2 of them were actual war galleys. From this height they were little more than specs.

“Take us down closer.” Descending to around 1000 feet she examined the ships.

“Pirates, one trading company, and only to war galleys” she said as we flew past.

Pirates on a lake, how amusing.

“Will this give your War Galleys any problems?” I asked.

“No, they will go through the blockade with ease, on the small chance that it fails you can step in easily enough.” She said,

“For a price” I added.

She was paying for me and Benny after all. Noire wasn’t included in our agreement. She sniffed then said.

“We will have to renegotiate our agreement.” She said,

“Call on me anytime you feel like, I’m always ready.”

“Is that so?” she asked.

She shifted behind me and with a gentle hand tilted my head to the side, realizing what she was doing, I had to partially turn around in my seat to meet her lips. It only lasted a handful full of seconds before we separated.

“Perhaps we should renegotiate tonight?” I asked.

“Be sure to bring the full measure of your wits. I can be quite demanding.” she said huskily.

With a grin I pointed Noire towards the Keep.

Three hours later

I sat nude on the windowsill staring out on the city below. The Baronesses chambers were located within the highest point in the tallest tower in the keep. That afforded a spectacular view of the city below. The moons were out and casting a soft light over the entire city, the streets were lit with lanterns and windows glowed a soft yellow from candles and fireplaces within. Allyssia and I certainly had some fun but not even sex was enough to distract me from the growing anticipation.

Tomorrow was the day.

“I know elves require less sleep but surely a few hours wouldn’t hurt.” Allyssia said.

She walked over to me as naked as the day she was born and joined me, sitting on the opposite side of the sill. The stone of the sill was padded with a wood and a leather covering for sitting just like this.

“Sleep is largely a human limitation. I could go for weeks with only a few hours of meditation” I said.

“That sounds incredibly useful.”

“It Is.”

A servant knocked at the door and Alyssia got up to answer, throwing a sheet over herself. Then she returned with a tray, holding two servings of tea. She set it between us on the sill and I reached for the cup closest to me.

“My thanks” I said and took a sip.

“So, what plagues your mind, that you cannot even meditate for a few hours.” She asked.

“Nothing of note, though I was wondering about one thing. How would someone hire a group of mages to assassinate another lone mage.”

She raised an eyebrow, surprised at what I had asked then her impressive mind figured out what I was actually referring to.

“Your attack, I did wonder how a mage of your abilities was so grievously injured. It was not random then.”

I was rather circumspect with the details of my journey, so it was unsurprising.

“5 mages, at least journeyman ranked, matching dark clothing, masks, and more importantly, they knew the tornado spell. Unless they were some of the greatest masters, they also had to be using amplifiers.” I listed everything I could remember about them.

She furrowed her brow thinking about my description.

“There are some mercenary groups within the capitol made up of entirely mages, but none so well-equipped as to have master level spells and amplifiers. So, it must be a group from within the underworld.”

“How much would such a thing cost?” I asked.

“More than I’m paying you.” she said with mirth.

Allysia continued. “The price is likely the only way you could track them down. I had to assume it was at least 100,000 gelding for the assassination. That amount of coin leaves a trail and there is one man guaranteed to have access to such information.”

“Denerif Mason?” I guessed.

“Precisely.”

“And how exactly would I get into contact with the wealthiest man in the empire?” I said knowing it was a foolish question.

“Therein lies the problem: the man is famously mercurial and only the royal family or the most powerful dukes could command his attention, even that is tenuous.”

“But you have more problems, would your assassins not simply try again or at the very least try a more subtle approach” She asked.

I sniffed arrogantly. “Poisoning or knives in the dark won’t kill me, and I have been preparing if I ever see that group again.”

If the next few days go as planned. In terms of magical power, I would be in a class all my own. I smiled, my anticipation palpable.

“That vicious smile does not sit well on your comely face. Whatever is going on in that mind of yours.” She asked.

Her question sounded innocent, but nothing was ever an ‘innocent question’ when it came to her. She seemed to be always questing for hidden truths.

“I’m simply excited for tomorrow.” I lied shamelessly.

She rolled her eyes and continued to drink her tea. Glancing out the window I looked to the horizon, the hunger starting to grow in me.