Still sweating nervously slightly and wilting under Kinzul’s telepathic glare, despite the mirth beneath the sentiment, I cough once for attention and state, “Alright, I’m going to reiterate what we just went over, just to check to make sure we’re all on the same page, before we figure out the priority level of each goal. Alright?”
Glancing around and making eye contact with everyone, I’m afforded their attention, even those that are sleepy or worn out, so I begin, “I’m going to want the Strategists Eight sleuthing, gathering more intel about any myths or concrete knowledge about the Beast of the End, and the whereabouts of Yisstendahl’s son. We’ll want to be getting Lil's new little army up to speed. As Yui said, we’ll spill a lot of blood, slay many foes, in many skirmishes using the magical might of the Spellknights. As our Tenith suggested, we have to plan for downtime shifts, recovery time, yes Te, I know you specifically said snogging, but I’m serious here.”
Before I can continue on listing out the goals we’d covered, Kinzul announces, “To that end, I shall rescind the seal on something I’d long since locked away for everyone’s benefit. A lock that I believe Schism, my love, has broken through on their own.”
When our small crowd murmurs and stares about in surprise, I’m fairly certain I already know what Kinzul is alluding to. Does her Latent let her, through perhaps a ritual, control the limits to which Dragonforce can be relied upon and used for things like healing? Long in the past, through most of Rayileklia’s history, at most Terrorzin’s forces might be taking injuries, rather than being slain, so them being able to recover from their injuries overnight would benefit no one, even if the Onyx Dawn could do the same.
Now however, we’re relying on outright slaying our targets with each outing, and trying to get back to our best before our next engagements. If people can tap into an otherwise limited resource in order to be at their best each morning, or after a good sleep or something, when everything is on the line like this, now is certainly the time to allow it. Terrorzin’s forces won’t benefit from the lift, while ours gets a massive boon, even though the cost is great. That’s a game changer. As long as we withdraw in time, always, to make sure none of ours are slain.
I wonder if we might be able to rouse Sponge, if he subconsciously leans into his own Dragonforce in order to heal up and wake from his coma. Kinzul’s soft, wet gaze expresses her hope in the thought I’d just had. He, like all of her figurative children of Solace, is precious to Kinzul, and it tears at her that he’s in an unwaking state, as near death as he is near life.
Regardless, I nod, exchanging gratitude wordlessly with Kinzul. I half wonder if that’s what she used so much of my blood for. Was it to be able to prepare a ritual that would allow her to do this? To nullify or void out one she’d done in the past that set the lock up in the first place? The Worldstorm enchantment has so many layers, it’s beyond remarkable. Only a masterful Administrator could manage all its functions. I mean, it transferred the properties of glowlichen and sturdy trees to sunflowers, to make literal sun flowers. It enhanced the durability of most of the entire planet. It changed the specific gravity of dragons for crying out loud. If someone accused Kinzul of being a deity in disguise, I’d seriously consider the accusation. The changes she’s affected, put into effect, over the ages of the world are astounding, miraculous.
Anyway, before I get too distracted, and lose my, um, my thingy. My place in my, um, thought head thing. Friggin’ hell. Brain, work, please. Rattling my skull, I start to rattle off the other goals we have, in order to make sure everyone’s on the same page before our prioritization session, “So, uh, as Nala would have it, since one of my main goals is entry to the ‘Twixt from Solace or Verdimenn, her experiments in electrostatic electrogenesis to entangle effulgent eidolons in order to stabilize and maintain ethereal excitations, or something like that, are a concrete goal we’ll need to work in.”
Before people’s eyes can glaze over too far, I add a simpler task related to the same end-goal, “Along with that, I want to establish relations with Jeegoobotstan, since that’s the only plausible escape path for our evacuees, as the only other ‘Twixt exit I have in my ‘Twixt realm to Rayileklia is in the Fae’s Wilds, and that’ll take some political maneuvering that I can’t pull off in a week. So it’d be better to get communications established with the refugees who’ve taken residence in Jeegoobotstan, establish relations, and operating procedures for evacuation.”
Puffing a breath, I do my best to maintain everyone’s attention, specifying a step to accomplishing that goal, “We’ll have to have someone deliver several mirrors that I’ll enchant, with instructions to get one to Tiktik, and another one to either Harriet or Tiago or George or Daffodil, or some of the other Aasimovian elders, or Cain, the elder kobold, and one to the dragons guarding the refugees. Lil, what if we sent Ixey and Zayzi away, before the fighting, to Jeegoobotstan, where it's safe? They could be our ambassadors, and deliver our scrying mirrors and, um, and stuff—“
Suddenly Lil grumps aloud, elongating his phrasing, whining slightly, "Awe mannnn. I hate it, but I think it's a good idea, probably. Ixey’s gonna hate it too, maybe. She’ll be happy to get Zayzi out of Solace before the fighting though."
I pat Lil’s head and rub his skull comfortingly as he sprawls out in a medium sized version of his dragon form. He and Lucky both look seriously winded, and I hate the next goal I’m about to reiterate, “We’re also going to want to dig in in Vieriss Valley, and set up false bunkers filled with explosives, as Terrorzin is certain to anticipate bunkers with defenders. He’s smart enough that he’s likely to send in elite assassins, but even if he doesn't, they're fallback traps to take out advance legions during any segments of our strategic retreats.”
Blowing another breath through puffed cheeks and pursed lips, I continue explaining the goals related to Vieriss Valley, “Similarly, we’ll also dig in in Vieriss Valley's canyon walls not far behind the bunkers, and fill it with arrangements to take care of refugees, in case we can't get them through the 'Twixt or to Jeegoobotstan. Which means a serious lot of digging for our poor Hunter, Hound, Lucky, and any volunteers that can help him out. Also, for the traps for those bunkers, we’ve got to get our artificers and Spellknights the supplies they need, which includes me meeting with Littlebit in private later to learn what she needs. Which will also include what more supplies she’ll need for her and Nala for a steady stream of clankers or clockwork automatons.”
Taking a moment to think about it, I muse on the goal, “If it’s at all possible, to aid in having a constant fresh supply of metal troops, we might be able to set up a foundry or automated process that provides pre-assembled clockwork for Nala and Littlebit to animate. I’d already toyed with the idea of assembly lines for Solace, to help with harvesting resources, and converting them to products to convert to cash to use to acquire more of the goods our residents desire. This would be more focused on the war effort though, obviously.”
Taking a moment, fighting off the trembling in my limbs, and holding my voice steady so I don’t let on that the very idea of what I’m about to say has me gulping back a sob, I state another goal, “I want to make sure everyone knows Can'Z'aasians don't leave a corpse, if we die, we're gone. I know we don’t want to think about death, but I want us to have a procedure in place, should any of us fall, anyone at all. We don’t want Terrorzin’s necromancers getting their hands on the corpses of our loved ones. I, I couldn’t personally handle that emotionally, even if I could face them physically.”
There’s a hush that passes through our gathering like a wave. A silent acknowledgement that everyone feels virtually the same on that topic. After a moment’s silence, I continue, “We’ll announce our Thunderers to the horde, or rather, they’ll announce themselves. Being as rare, and powerful a breed of dragon as they are, it’ll demoralize and damage T-zin’s hordes. While I’d like to do this one as early as possible, the earliest might possibly be waiting until the last day or two, for Atter. We’ll do everything in our power to ensure her clutch gets every possible chance to bring forth as many lives as feasible.”
Gulping, and blinking back tears that I share with Kinzul, I try to focus on the rest of the goals as I further add, “We’re going to have some priority-target assassinations and plenty of guerrilla attacks beyond just defending the front where we bottleneck his horde with our defenders. To that end, we’ll need intel on Terrorzin's ranks, formations, and the like, to schedule and pinpoint those attacks. Speaking of intel, according to Lu, we need other intel, research for foreknowledge? Muse duties is all we’re getting out of her on that topic for now, apparently.”
Pausing a beat, glancing at Prinrin, I nod at the fire in her eyes as I address her goal, “We want concrete intel on the Damnations locations and plans, if they might join the final battle, it’ll be the SAP's duty to take them down first, before they get the chance. When we’re prioritizing, that’ll almost assuredly be top of the list.”
Drawing a deep breath in order to sigh, I spy Alanea tending to Yuri’s still-injured form, which brings to mind more of the goals we’ll have, specifically I announce, “We’re going to get specific operating procedures put into place for supply lines from the shop-system, specifically medical supplies, training manuals or training equipment, and such to provide the infirmary and any medic volunteers everything they’ll need to keep our defenders who can’t lean on a Dragonforce in order to heal, healthy. Also of course to tend to any civilians exposed to the war, or hurt, injured, or made ill in any fashion. Let’s keep an eye out for curses, disease warfare, poisons, and gases and the like while tending to all that.”
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Since I’m meeting Ahliyuri’s gaze while trying not to ogle Alanea, I address his concerns, “We’ll definitely create actual walls, mundane and magical, actual blockades for when Terrorzin's forces break through my hastily erected blockade. Or I guess we could say my hastily moved natural barrier would be more accurate. Anyway, to that end, we go back to our shop system procedures, since we also want other magic-oriented supplies to provide for the Spellknights and artificers, for the creation of magical assets or artifacts.”
Turning my head, taking in everyone, I catch Farzhis and Veril standing close to each other but hugging themselves, avoiding meeting each other’s gazes, so I bring up their concern, “We’re going to make a concrete plan on how to buy time, and plan out how much we'll be buying with each skirmish and engagement, always ensuring we withdraw before things go south, but try to maintain minimum time purchased with each engagement. Similarly, we’ll set time aside for evacuation and protection of civilians, and get them prepared now, in advance, so they have time to do their own preparations in the likely event that we need to get them away from Solace or combat. Oh, back on the topic of the shop system and magical assets and artifacts, of course we’ll make sure the procedures include proper disbursements of any magical assets and aids the Spellknights and artificers can concoct.”
Muttering mostly to myself, I add two goals that are just for me, “Fight fate, and get in contact with Errissa, to try to learn what's going on.” Then, more audibly, I request, “Alright, does that sound like everything we covered? If so, let’s work on prioritizing them. A lot can be accomplished simultaneously, though some, we just can’t be everywhere at once, or working on multiple projects at the same time, as far as artificery and such. We’ll also need to get word out to gather volunteers.”
Still feeling horrid for having hurt her, wanting to display my faith in her, I address Administrator, fumbling as I do, “Anyway um, Kinzul, my love, my wife, perhaps you should lead us in prioritizing, by administrating, um, yeah.”
Taking pity on me, knowing how uncomfortable I am with focus being on me in the first place, Kinzul does take over, announcing, “Yes, my beloved Order, please afford me your attention as we organize these disparate thoughts into a congruous outline of events. Let me address our plan going in reverse, starting from the final step. At the end of a week, we shall meet the bulk of Terrorzin’s forces, and he himself, the morning of October fifth. Whether at our doorstep, or in a choke point of our choosing will be determined by how well we pull off the other steps in our plan. Now, as for how to place these priorities, perhaps we list the goals on scraps of paper, and shift them about. When we’re satisfied with their locations, we transcribe that as our master list.”
Grateful for a solid plan of action to help wrap up our little meeting of the minds, I do exactly as Kinzul suggested. I begin cutting squares of paper out of a list of the goals we’d just discussed. The warmth and excitement of those around me, having concrete goals to focus on in the face of such overwhelming odds is reassuring. There’s plenty we can accomplish at the same time, so our list is more horizontal than I’d have liked, as my friends and loved ones point out changes to make to the list.
One of the things we’ll certainly be doing is running a lot of supplies around. Hopefully we don’t need to run any weapons around. I think everyone’s got their own blades, or claws, at this point in life, and the war. After a dozen minutes or so, this is how the list is splayed out before me on the tinkering table.
Game Plan of the Onyx Dawn until October fifth [https://i.imgur.com/RJJ1Ls3.png]
>Intel on the Damnations, their locations and plans
>>Nala’s electrostatic electrogenesis to engtangle eidolons in order to stabilize and maintain ethereal excitations, *maybe we should just call it EEE like Littlebit suggests *Why, is it too complex for you? *Shut up, I know more about etheric particles than you do Lu
>>>‘Twixt mastery *Go Airhead!
>Restoring ability to lean on Dragonforce to Regenerate *Heck yeah Aunty Zool! *Te, you’re such an embarrassment *Nuh uh, Aunty Zool is okay with her nickname, I checked
>Getting Lil’s new little army up to speed *Hah, Dragbutt started a cult *I thought you stopped calling Lil that a long time ago? *Pft, whatever
>Opening the lines of communication to Jeegoobotstan(Sending the twin Reds away w/ scrying mirrors) *Awe, okay, I actually feel bad that Dragbutt’s shiny new girlfriend is going away for at least a week *Well isn’t that sweet of someone *Yup, I’m a total sweetie
>>Establish relations, as well as operating procedures for evacuating to Jeegoobotstan, whether or not we succeed with ‘Twixt research
>>But utilize new lines of communication, twin Reds, and Tiktik, to advance ‘Twixt research as well *Airhead better not hog the mirror to Tiktik, I want some facetime with Kitten, mrawr *OMG Te
>Muse duties, and organization of supply lines from the shop system falls to Luni, Muse, our resident shopkeeper expert, and Leezahna, our quartermaster *Someone go wake Princess up, she’s a part of this now too, and Airhead’s proud of her
>>Possibly construction of an assembly line for swift manufacturing
>>Prioritize upkeep of material for walls, mundane and magical, as well as medical supplies, as the primary outcomes of the shop system
>>>If those are taken care of, then prioritize supplies for explosives for the Spellknights and artificers as well as other magic-oriented supplies for enchanting and creation of utility items or whatever the Spellknights are capable of *Reggie, meet up with Littlebit in private later, no groaning about getting private time with the shortstack cutie *Te, don’t leave personal notes in the margins anymore *You’re not the boss of me *Will you two knock it off? *Nah *Nope
>>>If those are taken care of, then the spare parts for clankers and clockworks should be prioritized as outputs of the shop system, and an assembly line worked on, so that Nala and Littlebit only have to imbue their “robobuddies” to animate them, to replace any fallen ones *I like robobuddies better than clankers, sorry Littlebit *Okay, I agree with you there Te
>>>>Disburse/hand out anything the Spellknights and Artificers can whip up, including explosives, portable turrets, robot allies, consumable trinkets, and anything else
>Get concrete intel on Terrorzin’s horde’s formation, its elite units, its commanders, and so on
>Spill blood, and lots of it, *Hell yeah ‘Yui! the wording is fine, you and your bro rock socks *What does that even mean?
>Take advantage of our newly minted Spellknight platoon, and send them into skirmish after skirmish
>>But prioritize downtime between those skirmishes, make sure everyone is treated and rested, any fallen ally is one dead too many *Yeah… always come home guys, all of you *Yeah
>>While the first skirmishes are happening, Lucky, and anyone else capable of helping will be digging in and tunneling about the canyon walls of Vieriss Valley
>>>Create false defensive bunkers in Vieriss
>>>>Fill them with explosives, or lethal magics *Hah, boom goes the dynamite, and the bad guys *You’re SUCH a dork *I know you are but what am I? *Ugh, and you’re such a child
>>>Create actual refuges in Vieriss
>During one of several strategic falling backs to new chokepoints, announce our Thunderers to the horde
>If all other intelligence necessary has been gathered, look into these Beast of the End myths
>If the Beast of the End research turns up something, or doesn’t pan out, find Yisstendahl’s son, interrogate him
>>Prepare the evacuation plan to go off by October fifth if at all possible
>Meet Terrorzin and the rest of his forces head on for the final confrontation on October fifth
Phooph, what a mess. I mean, it’s pretty well laid-out, all things considered. We’ll have to expand a couple of sections once we actually get intel on the horde, but that’s why it’s prioritized above those sections. I frown and furrow my brow at the little side-notes that made it into comments on the list. Casting my glare over to the responsible parties, I find them immediately pretending to whistle innocently as they avoid meeting my gaze. Yeah, real cute you guys.
Ah who am I kidding, I can’t be mad at Lu or Te. Who told them to knock it off…in another note in the margin? Musta been Lil I guess. Anyway. Wow, this feels like a lot of things to do, and feels like we’ve accomplished a hell of a lot tonight. I suppose in some ways, it is, and we have. We’re going to have to break up into groups though to start a bunch of simultaneous activities.
I need to enchant some more mirrors while Lil fetches Ixey and Zayzi. I need to stay here with the artificers right up until the second skirmish, where I’ll be on the front lines from that point onwards for the rest of the war until the night of October fourth, when I might be called back to evacuate the civilians. Hopefully we can complete our ‘Twixt research by then, but it could turn out that we just can’t pull it off. In which case, Lucky will be our go-to civilian savior, escorting them and tunneling dozens of miles through mountains to get them to a refuge that will be behind enemy lines by that point.
Oh Lucky, my poor sweet boy. He doesn’t even complain, he volunteered to dig to help make others safe. I whisper to him, “Good boy, good boy. You’re so good. Soooo good. Such a good boy,” which sets his tail to wagging and thumping excitedly. I’m also privy to his excited happy thoughts of, “Parent says I’m good, that means they love me, I’m a good boy!”
Yeah, yeah I do Lucky. I do love you. Wiping tears from my eyes, I realize this might be the last I see of him for a week or more, and… if one of us doesn’t… come back. Tears begin flowing freely as I hug Lucky tightly about his neck. My son, that I never appreciated enough, until it was too late. I’m so sorry Lucky. I’m so sorry I took you for granted. I feel Luni and Te at my back, their hands on my shoulders, both experiencing the sadness deeply along with me. The gathered begin dispersing, allowing my inner circle, Kinzul, and Prinrin a modicum of privacy.
There’s plenty to grieve that’s already happened, and there will be more to grieve before the end of the war. I let my emotions wash over me, and away, moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.