"It's over, Arch Mage. We did it," Fenrilda said, catching a stray falling hickory leaf in her hand. She turned to the old man.
He was on his hands and knees, his gnarled fingers embedded in the stone of the tower. Runes flickered like fireflies around him. Fernilda knelt. "Are you alright?"
"I'm still alive," he said in a rattling voice, "tell me about the city. Is Zi'giza holding?"
The Arch Mage's wrinkling skin was terribly pale, far from it’s normally vibrant shade of sapphire, but Fernilda left his side and summoned her magic. She willed her sight to pierce beyond the sea and into the city.
The stone walls were crumbled and the hordes of soldiers marched through the street. Zi'giza had fallen. They were too late.
With a shaking voice she reported, "The Iron Queen's armies have reached the inner city. Our lines are broken and scattered."
"Yu'jana. Is she alive?"
Fenrilda gripped her staff-turned-spear tighter and focused, searching for the Azir woman. There! At the heart of the city, the First Apprentice still fought, her magical assaults pitifully smaller than they had been the last time Fernilda had seen her. "She is still fighting, my friend."
The Arch Mage chuckled. "So we are friends now, High Druid? No more snide remarks or judging looks left in you for this old man?"
Fernilda returned to kneel by the Arch Mage. "No, I think I'm well deserving of a few myself.”
He coughed. "Well then, friend, I need you to do something for me."
"Anything," she said gently.
"You're not going to like it," he insisted stubbornly and for a moment, she glared at him irritated and he laughed before it turned into a dry cough.
With a shaking hand he pulled the tip of her spear to his chest.
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Yu'jana received Fenrin's message and ordered all the mages to relay it to anyone they could reach. She rode the wind until she found Fenrin, landing in front of him, her eyes widening at the body he carried.
"She's truly dead."
"Yes. We have to let her people know."
The First Apprentice nodded and grit her teeth before windwalking Fenrin and the body back to the front with her. She swayed tiredly as they landed, her vision taking a moment to find focus again, but with determination, she magically amplified her voice, signalling Fenrin to lift the body like an offering.
"Your queen is dead! Leave Aziron now in peace!"
The nearest soldiers paused, whispering to each other and the remaining Azir soldiers stopped with their hands and weapons still poised in the air.
There were some moments of confusion as word passed along the ranks until a commander spoke up, the Aryi man's face had a long scar across it and he barked, "What an offer to give a battle's obvious victor. Queen or not, Aziron had fallen and I'll not make my brothers’ sacrifice be for nothing! Surrender now and give the queen's body to us and we will have mercy on your survivors."
There were shouts of approval and Yu'jana's heart sank. They were beaten and everyone knew it. They had massively thinned the army, but all the cards were down and still they were outmatched, her people too few and too tired.
Should she surrender? Her people had lost so many already and she had a sacred duty to preserve magic. Surrender would mean an end to Aziron as it was, a betrayal to their allies, and a start of endless chaos.
However to fight would mean an end to magic itself.
She opened her mouth to speak when her body was overwhelmed by a such a wave of pure sensation her vision went white. Fenrin and the mages near her backed up as Yu'jana glowed bright blue. Lighting sizzled across her fingers, fire wisped from her hair, the ground around her shook and she rose into the air.
Magic. Pure Magic. The purest and oldest in all of Aziron. The magic of the Arch Mage.
With a wave of her hand, Yu'jana split the earth and Valhym soldiers fell screaming into the chasm. Like a hungry beast, hot magma rose from the darkness and flowed over the streets. Shouts and cries of fear filled the air and the wind pushed the new Arch Mage over the battle.
"Aziron has not fallen. Return to your ships and leave my people," her voice crashed over the army like a tsunami and they fled, scrambling like ants.
Some continued to fight, but Yu'jana's magic pushed the forces outside the wall and reformed it. Faced with the thought of another siege and lacking their central leader, individual commanders tallied the scores and sounded retreat until eventually, long after the sun had fallen behind the purple mountains, the battle was over.