Zalia told Tristan about how she had learned to counter the corruption with her ritual magic. It required the living rituals that she had also learned how to create in Cormaine as well as a power strong enough to overcome the corruption that was being subdued.
“My plan is to work with the Enchanter to weave this type of ritual magic into their barrier. It might take a bit of work to convert what I have learned to do to their type of magic but I hope that with the same type of magic fueled by a Silver rank person, they might be able to simultaneously weaken whichever shapechangers have made it into the town so far,” Zalia explained.
They were seated at a table in the once dining hall that many of the guards of Ostoss called home. Zalia could feel that Boreal and Ember were on their way back to the hall after her brief spike in alarm when the explosion had gone off. She probably could have communicated that they need not worry but there was no reason for them to stay away any longer.
“Will that work?” Tristan asked, still looking weary and burnt out.
“I don’t know. I’ve been under the effects of a strong corrupting aura bearing down on me and it was pretty tough to do anything at all. Sure, this is only Silver where that was more akin to Emerald rank in strength but it should at least give us an advantage. Weaken them, disrupt their ability to shapechange, anything that gets us a step in front of them,” Zalia replied, shrugging.
Maybe it wasn’t the best plan but it would not only disrupt the shapechangers in some manner but also help defend against more attacks from the outside.
“Well, it’s something at least. Any progress we can make towards a better defence is a good one in my books. Should I try introduce you to the Enchanter then?”
“Hmm, not right now, no. maybe tomorrow morning would work though?” Zalia suggested, more focused on tracking her friend's location and emotions than the conversation.
“Sure thing,” Tristan agreed.
He stood up and was about to leave when Zalia remembered something.
“Oh hey! Did you manage to get some people who would like to work on the food growing?” she asked, similarly standing.
“Yeah, actually I did. Not as many as I hoped for but a few experienced men and women. Some of them never recovered from those damn raiders way back and don’t have much hope left now but… Well, let’s say they are desperate for something to do, some way to fight back.”
“Are they coming here?” Zalia asked, furrowing her brow.
“No, no I organised for them to meet about this time tomorrow, for Ember’s food handout. Feeding them will go a long way to helping their spirits and hopefully speeding up how quickly we can get established,” Tristan explained, gesturing to Ember as she walked through the door.
“And you have enough grain to get started?” Zalia asked.
“Enough, barely. If this doesn’t work out then we’ll pretty much be out of food soon after. Better to try and get things going now rather than starve in a couple weeks anyway.”
“Well, hopefully, me and Aylie’s ability to grow plants faster combined should be able to get them established in minutes, harvestable not too long after that,” Zalia explained.
She wasn’t really sure of how quickly her ability was able to grow food, though it certainly was able to cause already established trees to bloom and grow fruit within a very short time. It was also able to, depending on the rank of course, grow the herbs she had stored within her Grove’s dimensional space.
“I hope so. If this goes the same way as last time then we’ll have people swarming the farm within a short time of us starting. Are you ready for that eventuality?” Tristan asked., crossing his arms.
She hadn’t considered that part fully. Of course she was absolutely against harming the citizens in any way, despite however they might act. Starvation would cause otherwise good people to do things they usually would never even consider. Well, she had a few ideas on how to deal with the people who came.
“I am certain I can convince them to allow us to continue with growing the food if I promise to feed them,” Zalia explained.
Tristan seemed unsure but didn’t comment on it.
A bell resounded in the hall and a few of the guards inside groaned as they stood, gathering weapons and armour, preparing for what seemed to be their next shift.
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Zalia, though, had been carefully watching one particular person out of the corner of her eye. She had felt their presence, felt the corruption inside of them now that she knew what to look for. She hadn’t told Tristan, knowing that the more people who knew the more likely it was that her ruse was to be discovered.
Well, she had a feeling that the previous farm being attacked hadn’t been coincidental or the cause of starvation entirely. In fact, after discovering the first shapechanger and realising what that off feeling she had been having was, she was certain that it was a result of their interference.
She had thought about what cause that shapechanger had for stabbing the old man and stealing his food and had come to the conclusion that it was for a few reasons. To start off with, it seemed odd that the creature would out itself like that but if people didn’t know about them and it was a common occurrence for such things to happen in the town then it would cause fear, unrest and distrust for one’s neighbours. If you saw or heard about it happening regularly, you would be much less likely to work with others rather than cut them off and survive as best you could despite others.
It was an intelligent tactic, a way of destroying the morale and hope of the people within the walls. Make it seem like even in the town there was no safety as the person just down the street might kill you for your food.
So, she had spoken about her plans very openly with Tristan in hopes that the shapechanger in the room would listen and make their own plans to disrupt her. Well, they had and she watched that creature leave the room, hopefully to tell the others in the city. She genuinely did think that working with the Enchanter was a good idea yet this might be a quicker way of not only bringing out the shapechangers but killing them off. There were surely not too many in the city otherwise they would have taken over by force already, at least, that’s what she thought.
“Right, we should go back to the park and get ready then,” Zalia said to Ember, Aylie and Boreal, all of who had only just arrived from there.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning then? Will you be alright finding somewhere to sleep, otherwise you can stay here,” Tristan called over from where he was putting his armour on.
“I’ll be fine Tristan, thanks,” Zalia waved, leaving the room.
“So, what was all that about? What happened?” Ember asked as they left.
“Well, that shapechanger I caught decided to explode,” Zalia said theatrically, waving her hands in a wide gesture.
“Didn’t know they could do that,” Ember muttered, scratching at her head.
“Neither! But, we know now,” Zalia said.
Boreal was looking expectantly at her and Zalia sighed, knowing what she would want to know.
“I told it that if it didn’t cooperate that I would let you find out what it taste like but the damn creature took matters into its own hands. You’ll have to find out another time Boreal,” Zalia explained, patting her friend on the head.
“Silly Boreal,’ Aylie murmured, comfortably laying across Boreal’s back.
Boreal huffed belligerently, obviously annoyed at the improper use of 'silly'.
“Well, you are a little silly sometimes,” Zalia pointed out, looking knowingly at Boreal, a hand on her chin as if in deep thought.
Boreal turned to stare up at her and narrowed her eyes.
“Yes but taste is important,” she insisted.
With the admission of silliness, Zalia had no footing on which to disagree. Once again, Boreal had smoothly won the argument seemingly without effort. Taste was important after all.
Zalia quickly used mental communication with Ember to get her up to speed with what exactly her plans were and Ember agreed. She would set up a huge ritual around the park that would do exactly what she wanted the Enchanter to do. It would suppress the corrupting aura and hopefully give them an advantage.
However, she didn’t want the shapechangers to have any idea of this beforehand so she would have to activate it as the people came to disrupt the planting, assuming they even did. Then, she would activate the ritual.
The only issue with the plan is it would use almost all of Zalia’s mana, meaning she wouldn’t be able to use Nature’s Wrath or Protection of the Wilds. Of course, she could still shoot from afar but the main task would be up to Boreal and Ember to take care of the enemies. She wanted to keep Aylie in the Grove vault just in case, being the safest place in the entire town right now.
She wanted to get Tristan’s help as well. She knew that most of the guards would need to remain on the walls or out of rotation just in case an attack came so couldn’t rely on them but Tristan was a Bronze rank soldier, someone who trained with the army. His fighting skills were significantly better than her own, or used to be at least. She hadn’t sparred with him in a while, she might have caught up by now.
Either way, he would be useful in their fight.
She couldn’t really set up traps either, knowing that should they activate on a civilian she would never forgive herself for that death.
“I agree with all that, sounds like you’ve already thought well about this. I’m surprised you came up with it so quickly,” Ember sent.
“I had to learn to react to situations quickly in Cormaine,” she replied simply.
Ember nodded, well aware of pretty much everything she had been through in that place.
They reached the park and Zalia led them down to the little wooden bridge and pulled out the chunk of wood she had been playing around with. During the bit of practice time she'd had to develop her skills of growing and pruning the wood by the use of Healing Presence and Preparation, she had come up with an idea. Something not necessarily that useful but still a good extension of her practice.
She put the chunk of wood down on one side of the bridge and slowly, piece by piece, grew it outwards as a structure began to take shape.