"Roe!" Rubric Makon screamed.

He screamed in his dreams. An endless series of nightmares where he continued to watch Roe destroyed, helpless to stop it. He shed hot tears and they burned his skin but he still continued to shed them.

His world collapsed under his feet even as he continued. His arms melted away from his bones as he struggled to fight for her.

He fell into deep water and drowned.

He opened his eyes.

The fog in his mind continued to cloud his judgment. He struggled to form thoughts.

"Where am I?" He croaked, gazing at the ceiling, every muscle in his body felt stiff and he felt heavier than a log of lead.

A strange face came into view, It was a young man in his twenties, certainly. He had long hair, a week old stubble, and a striking gaze.

"Hello, General Makon." The voice said. "You're in the Saia healing home."

"Who are you?"

"I am Royi. Aku'andan War Mage. I tracked a Ganz asset to this location where I discovered you in a pool of your blood—"

"Roe!" Makon gasped, before coughing.

"...As well as," Royi continued. "Your maimed companion. I stabilized you both and brought you here."

"How is she?" Makon asked?

"She's in worse shape than you are," Royi said. "her body could not handle what it was put through. She is currently in the surgery room, but she will probably make it."

Makon tried to sit up.

"I'm not sure that's a good Idea." Royi said calmly. Makon ignored him and got hit with a sharp pain in his abdomen. He squealed and went back to lying down.

"I told you." Royi said. "It's a miracle you're not dead yet. You lost a great deal of blood. I'm surprised you woke up this early. it's been only twenty three hours since I found you."

And so Makon remained on his bed, gazing at the ceiling, while Royi sat beside him on a chair, reading a small illustrated pamphlet about Saia as a tourist destination, no doubt an effort by the community to make some money off their three eyed white rock.

---

The first day of the siege was drawing to a close when Roska arrived, carrying Lord Daron on her back. Despite his age, he had since adapted to being carried around with the the speed and jumped right off. They entered the city and were surprised to see the huge crowd of mages. They had started building some sort of contraption.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Segi and Lakan came to greet them, they were led to the Aku'andan pavilion, which was an entire space with tables and tents. Binko as asleep in one of the tents and Hark was working with some mages nearby.

"Lord Daron, Mage Roska." Lakan greeted. "Nice to have you here, You've no doubt heard of what's happening here."

"Ahh, yes indeed Lakan." Lord Daron said. "What is that you are building there?"

Lakan followed his gaze to the cleared area just between the siege and the black gate, where a bunch of mages were constructing some sort of wood and metal frame.

"Oh, that? That's the frame for a lens." Lakan said. "One of the Pirunese mages suggested it... Basically the plan is it'll allow us all to fire blasts of some kind at it and focus all that energy in one place."

"that sounds interesting." Roska said.

"Yeah," Lakan said. "The only problem, of course, is the massive spell dampener above us right now. Some of us, myself included, think that the spell dampener will suppress the combined beam."

"And to make matters worse," Segi continued, "The core of the dampener is inside the governor's office, so we can't shut down the spell dampener unless we first attack the building.

"He's learned a lot from Pirun." Lord Daron said.

"Have you learned anything about the armor yet?" Roska asked.

"Yes actually." Lakan said. "All of us have been studying it for the past day. At first we assumed it was simply a scaled up version of the magical shield we use."

"But?" Roska asked.

"It's not. It's hundred times stronger at least, and it seems to have it's own structure." Lakan replied. "It doesn't shrink wrap around the building like you'd expect. It's actually a solid magical box that just exists, on its own, outside the building. It has sharp corners and right angles and faces."

"How the hell did he build that?" Roska asked in confusion and awe.

"Beats me." Lakan said. "But you bet most of us here aren't leaving until we get an answer, and probably Ganz too."

Mullam arrived at that moment and Roska whisked him off for a private discussion, while gloating about her win. Lakan and Lord Daron watched them go off.

"Yep... He's definitely going to marry her one day." Lakan said.

"You think so?" Lord Daron chuckled.

At that moment a loud voice rang out from behind the gates. it was the governor again.

"You people have been here for an entire day! Have you nothing better to do?" He retorted at the crowd.

"Who's that?" Lord Daron asked as the boos began. When they told him who it was, he hurried towards the front and began talking to the man.

"Governor! I'm Lord Daron Fulba!" He said hurriedly before the governor could leave.

"Okay, and?" The governor asked, confused. He didn't know who Lord Daron was and since Aku'andan Lords didn't dress flamboyantly, he had no way of guessing that he was talking to one of the most powerful men in Gan.

"I want an audience with Ganz." Lord Daron said. At this time, the boos had died down as the mages went back to their activities, some building the lens, some studying grimoires and studying spells in an effort to eventually break up the armor.

The governor was taken aback.

"And who are you exactly?" The governor asked.

"Just tell Ganz Lord Daron would like to speak to him, thank you." he replied.

"Alright. At least you seem to have the good sense to be polite." The governor said calmly. "Unlike these... scarecrows."

He left.

Barely ten minutes passed before Ganz himself appeared. Looking as fierce and resolute as Lord Daron remembered him. Lakan was shocked that he showed up. The rest of the mages began to take notice of his presence and moved closer to the gate.

"Lord Daron!" He said in a loud, clear voice as he walked closer to the gate.

"Ganz." Lord Daron replied. After all this time, staring into the eyes of the one man that had turned Gan upside down was strangely exciting.

The two men stood facing each other, separated by an invisible barrier and a visible black wrought iron gate. On the inside, Ganz stood alone, backed by an empty courtyard. On the outside, Lord Daron stood, flanked by Lakan and Segi, with an army of deadly war mages behind him.

For what seemed like forever, but was only a few seconds, they stared at each other.