“Just as a city plans for a thousand-year flood, we must plan for the thousand-year creature.”
I was speaking to the gathered council. Once the work had gotten underway and we were making measurable progress on the temporary keep, I’d called them together for a short meeting regarding defenses.
The colony was hard at work excavating earth and laying the foundation for the keep. Behind us, a line of elves emerged from a large strip of dug-out earth, passing cut stone blocks between them. In the distance, I could hear elves at work felling trees and stripping them of their branches, their wood to be put to use in making simple sleds that our strongest people could use to drag loads of cargo around.
I didn’t want to spread any unnecessary panic, and so I’d called everyone together to discuss what we were going to do about threats.
“The hydra we saw yesterday spotted us from a distance of twenty kilometers and then charged us, intending to kill us all,” I began. “Now, yesterday, we had the terrain advantage to drop rocks on it. In this place, that will only be true for something that comes up the cliffside—in all other cases, we’ll have to rely on the advantage of preparation. First and foremost, I want us to be ready in the case of simultaneous attack by multiple powerful creatures.”
“Ah—multiple?” Hassina asked, her expression growing worried.
“Multiple,” I said. “And that’s just one possibility. There are certainly larger behemoths out there. And there are creatures who are like Palefang—they’ve developed intelligence. Had yesterday’s hydra been intelligent, things could have gone very differently. Hence why we need to make some preparations.”
“What do you want?” Zirilla asked.
“The keep is already being built with a shelter cut deep into the earth,” I said. “Something our people can retreat to while we fight outside, if the worst comes. Beyond that, I want mana wells for our storm callers to line up volleys of lightning bolts—drill them all until they can do it with perfect precision. And as soon as we’re able, we’ll get glass and ceramics to line the wells with, keep more mana reserved. Until then, it’s going to take a lot of us on channeling duty to hold as much mana as I want devoted to defense.”
“I’ll see it done,” said Zirilla. “But while we’re on the subject, I’m thinking I should start scouting, too. More than I have been.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“Well, we know that Palefang got his [Lightning] keys from somewhere,” said Zirilla. “And yesterday’s hydra netted us three [Plural 3] skill keys along with a hefty seven hundred thousand essence. If you’ll recall, that behemoth wyvern that we fought knew to back away from our line of mana—knew we were going to throw lighting. Something around here is cultivating [Lightning] skill keys, and I want to find it. You and I both know how much stronger we’ll be if we can pair them up with [Plural] and make [Forked Lightning].”
“It’s true,” I said, considering it.
Hybrid [Lightning] skills didn’t allow one to extend their magical claim through mana the way that the pure [Lightning Magick] did, greatly reducing the potential range of the lightning they could conjure. But each of them added new capabilities to the lightning they conjured, and these could be combined with the pure skill.
[Forked Lightning], the combination of [Lightning] and [Plural], would allow Zirilla and I to choose how the power of a lightning bolt would be distributed if its composite line of mana ended in multiple tongues—the fork. Normally, the brunt of the power would simply force its way along whichever path brought it close to the mana source that the lightning was naturally drawn to, but with [Forked Lightning] the caster could choose which point to use, or divvy the power between them.
The simple result of this was twofold: the first was using a single bolt of lightning to attack multiple targets. The second, and arguably more important use, was to spread multiple tongues of mana into the air around a creature like a behemoth, then channel the bolt through whichever one was closest to its head.
With multiple stormcallers to channel mana into the air, and Zirilla or I to aim the resulting bolt with [Forked Lightning], we could all but guarantee an instant kill against any of the creature’s we’d met so far.
“Delegate to get the defenses set up, then leave as soon as you like,” I said. “We could always use more [Lightning].”
“That’s the spirit,” Zirilla said, grinning.
“But you won’t just be looking for [Lightning] keys,” I said. I turned to Seriana. “The mages have all manner of ideas for the defenses, I take it?”
“Of course,” said the archmage. “And many of the most effective ones will require their own keys—both for our casters and for the enchantments we’d like to lay down.”
“[Weave], most of all, I take it?”
“And [Fray],” said Seriana. She looked at the air around us, most likely examining the mana. “I’d expect the latter to be more readily available, here. I take it, Lux Irovex, that we should focus more on hindering potential threats than outright killing them—as we did yesterday?”
“For now, yes. Eventually I’ll want an arsenal of spells as broad as we can manage at our disposal, but that’s for the future.”
Seriana nodded. “In that case, all I’ll need is to have a conversation with Zirilla before she goes—let her know what to look for.”
“The wildhearts and psychics will still need to be at the ready for coordinated psychic attacks,” I said, turning now to Mirio. “But while we’re not being attacked you should make plans for the psychic shroud. Obviously, we’ll want our presences masked.”
“Ah—yes, Lux Irovex,” Mirio said with characteristic nervousness, bobbing his head. “Though, if I may ask….”
“Yes?”
“Shouldn’t you be taking some time to scout? You’re stronger than Zirilla, and can sense wildlife more easily with [Wild Bond]. And you have the experience to know what you’re looking for….”
“You’re right, and I will be—but not as much as you might think. I’ve spent enough time away this past week that I’d like to be more present with the colony, at least for a couple of days. And while I may be more effective at searching this land for keys, I’m not the only one who can do it. Besides,” I said, smiling at him. “I’ll be leaving to hunt the behemoths you find in any case.”
“Right,” said Mirio. “Of course.”
“We also need to consider what our long-term defense against elementals will be,” I said. “Binding spells, obviously, but I’d like more geographical deterrents as well. We don’t want any large bodies of water in or around the colony, and we want to make approaching us as unappealing as possible for a fire elemental. The waterworks are going to be complex—we want pressurized water that we can use to fill the moat beyond the walls and that we can pour over the cliff’s edge for our icebinders to use in case of an attack. That means a large reservoir up in those hills somewhere—and what’s more, I want a wide fire line, at least twenty meters of water for any fire elemental to cross in order to get between that forest and us.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“Complex, you say?” Zirilla asked. “You’re talking about making an entire artificial river. Depending on how far up you want it, we might need to make an aqueduct just to fill it. At the very least, we’re changing the drainage of the whole mountainside.”
“You know how dangerous fire elementals are,” I said. “Best to start preparing as soon as we can—which will be after we’ve excavated the settlement site and rigged the moat there. I know it’s not easy, but I don’t want to take any risks we don’t have to.”
Zirilla sighed, then laughed as she looked at the hills that rose around us. “We’re going to be at this for a long time, Aziriel.”
“Longer,” I said. “In time I want a plan for full evacuation. We’ll make sure we have ready-made paths to some of the other potential settlement sites, get caches of supplies there just in case. We should have multiple escape routes from this place, even one or two that travel underground.”
“Of course,” said Zirilla. “But that’s adding another who-know-how-many tons of stone to be moved.”
“I know,” I said. “But it needs to be done. We’ve got people in the air, now. We can strip what skill keys we need from the world, make our earthmovers as efficient as possible. Now—two more things, and some of you may not like them. Mirio—would you call for Ranival, please?”
I tried to gauge the council’s reaction to my request. Hassina and Zirilla seemed most shocked by my request for the head white necromancer—Seriana and Valir were as stoic as ever.
“Could he even help with a behemoth?” Hassina asked. “Animated dead will be next to useless against a creature that size, unless….” Her face fell as she seemed to realize the answer to her own question.
“Unless the cadaver in question is also a behemoth,” I said. “But that’s not what I intend, at least not yet. Decay and blood magick can fuel a great deal of our defensive spells, and with little risk. And in case we get attacked by some roving pack or some new breed of primeval convergence, an army of animated beasts could save lives.”
Hassina clenched her jaw, looking around as she thought. She was the high priest, and while I might be in command, she could forbid any use of animated dead.
“It’s not for no reason that as soon as necromancy is suggested, I start thinking of any other way to get the job done. But all right: I’ll follow your lead. Ranival can have his stock of corpses.”
“Your holiness?” Ranival asked, approaching us with dust-covered hands and looking quizzically at Hassina, having only caught the last bit of the conversation.
“Ranival,” I said, greeting the necromancer. He was a short, stocky elf with close-cropped red hair. He wore the faded white robes of his station, and lowered his hood as he turned toward me.
“Lux Irovex,” he said in soft voice, nodding.
“I have two tasks for you and your peers,” I told him. “First and foremost, ready spells to kill or hinder any behemoths or other, equally powerful monsters that might attack us here. Once that is done, prepare a makeshift deadvault. General use.”
Ranival’s eyebrows rose at this, but he regained his composure a moment later. “As you wish, Lux Irovex.”
A deadvault was a supply of corpses, and my describing it as general-use was just an indirect way of saying that the corpses inside wouldn’t just be having their flesh converted into mana in case of the worst: they would be for reanimating.
“I know that pits of corpses waiting to be animated aren’t popular among, well, most anyone,” I said. “But our circumstances may call for every ounce of assistance that you can give us, and I won’t be ill-prepared. Once you’re done those two things, get started on a blood reserve. More of us are creating the [Blood Magick] skill every day.”
He nodded. “Lux Irovex.”
“Lastly,” I said to the gathered council. “We need to talk about Luthiel.”
Those words seemed to strike a chord of pure apprehension within all of them, and for a moment all of us were silent.
“I promised his judgement would come when we made the new settlement. To my mind, the most sensible time would be after the election.” I paused, then said: “But I want to wait until after the mountaintop concert.”
“Come now, Aziriel,” Hassina said in a low voice. “Push it back by months?”
“And why not?” I asked. “We’re not worried he’s going to flee, are we? His only choice is to cooperate with us. There’s no future for him any other way. There’s so much work ahead of us; let’s not spend any of these valuable days gathering to decide a punishment whose outcome will weaken us no matter what we choose.”
Hassina sucked in a breath. “Some things can’t be set aside for convenience.”
“Convenience?” I asked. “Truly, Hassina—you’ll consent to necromancy but not to delaying a judgement?”
“When I consent to the use of necromancy, we act out our laws—to the letter. When you delay a judgement for the second time, you circumvent them. There’s no contradiction here.”
“The law was written to serve elves,” I said. “Elves were not made to serve the law.”
“Oh?” Hassina asked, a cold, angry sarcasm underlying her voice. “And so it shall be ignored by the those with the power to ignore it, if they can justify it thusly? The law serves all elves by holding all elves to standards that are unchanging. If one of us—don’t—” she said sharply, her voice had steadily raised, and now she paused to regain her composure. “Don’t look at me like that because I’m lecturing you on the law, Aziriel. That’s what you can expect when you say that the law serves all of us while you ask us to ignore it.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Fair enough.”
“I see your argument,” she said. “He’s useful, and in the time we need it most. But it’s also useful if we can forever remember that the law, as written, was not set aside in this case, or in any. Aziriel, one of the firstborn, asks us to make an exception for another of the firstborn. What does this look like to you?”
“He is exceptional,” I said, my voice steady. “Least of all because he is firstborn. We need to prepare spells inside the mountain’s peak in case the concert goes awry, and Luthiel is a skilled binder. We need to scout this world to find new skill keys, and Luthiel is a skilled seer. We need fighters to keep us safe—and Luthiel is the [Arcane Champion]. He could make the difference that saves lives.”
Hassina sighed. She spared a tired glance at Seriana, and I could see why. Everyone else on the council was a wild elf directly under my command. The archmage would normally be her only chance at support—and yet Seriana was Luthiel’s wife.
“Thirty days from the date of the concert,” said Hassina, her tone defeated. “And all of us hold to that date.” She looked directly at me. “Hold Aziriel to that date.”
The whole council was quiet a moment, and then Zirilla spoke first. “She’s the one he betrayed, Hassina. Her more than any of us. She’s not going to give him less than what he deserves.”
Hassina bristled. “When the time comes, all of us will decide what he deserves,” she said stiffly. “Not just Aziriel. Now do I have your promises or not—thirty days from the concert.”
“Aye,” said Zirilla. “You have your promise.”
The rest of them gave up their own assent—even Mirio, murmuring it while looking neither me or Hassina in the eyes.
“Good,” I said. “I’m glad that’s handled. Seriana, tell Luthiel to meet with Hassina and discuss his skills. I want him hunting, soon.”
“Yes, Lux Irovex.”
“Good,” I said again. “Now: you all have plenty to fill your days with, and so do I. If anyone else has pressing business for me, I’ll be taking position near the work site and channeling mana toward our earthmovers while breaking stones into bricks and discussing plans.” I breathed a sigh, not trying to hide that it wasn’t my ideal afternoon. “Do me a favor, Mirio?”
“Lux Irovex?”
“Get out there and find me something to kill as soon as you can.”