Abraxius hadn't advanced through the ranks of the Winter Council through magical strength. It was his talent at planning, organization, and anticipating his enemies' moves that were his greatest skill, and what he secretly prided himself on. Creating a stronghold in the Duke's city had taken months of careful maneuvering to gain access to the hidden tunnels, corrupting the Sewer Authority, and smuggling in both men and weapons. The ambush meant to kill the Duchess had been even more work. Part of his mind was furious at how fast it was unraveling, but his overriding thought was of escape.

Only a fool stayed to fight when he could flee, and for that reason, he always had an escape route planned. He panicked momentarily when he realized he was outflanked. Heat flared beneath the building in the tunnels, obvious to his magical senses. Far more Heat than any Fire Mage should be able to put out. The screams of the Glacier Ogres as they died attested to how powerful that mage was, confirming his fears: Caldrius had melted through the icy barrier at the ambush site impossibly fast and followed his fleeing troops through the tunnels. That the old mage was alive after standing in front of four of his cannons seemed impossible. Equally impossible was having enough Heat left to melt the barrier created by the exploding vats of cannon fuel. And now he was below, melting Tier 4 named monstrosities to water.

The Ice Mage was just under Tier 5, nearly able to ascend to those lofty heights of power. Caldrius was Tier 6 and unimaginably powerful if he could do this. The Winter Council needed to be warned, but to do that, he needed to escape, and it wasn't going to be done by rushing into that blazing inferno below. Or was it? How much power did the old man have left? The thought of charging down and launching an assault nearly won out, but Abraxius was a cautious man and assumed others were as well. He would never exhaust himself so near to an enemy when he could avoid it. Neither would Caldrius. Which meant he needed to put a barrier between himself and his enemy and make him expend more of his power.

From his Frosty Bag of Cold Storage, he took his last six Hearts of Winter. The magical orbs could replenish both his mana and the Cold in his belly. But they could also be broken to release a small glacier's worth of normal ice or a strong barrier of magical ice. He chose the latter and threw three to the floor of the bottom story, then signaled a retreat to the next floor and repeated his actions. With Caldrius trapped beneath him, he might be able to fight past the soldiers around the tower.

One glance outside told him that was a foolish plan. Over a hundred soldiers, a quartet of Fire Mages, and the Duchess herself were outside, herding townsfolk away from the tower, and setting up for a siege. He wasn't getting out this way.

"Retreat to the second story and fill the first with every bit of ice you can. Use any Heart of Winter, Icebound Elemental, or Ice Wall Scroll we have to fill the lower levels with ice. We will retreat to the top of the tower. Barricade the windows and prepare to kill them if they rush the front gates. Pick off the leaders while they chip away at the barrier. Our plan to draw off their forces from the teleport area is working as planned."

It was always good to give the minions the impression that everything was going well. He hoped to hell that the planned invasion would happen soon. Meanwhile, the council must be warned of Caldrius's increased power. And he might still salvage this day. "And carefully begin bringing the last two cannons to the top of the tower. We may be able to snipe the Duchess if she becomes careless. Load solid shot. Her death will give Winter its victory."

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Beneath the tower, Ozzy was doing his best to prepare for a fight, drinking down as many healing potions as his system could handle, and eating a jar of snails that sizzled as they hit his tongue. The soldiers had formed a kill pocket around the door with halberds at the sides and a crescent of swordsmen ready to absorb a charge. The crossbowmen were using what was left of the bodies of the ogres to shoot over the heads of their fellows. When frost formed on the walls of the building and the gates strained, they all tensed, relaxing slightly as the doors were pushed open by the expanding ice.

"Fall back but keep in formation, it may be a ruse." After several minutes, he turned to Ozzy. "Well, I think they actually don't want to talk to us. Rude of them."

Ozzy had been studying the ice. "It is rude, isn't it? That's a big chunk of Cold they dumped in our way."

"And not something we can clear. Hacking away at it will only break weapons and kill men from the cold. Dammit, we were so close to catching them."

The scout appeared from the passage that ran to Ozzy's shop. "Good news Sergeant. We have them trapped. The Duchess is up top with a full force and she sent another hundred men through the tunnels, they'll be here soon."

Hastings smiled, "That makes me happier. How is the Duchess going to handle them?"

The scout shrugged, "Above my pay grade, but she mentioned bringing up cannon if she had to, and destroying the tower. Be a shame though, to lose the statue. I got the feeling she hoped we could put some pressure on them. Should I report back that we're blocked here too?"

Hastings started to reply, then noticed that the Butcher was walking over to the ice-filled gates. As he watched Ozzy tear the iron doors off their hinges, cursing as the cold stiffened his hands, he turned to the scout. "Tell her what happened down here, and that the Butcher has some idea he's working on."

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"Shit, Carl won't be happy if I have to blow up that statue. He said he used to go to the top of that tower and look out at the city from there. He even climbed to the top of it once when he was ten. That got him a month of sweeping streets in the afternoons. He still says it was worth it."

"We could starve them out, Your Excellency. I'm sure most of the people in this part of town would be grateful to not have cannons reduce the tower to rubble."

She debated that and shook her head. "No, we finish this fast. Maybe with cannon, maybe with something else. This isn't their only attack, and they have the teleport system shut down again. Like it or not, we're at war, and...you, hand me your crossbow! Quickly!" On the tower, two men in blue were fussing with a small cage, pulling out a large white bird. As they released it, the Duchess aimed and pulled the trigger. There was a squawk as the bird was hit and a puff of feathers was scattered on the wind, followed by more feathers as it hit the courtyard. She handed the crossbow back to a smiling soldier as a few people clapped.

"Carefully bring me that bird. Look out for traps, but I suspect you'll find a coded message. Take the message to Carl, and the bird to the castle kitchens. I'll eat the damned thing for dinner if he thinks it's worth cooking."

Atop the tower, Abraxius cursed but ducked his head beneath the parapet. Thank god that damned woman shot the bird and not himself! "Save the other birds for later and find something to darken their feathers. We'll release them at night."

Both the Ice Mage and the Duchess smelled the smoke as it started coming out the lowest set of windows.

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Ozzy didn't have a lot of Heat left in his furnace, but he did have a large heavy bag that he packed around with him. He was looking through it and having a few thoughts on Heat and Cold. The two magical forces were opposed and he suspected that he would need to expend a lot of Heat to melt that ice, even if he could draw the fire from his Smokehouse here to him. But normal fire might work as well.

He warned Hastings first. He could breathe smoke, but the soldiers couldn't. If things got bad, he told them to retreat and leave the hidden corridors. Then he started building a fire. The disadvantage of a Hefty Bag of Holding was he got lazy about emptying it out unless it got too heavy or awkward. That was now an advantage. He pulled out several pieces of wood that he'd been practicing his Woodwright skills on, something he'd promised Woodrat he'd keep up with. He broke up the oak and maple beams with his hands, making a huge pile of kindling. To help it get started, he poured a bottle of Red Wizard Whiskey over the wood and snapped his fingers to make a spark. The pulverized wood and alcohol started burning fiercely.

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Next, he summoned his Billhook. The weapon was linked to his Smokehouse, and a tired Chainey began to pull heat and channel it into the weapon. Ozzy used that heat to bore a small tunnel in the ice to the center of the room. Very little water appeared as the ice melted, confirming his theory that it didn't draw in much water and was mostly composed of elemental magic. When he had enough room, he started pushing the hot coals into the hole. The burning wood slowly enlarged the hole. The normal fire seemed to melt the magical ice, but slowly. That was OK; he had some not-normal fuel he could add to the fire. Returning to his bag, he dumped out a pile of Screaming Coal. It didn't have a great taste, but it was great for stoking his furnace and replenishing his smoke.

He started chewing on a piece and building up his smoke. Blowing out a great deal of it, he gathered all the smoke in the room and made two creatures. They looked like sharks with huge teeth, flat heads, and stubby fins that let them move in the Smoke or crawl up onto a ship to make a snack out of a lazy look-out. The sailors called them 'Rammers' because of their love of slamming into small ships to break their hulls. Ozzy's rammers looked up at him and then over at the pile of coal.

"Sure, have a piece. It's tasty. Then start moving it into that hole. Be careful of the ice while you stoke the fire." The Butcher watched as his smoke creations got to work and sat on his bag, watching the fire. He concentrated on keeping all of the Smoke and Heat in the center of the building. The magical ice could resist the heat from a normal fire, but Screaming Coal burned hot, with a magical Heat that was melting the ice faster and faster as the fire grew. Hastings had the soldiers start backing away down the corridor. The smoke was making it hard to breathe, but the eerie wailing was far worse. While the Butcher was keeping the Smoke from filling the room, the screams coming from the fire were hard for normal ears to hear. The Ice Mages in the tower above him heard the screams and began to worry. As the last of the coal was pushed into the roaring fire and the two rammers ran back to him, Ozzy rummaged around in his bag again, setting aside a few jars and a large burlap bag of roots. Then he dumped out half a ton of Screaming Coal. "Push it all in, boys; there should be room now, and let me know if the Smoke starts rising."

Ten minutes later a blazing inferno cut its way to the first floor of the building, consuming anything flammable and terrorizing the low-level Ice Mages trying to reinforce their walls of ice. They were not only losing but losing faster as the fire burned more and more coal. Below, the Butcher was burning fuel to make Smoke and restore himself and turning the Smoke into sharks. As the ice thinned, the two rammers slammed into it hard, breaking through the last of the barrier. The sharks swarmed the two Ice Mages, devouring them. The cold blood of the mages hurt the constructs of hot Smoke, but not as much as the sharp teeth of the sharks hurt the ice mages as they ripped them to shreds.

The Butcher began to throw the jars and roots into the hot fire and carefully pounded the metal gates back into place. The fumes from the burning peppers and horse radish were already bringing tears to his eyes. And while the sharks didn't care, everyone else in the tower started feeling the effects of the Smoke as it burned its way up the levels, seeking the top.

Outside, the Duchess saw smoke pouring from windows, the shutters catching fire and the tower burning as the fire went higher and higher. On top of the tower were forty or so panicked figures, vainly trying to conjure ice and find fresh air to breathe. Above them, Emperor Argyle watched with merciless metal eyes as the invaders in his sewers suffered and expired. Some of the mages leaped from the tower while others with mana left tried to create ice slides to reach the ground. Those who ran or fought were skewered with crossbow bolts or arrows, but some had the sense to surrender and were bound and gagged. Abraxius vainly tried to send two more message birds, but their fate was similar to the first. The Winter Council would have to wait for word to reach them by normal means about the fate of Abraxius.

His failure ate at him. His cannons were melted, he was out of mana, and Caldrius was below, burning through defenses that should have held him back for days. As he contemplated surrender, a school of hungry sharks swarmed over him. He stumbled backward, falling over the parapet, and landed hard on the cobblestones below. He wasn't quite dead yet, but the sharks, unharmed by the fall, were rapidly helping him cross that line. More than one soldier was white-faced and worried about what the hungry fish would do next. To everyone's surprise, they flew back to the top of the tower to get warm, running up and down the statue and playing tag. The life of a smoke creation was short but never dull.

As the fire started dying down, the Duchess went looking for Ozzy and found the Butcher sitting by in front of the melted gates of the tower, roasting snails on a small pile of coals. He skewered one on a roasting stick and offered it to her. "Careful, they're pretty hot."

She nodded and heeded his warning, carefully biting into it. "Better hot than cold, I'm thinking. I'm getting a little annoyed with Winter, but I think we have a long time to go until it's over." She ate her snail, thinking, then turned to Ozzy. "I think I owe you a favor or two."

"Sure, I can see how you would be thinking that. What did you have in mind?"

"I notice you have a business now, and businesses attract tax collectors like a dunghill attracts flies. I'm assuming you dislike paying taxes."

He smiled, "Who does like paying them? But I'm also a good citizen who does his duty to keep the roads paved, and the militia paid on time."

"Good to know. So you won't mind making the area beneath your shop part of the city's storage facilities, seeing as you sit on top of this fine tunnel system I'm going to put to use."

"Well, the Devil is in the Details, if you know what I mean."

"How about this? I'm going to quietly declare your building and its entrance to this tunnel to be part of the city's emergency storage system and build storage areas along that tunnel and beneath your building for excess food supplies for the city. Things like sausage, grain, and smoked meats. Of course, that comes with certain benefits to you, such as not worrying about annoying things like taxes and tax collectors. I like the idea of having some of my emergency supplies in a place people won't know about."

Ozzy shook her offered hand. "I think I can handle that."

"Good. I'll talk to Carl about it, but consider it done. Hand me another snail if you'd be so kind. Where are they from?"

"Merchant Vodspaller has a shop in Sedgewick. I think he'd be happy to ship you a jar if you like them."

"A jar for me. But if he can ship barrels, I'll take those too."

"He'll be happy to. I'll set it up for you and have them shipped here. Enjoy your snacks."

She rejoined her waiting bodyguards and walked back down the tunnel. The Butcher ate the rest of his snails and watched the fire, wanting to make sure every last terrorist was smoked out of the tower. After a few minutes, he got confirmation.

Fire, Smoke, and Sharks! When you don't like someone, you certainly make it clear! Winter would be putting up wanted posters for you if there were any of their people left alive and free to report. Hint: There aren't!

For resisting the terrible winds of encroaching winter, you are rewarded with the skill: Cold Resistance. (CON).

I'd suggest you use the 5500 experience points you gained to raise that to Rank 10, but that's up to you.

You also earned 20 Enhancement Points for small things like killing two Glacier Ogres, a Tier 5 Ice Mage, saving the Duchess, and destroying not one but two buildings!