“Tower Mage Ilthur, an honor to see you again.”, Vulmar said as he bent forward in a bow.

“This old man? A Tower Mage?”, Lord Ghol.

“Do you require proof, rich man?”, Ilthur said as he looked over everyone in the room and settled his gaze on Ghol. Then he coughed and clenched his staff for a moment.

“Yes, I think I do.”, Lord Ghol said as he rubbed his hands together slowly.

“Vulmar called me for aid, and yet it seems the common folk no longer respect the keepers of the Tower. Very well. Who is in charge here?”, Ilthur said as he slowly crossed the room and got to the edge of the table.

“I am.”, Lord Ghol said, his smile growing wider.

“Most of the soldiers are under my command.”, Commander Cardon said as he looked down at Ghol with a frown.

“Hold this, son.”, Ilthur said as he held his staff out to Thequen.

“Of course?”, Thequen said as he took the staff from the old man and held it gently, letting the bottom end rest on the floor. The staff felt hot in his hands, and it was easy enough to tell by feel that it contained more mana in its polished wood than Thequen had ever touched before in his life. More than a handful of mana crystals, hundreds of times more. He held it very, very carefully in both hands, and hoped he didn’t do anything that would make it misfire or explode.

“I do not craft theories. I know. The Old God has left the world.”, Ilthur said.

Immediately one of the junior officers spoke. “The Old God cannot die. He is the foremost, that holds the fabric of the world together.”, he said, as if reciting from a textbook. Almost immediately portions of the room descended into whispered discussions and arguments again.

Ilthur sighed. With a wave of his hand the crowd fell silent. Their mouths moved, but no sound came out. Thequen started to sweat. The room felt full to him, sickeningly full of the intangible residue of mana and a spell effect. Lord Ghol’s mouth contorted as he obviously tried to shout something. No noise came out. He continued until he was red in the face, pointing his fingers at Ilthur as he heaved himself out of his chair and stood up then leaned over the table.

“I do not have time for debate. He is gone-- the pulse you witnessed, I too saw from the Tower, hundreds of miles from here. I wager it has affected the entire world. The final spell of the Old God, as best I could tell from examining it, it will hold the world together as it is for quite some time. Until one Power or another rises to attempt to take the Old God’s throne, and mucks everything up. If you doubt any of this, ask any priest of the Old God, and then you will doubt. That aside, I am here to do two things.”, Ilthur rasped as he held up a finger.

“I am here to resolve Vulmar’s little war problem as a favor.”, he held up a second finger. “And I am here to recruit Tower Mages. Now first, to the battlefield. Commander, Vulmar? Walk with me. And boy, bring the staff.”, he said, pointing first to Commander Cardon, and then waggling a finger at Thequen.

Thequen tried to speak, but no sound came out. He nodded instead as he started to shake with fear. Ilthur had cast some sort of silence effect on the whole room? Without an incantation or any gestures. This, combined with the raw power in the staff that he had casually handed to Thequen to believe that if Ilthur so desired, everyone in this room could be dead, or turned to a frog, etc, in an instant.

Ilthur stepped out of the tent, with Commander Cardon and Thequen following. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly from within the Commander’s tent Thequen could hear everyone speaking, arguing, shouting, screaming at one another, all at once. “Well that was fun. Your name, Commander?”, Ilthur said softly.

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“Zafar Cardon, sir. Owner and operator of the 3rd Arcane Corps.”, Commander Cardon said as he walked alongside Ilthur, easily keeping pace with the slow old man despite Cardon himself still being in full armor. Vulmar and Thequen trailed along behind them.

“Right. Zafar. What needs to be done, strategically, to win this siege?”, Ilthur said as they crested the hilltop and once more could see, and smell, the battlefield, the wall, and the peaks of the buildings of the town beyond it.

“We must take the wall, Great Mage. Then eliminate or rout the defenders, and occupy the city. From there, it’s turned over to Lord Ghol, my men and I collect our pay, and then whatever happens is his problem.”, Commander Cardon said.

“Don’t you ‘Great Mage’ me young man. It’s Ilthur. So, first, the wall. Need it be intact?”, Ilthur asked.

“My employer said nothing about that either way. He didn’t even know they had a wall, in fact. It’s been something of a problem, as we didn’t bring proper siege equipment, nor do I have engineers at present to build what we need.”, Commander Cardon said.

Vulmar leaned in toward Thequen. “What colors are you?”, he asked.

“Green, with a dash of silver, sir.”, Thequen said. Vulmar dipped a hand into his robes and withdrew two crystals, one green, and one silver.

“Take these. In case a stray arrow or anything comes our way. Keep them.”, Vulmar said. Thequen, Ilthur’s staff still in one hand took the crystals and stuffed them in his belt pouch.

“Bless you, Sub-commander Vulmar.”, he said respectfully.

Vulmar shrugged. “Just looking out for myself and mine. Now let us watch some actual magic, eh?”, he said with a smirk.

“Young one. Staff!”, Ilthur said as he thrust a bony arm behind him. Thequen stepped forward and carefully handed him the staff. The moment he no longer had hands on it, he could not feel its power. He let out a sigh of relief, glad to no longer be in contact with something so painfully infused with mana.

Ilthur held the staff in both hands and pointed the top of it, which was unadorned, but a bit larger than the rest, toward the wall. He muttered a brief incantation, runewords that Thequen didn’t recognize spilling from his lips rapidly. “Crumble. Decay. Fall. Unbind!”, Ilthur rasped loudly. Purple mana accumulated at the tip of the staff until it was so bright that Thequen had to avert his eyes. A moment later, that mana convulsed into a spell effect and burst forth in a beam. A great gust of wind from nowhere whipped across the group, Ilthur’s cloak and Vulmar’s robes fluttering violently. Ilthur clenched the staff, bony arms shaking as the beam impacted the wall near the gate. He swept the staff from side to side slowly.

Wherever the beam touched the wall, the stonework darkened in color to a deep loamy brown, and then crumbled outward, just like dirt. The wall shook. Portions of it caved inward or toppled over. Large stone blocks slid loose and tumbled to the ground. Ilthur guided the beam back and forth and there seemed to be no end to the amount of power he could channel through the staff. The ground trembled and great clouds of dust started to obscure the entire length of the wall. Quicker than it had begun, the beam stopped, the wind stopped. Thequen heard distant shouts and screams from the town. “There’s step one of your plan done, Commander. The wall is dealt with, I think.”, Ilthur said as he planted the bottom of the staff in the ground and leaned on it heavily. He then started to cough repeatedly, deeply, for the space of a few seconds.

“So… so it is.”, Commander Cardon said quietly as he looked out over the rampant destruction Ilthur had just caused. The dust started to settle. The wall had been unmade along the whole visible length, now a pile of rubble, dirt, blocks and bodies.

“Shall we have lunch then? Vulmar! Where is whatever passes for the officer’s lounge in this warcamp?”, Ilthur asked.

Vulmar glanced at Cardon. “May I?”, he asked.

“Whatever the Tower Mage needs.”, Commander Cardon paused. “I need to go review and rewrite the orders for tomorrow’s assault, I think.”

“Boy. Carry this and come along.”, Ilthur held his staff out to Thequen expectantly once again.

“My name is Thequen.”, Thequen said as he took the staff. It felt just as terrifyingly full of arcane power as it had last time he’d held it.

“Is it now?”, Ilthur said with a raised eyebrow. Thequen had a faint urge to hit Ilthur over the head with his own staff.

“Right this way, Ilthur.”, Vulmar said as he gestured back toward the tents. He, Ithur and Thequen walked away, leaving Commander Cardon alone on the hilltop where he looked carefully over the ruins of the town wall.

He stood silent for a long time, his lips pressed together as his thoughts ran on. “I’m glad he appears to be on our side.”, he said to the empty air. Then he turned his back on the scene of destruction and made his way back toward the Command Tent.