Rilurd was bored. This was nothing unusual, however. Guard duty tended to have that effect. Standing outside in the still chilly March morning, Rilurd was on top of one of the large watchtowers that helped make up the walls of Fort Gabil. He wasn’t particularly cold, between the dwarven blood running in his veins and the set of armor he was currently wearing, Rilurd felt as toasty as some freshly baked pie.

Gods, I could go for some pie. Rilurd thought wistfully. Ignoring that thought Rilurd stifled a yawn and checked his pocket watch. “Oi, Hamma. Time to get moving, it's 0459!” Rilurd said as he turned towards his partner. Hamma looked at him and merely nodded. Not much for words that one. Rilurd mused.

They stood at attention. Lifted their spears and slammed them into the floor, all in sync. Then they proceeded to march down their route for the night. As they continued their march Rilurd noticed a faint glimmer in the distance. It was fairly high in the sky. Can’t be the sun. That’s the south towards the… border. Rilurd immediately came to a halt and Hamma followed suit. “Look at that. Do you see that glimmer?” Rilurd asked Hamma while pointing at it with his left hand. Hamma proceeded to scrutinize the horizon that Rilurd pointed at.

“Aye, I see it. Let me take a closer look.” Hamma said as he took out his spyglass. After only a moment of looking through the lens, he snapped it shut and shoved it back in its pocket, and started running full tilt. Rilurd merely followed after him.

What did the man see? A Suail attack? sadly Rilurd could only ponder this question in his mind as to ask it while sprinting would just be a waste of breath.

Sprinting caught the attention of some fellow guards and we were soon at the nearest guard station. “Sound the alarm!” Hamma huffed. “Suail airships. Spotted just south. Counted at least three of them.” The guard manning the bell rang it as soon as he was told. Soon, the whole fort was awake and in a buzz of activity.

It didn’t take long for the cannons to start firing. And for the guards to realize that it was far more than just three airships as they spread out across the horizon. The ships had been lined up to mask their approach. Clever. Rilurd mulled as he was prepping a cannon in his sector. The booms, wooshes, and explosions were already in a rhythm. The airships rocked back and forth dodging and weaving to avoid the shots. They did an impressive job but some still found their mark.

The ships were destroyed in an intense explosion of color. It looked like a firestorm made from rainbows. The airships finally started firing back. Their shots were more like beams. The beams were made of the same color as their ships were when exploding.

The first hit the fort and tore through the magically reinforced stone like it was rotten wood. Digging a deep hole and then exploding in a massive blast. The area around the impact hole was blown away as the explosion had happened within the walls. Then more of the beams hit. Each airship firing now and causing similar destruction. It was immense. Each of them doing such damage that it seemed the fort would be collapsing into itself.

A dwarven fortress collapsing into the ground? Like a common sinkhole had managed to destroy it? Preposterous! The mere thought of it was enough to enrage most dwarves. But it was preposterous, the inside of the fort, the bits below ground were always the most reinforced parts. Even as impressive as these beams were, they couldn’t poss-...

Rilurd was promptly knocked on his knees as the ground beneath his feet began to roil. The cannons were only firing sporadically now. His section barely managed to hit several more airships before this. An airship was on fire and crashing in front of them. They were bigger up close, big enough to almost cover his vision. He swore he saw people jumping from the burning ship. When it finally crash-landed it erupted into a cacophony of fire and sound. Sending huge flaming debris flying everywhere.

“Fall back! Retreat to the inner sanctum!” called the section Captain. The retreat had sounded. But why? Surely not because of the exploding airship in front of us. He dared not question orders but the section was doing well. Most of the cannons still functioned and we had ample ammunition! As Rilurd ran he began to look around trying to understand the reason. It turned out to be fairly easy to tell why. All the other sections were in shambles. Either in full retreat or too destroyed to be recognizable.

The entire fort looked like it had been hit by six different magically empowered earthquakes that competed to see which could rupture the fortress more and then the dragons decided to come back from the grave and breath every color of flame imaginable onto the ruins just for kicks. Even the smoke was multicolored! It smelled of burning tar, flesh, hair, and worse. He barely recognized the place. How had he not noticed it before? Worse was the fact that the airships were now almost directly above them. The beams had stopped but now they were dropping barrels. It seemed we barely destroyed half of them. A couple were barely staying afloat having taken glancing hits.

Rilurd didn’t get to see what the barrels held as by then he was heading underground. Even while heading into the sanctum he heard loud explosions that rocked the fortress. No more cannons firing. And the beams had stopped. Exploding airships? I certainly hope so. Rilurd mused. Hamma ran up next to him while he was in thought and patted his shoulder. “Hamma! Good to see you alive my friend!” Rilurd gushed, grabbing the man in a bear hug.

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The man merely grunted. His expression unreadable underneath the helmet. He didn’t look worse for wear, depths his armor was barely singed! “Everyone is accounted for! Proceed with the sealing!” yelled a man a bit too far for him to make out. The Magi began the process and everyone went to their assigned tasks. It was soon apparent that even with how tasks are assigned for redundancy in case of near-annihilation nothing quite goes according to plan. We didn’t have enough men trained in water purification, we’d have to rely on Magi to make up the slack. Unfortunate but necessary.

Rilurd was assigned to vent duty. Boring as it comes but still required for a well-maintained sanctuary. This is why he noticed it first. There wasn’t as much air coming in as usual. In fact, it had slowed down over the last couple of hours. Bringing this to the attention of his superior the man went to fetch a Magi.

The Magi walked to us. He was covered head to toe in flowing robes. They were clearly enchanted judging by the faint silvery glow and the runes that faded in and out across the entirety. The staff was also something of beauty. Polished mithril, embedded with deepglow sapphire, coldarra diamond, and topped with a glowing orb of runic mystery.

Magic had always fascinated Rilurd but he was born in a military family and thus while he was probably more acquainted with magic than most military members it was only surface-level knowledge. But from what he saw this was a Magi specializing in air magic.

“Move aside,” said the Magi in an effeminate voice.

Wait? That voice. The Magi is a female? Now that is rare to see in the military. I can’t believe there were no rumors about her. She began casting several spells in a row. All seemingly doing nothing. Rilurd studied the spells trying to decipher their mysteries. But naturally figured nothing out. Probably just trying to figure out what’s wrong. Rilurd guessed. The Magi finally stopped casting after four spells

“There is a chemical trying to get through the air filter. It already managed to get past the physical one but is having less success dealing with the magical one. I do not believe it will succeed but I will have to monitor it going forward.” she stated.

“A chemical? Do you think that’s what was in those barrels?” Rilurd asks.

“Perhaps.” the Magi answers noncommittally.

“Enough idle chatter Corporal Rilurd. Go assist in hauling foodstuffs.” the captain cut in before Rilurd could continue.

“Captain” the Magi began, “I could use someone's aid in monitoring the filters. Perhaps Corporal Rilurd could assist me?”

“If you need him Magi Sersi then you have him at your disposal. Corporal! Change of orders, assist Magi Sersi with whatever she needs.” The Captain commands then marched off to attend to other tasks.

Rilurd ends his salute and turns to the Magi. “How may I be of service Magi?” he enquires. She merely hummed and ignored the question. Well, this might be a blessing or a curse. Trouble is, I can’t tell which yet. The Magi then began to pull out various items from her pouch. Crystals, a bottle of powder, a pot of ink, and various other things. Reagents. She’s gathering reagents for a spell. Rilurd realized. She proceeded to draw a diagram with the powder, mixing ink in at some spots, and placing crystals at others.

This had gotten the attention of a different Magi as he came walking over. “Sersi, what is it you are doing?” the clearly male Magi enquired.

“A divination ritual clearly Rurk,” she stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to a fellow Magi, it very well might have been.

“Well, yes. Obviously, but I’m unsure as to what you could need a ritual to divine here?” the man huffed annoyed at her insinuation. “And why is this dull standing here? Go away. Shoo. Your betters are speaking.” Rilurd merely ignored the Magi’s orders. He had no rank on him and thus could not give him orders.

“My orders are to assist Magi Sersi with anything she requests of me.” Rilurd states with a blank face and a monotone voice. The same face and voice that all soldiers are trained to use when dealing with annoying people outside of the chain of command.

“Enough Rurk. Stop harassing the Corporal. Did you need anything other than to enquire about my ritual? Because if not I’d prefer to do it without your aura interfering.” Sersi said with no small amount of disdain in her voice.

“Well, I see your preferred crowd hasn’t changed since the academy. Good luck with your ritual, I suppose.” Rurk spat and finally left.

“Now I will begin the ritual. If anyone tries to interfere with me please stop them. This includes your superiors. When it comes to magic leave it to the Magi and do not interfere.” she pronounces and proceeds to begin chanting and weaving her hands in various complicated shapes at such speed that it boggles the mind.

Stop my superior from interfering? And get court marshaled? No way. I’ll definitely tell them what she said though.” Rilurd turned his back on her and maintained the guard position. Left arm holding his shield while his spear held firm in his right, its butt on the floor. While he was not about to risk his career on a Magi, she was right, at least according to the books he had read about magic. Never interfere with a spell unless you don’t mind catastrophic results. Even the more mundane spells can have terrible results if messed with. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop my superior if they want to get past me enough.

Noone bothered to interfere however and the ritual proceeded smoothly. When she finished it was once again met with no fanfare. The spells she cast were divination according to Rurk. So they probably just don’t have fancy results in general. “I see. This chemical is designed to kill living material. Which was fairly obvious but it seems to be more focused on killing plant life. Odd, why would they use a veritable herbicide on us? It would hurt us sure but unless it’s in a massive quantity then the threat is near zero.” Sersi said aloud after a minute of silence.

Rilurd turned back to face her but said nothing while pondering the question. “Why would they use a poison that’s more effective on plants, on us?” Rilurd repeated out loud.

“Yes, that is the question at hand,” she confirms.

“Maybe they didn’t have anything more effective onboard?” Rilurd postulates.

“A group of thirty-six warships doesn’t have anything more effective to use on its target?” the Magi states with clear disbelief. “No, there is something we are missing here.”

Rilurd shrugs but still tries to think of a good reason. Until it clicked. “Unless the poison wasn’t meant for us. Qirlig is only 140 miles from here.” Rilurd exclaims in shock.

“Of course! Their target was the breadbasket! No wonder! I thought it was odd each ship only shot one beam,” Sersi shouts “It all makes sense now. They carried barely enough firepower to send us to the sanctuary. Then use poison to try and keep us locked down here. While they rush for their real target. Return to your duties Corporal. I have matters to attend to.”

As the Magi Sersi marched off Rilurd found himself at a loss. What were they supposed to do? Until the poison clears or they find a way to clear it, they were stuck. That could take days. Pulling out his pocket watch he found it still in good condition, reading 0621, the sun had risen over twenty minutes ago. Might be a good time to find Hamma, get some grub, and write in my journal.