14

First Shots

Place: Outside the Church

Time: Seconds later

Susan and Sparkle immediately began casting as Wales grabbed up his sword and Hiraga drew his.

"Time for a real test of what this sword can do!" he said, grinning.

Louise looked doubtful. "Want me to hang back?"

"Why? Always something that need exploding in a fight," replied Susan, after she finished Invulnerability. "You need the practice too, and in this case we want something blown up."

"Okay."

Susan and Sparkle were Accelerated as normal, and Susan grabbed up a candle with an evil grin. I should wear an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time, so I always have something to switch things with. Ah well.

The group ran out into the field in front of the church, where a huge construct made of rock was again pounding the side of the building. Standing in front of the door was the traitor, Jean-Jacques, and five soldiers in armor backed him.

"Ah, thought if we followed you it would lead somewhere interesting. Wales, I've found you at last!"

"Don't know what good it'll do you," snarked Susan. "Look around. No castle to throw at me this time."

Jean-Jacques raised his sword. "Ah, it is you. How did you escape from that, by the way?"

"I have a better question. How exactly do you intend to fight us?"

He barked a laugh. "Have you seen me fight?"

Louise, the shortest and slowest character, burst from the doors and stopped dead. "Jean-Jacques? What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Ah, our wayward Louise. Is our marriage still on?"

Susan looked over at her, and she was blushing up a storm. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be?"

"Uh, that's the treasonous fellow who threw part of a castle wall at me and nearly killed the princess. Of course you know him, why wouldn't you?"

"That was you?" she screeched. "You're a traitor to the crown?"

"Perhaps I don't believe in that crown anymore. Perhaps I believe in something greater."

"Like what?" Susan demanded.

"Beat me, and maybe I'll tell you."

"Fine."

He laughed again. "With a candle?"

"Take a look at your sword. Now back to me. Now back to your sword." Susan cast Transposition instantly, getting a sixteen, while Jean-Jacques got a 12 (despite spending 7 energy on RESolve, poor guy). He was now holding the candle and she was holding the sword. "Now back to me. What's in your hand? I have it, it's your sword, and you're holding a candle. I'm on a horse!"

He looked down at the candle in his hand. "Attack!" he shouted, angrily throwing the candle down.

Susan and Sparkle rolled Initiativeas the five soldiers in front of them charged.

"Elemental Line (Wind)," Sparkle cast, weaving the line in front of the soldiers, then back on itself to strike out directly at Jean-Jacques. He had started forward, but somehow saw the line and jumped away from it, unharmed.

"Thrust," cast Susan, targeting him as he was off balance from the dodge. He leaned into it and that -3 worked against her again, he didn't go flying as she intended.

"Man, we're really striking out here, Sparkle."

"Tell me about it. This is so humiliating."

The construct took a step towards them, and Louise raised her wand. "Explosion!" she shouted, and the impact tore into the creature's chest, ripping part of it away.

"Nice!" said Susan, looking over there.

"I was aiming for the head!"

Sparke held, now maintaining the Line and Acceleration. She figured the first soldier over the thing would be in for a nasty shock, and she didn't want to deny him the experience.

The first soldier that was going to cross the line got a reprieve, as Wales raised his sword and shot a bolt of wind at him, striking his right arm and spinning him around.

Aw!

"Lubricate," cast Susan, targeting the ground under Jean-Jacques, who was still several meters away. She got a 15 total, knocking over half of the people currently over that way. Jean-Jacques stayed up.

Wind erupted from the line as one of the soldiers touched it, knocking him backwards in a spray of blood. He went down and didn't get back up.

Hiraga turned towards the construct, and dashed forward quickly, rune on his hand glowing.

Jean-Jacques, careful to avoid the line and falling down, made his way to the soldier that was down to grab his sword.

We can't have that, now can we? Susan asked herself, looking around. Ah! She cast Transposition against the sword and a boot from the only soldier still up and running. The soldier did not manage to resist losing his boot, and he found a sword in place of it. He went sprawling, and hit the line, which again triggered a massive blast of wind, killing him instantly. Jean-Jacques looked at the boot and back over to Susan. "Stop doing that!" he called over to her.

By this time, the construct and Hiraga had met, and Hiraga nicked the thing's leg. He did his maximum damage to it, an eight, but that was divided by three so it didn't amount to much.

Louise sent another "Explosion" its way, blowing another chunk off the body.

The prince shot wind at one of the soldiers on the ground, smashing into the guy's helmet and throwing him backwards. Three of the five solders were now unmoving, and Jean-Jacques realized that, in short order it might be five. He was still unarmed, and Susan was eyeing him, as if daring him to make a move towards another weapon.

"I'll get you yet, just you wait," he cried, pulling a vial of liquid from beneath his cloak. Susan had actually been holding for several segments, waiting for him to try something. She dropped Invulnerability, shrugged, and cast Transposition again, trying to give him the candle back and cause the vial to go off into the grass somewhere. She didn't beat his RESolve check, and he popped the cork and drank it down.

Shoot.

One of the soldiers was trying to see where the line was, to see if he could edge around it. Sparkle hadn't done anything since the line, so she went ahead and cast Thrust on him, knocking him off his feet and throwing him back nine meters. He barely missed a tree and slammed into the ground, snapping his right arm and causing him to scream in pain.

"So brutal," remarked Jean-Jacques, starting to fade away.

"As if you wouldn't have done the same to us!" Susan countered.

"Oh, bet on it. I'll repay you in kind, somehow."

The last soldier standing saw his boss fading away and decided he would get out of there the only way he knew how, and took off running.

With Jean-Jacques all but disappeared, the two native magic users turned their attention to the construct and started pelting it with wind and explosions. Sparkle recast the line, surrounding them all in case Jean-Jacques decided to sneak up on them from behind while invisible (or whatever he had done). She then joined in with Destruction, once again targeting the thing's legs while Susan almost lazily cast Shrink on it again.

Miss Longbill, or whatever her name was, saw she was once again going to lose and threw up a huge cloud of dust, converting what was left of her golem even as it shrank. This allowed her to get away while the others waited for the dust to settle.

"I can't believe they got away again!" groused Susan. "I should have slapped Immobilize on the guy right off, rather than showing off with Transposition."

"You were having a little too much fun with that spell," remarked Sparkle.

"At least I got his sword." She gave it an experimental wave. "If you can call this a sword, anyway."

"I can't believe it," said Louise with a shake of her head. "My fiancee was actually a traitor to the kingdom."

"Yes, let's talk about that," said Susan, rounding on her. "How did this happen?"

"It was something our parents set up," she insisted, waving her hands in front of her. "That's all. I haven't seen him for months! Honest."

"Arranged marriages? Great."

"I can't be out in the open like this," said Wales. "I need to gather my men and find a new place to hide."

"Sorry about this, I guess we brought them here, however unintentionally."

"And help drive them away again. For that, I thank you. It seems the situation in the kingdoms is deteriorating faster than I thought, if they are willing to attack a prince in broad daylight like this. Give my love to Anrietta."

With that, he turned and went back into the church.

"Guess that's our cue to leave as well," said Susan. "All aboard the Susan train."

"This sword still doesn't pack enough punch," complained Hiraga. "Is there anything else you can do about it?"

"Using Imbuing on a Fabricated weapon is possible, of course. The difficulty just goes up, meaning more hours of work. Plus I'm not sure what I know that would help."

"Maybe Augment STRength?" asked Sparkle. "I know that one, but I still don't think it'll help against something like that."

"Yeah, it's a creature made of solid rock. You can't expect too much, even from the sharpest sword in existence."

"It's also partially held together by magic, that makes it harder to damage," added Louise.

"Oh. Still..."

"We can talk about this later. Come on."

"Wait, what about the injured?" asked Sparkle.

Susan blinked. "You're right, I didn't even think about them. I'm used to you using Knockout, not Wind. I expected them to get up again." She looked them over. "I think the ones that hit the line are pretty far gone. And they are technically enemies of the kingdom. Can we help them, ethically?"

"I've never really killed anything with my magic before," remarked Sparkle sadly.

"Yeah. I mean I shot Tom, I was prepared for that. This... this is different. But they would have killed us, right?"

"Yeah. They were just doing their job, they couldn't know what my Line would do to them. I kind of feel bad, now. But I didn't have any choice, right?"

"It's just, I don't know. It doesn't feel real, does it? Like they weren't people, just an obstacle for me to overcome. You think it's because of The Darkness inside me?"

"Maybe. I guess there isn't anything we can do. Someone will find them and take care of it, I guess."

"Yeah. Nothing we can do."

Susan opened her Teleportal and they went back to the school.

The next day, Susan brought all of them to the castle and reported to the princess that the letter had been destroyed. However, she noticed the princess seemed distracted, even distant.

"Is there something else I can help you with, Anrietta?"

"This hasn't been widely announced, so don't go spreading it around. But it seems the kingdom of Albion has been subjugated and renamed Reconquista. A man named Oliver Cromwell used a combination of magic, political power, and raw force to overthrow the royal family. It seems they are not waiting around, as reports place soldiers in that area moving to converge on this one. By tomorrow, it seems I must contend with my kingdom being at war."

"Wasn't that prince we saw yesterday from there?" asked Hiriga.

Anrietta nodded. "He was driven from the castle, that's why he was out hiding in the wilderness, where you found him. He's the only surviving member of the royal family."

"At least he's still alive, out there fighting," said Susan.

"I do take some comfort in that. When you first came in here, I feared the worst, that he had been killed. I had the most horrible premonition of that last night, but you say he was fine when you left him."

"That he was. And he had a squad of loyal men with him, so I'm sure he'll be fine. Princess, I can't fight a war for you, but you know my magic is at your command."

She gave a wan smile. "That means a lot to me."

Louise went down on one knee again. She's always doing that. "My magic as well, such as it is."

"What, explosions in a pitched battle? Yeah, that could never be useful."

"Will you stay here, in the place? At least for tonight. There will be a meeting tomorrow about what to do, and I'd like your input. I know you can just make it here, but you should at least get a little bit of a reward for all your hard work. Live like a princess for a day!"

Susan laughed. "You drive a hard bargain, Anrietta. We'll stay."

She seemed a bit relieved, and told them she would have rooms prepared. They took their leave and went to go back.

The next day, Susan and the others went to the meeting, and she saw an older version of Anrietta sitting next to her. Oh, duh, of course she has a mother. I wonder what happened to her father?

Also around the table were various nobles, and soldiers stood at attention in the four corners of the room.

"We're bringing children into this meeting? No wonder this country is going downhill," remarked a man with a wispy mustache, dressed in green. The man was dressed in green, not his mustache, just to be clear.

"These are my personal-" Anrietta started to say.

"Bodyguards," finished Susan. "And anyone who doesn't like it can fight any one of us, one on one, for that honor instead. Of course, you'll probably die, but..."

"Bodyguards?" he sneered.

Susan walked over to him, looking him straight in the eye. "Yes."

"Okay, okay, just checking. Can we get this meeting started already?"

The nobles were concerned that the attacking country seemed superior in terms numerical advantage. They counseled sending diplomats into Reconquista to try and negotiate some kind of neutrality agreement.

"What do you suggest?" Anrietta asked Susan.

"Do we know this Oliver's motive?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" asked a noble dressed in red.

"Just recently I attacked and drove off a water spirit, because I didn't understand why it was doing the thing it was doing. If I had found that out, the whole conflict could have been avoided. Until we know why this is happening, we won't be able to properly counter it. Perhaps he wants something that just happens to be on the other side of your country, and if we didn't fight him, he would be happy to leave us alone. Perhaps he wants to conquer the world, in which case if we take him out, the war is over. You see? Two different goals, two very different responses from us."

"Let's say he does want to conquer the world. How would you handle that?" asked a man in purple.

"If that's the case, you need friends, and fast. Travel to other kingdoms for soldiers and present a unified front. If that's not practical, you'll have to fight in a totally different way than he does. You say he has the numbers, that's huge in war. Okay, turn that into a disadvantage. Don't strike at them, strike at the supply train. Deny them water. Have mages turn the land into a swamp, or too rocky for wagons to travel on. I've seen one mage raise a huge Earth Golem, hire mages that can do that to provide cover for your front lines. Get creative, because you're going to have to take out several of his guys for every one of your soldiers you lose just to stay in the running."

Several people nodded, it was true.

"Very well," said the princess. "Susan has often told me that the strength of the kingdom lies in the strength of the people's belief in its leaders. I will head the defense force personally, and inspire my people with my example. Meanwhile, do as Susan recommends. Send your diplomats to the new empire, see what they want from us. If that can be learned, perhaps this war can be cut short."

The meeting went on, deciding how best to supply their own soldiers and other mundane things Susan didn't care about. They also talked about how best to utilize magic, which Susan was glad to hear. You have it, use it, that's my motto.

Susan was contemplating making an item to maintain Invulnerability for her when there was a frantic pounding on her door. She hadn't yet returned to the school, Anrietta having insisted on her staying at least for dinner. Sparkle looked up as she opened it to see a soldier standing there.

"Urgent message from the princess," he told her. "An enemy ship has been sighted in the air over the kingdom! The princess demands your presence immediately."

I doubt she said it like that, but okay.

Susan and the others followed the man, and he led them out to the field behind the castle. There, rows of troops were getting ready to ride to meet this new threat.

"Only one ship?" asked Susan. "That doesn't seem like an invading army. More like a mercenary group that somehow got hold of a ship. Are you sure it's from this new kingdom?"

"We think so. Nevertheless, we have to check it out."

"I just hope it isn't part of a faint, designed to lure soldiers away from the where the real fight is going to take place."

"It's a good thing I have you then, isn't it?"

Susan smirked. "I guess I could open a hole in the air for you, if you asked nicely. But I've only been a couple of places around here. We may need to go in totally the opposite direction."

"It's the town of Talb, have you been there?"

"Okay, that's just stupid," replied Susan. She turned to Sparkle. "What are the odds that one ship, probably all that we could reasonably take down, would show up in the one place I happened to have visited? Does that make sense to you?"

"I suppose it does in the larger context."

"Larger... What does that mean?"

"Don't worry about it for now. Just accept it as a bizarre coincidence."

"I guess I have no choice but to do that very thing. Okay, I'll put us right outside the village, everyone get ready to ride through. Teleportal!" Susan made it as large as she could, and watched as soldiers on horseback poured through.

"This magic could change the nature of war," remarked Anrietta, watching her soldiers go through. "With this, even numerical superiority wouldn't mean much, as an entire country's worth of soldiers could be brought to wherever the action was. Fresh, because they didn't have to march there. Or insert strike teams behind enemy lines. Or just dump lava on a town from above."

"Yup, that's all true," agreed Susan. "Aren't you glad I'm on your side."

She nodded vigorously.

Susan and the others watched the ship approach, and Susan waited for the other shoe to drop. It was just a standard sailing ship, converted however they did in into something that would float, and sailed here. It had some cannons on the side, true, but it was made of wood. Couldn't one fire mage just blow the whole thing up? From here, even?

"Guess we'll capture it," she said, shrugging.

"Capture? Are you crazy?" yelled Louise.

"Hey, if they're stupid enough to come here with no backup, no troops, no nothing, it's our duty to make them regret that mistake for a very long time. What better way than to capture a powerful military asset like this ship? They can't be that easy to make."

"Can you do it?" asked Anrietta.

"I don't see why not. The four of us-"

"Five. I'm coming too."

"If you're sure that's wise. Okay, the five of us, made Invulnerable, and possibly Accelerated if you think you can manage five, Sparkle? Plus all the soldiers I can whistle up in an instant. We'll be back for tea."

"Then cast your spells and let's go. We have a ship to take down."