"Mo…" I muttered as I threw the sage onto Fritz's back. "Hurry… I'm about…" I saw the flash of steel as she slashed a man's throat before I was stabbed, and in some combination of her flurry of knives and Fritz wreaking havoc, we made it out. "Sound the retreat… Mo… You need to…" With what little feeling I had I reinforced her breath with magic and her scream echoed over the noise of the entire battlefield.
"THE SIEGE MAGE IS DOWN!" She shouted. "Every." Her voice cracked and she quickly stopped talking, her eyes wide and her face turning red.
"Good enough…" I muttered.
"So loud…" She squealed, pulling her mask higher over her nose as she held on tight to Fritz who was already climbing back up the ramp, not having to keep pace with the other mounts.
Sure enough we arrived back at the top of the wall, and soon enough Philly made it back with the warbeasts… 12 of the 15 anyway… It was a good number… Statistically anyway… But still noticeable…
As far as Bhaltair… He was taken down… And none of his men would leave his side… And so eventually they were too… As I regained feeling in my limbs, I watched them. Two were put on pikes… Another was decapitated in a single swing from the fourth star. The rest were already gone, knocked out, taken hostage… Who knows… I was busy with my own battle… "Rune… We need to get Rune right now! Mo, take Fritz and go. Bring her here."
It might have been the strangest request yet, but she still followed her orders as I staggered to my feet. "We need this girl in chains now." I groaned, taking more manna from her as a flicker finally started to build in her body again. 'I should have just killed her… Taking a mage prisoner has to be the dumbest idea yet…' I groaned again, coughing out thick blood mixed with mucus and falling back to my knees.
"Siya!" Phily yelled.
My eyes watered as my dry throat cracked. "Really… You just… Watched your crush die… And you're worried… About me?" I tried to laugh but coughed again, shooing away her hand as she tried to pick me up. "I just breathed a bit too much… Give me a minute."
"Oh… Yeah… Breathing is hard, right?"
'And she's making jokes too…'
Mo showed back up and quickly helped Rune off the horse, Vive following right behind her and both of their eyes widening as they saw me.
After crawling to my feet I gave a thumbs up before pointing to Rune, signing with my hands. "You need, keep her asleep. Or else bad. Keep her asleep by draining manna, but not too much."
"Rune… What's she saying… Is she alright?"
She looked back to me with the same worry.
I sighed, but the air moving through scraped my throat and stung, making me tense again before I could answer. "Me… I'm fine… Bad breath… Hurts to speak."
She timidly turned to Vive. "She's." Her tail shot straight up before she quickly turned and drained Hara's manna."
"She's what? She's Dying?"
"She stood up again and scrunched together as Vive grabbed her shoulders. "She said she just has bad breath!"
Vive stared at me blankly, the shock only deepening with confusion.
I rolled my eyes. "Fire… Throat, hurt… Much pain."
Her tail started to wag, telling me she understood. "Oh, OH! She breathed fire too much and now she can't talk if she wants to heal fast."
I gave her a thumbs up, carefully standing in between Vive and the battlefield, making sure to move and block her sight every time she tried to look until Phily caught on and started pushing them away. "I got it from here Siya… I won't be much good in battle for a while anyway… If they're stupid enough to even keep trying…"
Her words were so confident, calm, and the same as always… But… Her tears caught blood from scratches on her cheeks and stained her face…
"I'm sorry…" I said in a raspy voice.
"It's fine…" She muttered back as she and Mo took them away. The moment she took a step down the stairs though… That was when I noticed her right hand… It was seared so badly, part of it was black, instead of just red.
"Wait!" I shouted, grabbing it and watching her wince in pain as I sent my magic into it and began to at least repair the internal tissue… Using up all the manna I had taken from Hara, and most of what I had left. 'Recovery magic is just speeding up the metabolism… But… Healing like this… Even if the wound is fresh… It almost feels easier to try and rewind time… You know… I can stop time–'
"SIYA!"
'I can slow it down too. It would be cool if I could rewind it. It would be like save scumming–'
"Siya!"
'Who's shouting my name?'
As I turned, an arrow flew right past my eyes, scratching my cheek and cutting my hair before thunking right into a man behind me. The ground boomed as the 8 ramps collapsed in unison, taking another wave of men with them. Those that weren't weren't trampled or slaughtered, were drowned or crushed… All by a strategy of my own design.
A moment later I was wrapped up in Airsidh's arms. "Stupid girl… How many times do I have to tell you to get your head out of the clouds while you're fighting…"
For the first time I could remember… No… I was sure it was for the first time ever… My brother's voice broke with worry, sounding as though he were about to cry. In that moment, finally everything began to be clear again. "The ramps blew! Where is Rokai? Are we still–" I tried to turn to look out over the wall but I couldn't move, he wasn't letting me move.
"They're falling back… Generall Rokai ordered a retreat…"
"The warbeasts. We have too-"
"They're all back… Or dead… It's over for now…" He let go, once again returning completely to his old self. "You need to rest… They're going to wait for reinforcements… Or at the very least a day to recharge their manna. "
"The gate…" I mumbled, already knowing full well that there was nothing I could do anymore. The battle was over after all. "We have to open the gate to let them back in…"
He patted my head. "The only thing you need to do right now is change into something easier to move in and put on some armor. Also, your chest wrap is falling out the bottom of your shirt. After you've changed, bandaged your wounds, and gotten some rest. Then we talk about opening the gate…"
I turned my head to stare out at the corpse-ridden plains. 'Some rest…' My mind fully cleared. Suddenly everyone out there was just another corpse… And I'd seen much worse things than a bunch of corpses… An army of undead ones… For starters… I took a deep breath. "First I need to interrogate the prisoner. Then I need to meet with the commanders, and become familiar with the replacements for any that fell." I stepped forward and looked down. The water from the mote was trapped by the rubble from the ramps, and every single section was blood red. "Then I need to assess the reports and consolidate the regiments…" I lifted my gaze with another slow breath. "We need to send for Tabernath… With any luck he decided not to move through the forest… And he's still alive out there somewhere."
"Siya…"
I let out my breath, turning to fog as the air around me chilled from my manna turning as cold as my mind. "The archers should be relatively unscathed, but if we're out of arrows that's a bigger problem. Help them take inventory and resupply. Blunt trauma was doing more damage, so normal arrows will work fine since we can produce them faster. Only give armor piercing arrows to those with specialized bows and use them for the highest ranking oficers. A draw weight at 80% of yours or higher should be fine."
"Siya…"
After focusing in on Bhaltair's soldiers, I stared at them for a while. I wasn't the least bit sad… But… I was still afraid to find him… So I thought it better not to look. I didn't even check if any were still alive with my manna. Instead I simply turned back to my brother. "I'm a few too many feet above ground to be catching my breath just yet…"
He shifted his weight, resting a hand on my shoulder as he walked past me with a heavy sigh. "You grew up too fast… You know that right?"
I was ready to be the one that walked away… But somehow he left me behind… Standing still, alone, with nothing but the groans of the wounded resonating throughout the battlements. 'Well… Yeah…'