Just because we now look like beasts, doesn’t mean we will be.

Norbert Eicke, First Wendigo

Snow had stopped early morning, and Johanna spotted the palisades of the Eastern Kootenai Gap garrison.

“We’ll be there by mid-afternoon,” Elena said, checking the distance.

“It looks big.”

“There’s room for most of the standing army. A bit rough, don’t expect the same comfort as the Warden’s Keep.”

“Shame, I could get used to it. But better than a tent, right?”

“Probably. Most of the soldiers with us will have to make do.”

The Gap was, Johanna knew now, the product of a massive Changestorm in the early years of the Fall. Hills had risen, creating a significant 20-mile-long valley, and raising the mana levels on both sides to significant levels, as indicated by the vegetation.

The eastern side was usually called the Golden Heights. 50-feet trees crowded it, with a sparse cover, but the color came from bushes that covered the hills. The bushes had a fall color all year long, leaves shaped like ferns in all kinds of orange-reds. The berries, like most products of the mana-rich zones, were inedible. A single one would give you the runs for a day, a dozen would end up in incapacitating cramps that made you wish you were dead already.

And, of course, lots of Felids. They’d spotted one, watching from afar the army column as it passed. But since the hulking changed beast didn’t look like it was going to come close, no one had been inclined to engage the beast.

On the western side, barely visible from the road, were the same dark-blue trees that Johanna had seen in the Narrows. That mana zone extended hundreds of miles to Valetta, even to the northwest of the Ancient ruins they’d harvested for nearly two years. Canids and even weirder beasts like the one they’d fought at the Narrows prowled those areas.

Both zones were part of the so-called Northern barrier, a series of mana-rich elongated blobs that stretched from coast to Great Lakes to coast. She tried to remember her geography and history lessons from years ago, but, well, it had not been very important. Not at the time. The only relevant fact had been that everything north of Anasta after a dozen miles was mana-rich, spewing changed beasts.

But the Kootenai Gap, and its various counterparts across the Northern Barrier, had been the single deciding factor in the shape of the re-construction of the Union of States there. The Montana had a natural frontier on its northern side, thanks to that barrier, and its name, the Montana Marches, alluded to its border with the wildlands beyond.

By comparison, the Gap itself was ordinary. Sparse trees, a small river running along the valley, and some low vegetation were visible over the white-powdered ground. From what she heard, nobody was sure if the river was actually the Kootenai that you found on Ancient maps. Like many features of the land, it could have shifted a lot from its pre-Fall position.

The garrison itself stood near the Golden Heights, its presence controlling the pass between the Marches of the Montana and the northern Tribal lands. Elena had taught her a bit more of history than what Mistress Vanu had mentioned, of the Three Wars… and the fourth that was now underway.

As the column made its way across the snowed road, she saw more and more details emerge. Building tops were poking behind the palisade, with a few plumes of smoke rising.

And once she got close, the plumes were joined by one, then a second swirl of manalight. The Artefacts.

Elena didn’t know which ones were there. She could just hazard guesses.

“I’m assuming it’s going to be the Hammer of Fixing. Given it’s the main forward base, it’s where it can help best. And I’m also assuming the Mirror.”

They were a third of a mile from the walls surrounding the Garrison when a trio of riders came out to meet the column. Despite the horses being too precious and rare to use for direct military operations, the army kept dozens, for scouting parties who needed to move fast, and messengers.

Johanna saw the lead scout talk to the general, who was also riding – a mark of status rather than necessity – and then turn around, heading back to the walls.

Word quickly traveled across the column.

“Everyone inside. It’s going to be packed a bit, but we’ll manage,” the sergeant relaying the instruction said once he reached her wagon.

Johanna thought most of the army was going to be happy. The alternative was to build a camp just outside the garrison proper. You’d be cold as hell, even with winter double-walled tents, which the column carried. That was the reason the four of them never tried to scavenge during the cold season. The army restarted from its brief stop, and they slowly reached the doors.

Although the garrison had looked big from the outside, it seemed almost bigger inside. There were tall wooden barracks, and Johanna stopped wondering how they were going to fit everyone. It seemed the builders had thought of it.

“Come, we’ll need to report to General Pasqual,” Elena said as she carefully dropped from the flat wagon.

Tom, Laura, and Peter joined them and Johanna followed Elena toward a tower-like building standing in the middle of the garrison. The Sorceress of the Mists had been to the garrison often enough, and she knew her ways around. She pointed to a set of buildings.

“Officer quarters there. You’ll probably get assigned a room… a large version for two… there. Even for the non-officer,” she added looking at Peter who kept a straight face that belied a repressed smile.

“Welcome to Kootenai East,” the general who was reading reports said as he rose and went around the desk.

“Good to see you, Lady Worchester,” he added, shaking her hand.

“You know me, Ulrico. Late Fall and Winter are my time. I don’t need them for my fogs, but they get way worse when it’s cold already,” Elena replied, smiling.

“And you and Floriano bring gifts,” he said, looking at the four.

“We do.”

“He sent me a draft doctrine. Where is he, by the way?”

“Still outside, organizing the arrival and unloading,” Elena replied.

“Well, I’ll chat with him later. We have scouts’ reports from the enemy side, and they’re definitively moving already. Anyway, we have a dedicated company to take advantage of Lady Donnall and her support team. We’ll start training tomorrow early,” the general said, eyeing the two women, unsure.

“I’m Mrs. Donnall,” Laura said, greeting him.

“General Ulrico Pasqual. So, you must be the Fire Sorceress then,” the general said, turning to Johanna.

“Johanna Milton… at your service.”

“Although, things may have changed a little bit,” Elena injected.

“How so?” the officer asked.

“Not much… Johanna’s grown in endurance, and it’s advantageous in some aspects. But…” the mist sorceress started.

While the two traveling sorceresses had both been impressed by Johanna’s newfound endurance with a flaming blade, more than double her previous duration, they’d been completely floored when it came to rooting people in place.

That ability was almost completely gone. Elena felt a hint of difficulty when moving, but remained mostly unimpeded rather than locked down in place. Johanna could maintain the effect for a quarter of an hour rather than her previous forty minutes. It was still there, granted, but it was nearly useless now.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were an adept. Except an adept would be hard-pressed to maintain the effect for long. It’s insane – again – because you seem to be both a greater sorceress and an adept. Simultaneously.”

“Maybe we’re thinking all wrong. Maybe it’s not about being a greater sorceress. Maybe it’s about adept-level talent, sorcery, greater sorcery. Each skill, individually ranked.”

“As Gomez maintains, you mean? When his model is that each skill contributes separately to endurance?”

“Both fire skills have vastly improved. My earth one has regressed to adept-level. And, well, the mana sight seems mostly unchanged. I can see the mana on the stone, same as before, but I still don’t see any mana coming out of it, like other artifacts. So, I can’t do the math, but maybe it adds up correctly?”

“Maybe… but three different skills changed. At the same time. It sure has to be something meaningful… unless…” the mist sorceress rambled, lost in her thoughts, finger drumming on the wagon’s wood.

Of course, Johanna wasn’t about to tell Elena Worchester the other surprise coming out of the trip.

She had been flabbergasted by Peter’s changes. That he had been improved, just like she had been, was undeniable. But he’d shot up in endurance to incredible lengths, being able to sustain over four hours of active sneaking. Not only that but rather than losing most of one ability, as she had, he’d gained a new one. He was able to switch his knife from hand to hand instantly. The knife simply vanished from one hand and appeared in the other, as if he did not cross the distance, and his balance was much, much better than it had ever been. To the point where he thought he’d be able to fight almost equally as well with any hand… or maybe both.

All the gear was stashed in the room she’d been assigned to with Tom, and while the rest of the levies were helping unload the wagons of supplies, she found herself adrift. So, she went up and looked at the Kootenai Gap, the ground on which the tribesmen fought the Montana, trying to grasp that prize. The gateway into civilized lands, where they would… what? Conquer? Settle? Or worse, enslave civilized people.

She was watching the snowed-in expanse from atop the palisade when she spotted something very odd in the distance. She squinted a bit before realizing she wasn’t seeing some weather reflection. It was manalight instead. A large, swirling funnel of mana flowing and flexing at the edge of her perception, a couple of miles away.

There’s a huge artifact there if I can see it from that far away, she realized.

She turned and immediately headed downstairs from the wall, toward the command building. She doubted that what she was seeing was Siegebreaker being deployed… meaning it was an artifact in the hands of enemies. Who were not far away, spying on the army of the Montana.

Snowbound Glatteis reached the scouting post, where Northcome Blauerschnee was waiting for him.

“It looks like the southrons have reinforced early,” the field commander announced.

“No kidding,” Glatteis said.

“The thousand-pound-steak question is, did they bring their sorceress here, or are they using her for sneak tricks?”

Glatteis laughed as he pulled out his glasses from his side pouch.

“Let me see.”

Blauerschnee waited, then frowned. It wasn’t common for Glatteis to take his time to ascertain the situation. Finally, the other wendigo turned.

“We may have a problem, North.”

“She’s not there?”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure she’s there. The problem is that I can see not one, but no less than three plumes of mana breathing. I can’t really identify whose swirls it could be at this distance, but I’d say one major and two slightly lesser.”

“Wait, the southrons have three sorcerers arrayed? Where did they find them? You’re sure it’s not their artifacts?”

Glatteis threw him a pitying look and Blauerschnee wilted, despite his official rank.

“The mana plume of an artifact is impossible to mistake for the mana swirl of a sorcerer’s mana breath. It’s day and night in intensity. Looks like they still have their two artifacts and a lesser one that came along. But it does seem like they’ve been busy little bees during summer.”

Blauerschnee swore, “Damned mercenaries, where did he find them? So much for the hope that Edgard is not as good a planner as his father. We should have committed to the war early. I knew waiting was no good.”

Glatteis turned back to survey the distant fortifications of Montana’s forward garrison.

“Reinforcement and sorcerers? This isn’t going to be easy. Not easy at all. Let’s find the tribal commanders. We must persuade them to start. Now. Before they advance on their own,” he said.

“No plan survives contact with the enemy,” Blauerschnee replied.