Standing atop the Wall of Ice I had conjured, I looked down at the three people with me. Ulchia, the Cleric, was getting ready to perform the ritual, while Mibo and Gilo stood at the opening in the wall, looking nervous. They fingered their weapons and I could see them look up from time to time. Gilo had taken some time earlier to prepare the area before the opening, setting some simple traps and tripwires, hopefully disrupting attacking forces.

Finally, I could feel the moon rise in the sky, despite a few clouds covering it. It was a feeling likely shared by Ulchia and her voice rose to the sky in a hymn, invoking the power of the Gods. In the distance, I could faintly hear Kirl and Eronui, their own voices adding to the ritual.

At first, I simply closed my eyes, letting the sounds flow over and around me, curious feelings welling up in me. A part of me wanted to join in the song, to add my voice to the chorus though I neither knew the words, nor the magical forms. Even trying to join in, might disrupt their efforts so no matter how curious and drawn to the magic I was, I had to remain silent. To say nothing of my duty to defend the ritual.

For the first few minutes, the three voices simply remained in song and I could smell a faint scent of Power below me, gathering around Ulchia. Glimpsing through Lenore’s vision, I could see a mixture of power, Astral Power mixing with what I assumed to be Divine Power. Finally, Ulchia started to move her hands, gesturing in a precise manner and the power around her started to move, flowing with her gestures. A moment later, I realised that they weren’t only using song, but that they also used dance and I was watching the beginning steps.

Sadly, I was unable to continue watching, as I noticed a spectre approaching in the distance. For a moment, I considered the incoming threat. While I had rested after conjuring the two fortifications, that hadn’t removed all lingering exhaustion and it would be a long night. On the other hand, neither Gilo nor Mibo were ranged combatants, meaning they’d have to face the Spectre after it bypassed the fortifications, its ability to fly and possibly simply move through walls making that easy.

“Lenore, can you take care of the Spectre?” I asked, deciding that letting her take the lead, while I continued to rest and relax would be the best option.

“Certainly,” she replied, happy to finally move. While she could understand why I had been trying to obfuscate her capabilities as much as possible, especially after gaining a bit of an understanding regarding the spreading of information amongst Travellers, it rankled her. Flying out, taking the fight to the enemy, gave her a satisfaction that was difficult to put in words. And so, despite destroying Undead was merely a side-objective to the main task of keeping Ulchia safe, she took off, her wings quickly carrying her towards the approaching spectre.

Not that she really needed to head out, even from the distance, I could faintly see her evoke her magic, causing the spectre to fade into nothingness. Fighting an enemy so far below her level was simply a joke.

That Spectre was the first of many and below me, I could see Mibo and Gilo destroy approaching skeletons. The fortification helped a great deal, forcing the skeletons to attack from a single direction unless they wanted to try scaling the walls. By the time the moon was high above, none of them had shown such initiative, giving me some confidence. All in all, the fighting had been sporadic, single Spectres and groups of up to five Skeletons approaching at a time, nothing that posed a challenge. Lenore had taken the time to fly around during one of the many lulls in the fighting, checking out the other two ritual sites and reported that they appeared to be just fine, with no problems in sight.

The low, overall volume of fighting gave Lenore and me more time to marvel at the ritual invoked by Ulchia below us. It had taken me a bit of time, and a change in perspective thanks to Lenore’s ability to fly, to actually see what was going on and ever since I had, I was torn between awe, curiosity and sheer, unadulterated jealousy.

Each of the three rituals was complex on its own, while I was unable to follow the forms they were using, I could vaguely understand that Ulchia was forming a tremendously complex spell, slowly building the formation and filling it with vast amounts of power, even as naturally occurring power, the power of the Full Moon, the power of the Night and various other aspects, came together all infusing the spellwork.

But from above, Lenore and I could see that it actually was just a third of a greater whole, the complex ritual I was witnessing was just a single node in a magical formation, nothing more than one of my runes in a rune-triangle. Only filled with enough power to let the air vibrate and shine with divine, silver light, even without Lenore’s vision. Even trying to comprehend just how much power was gathered was difficult and more than enough to awe me.

And yet, I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be able to emulate their doing, that no matter how much I learned and studied, magic of such scale and complexity would be out of my reach. To say nothing of the power invoked. It was born from centuries, maybe millennia, of study and advancement, in combination with quite a bit of Divine Inspiration and simply not something I would be able to match. Or maybe I would be…

The thought, the grandiose idea, to match a Divine working, simply from effort and inspiration alone, it burned through my body, flowing along with the Astral Power within, freezingly cold and terrifyingly intense. While I wouldn’t be getting donated Power from the Divine, there were other ways to gather power from outside, the Nymphs of Tegi had been an excellent example. I simply didn’t accept that their ability to craft their paradise of perpetual spring, in the middle of a land of eternal winter, was something I wouldn’t be able to emulate. It would only take some time. And sacrifice, but when making an omelette, there would be broken eggs.

A wide smile on my face, I focused back outwards, leisurely putting together a beam of darkness to disperse another of the Spectres. If the Undead wanted to stop us, they’d have to do a lot better. And they most certainly tried.

As the night went on, their numbers increased and the directions they attacked from diverged, yet, their intelligence remained lacking. As long as the skeletons did not try to scale the wall in numbers, Lenore and I could focus on dispatching the Spectres while occasionally supporting Mibo and Gilo. The biggest challenge was to remain alert and active for the entire night, never able to relax for more than a couple of minutes at a time, before there was another attack.

When the light of the false dawn was starting to colour the sky bright, the moon slowly setting, things finally changed. Instead of the constant, low-level attackers, a single foe was approaching, a skeleton clad in dark armour. It reminded me of the Skeleton Lord we had faced in the mountains, but the aura of menace it radiated was far weaker.

As before, we let the skeleton approach and I noticed a look of focus on Gilo’s face and a faint trace of Astral Power connecting her to something further ahead, roughly in the path of the skeleton.

Before I could try figuring out what it was, the skeleton put on a burst of speed, dashing towards us, only to be suddenly blasted off its feet by what I could only describe as a magical landmine.

The staggering Skeleton was an opening Mibo didn’t let go by, instantly charging out and smashing into it, Astral Power covering his weapon as he struck with abandon. The Skeleton was never able to regain its balance and my own magic only added to its problems. While the beams of darkness I had used throughout the night glanced off the dark armour, the Blades of the Northern Wind made sure that it remained off-balance, flailing around ineffectually, as Mibo and Gilo took it apart. Literally.

We were catching our breath when a powerful surge of Astral Power behind me caught my attention. Turning around, I noticed the first rays of dawn come across the horizon, just as the ritual reached its crescendo, a massive orb of silvery light manifesting in the centre between the three ritual sites, bathing the cleft in divine light.

Transfixed, I was staring at the sheer, magical beauty they had invoked, almost forgetting to breathe. A part of me could feel the silver light cleanse the taint in the valley, driving away the unnatural darkness that had held the land in its grip.

Finally, the light faded away, like the moon setting across the mountains, leaving behind the calm stillness of the morning.

“We did it.” Ulchia cheered below me, her voice thick with fatigue.

I was about to agree, when a sudden, explosive burst of magic turned the cleft dark once more, if only for a moment. The feeling assaulting me was familiar and it took me only a moment before realising that it was one of the dangerous skeletons, materialising in the cleansed cleft. Maybe tasked with taking the cleft back, maybe with destroying us.

Not that its mission truly mattered. Killing us would certainly be on its agenda.