The Black Legion had committed a terrible atrocity, one that would change the state of the war. Even though their army had been decimated, the apprentices could each bring enough magic to burn down a city if they desired.

The Resistance would no longer be able to seize territory gradually, not without putting innocent civilians in the crosshairs of the shadow government. Raiks wasn't quite sure how the Resistance would adapt.

But right now, he had to ask for aid.

He walked through the portal into Dustreach. By now, it was late in the evening, and the High Temple of Helios was closed to general visitors. He hoped there would be an exception, in this case.

He arrived at the gates to the temple. The gates were closed, and a pair of guards were stationed, though they seemed to be dozing off.

"I need to speak to High Priestess Julia! Raiks announced. "It's an emergency."

One of the guards jerked to attention. "You don't seem wounded." Raiks was technically wounded right now, but he was tough enough that the injuries were barely noticeable.

"There's been a disaster. Over a hundred civilians are dead or injured. I'm requesting immediate aid."

The color seemed to drain out of the guard's face. "I don't know if you're lying, but that sounds urgent. I'll send you through."

He woke up his partner, and had him escort Raiks to the main complex. He had managed to spook the guards enough that they didn’t even take the time to confiscate his weapons.

When he arrived, he was mildly surprised to find Julia waiting for him.

"I know of the disaster in Enos," she said. "But, with Daraken still present, I do not dare intervene."

"You didn't hear of what happened in Arexia?" Raiks replied. "Daraken is dead, and Annabelle is missing, presumed dead, after a portal mishap."

Julia was surprised by this news. "I thought that was just your propaganda. So that means-"

"We've won the main war. What's remaining is a group of rogue apprentices that are perpetuating a lie, maintaining power by claiming that they act for someone who no longer exists. Today, however, they've gone too far."

"Is Daraken truly dead?"

"Do you not know? Surely, Helios would give you a sign upon Daraken's death." Raiks suddenly had a moment of concern.

"I received no such sign. Nor did I receive a sign of Annabelle's death."

"I hope that means that Helios did not tell you, and not that Daraken is still alive." Even if Annabelle was also still alive wherever she ended up, she was last seen stepping through a sabotaged portal to an unknown region, and her return would be highly unlikely.

Julia pondered the issue. "It is concerning. I will consult Helios on this issue, and update you when I get a response."

Raiks ran a quick analysis. If Daraken was alive, why did he allow them to take several major cities? And if he was alive, why did he allow one of his apprentices to attack innocent civilians?

"Based on what has happened in the past few days, I believe that if Daraken is somehow still alive, he is no longer a relevant threat in this war. Thus, it should be safe for you to render aid."

"When you say it that way…" Julia said. "Alright. I will send aid. Unfortunately, though we can treat simple injuries, resurrection is more difficult."

"How long will it take to bring a hundred back?" Raiks asked.

"Theoretically, a few hours," Julia replied. "But we can only bring back those who are willing to return."

Raiks knew what she meant. "How many would be unwilling?"

"The afterlife is the ultimate reward after a long, fulfilling life," Julia said. "No one leaves the afterlife without a reason, and civilians have much less of a reason to return than members of your Resistance."

Still, they had to try.

"And what will you do after solving this crisis?" Raiks asked. "Will you help us stop the apprentices, before they commit another atrocity?"

"We will see," Julia replied.

**********

Lunima returned to Redemption Rock, and this time Turb was accompanying her. Now that the apprentices had overplayed their hand, they had much better odds of convincing their former soldiers to turn against them.

After rounding up everyone in the colony, she began her announcement.

"One of the late Daraken's apprentices has committed a horrible action. They have decided that to hold on power, they will start murdering any civilians in any city that attempts to rebel. In Enos, at least a hundred are dead, and only quick thinking from Raiks prevented it from being much worse."

Many of the former soldiers reacted in shock. A few, those who likely had family in Enos, were horrified.

"The apprentices are not Daraken. While Daraken at least showed an interest in improving society, these monsters are only after power, and see anyone else as merely pawns. The sooner they are overthrown, the better."

This time, they seemed to be moved. But then, one questioned them.

"Where's the proof of any of this?" he demanded. "How do we know you aren't lying?"

"I'll show you, " Turb said. With a quick motion, he called up a holographic image that quickly formed into a birds-eye view of Enos. The dead could be seen lying in the streets, even as healers from the Temple of Helios were providing aid.

"It could easily be trickery, " he continued.

"If you desire, " Turb added, "I can let you see the destruction firsthand."

"I will do one better, " Lunima declared. "You will all be given three days of leave, to be used as you wish."

The former soldiers began to discuss the news. Turb quickly pulled Lunima aside, and loudly whispered a rebuke. "Are you crazy! If you just let them run off, they won't come back! They might even expose this to the apprentices!"

"That is an acceptable risk," Lunima shot back. "We need all the help we can get to stop them before they commit another atrocity. By allowing them to leave to their families, we show that we are doing this for humanitarian reasons to stop an evil enemy."

Turb conceded. "You may be right. However, I believe the final decision will ultimately be up to the council on this."

Lunima decided to continue with the assumption her proposal will be accepted. "After leave is over, if you wish to fight against the apprentices, meet us at our base in Nexion."

There was a mixed reaction to the news, but it seemed like everyone was glad for it.

Lunima's bold action was exactly what was needed to get the Resistance the allies it would need for a final assault. At least, if the council supported it.

**********

"She's just in there. Whatever you do, don't let her out."

Raiks walked into the Resistance's dungeon. It was a small complex, with only a dozen cells. All of them were filled with high-ranking enemies, officers who were unquestionably loyal to Daraken and who still held valuable intelligence. All of them, except for one.

Raiks arrived at the last cell, and looked at the prisoner within. She was an elf, wearing the same common clothing she was in when she was knocked out, but she didn't act like any of the elves that Raiks knew. When Raiks approached, she put her head up to the cell bars and hissed. Raiks sat down on a bench just outside the cell.

"Who are you?" Raiks asked. He had already been told the answer from previous interrogation reports, but it was always good to start out a conversation with introductions.

"I am Saphus Garm," the prisoner replied. "I am not your enemy. Release me."

"I'm Raiks Strike-Hammer, leader of this Resistance," Raiks replied, returning the introduction. "And yes, it is true that you are not an official member of the Black Legion. However, when the Event occurred, you were in a secret chamber in their castle, discussing something with one of their assassins. Based on the intelligence we gained from him, you were planning to join Daraken's ranks as an elite specialist."

"I'll give you the same offer," Saphus said. "I'll have you know that I charge less than any other of comparable skill."

"I would love to take that offer," Raiks commented. In fact, that was part of the reason why he was here. "This Resistance is sorely lacking in infiltration capability at this moment. But I need to be able to trust my spies, and I have no way to trust you."

"I'm a mercenary. I'll take any work I can get."

Raiks suspected money wasn't her core motive. If she was truly after money, she'd likely have better clothing and equipment, even if she wasted most of her money in brothels and bars. If anything, that made her more untrustworthy than a regular mercenary. At least a mercenary could be trusted to follow the money.

"That's not helping your case."

"Do you not have magic?" Saphus complained. "Use that to verify that I do not betray my clients."

"I don't think that's going to work on me." Also, that didn't rule out the possibility that she already had a contract with the Black Legion that she was attempting to fulfill at this very instant.

"What?"

"You were meeting with an assassin without any weapons or armor. Or any equipment at all, for that matter. Either you're an idiot, or you're a mage. If I let you out of that cell, you could easily use whatever magic you have against me."

Saphus's cell was one of two cells protected by a null-magic field. Unlike Daraken, they didn't have the capability to protect the entire prison, but they could at least keep a few suspected mages captive without having to resort to barbaric measures.

"Yes, I am a mage," Saphus explained. "A few idiots call me a psion, even."

That word got Raiks' attention.

"What are your abilities?"

"I can manifest blades of arcane energy from thin air, allowing me to kill enemies even when unarmed. I can augment my body with magical energy to leap long distances in a single bound, and strike with a speed outmatching most foes. And, I have a subtle telepathic ability, enough for some minor manipulations."

Raiks immediately compared Saphus's claimed abilities to Annabelle's. She had something Annabelle didn't, and two abilities Annabelle did. But, she was missing one important detail.

"If you were truly a psion, your abilities wouldn't be disabled by this null-magic field, and you'd likely have found a way to escape." And, she would likely also have a significant headache right now, something that she didn't seem to have.

"I said the people calling me by that name were idiots," Saphus remarked, shrugging.

"Those abilities are likely potent," Raiks said. "But unfortunately, any situation where we could use magic to verify your powers is also a situation where you could use magic to escape and potentially kill us."

"So, your dilemma is that you don't trust me, but you can't take me out of this cell to use magic to prove that I can be trusted."

"Yes."

"Do you not have magic that can see the future? Even if it can't see into this cell, it should be able to determine what my actions would be if I was released."

"But if you were aware that we were focused on you, you would know not to do anything untrustworthy for some time. That would only allow us to trust you as far as we can see into your future."

"It's still a start," Saphus said.

Raiks had to admit, she did make a bit of a point. Their mages would likely be able to figure out a way to verify their trust. But still…

"Why did you have this conversation at all? I've already given you everything I know!"

Admittedly, she had. Even though it wasn't much information, it did give Turb a lead on the assassin Saphus had spoken to. Thus, any potential operation that Saphus was undertaking for the Black Legion had to be worth more than that other assassin's security.

"Something's changed in the war. I may need to take desperate measures, measures that I wouldn't consider otherwise."

Raiks was attempting to gauge how well Saphus could be trusted, to determine how risky employing her would be. He was only considering this meeting because of the news of Daraken's potential resurrection, and even then only because he did not have Darius to lead a scout force.

"And yet you kept coming up with reasons not to allow me to join you."

Raiks stood up and prepared to leave. "I'm considering my options. You may be one of them."

**********

Raiks called the Resistance council to order. Derrin, Turb, and Lunima were attending in person, but Faris and Varn were both off harvesting materials from the dead Blade Wyverns. Thankfully, Turb had a solution for that, opening a temporary communications channel that would allow them to overhear the meeting and interject when necessary.

They were joined by Firenze. Due to his actions in the battle for Nexion, Raiks planned to promote him to the role of lead battlemage officer, allowing him to maximize the supporting value of magic in future engagements.

"Today, we are discussing multiple aspects of our military strategy in the days to come, " Raiks announced. "I'll start with my proposal: we make a direct assault against Fiora, and take the threat out at its head."

"There are numerous risks, " Turb said. "And even if we take the city, the tower is another matter entirely."

"Yes, there are risks," Raiks said, "But we would face similar risks from a protracted military campaign, in addition to putting countless civilians at risk."

"What sort of timeframe would we have for such a major attack?" Lunima asked.

"I'm tentatively setting the date at two weeks from today," Raiks said. "That will hopefully be enough time for us to prepare."

"So, before you get sidetracked, " Lunima interrupted, "What of my proposal?"

"You mean, to release our prisoners, and hope they return on our side?" Firenze said. "I'm glad you're not the commander."

"There are pros and cons to the measure, " Raiks admitted.

"After we showed them the devastation in Enos, " Lunima said, "I believe most of them aren't willing to support them anymore. They realize that Daraken wouldn't do something like this. Giving them this bit of goodwill will make their opinions even more favorable."

"Out of a few hundred people, at least one of them will give the gambit away," Turb countered. "And, it is likely that some of them may defect back to the Legion."

"That's acceptable, " Raiks said. "We aren't exactly going to be able to conceal a large military advantage anyways."

"What if the apprentices decide to consider this action as a mass rebellion against them, and start razing cities?"

"They would lose any support they have left," Raiks said, "and would most likely spur the Church of Helios into immediate action. I don't believe they would be that stupid."

"So, what is the consensus here?" Lunima said.

"Let's have a vote. All in favor, raise their hands." Raiks and Lunima raised their hands. The others were more hesitant.

"You know what, I'll bite, " Turb said. He raised his hand.

Derrin and Firenze didn't support the proposal.

"What of the dwarves?" Derrin asked. "They get a vote too."

The dwarves didn't take the opportunity to vote. Raiks attempted to get their attention a few times, but eventually declared them to have abstained.

"Three votes for, two votes against, " Raiks declared. "The motion passes. Transport will be arranged at the conclusion of this meeting."

"Now that that is settled, we can move on to more pressing matters. Namely, the assault against Fiora."

There seemed to be no objection to that.

"First off, I'd like a supplies report. Faris? Varn?"

The council waited for a response, and got nothing. Raiks repeated the question again, louder.

"What was that?" Faris asked. "We're busy here, what do you want?"

"A logistics report, " Derrin repeated. "And the status of your special projects."

"Let's start with our most successful project, " Varn said.

"You mean the dragon-scale armor project?" Faris asked Varn.

"Yes, that one."

"What dragon-scale armor project?" Raiks asked. The dwarves were a bit surprised that their private conversation had been broadcast.

"We have been able to harvest the scales of every Blade Wyvern that has been sent against us, as well as Daraken's scales. With those scales, we will be able to equip sixty men with armor that is nearly impervious to many forms of conventional weaponry, and also has some resistance against several forms of magic."

"How long will it take to manufacture all of that armor?"

"If we focused on it, about a month."

"We have two weeks, " Raiks said.

"And we have other projects to work on," Varn complained.

"For instance, the 'gun' project." Farn added.

"What will that give us?"

"We've had limited progress on replicating the 'gunpowder' Annabelle was talking about, through alchemical means. But regardless of whether we achieve the ability to do it without magic, we still have the capability to construct powerful ranged weapons, powerful enough to blast through armor and magical defenses."

"How many could you construct in two weeks?" Derrin asked.

"If we focused on it? About twenty a week," Varn replied.

"Wait, there's a catch, " Faris added. "The guns are powerful enough to blast through heavy armor, but they aren't accurate. Annabelle had mentioned something about 'rifling' that could address the problem, but she wasn't with us long enough to explain it. Right now, they're unreliable past fifteen meters or so of distance."

There were other problems. Most of the Resistance's skilled ranged attackers were bowmen. The bolter was a weapon that was easy for any soldier to learn how to use, but had a lot less effectiveness than a skilled bowman. This made it unclear who was most qualified to wield these powerful weapons. And there probably were some differences that would need to be worked out.

"Make ten guns, then spend the rest of the time creating dragon-scale armor," Raiks directed. "By building the guns first, we'll have as much time as possible to train soldiers in how to utilize them." Though two weeks was a tight schedule for training, they weren't that much different from bolters.

"We'll see what we can do, " the dwarves replied. Now that their role in this meeting was done, the dwarves left the channel.

"Next, I want intel on Fiora's defenses, " Raiks continued. "Turb, what do you know?"

"Not enough. I didn't expect any useful information to be gained from scouting for a suicide mission, so I only even made the effort a few times."

Raiks sighed. "I expect that priority to change."

"Yes, it will. However, there will still be wards in the region. I should be able to analyze the city's defenses, but there's no chance of me getting anything on the tower itself."

"We don't know what we'll find once we start digging," Derrin said. "But what do you know now?"

Turb used a quick command to cause the command table to display a holographic image of Fiora, minus the tower.

"From what we've been able to gather, the city has two layers of walls, similarly to how Dustreach has an inner wall protecting the temple and an outer wall protecting the rest of the city. There is a significant guard complement on each wall, about a hundred."

"So, we should be able to beat them," Raiks said. They had a numbers and terrain advantage, but the Resistance's soldiers had the edge in skill and leadership.

"Assuming that there's no hidden secret defenses protecting the city," Derrin cautioned.

"Yes, assuming that there's no hidden defenses," Raiks corrected. "But even if we can take the city, it does nothing to help us take the tower."

"I have an idea," Turb said. "If we have control of the city, I might be able to lock down the tower with portal interdiction."

"Can an interdict device really block a portal generator's function?"

"It hasn't been tried. I could conduct experiments, but it might disrupt normal operations of Sanctuary's portal system while I undertake them."

That could potentially be worth the disruption to test. If they could keep the apprentices from entering or leaving the tower, they could initiate a siege and starve them out, or at the very least prevent them from doing anything without fighting through Resistance troops stationed around the entrance.

Maybe, if they were lucky, they wouldn't need to take the tower at all.

"That assumes Daraken didn't have a backup plan in place for when we take his city," Derrin said. "Even though he's dead, the apprentices will likely still be able to use whatever contingencies he established for such a situation."

"If he's truly dead at all," Raiks added.

"He has to be," Firenze declared. "He already had a backup plan upon his death, reverting himself to a draconic form. He wouldn't have another."

Raiks explained his conversation with Julia. "Julia, High Priestess of Helios, issued a major prophecy relevant to Daraken and Annabelle. When Daraken was killed and Annabelle went missing, she heard nothing of it, even though Helios would almost certainly inform Julia of the deaths. I'm still waiting for confirmation on her part, but there is a chance neither are dead."

"What prophecy?" Turb asked.

"I… can't share it." Wait, should he? No, the prophecy required him to potentially betray Annabelle, to eliminate her before she posed a threat. The more people he explained it too, the more likely Annabelle could discover it. In fact, if Annabelle discovered it, there were good odds that the prophecy would become self-fulfilling.

"If Daraken was alive, we wouldn't be fighting right now," Derrin added. "Without Annabelle, we have no way to oppose him. You yourself agreed that planning for a hopeless possibility was a losing battle."

"There is a chance that Daraken is weakened," Raiks theorized. "Maybe he will eventually recover, but for now his apprentices have gone rogue and he no longer has any hold in Garnoth. If he's still alive, he's no longer in a position to support Garnoth."

They moved on from that discussion and back to a discussion of Daraken's tower. But without any real intelligence on the tower, the discussion deadlocked. It was then that Raiks brought up the issue of Saphus.

"One of the prisoners captured from Arexia says that they are willing to work with us. She was captured in Arexia, but as a mercenary, not as a full member of the Legion." Most of the council was likely already aware of who Raiks was referring to, but he explained the details just to be sure.

"She has done absolutely nothing to earn our trust," Derrin warned. "In fact, there are good odds she is being paid to kill you right now."

"She has provided valuable intelligence on one of Daraken's assassins. I don't think she's on Daraken's side at this moment, and if we could recruit her, she could give us key intelligence on the tower. If any of you have any ideas to give her a chance to earn our trust, I'd like to hear them."

If Annabelle was here right now, Raiks wouldn't be having this problem. Instead, he'd likely be having to explain to Annabelle why she wasn't allowed to use mind manipulation to solve this problem permanently.

"A null-magic zone isn't the only way to keep a mage contained," Firenze remarked. "If I work together with Turb, we should be reasonably secure against her escape. There would still be a chance, but not much of one. That should allow us to use magic to ensure we can trust Saphus to not betray our secrets. Although, I heavily suspect we'll prove we can't trust her instead."

Firenze and Turb quickly worked to develop a strategy, and Raiks authorized its implementation. Even if the situation wasn't as dire as they thought, having an additional agent on their side could be exactly what was needed to beat the apprentices.