SS - Chapter 34 - Change of Schedule

I woke with a start, as the loud, melodical chime repeatedly rang in my head, indicating I had a message. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been awakened by a system alert, usually it was smart enough to mute everything except for alarms, and critical messages, so the fact that it was going off now meant I’d either set the settings wrong, or something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Groaning in pain and disappointment, I pushed myself to a sitting position and glanced outside. The very first rays of light were just starting to peek through the trees, meaning it was extremely early but at least I’d managed to sleep through most of the night before the alert came in.

I gently reached up and rubbed my eyes before sighing. “System”

When the window appeared it only took me a moment to identify the source of the alert; The message tab was flashing in time with the chime. I reached up and tapped the tab, then frowned when I saw the message waiting for me.

[Priority: Critical] [From: Amilia Ashborne] We’re in trouble.

I didn’t hesitate, and brought up the message. My blood slowly grew cold as I read through it.

Medea,

A few minutes ago one of my spies brought me the worst news: The royal family has caught wind of our attempted exodus and are sending Duke Landorus along with two thousand Gilded Knights to ‘investigate’ the situation.

I do not know who tipped them off, but considering how far Landorous’ domain is from us, we have hours at the most. We haven’t finished all our preparations, but we are out of time. We need to open the gate as soon as possible. 

The knights and I will hold them as long as possible, Please save our people.

I love you my daughter, 

-Amilia Ashborne

I kicked off my covers, and scrambled around to find some clothes before I realized I was still dressed, for some reason. As I rushed towards the front of the building I quickly checked on the gate’s status. It had just under forty minutes left on the construction timer, and considering the message had come in ten minutes ago… the timing was going to be exceptionally tight.

Bursting into the front room I paused, staring in surprise at Camille who appeared to be playing a game of tic-tac-toe with Alex on one of the walls.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, before shaking my head and stalking over to the weapon chest. “You know what? Never mind. I don't have time for twenty questions right now. I need both of you to grab your weapons, then collect whatever maids you can find. Send them over to the gate, ASAP.”

“Problems?” Camille asked.

Instead of answering I simply forwarded the message to her, and strapped my sword to my waist.

“Shit,” I heard her mutter under her breath. “How much time do we…”

“The gate will be ready in less than an hour, but I want to have defenses in place before it opens. We don’t know what’ll be waiting on the other side,” I said, cutting her off.

“Then I’ll gather all active combatants, and meet you over there,” Camille replied sharply, before sprinting for the door.

When I finished preparing, and turned towards the door, I was surprised to see the little head maid still standing there, waiting for me. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing something?” I snapped as I marched towards the door. 

She jogged just ahead of me, opening the door for me before snapping a smart salute. “Hup!”

For the second time in as many minutes, I paused. Right outside the door were hundreds of maids, standing in perfect ranks, each one saluting. 

“Hup!” they all announced in unison.

I spared a single glance at Alex as I strode by. “I see, carry on.”

I swear that I saw the head maid smirk, for just a second, before she slammed the door and jumped up in front of her troops and declared. “Hup!”

With that order the little maids all grabbed their pikes, turned towards the road out of town and started sprinting towards the gate.

I saw a couple people crack their windows, and check out the miniature stampede making its way through the town, but unfortunately couldn’t spare the time to stop and explain the situation. There wasn’t enough time for that. Instead I put my head down, and started running as hard as I could.

The trip to the campsite normally took about an hour, and it was hard to cut that time down considering how uneven the road was, but I still managed to make it shortly before the gate completed. 

Although my original decision to place the gate in a gully on the east side of the clearing had been spur of the moment, I was glad to have it there now. The dip had a gentle slope at the front, and three steep, but not that high, cliffs on the other sides. 

The decision HAD been driven by the want to have a defensible position, just in case someone tried to hijack the gate, I just never expected to test that fact the instant the gate completed. 

I hadn’t checked on the gate in a few days, and things had changed significantly since I’d last seen it. Previously it had a fifteen meter square, two meter high dias made of white stone with a long shallow ramp leading up to the front. 

Now, there was a large twenty foot wide circular frame which was anchored to the sides of the platform, engraved with hundreds of different ancient runes and topped with a large crystal. 

Magic crackled all along the portal’s surface, slowly causing the last details to manifest in reality and harden the structure. 

“System,” I muttered quietly. As soon as the window popped up I immediately swapped to the domain tab and checked the gate’s status. Five minutes left.

Flipping over to the message tab I quickly penned a message to my mother to let her know the situation. Since I didn’t know what the situation was on the other side, I sent a copy to both my brother, and my mother’s advisor, just in case. 

After that, all I could do was sit and wait.

I was just staring at the slowly decreasing counter, counting down the seconds, when Camille arrived with Selena, Gabriel and half a dozen other warriors. It had been awhile since I’d seen the knights all dressed up in their full regalia. They were quite impressive in full magical platemail, and equipped with magical weapons.

“Where do you need us?” Gabriel barked.

“Right next to the gate,” I ordered. “I don’t know what’s happening on the other side, so I need you to intercept any enemies that may be harassing the civilians. If the gate opens, and the enemy has somehow managed to overrun the gate, I want you to back off to the defensive lines. No sacrificing your lives.”

“You know us boss,” Oliver, one of the youngest and most upbeat knights quipped. 

“That’s what I’m concerned about,” I shouted. “No heroics!”

“Heard anything yet?” Camille asked once the knights ran off. I just shook my head, not bothering to take my eyes off the timer.

“So do you have a plan?” Selena asked.

“Get the civilians through as quickly as possible, and then cover my mother so she and her troops can retreat after them. Assuming they’re fighting,” I replied.

“What makes you think they are?” Selena asked.

“She would have replied to my message within a minute, if she could have. She definitely would have been waiting for it. The fact that she hasn’t means she’s probably distracted by something FAR more important,” I muttered. 

“Don’t worry, she’s the toughest lady I know, she won’t go down easy, now matter what the Iskelians throw at her,” Camille exclaimed, patting me on the back. “She’ll make it.”

“Tougher than me?” I asked.

“Much tougher,” she immediately agreed. We’d said those same words dozens, maybe hundreds of times before while back in Iskel, mostly in jest. Right now, more than anything, I hoped the words were true.

The counter on my system window hit zero, and as soon as it did the surface of the gate flashed as a wave of magic washed over it. The stone dulled slightly, and the structure settled, as it was no longer completely supported by magic. 

I immediately slammed the Magical Constructs button, then the Gateway. The sub-window that popped up only had two options on it:

Magic Available (100/120) [See current drains] [Display on all panels]
Construct Additional Gateway (Requires 60 magic - Enabling Requires 5 magic) [Construct]

Connect to Remote Gateway (Ashborne Duchy) [Requires 5 magic]

I didn’t know why the option was already setup, and I didn’t really feel the need to investigate right now, I just smashed my finger into the ‘Connect to Remote Gateway’ button.

As soon as I did, the gateway crackled, magic ran across the portal’s surface causing the runes engraved on it to glow. The area within the ring started to warp and distort, as it tried to connect to the other side. Suddenly the magic in the center seemed to collapse into a tiny ball, then exploded outwards, revealing a completely different, and familiar place. 

The Ashbourne Duchy, my former home.

Smoke and the sound of battle waffed through the portal, just moments before a wave of civilians poured through.

I drew my sword and shouted at the top of my lungs. “Civilians, keep moving! Keep the gate clear for those behind you! Troops, prepare for battle!