Laryn kept up a rotating guard on the wall and along the ridges. He sent scouts to watch for potential movements that Harrat might make in an attempt to go around the wall.

  Others worked on building campfires on the north shore of the Ebil, to give the appearance that more people were living in Vallor.

  The place stank of desperation. He had to figure out something, and quick.

  His only hope was that he might be able to hand Devlin over to Harrat in exchange for getting the prince to leave. The prince had seemed overly keen on having the man returned to him, and Laryn suspected that there was a relationship there.

  But once he turned Devlin back over to Harrat, he had no more leverage.

  He worked with Gaten and Widan to sift more essence through much of that night. It was the only way to even the odds.

  Kenna had no more luck with working on disabling the core. If she was able to do it, Laryn believed that they could carry it across the river in the night, and slip away to the west through Elvandar.

  To mask Kenna’s presence around the core, he claimed 4 more rings around the Annar core and made her into his third [Mage]. This reduced their average influence somewhat, but Kenna helped with the sifting and Laryn figured they could make it back up.

  The following morning Laryn visited Devlin. The man looked miserable. Spending days caged up next to a goblin could do that to a person. Luckily for them, the goblin was asleep at the moment.

  “So, he’s asking for you to return me,” Devlin said.

  “Yes,” Laryn agreed, not trying to hid the fact that Harrat camped at the gates. It would be easy enough for Devlin to figure that out from here.

  “But you’re putting up a pretty good facade, and you know that if you let me go it’ll all come crashing down and there’s nothing that you can do stop Harrat from rolling over you and crushing your kingdom.”

  “That’s about right,” Laryn said.

  “Would it help if I promised to make him leave you alone when you let me go?”

  Laryn shook his head. “But I do want to know why you’d think he’d listen to you? You’re more than just a scout.”

  Devlin sighed. “I’m not just a scout, I’m his wayfinder.”

  A wayfinder was a leader of scouts, and could be a highly ranked officer.

  “So he wants you back,” Laryn said. “Touching.”

  “If you let me look around and send me back, I’ll tell him that the man he’s looking for isn’t here. He’ll leave you alone.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Laryn said. “Even if I set you free right now, you’d have no way of knowing we weren’t hiding someone. Harrat won’t leave that easily.”

  Devlin just shrugged, his unvoiced concession that Laryn was right. “I have to try,” he said. “Krupp is driving me crazy.”

  Later, Laryn sat with Gall at the wall. Harrat had set up a kingdom core in the woods nearby, and had expanded the borders of the outpost until they touched Vallor. The sounds of men working; felling trees and digging echoed from the forest. They would be sifting, feeding essence to the core, and fortifying their position.

  “We’ll have to keep a close eye on that,” Laryn said. “If he starts expanding quickly, we’ll need to extend our own borders, so he doesn’t realize we’re trying to fake him out.”

  “We’ll watch closely,” Gall said.

  “Do you think he’s the [Ruler]?” Laryn asked. “What if we kill that core?”

  “Doubt it,” Gall said.

  “You’re right,” Laryn groaned. “He’s smarter than that. He’ll have all the buffs he needs from Fort Envin. Better to have one of his guards, just in case. That’s standard practice, at least.”

  “But if we did destroy the core,” Gall said. “It would throw a wrench in his plans, wouldn’t it?”

  Laryn nodded, the gears in his head starting to turn.

  The idea stuck with him through that night. Laryn could destroy Harrat’s core. He knew he could. Especially if he pushed his kingdom to tier four, and took the accompanying bonuses. One single man, yes, but enhanced as he would be, he could slip into Harrat’s camp. The core would be guarded, but they wouldn’t be anticipating something like this, would they?

  Laryn knew it was risky. But he liked the idea more and more. He ran the idea forward and backwards through his mind all night long.

  The next morning storm clouds hung low in the sky and a light rain drizzled over the landscape. It was as if Ishtoran himself promised help Laryn in his attack against the prince.

  Harrat seemed in no hurry to make a move. He seemed to know, or at least suspect, that he had the superior numbers, and intended to leverage that. Laryn’s scouts reported movement and attempts by Harrat’s forces to move through the swamp at the base of the plateau cliffs. They’d been driven off by arrows.

  Laryn knew that they’d be trying the route to the east as well. They were running out of time.

  He summoned his council.

  They joined him on the island, near the still unfinished temple of Ishtoran. They stood beneath thick foliage of trees, keeping dry from the light rain.

  “The way I see it,” Laryn said, “Is that we’re running out of time. I don’t know how we can trade Devlin back to Harrat. We have no way to move the core. He’ll surround us and we’ll run out of food eventually.”

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  “But we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Thallon said from his seat on the ground. His leg was still largely immobile. Laryn wondered if he should have made the man a mage, simply to give him an extra point of constitution. He could use the blacksmith’s full strength.

  “You’re right,” Korwin said. “We shouldn’t give up our only point of leverage, that would be bad trade. Devlin buys us time. We need to find a way to turn that to our advantage.”

  “We have two messengers who’ve gone to try and bring back help,” Laryn said. “Hober to Townshold, and Ollen to the elves. I expect that we’ll need several more weeks before we might gain anything from that.”

  “We can’t count on that,” Kenna said.

  “We have to do something else to stall Harrat,” Laryn said. “Something that will put him on the backfoot, but won’t provoke him to attack right away. We need to surprise him.”

  “Voidlings,” Hela suggested. “Like before?”

  “I’d be surprised if that worked again,” Laryn said. “Besides, as far as I know we haven’t got a void bloom nearby. Unless…” he looked at the woman suspiciously. Was she suggesting that she had hidden voidspores somewhere? That seemed a very cult-like thing to do.

  “An attack then,” Gall suggested. “You’re suggesting an attack, when we barely have the manpower to watch the northwest gap.”

  “A one man attack,” Laryn said. “I have the most to lose if Harrat takes Vallor. I’m the one he’ll kill. The rest of you may have a chance to survive. I think that with the benefits of tier four buffs, I can slip into his camp and destroy his core.”

  Kenna gasped.

  “He won’t want to try attacking without a secure position,” Laryn said. “He doesn’t know how many soldiers we have. He’ll be forced to fall back, and go for another core.”

  “Maybe,” Gall said. “Or maybe he’ll just attack us. If they simply line up and charge, they’ll knock our wall aside and sweep through Vallor in minutes.”

  “Knowledge is power,” Laryn said. “And we have it. If I destroy his core, he’ll be flustered. He won’t expect something like that. They’re expecting a drawn out fight with an enemy in a fortified position.”

  “And if you’re killed?” Hela asked. “What happens to us?”

  “Fight or surrender,” Laryn said with a shrug. “Same thing that happens if I don’t try this. To be clear, I’m not asking for your permission right now. I’m telling you what I’m going to do, so that you can help me prepare.”

  Heads nodded.

  “I’m going to push the kingdom to tier four. It will give me a significant boost to my stats. It will give me a larger window to rewind time. It will also drop down the level of influence we have here, which might make it easier if Harrat tries an attack.

  “But if he attacks us, he’ll probably win anyways. We need to strike this blow, tonight. I know I can succeed. I’ll have multiple attempts to get things right.”

  The light faded and storm clouds darkened. In the distance, thunder rumbled.

  Laryn crossed his arms and made eye contact with each of his councilors. “Devlin is important,” he said. “We may be able to use him as a bargaining chip. I want each of you to make sure to make sure he’s well guarded. Don’t let him see too much. Don’t let him escape. I’ve heard whispers that some Vallorians think we should kill him. Don’t indulge those thoughts. We need him alive.”

  Everyone nodded their agreement, then Laryn dismissed them.

  As the others left, Kenna pulled him aside.

  “There’s a way you can recover essence from the core while you’re destroying it,” she said. “Most cores store essence in a core heart. When you attack a core, it will expend essence trying to defend itself, but if you’re fast about it, you might be able to cut the core heart free. Bring it back here and we’ll get a good boost of essence.”

  “Thanks for the tip,” Laryn said. “I’ll see if I can figure that out.”

  Kenna gave him a few more pointers about how to avoid damaging the core heart, otherwise they’d definitely lose all the essence.

  The storm swelled throughout the afternoon, dumping down sheets of rain everywhere. Nowhere was dry. The Ebil river swelled. At first Laryn was glad to see that, since it would offer somewhat more protection if they had to hole up on the island. But as water spilled over the banks, the kingdom core, Laryn’s shelter, and ends of their bridges were threatened by the swift flow.

  Thunder rumbled in the distance. Lightning split the sky. Laryn made his way through the darkness up to the Northwest gap. Two woman sheltered there, keeping watch over the approach to the wall. Everyone else was spaced out, watching other potential approaches and taking shifts sleeping.

  Gall accompanied him. Getting atop the ridge was a challenging proposition; in the rain and dark, it was even harder. Conor was already up, on lookout duty.

  By means of a few lengths of rope, a ladder, and help from the lookout above, it took them more than an hour of treacherous climbing to reach the top. They found a somewhat sheltered position between a boulder and a tree trunk.

  From here they could see down into Harrat’s camp. His men had worked quickly, and cleared an area, using timber from felled trees to build fortifications around it. They were probably getting water from the hot spring nearby. Campfires burned through the trees.

  “No movement,” said Conor, in his slow, ponderous way. “They’re sheltering.”

  “Don’t get lazy,” Laryn said. “Just because we want to hide from the weather doesn’t mean they will.”

  “You ready?” Gall asked. “I figure you can slide down that way there.” He pointed out a muddy track, filling with rivulets of water.

  Laryn nodded. He’d be able to drop down in a few places, then slide. It would be much easier than climbing up. He wiped water out of his face.

  “When I expand the kingdom I’m going to get five more stat points in magic and strength, and six in constitution. That will help.”

  Gall nodded.

  “You took care of Krupp and Devlin, right?” Laryn asked. When Laryn clamed over sixteen hundred tiles he’d be dropping their average influence down below two. The cages they’d made for their prisoners were sufficient to hold against attempts to break through at an influence level of five, but would not work at the lower level.

  “Yep,” Gall said. His grim face looked wild in the darkness. Laryn was glad the man was on his side.

  “When I make you into a [Mage], you’ll only have a short time to test out the abilities. Make sure everything is off cooldown when I come back, since I might need cover.”

  Gall just nodded again. They’d been through all this. Laryn was feeling the nerves now, but chattering on about the plan wasn’t going to help.

  “Okay. Let’s do this then.”

  Laryn added sixteen rings worth of tiles around his central core, claiming over 16 hundred tiles. Influence dropped. Power surged into him.

  “Congratulations on reaching Tier Four!” Adi said. “Your kingdom has grown into a [Hamlet]. You’ve unlocked new spells! [Survey] provides information about resource concentrations. Elemental [Bomb] is a new combat spell you can use to obliterate your enemies. Your core now has the capacity to accept spell modules to further enhance your abilities. Your kingdom is now displayed on the regional map, which you can use to see claimed tiles in the vicinity.”

  Laryn would review the other things later, but elemental [Bomb] might come in handy tonight. He quickly added the [Mage] class to Gall.

  Everything was in place. No time like the present.

  He jumped off the lip of the ridge.