“The cannon bunkers are here, here, here, and here.” Saki marked the map with a pen, making little triangles and circles on the canvas. The points were at least four or five longstrides south of Faron’s Crossing.

Yuriko pursed her lips. “No wonder I couldn’t see them.”

“Out of visual range, eh?” Marron chuckled. “No, little sis, you haven’t refined your Enhanced Sight at all, did you?”

“Er…”

“At the Knight level, you should be able to see as much as a league away.” Marron sighed as he asked Saki, “But they are camouflaged?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s the plan?” Yuriko asked hurriedly. “Send an assault force?”

“If only it were that easy,” Marron muttered. He pointed at the encampments. There was the main one directly south of the town. One to the east, just outside of the abandoned east district, and another to the west, directly between the Watchtower and Faron’s Crossing. “Any attempt to get past the fortifications will be met with an attack.” He turned to Saki. “Can you sketch the layout and details of the bunkers?”

“Of course.” The woman took a pen and a sheet of paper then started sketching. Meanwhile, Yuriko examined the bunkers’ locations.

“This one is really close to the Caradec,” she pointed. “I think I can use the river to get close enough to bypass the forts.”

“You can, yes,” Marron hummed. “If we make an assault then that should distract the army. But we can only do this once before they become guarded against it.”

“There are at least two squads on guard there,” Saki interrupted. “Twenty men and women. I couldn’t tell their Anima strength, but they looked quite professional.” She gestured towards the camp. “Quite unlike the others there.”

“Little sis?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Yuriko said after a while, “unless all of them are Knights.”

“If even three of them are, you’ll find yourself in trouble.” Marron shook his head. “But that’s unlikely. There are four bunkers. They are wary of the sites being sniped down by your Radiant beam, which is why they protected the cannons with a healthy heap of dirt.”

Yuriko smirked. “I’ll use the same thing against it.”

“Wouldn’t that take you hours to channel?”

“Not anymore.”

She used her Radiant Lance implement once. The ambient Chaos gathered around her hand quickly and converted easily to Radiant energy as long as she provided a seed from within her. As Damien had explained, the spell formed in this way was weaker, but it was orders of magnitude faster. It took less than a minute to create the lance. It wasn’t as easy to dissipate, though, and she actually had to ground it into the earth. It turned the area where she poked it in to lava.

Afterwards, she had felt a wave of fatigue and she grew unsteady on her feet, but it passed after a couple of minutes. She might have trouble fighting in melee while weakened, however.

Hmmm, the Sorcerers she’d fought weren’t hampered in such a way. Rhain Hervard, the one she fought in Bella plane, had cast his spells with impunity. However, that may have been the result of years of practice.

She didn’t have the time to do that and she briefly wondered if she was letting a shiny new toy take her focus. If she used Fri’Avgi, she was sure she could spike the cannons quite easily. Of course, the advantage of the Lance was that she could use it at range.

Her thoughts were interrupted by several thuds up in the sky. A cannon shell managed to penetrate the Protective Dome before the controller could toggle it out of low power. A piercing whistle called for firefighters and healers. Yuriko, Marron, and Saki rushed out of the map room and out of the town hall.

A thin plume of black smoke rose in the distance, several blocks away. But the firefighting squads had already responded.

Yuriko leapt up to the roof and squinted her eyes as she looked toward the strike zone. The Dome firmed up above and blocked off the rest of the bombardment. From the look of things, they’d been lucky and the shell hadn’t hit a house. Shaking her head, she leapt back down.

“Stopping the cannons is urgent,” Yuriko stated.

“I agree. But you getting captured or killed will only put us in greater danger.” Marron said with a set jaw.

“I will accompany the young mistress.” Saki said, “And I will sacrifice myself to ensure her safety. She is right. Constant bombardment, with no warning or indicators wears down morale. Look at them.” She pointed towards the civilians. Aside from the frowns on their faces, there was a…darkness around them.

“Then let’s write up your plan,” Marron said, “and submit it to the council for approval.”

“But!” Yuriko protested.

“Let’s follow protocols, little sis. You’re not alone and you’re not the only one that will get affected by your actions. We all live in Faron’s Crossing, and despite what it looks like, our defences are strong. The Dome will protect us from the bombardment at the cost of some exhaustion. The wall is manned by reserve fighters and militia. The Federation hasn’t pushed for a pitched battle, and they certainly aren’t sieging the walls. They know that they don’t have the proper numbers to take the wall without grave losses. All we need to do is hang on and wait for reinforcements.”

“But, what about the Watchtower?”

“What about it? If anything, they’re even more well protected.” Marron scoffed.

“Do we have a communication line?”

“Yes, of course. Special messenger cranes can make it from the Watchtower to the town hall.”

“What word?”

Marron grinned, “Worried about your prince?”

“No,” Yuriko said coldly.

“Heh. Anyway, it took a while but we finally set up a command centre. All deployments and reports go there.” Marron gave her a sideways glance. “You’re a Knight as well, and you should be in the council, too.”

“Uhm, but it's all…”

“Paperwork and committees.” Marron rolled his eyes. “All of the Knights are there and we, as a collective, decide. Faron’s Crossing is not a military post, so we’ve no commander. Technically, Da is the one in charge, since he’s commander of the Watchtower, but since he’s not here, and Vice-Commander Stuart’s only temporary, until he reaches Knight-Captain, he doesn’t have command here. Constable Tara Andersen should be next in command, but she moved to form a Knight’s council here instead.”

“She’s not confident.”

“She’s law enforcement in Faron’s Crossing, one of the sleepiest towns in Rumiga.” Marron laughed. “So, no, she’s not confident leading.”

“Armsmaster Byrne?”

“His posting is as an instructor. But the Armsmaster is quite competent so he’s one of the leads.” Marron took her hand. “You’re one of our strongest warriors, you need to be in the council too.”

“Oh, alright.” She worried that it would be boring work.

The first official council meeting was late afternoon. Yuriko filled out her plan of attack, which was pretty simple. She would swim under the river until she reached the spot nearest to the bunker, get out of the water, and begin her assault.

According to Saki’s sketch, the Steam Cannons’ muzzles would stick out of the roof and were the only vulnerable point. There were varied vents along the square structure, but most were too small to allow any kind of passage. There was a single entrance on the south face, but it was narrow and easily defended.

Her idea was to charge up her Radiant Lance and strike down the barrel, hopefully melting the cannon from within. Since the west bunker housed two cannons, she would need to use Radiant Lance twice. She… wasn’t sure if she could form two of the lances at the same time, or if she’d need to defend while charging up the second one. Another option was to cast the Radiant Lance down one barrel, then use her sunshards on the second. She could melt and puncture the barrel that way.

She excused herself to work out if she could actually dual cast, and it didn’t take much time to realise that she simply couldn’t. She felt she could use the implement to create two lances, but the mental strain nearly made her faint. Once she was more practised then perhaps that would work.

She settled on the lance and shards route and finished up her battle plans. She gave it to her brother and, since it was close enough to mid-afternoon, she meditated on her seat to pass the rest of the time.

Alderman Rivos, Constable Andersen, Elder Ramus, and the rest of the Knights, all grey-haired except for Spellweaver Merill, and Armsmaster Byrne, who was bald, arrived one after the other. There were seven other elders, four women and three men. From what Yuriko remembered, they were retired militia or government workers. Actually, it seemed all of them weren’t warriors. They didn’t say it outright, but Yuriko could feel the lack of threat.

Oh, they could hold their own against the common enemy forces, but against warrior Knights? They would be defeated and killed. Maybe not instantly, but it was inevitable. So their only real combat-worthy Knights were her brother, the Armsmaster, the Constable, the Spellweaver, Saki, and herself. Just six out fifteen.

No wonder.

And of course, when her proposal came up, most of them were against it. Yuriko clenched her jaw. She wasn’t about to have her freedom to act limited by a bunch of geezers. She argued vehemently for several hours, stating the fact that it would be slow death to simply wait. One pointed out that they didn’t have to wait too long, and the depletion caused by the bombardment didn’t outpace their contribution.

“But we don’t know when they’ll step up their attacks!” Yuriko protested. “If they increased the frequency of the bombardment just threefold, then the Dome’s Animus reserves will go into deficit!”

“Yuriko is right,” Eilis Merill said grimly. “The enemy bombardment right now is quite leisurely. I’m sure they can step up quite easily.”

One of the elderly Knights, a white-haired old man name Ruben Brooks, who used to be a scribe, not a runescribe but one of the essentials to bureaucracy in Rumiga City, protested, “There must be a limit to their supplies. The fact that they’re not bombarding us more often means that they don’t have enough cannon shells to sustain it.”

“That’s mere conjecture!” Eilis shot back.

“If they had the capability, why wouldn’t they use it?” Ruben argued. “There’s no way they would be lenient, not with siege weapons like that! They may be more cautious of their conscripts, but not munitions. Those are easily replaced. No, I’m sure they have limited shells that’s why they’re conservative in attacking! Knight Davar’s plan will put her in danger and further limit our combat forces!”

Yuriko’s eyes narrowed, “It is my decision on what I will do.”

Another woman, Faye Morgan, her friend Millie’s maternal grandmother and one of the town’s earthmelders said, “Don’t be like that, girl. We must act together or risk falling one by one.” Her tone was soothing and steady, which somewhat calmed Yuriko’s temper. “You’re so hot-blooded now, little Yuri…” she chuckled under her breath.

Yuriko felt her cheeks heat up, but she didn’t want to withdraw her proposal.

“I think my sister can return safely,” Marron said. “Spellweaver is right, there’s no telling when they will increase their attacks. Better to take the variable away from the board while we still can. We can aid her efforts by staging a distraction…”

Her brother outlined a plan, and the younger part of the council agreed. Armsmaster Byrne looked thoughtful and then volunteered, “I would like to challenge and face their Adepts. I haven’t fought a Spirit Binder in a long time, and I am eager.”

“Your strength hasn’t returned to its former state, Trevor,” Eilis said while holding the muscular man’s forearm.

“I will be careful, worry not,” Byrne said soothingly.

“Ah, youth…” Faye sighed.

No one else offered alternatives, and the truth of the matter was, Yuriko felt that they needed to be proactive or suffer the consequences. Why was it that the Empire was fond of merely defending? There must be some deeper meaning to this…

“With the proposal passed,” Constable Andersen said, “We will throw our support to your efforts, Knight Davar. When will you proceed?”

“Tonight,” Yuriko said grimly. “The earlier we accomplish this, the better.”

“We won’t be able to provide a distraction if you act tonight.” Marron interrupted, “Better proceed tomorrow.”

Yuriko sighed and nodded. As long as it would get done. Tomorrow, at dawn, she would see the Steam Cannons melted down to slag.