"In a sense, it was those desires to see something new that made me help your grandfather and his little rebellion back then. It was not the first time I did so, and probably wouldn't be the last either. Most of the others before him had less success though, as they were further away, or weren't located in nations that knew to fear me.

In a way, perhaps my aid to your grandfather's rebellion was akin to giving a child building blocks to play with and then watched what they did with it. They could build magnificent things with it, or they could just throw it around until it broke and they deprived themselves of it.

I must admit that I didn't care for the rebellion's success much at all, at least not until Aoife grew attached to your father, that is. After you and your siblings were born, I cared for you three specifically, because you are Aoife's offspring, and I cared for her.

So yes, child, think of me as a cruel monster if it helped, but part of the reason I let your father and grandfather do things on their own instead of offering them advice was partly because I do not care much for them. The only people in Vitalica I directly cared for were your mother, your siblings, and yourself." - Nec Aarin, the Bone Lord.

The cavalry pulled back a short distance as they regrouped and readied for another charge, Maebh riding behind Aideen on Haon's back. The Templars had lost over a hundred of their members in the long charge towards the palisade, while casualties amongst the death knights and the Wings of Night were far fewer overall.

Trí and Ceathair's hulking forms also joined them, having fought their way through the undead horde. Aideen had originally planned to have the Wings of Night hold the horde at bay while the rest commenced their assault, but to her surprise, the death knights turned and took that role shortly after she explained the idea.

Apparently Haon and the rest could communicate in a form close to telepathy with Mimia over the distance, and had somehow conveyed her idea to her, which she relayed to Clovis and Kestera in turn, leading to the death knights taking the dangerous role of keeping the rest of the horde away while everyone else attacked the city.

The Templars had spools of chain ladders, meant for scaling the wall quickly, but they had issues actually scaling the wall, as while they managed to successfully toss a ladder onto the wall on occasion, it wasn't long before one of the guards above or a mage cut the ladder down, often causing deaths to those climbing. They were primarily cavalrymen, and thus not that suited for siege warfare. The Wings of Night were in a similar position.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Since their primary issue was in establishing a beachhead atop the palisade itself, Aideen pointed out that they now had several individuals who could not just climb the palisade unaided, but also hold their ground for a good while there, as she glanced at Trí and Ceathair.

With nods exchanged all around, they set about to execute the plan. The templars pooled their remaining chain ladders into the storages of the people who volunteered to join the climb, while the Wings of Night rode ahead and cleaned the undead from one section of the wall. Haon, Trí, Ceathair, and the Templars rode in close behind them.

Two templars each hung on to the back of Trí and Ceathair, while Maebh herself sat behind Aideen atop Haon. Maebh held on tight to Aideen's waist as Haon leapt and ran across the wall vertically, his claws giving him enough traction to climb up just like that, whereas Trí and Ceathair climbed more slowly behind him.

In a scant few seconds they climbed the top of the wall, and Haon turned towards one side, the walkway atop the palisade barely wide enough to accommodate him, as Aideen jumped off and faced the other side. Maebh rushed towards the wall itself and started placing the chain ladders on it while Haon and Aideen covered her.

Maebh felt a blast of heat from her side, where Antemeian mages had turned and noticed the intruders, but placed her trust in Aideen and kept up with her task while she signaled for her Templars to climb up, which many had already begun to do.

A stronger, more intense blast of heat scorched some of her hair, and made her feel like her right side had just been seared over a stove, and she glanced that way, to see Aideen strike down an Antemeian mage even as a stream of fire from his hand enveloped her left side entirely.

Maebh watched in horror as Aideen stumbled a couple of steps back, the left side of her torso and head reduced to a charred skeleton, and nearly screamed when she saw wriggling flesh growing right back from the blackened skeletal remains, quickly forming back up and covered with skin, with hair growing as well where it should.

It took Maebh a moment before she managed to wrest her eyes off the spectacle even as Aideen threw herself against another enemy, ignoring the spear that pierced through her body just to take down the Antemeian soldier sooner.

Trí and Ceathair finally reached the top of the wall as well moments later, and each went to help Aideen and Haon respectively, while their "passengers" jumped down as they set to work setting up ladders for those below.

Once the first of the climbing templars reached the top of the wall, Maebh left her post, drew her axe and shield, and went to Aideen, where she held the tides of incoming Antemeians alongside Trí. The bone construct had shown signs of serious damage from the extended fight, three of its twelve arms broken, and many of its bones cracked as well.

Aideen barely looked any better, with no less than a dozen weapons sticking out from her body. Her upper torso was mostly naked by now, as the many hits she took had pretty much shredded her tunic to oblivion, and she was bathed in blood, a lot of it her own, yet she still struck down one enemy after another without a care.