After leaving Gwydeon in the other room Magnus rolls up his sleeves and begins cleaning off green and purple gunk from various dishes. As he scrapes black and purple slime out of a bowl he wonders what the heck this stuff is and when does Torana have time to make such a mess.

          In a few minutes, Torana and Charon walk into the room.

          Charon says, "Those boots were absolutely fascinating. I think it will take some time to figure out all of what the tunic does...."

          Torana says, "Ah, but you figured it out quickly which is why I sent for you."

          They walk past Magnus and into the other room.

          Charon says, "But you have picked up more of the orc's knowledge of casting than I, and I spent more time on the borders. I'd love to know how you found that out."

          Torana chuckles and says, "I read it in a book."

          The sounds of their voices fade off into the distance...which Magnus finds odd since they are only two rooms in that direction and no doors on either of them.

          When he is nearly done, Torana returns.

          Slowing his rapid pace to a slow walk, "No time for that." He says to his apprentice, "Get yourself cleaned up and presentable, we have lots of guests to see to soon. Grab some of your friends and see if they can scare some food or something. Join me in the casting room as soon as you've cleaned up." Never actually stopping he walks on past out of the room and down the hall.

Top

          "That was how it began little over a month ago," Magnus muses, "since then a few things have changed. There is a portal connecting his underground lab and his Tower through the casting room and another portal through the libraries. Torana and Charon created a door set in the Tower wall that when opened leads into another large room which Charon uses for study. The tent city that appeared outside of the tower. Gwydeon seems to have taken up residence with the underground elves and occasionally appears to study or try and learn a new spell and after nearly four weeks of complete absence, the Warlord has finally let Lorana appear in public, albeit for very short times."

          He sighs, today has not begun well. With Torana secretly sequestered away with a group of magi and Magnus given explicit instructions to not have them interrupted, he attempts to placate Tacho, a member of the Council of War. The tall burly man with dark brown eyes and long flowing black hair looks down at the young apprentice. Magnus can see Tacho's barely shaved jaw slide back and forth grinding his teeth. In a voice strained with barely controlled anger he says, "This is the third time this week. I don't care if he is studying his magic arts. The Council needs the information. He was supposed to meet with us this morning and tell us everything about the damned Wall! We need to know how to get through without letting the orcs in! Dammit! We've got three armies trapped on the other side there with no chance for reinforcements or return of the wounded! Where is that stupid mage!"

          Magnus looks up from the notes he was writing in a journal at the desk. He quietly answers, "That stupid mage happens to be busy keeping that very wall, which is holding back thousands of blood thirsty orcs from ripping our throats out and using our hides for drum skins, standing. I assure you that Torana is doing everything in his power to find a way to do what the War Council wants and that as soon as he has made some definitive progress, he will let you know."

          Tacho lips purse and his eyes narrow dangerously, "Yesss, but no one has heard from him in several days. In moments the orcs will try again to break the barrier. It may break today or it may break tomorrow, but when the barrier is breached, I want it to be because we are attacking not defending."

          Magnus takes out a clean sheet of parchment and begins writing out what time of day it is and Tacho's request. He the turns the sheet around and asks, "Please sign your name here sir, and I will see to it that Torana is informed as soon as possible of your request."

          Tacho looks at the paper and as he signs says, "Tell your master this. If the orcs breech that barrier before he finishes playing with his precious parchments. This tower and all your lovely magic is going to be their first target. So to protect his own hide I suggest he speed up his efforts." He turns to leave saying, "you would think that someone who created it would know how to work it."

          As he leaves Magnus calls out, "Not to worry Tacho, I'm sure the Orcs are as frustrated as you are about he wall."

          "Yea, but they are at least doing something about it", he shoots back.

          Putting the parchment to one side, Magnus prepares to return to his studies when a shout goes up outside. The now familiar call to arms as both sides line up on their side of the barrier. The Allied forces preparing for an orc attack. The Orc army lines up in a bit further from the barrier and their magi attempt to pierce the barrier.

          Curiosity overcomes the young mage as he looks out a nearby window to view the current attempt.

          Ten orcs in formal dress stand about 100 ft from the barrier. Even from this distance you can see these are not the orc magi from previous times. The ten orcs join hands and begin chanting slowly their voices building up in volume. Finally the chanting turns to what seems like a song and as the song progresses the volume increases even more. The song ends on a single note that is held for quite some time. Finally the orcs drop their hands.

          The ground suddenly rumbles and just in front of the orc chorus the ground literally explodes along a twenty-foot wide arc. Some tremendous force called up by the orc chorus blasts outward from that point creating trench as it moves toward the barrier destroying everything, including about 5 ft of ground, in its way. The forces blasts full speed into the barrier and the impact is felt more than heard or seen.

          It seems as if the whole world is shaking. Magnus can feel everything vibrate, he can see everything shake, but the only thing he can hear is the beating of his heart. It lasts only a moment, then his heart stops and for one long moment he cannot hear it beat. The whole world seems frozen in time. The moment stretches on to forever, but then there is a pounding sound. A few moments later Magnus realizes that it is the sound of his heartbeat. He takes a breath and the spell is broken.

          Both armies watch each other cautiously. One of the orc archers fires a single arrow toward the allied army. Everyone on the battlefield watches the flight of the arrow even the Allied commander who by now should realize he is the target. Even he watches the arrows flight doubtlessly holding his breath, but neither moving nor flinching.

          The arrow comes down and is suddenly bounces in mid-air before falling straight down to the ground. For a moment everything is silent. Then a loud groan rises up from the army of orcs and a great cheer rises up from the Allied army.

          The barrier has withstood another massive magic attack. The chorus of orcs turn on their heels and march back through the dispirited ranks.

          With a sigh of relief, Magnus turns back to his desk and returns to his studies. Sometime later footsteps approach and he looks up as four dour magi walk past the door. The fifth mage stops and pokes his head in.

          Magnus groans inwardly as he realizes it is Parawn. Over the last week you have had the misfortune to meet him. His curiosity about magic is much higher than normal, bordering on obsessive on a quiet day. Unfortunately he has about as much common sense as a dead rat and as much fear of injury or death as a depressive suicidal lemming. Combined with the fact that he seems to like the sound of his own voice and can hold a one-sided conversation about magic for hours at a time, which wouldn't be so bad except he seems to think that others have trouble grasping the simple fundamentals of rune flows that most have mastered a long time ago. As such, nearly every conversation begins as a lecture on some basic principal Magnus already knows.

          He looks around and his eyes spy the wand Magnus picked up from Charon on their last adventure. He moves to it like a bee attracted to honey and begins studying it intensely.

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