I looked upon my officers, all assembled in my tent, around a table, though chairs were absent, “We’ve got some new orders,” I began. The messenger had arrived barely a day after we had reached the agreed-upon place in Marnadal.

  It was an empty field, slightly raised compared to the rest of the pass, with a small river going straight through, descending from the Amell mountains that flanked the pass from east and west. A decent enough place to build a fort. The work had yet to begin, though my army busied itself even now, scrambling to fortify our camp. I doubted Nazair would manage to send another force soon. It was debatable whether they had even learned what had happened to the last one yet.

  The faces of Cyril, Bastan, Sorin, Isengrim, Roderic and Ortagor stared back at me. With the grim competence Isengrim and his people executed the most dangerous role of the battle, I was now feeling confident in their loyalty, and so he was included. They probably wouldn’t help me against their own kind, but I didn’t need them to.

  “We still have to oversee the construction, but Her Majesty has now understood the treachery of Baldemar of Attre. The Nazairis should never have reached so far without word reaching our people. Yet they had. The Duke is a traitor,” I explained, “It falls to us to deliver justice.”

  Ortagor was scowling something fierce, while Cyril also could not keep the anger from his face. Both Bastan and Sorin were simply grim, while Isengrim wore a small smirk.

  “Impossible,” Baron Ortagor basically spat, though I understood his anger was not towards me. I motioned for him to continue, “Our losses were light and partially replenished by the mercenaries,” he admitted, his tone one of grudging respect, “But we’ve barely enough to defend the construction, should the enemy muster another attack of equal size. Some of our men will be tied up with the prisoners, too.”

  “But who could they send so soon?” Bastan, the former mercenary, spoke up, “More sellswords? In a month, we’ll have expanded the earthworks significantly.”

  I nodded, “Both of you have good points. It is unlikely that Nazair will muster another force anytime soon, not unless they outright declare war. At the same time, our forces are insufficient to take on the Attre Duchy by force anyway.”

  “By force?” Isengrim spoke up.

  I smiled, “Attre is, at least so far, not rebelling, even if the Duke’s actions could be interpreted that way. Remove the Duke and that’s that, the people of Attre do not share the Duke’s goals, nor are they aware of them. I doubt any other Attre nobles will be keen to stick out their necks afterwards to pick up the torch either, even if some of them might harbour similar desires”

  Ortagor frowned, “Yet, to remove the Duke, we would need to arrest him and get him out of Attre. Something I do not think his household troops would be eager to allow.”

  “Yes, arresting him would be tricky,” I concurred, “Luckily, Her Majesty, in her boundless wisdom, does not ask us for that.”

  “You would assassinate him?” Ortagor spoke calmly.

  “He will be executed, a fate befitting a traitor,” I replied, “Lawfully executed, not assassinated.”

  Isengrim snorted, but didn’t respond.

  The huge Baron visibly mulled my words over, before eventually nodding. I suppressed a smile. I had thought that he’d be the most resistant to the idea of assassinating the Duke, to the point I had considered simply not telling my men the plan, but my framing of the task seemed to placate him. While keeping it to myself might have worked in the short term, everyone would learn of the Duke’s fate eventually. Better to stop any dissent early.

  “I am assuming,” Cyril spoke up, before shrinking slightly once I turned my eyes towards him, “That you would do that, ah, personally?” At my nod, he continued, “Who will be in charge here, then? And, will you depart soon?”

  “Good questions,” I praised, “As you know, the estimates for the first phase of the construction were made with magical help in mind, so I will stay until basic defenses are established. Afterwards, the threat of enemy attack will be greatly diminished for many months, as they would need to muster a truly large army to dislodge us quickly. I doubt that Nazair will prove as decisive as that.”

  “For your first question,” I continued,” It will be Ser Roderic once more,” I nodded to the man in question, who just sighed, “He has proven himself a capable commander, though I expect the rest of you to advise him when necessary.”

  Ortagor’s face wrinkled in distaste, but he stayed silent, while the rest seemed more or less ambivalent.

  Good enough, I supposed.

  With no more questions forthcoming, I ended the meeting, watching as my officers departed. Then I pulled out a small pouch, turning it upside down and letting its contents fall on the table.

  I examined the three rings that tumbled out. They had belonged to the Nazairi sorcerer, along with other trinkets, but it was these three that I thought would be the most beneficial. Diamond, black spinel and some sort of white crystal that I didn’t recognise, though it resembled quartz. All three valuable foci that would serve me well, supplementing the black diamond gifted to me by Tissaia.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I removed the silver ring with the glass bead I wore even now, putting on the three rings instead, relishing in the cool sensation on my fingers. The decoy, though never used, had served its purpose. These new rings would serve a similar purpose, while also being fully functional.

  In many ways, these rings represented strength. Drawing in and taming the Power from the environment was a tricky process, one that could be quite dangerous when done in haste or improperly. Doing so before an engagement was only possible when you had somewhere to store it - a focus, talisman, fetish, charm or whatever you wanted to call it. Rare gems and metals worked the best, but there was a very vexing element of ‘resonance’. You couldn’t just use whatever you got your hands on, and what worked best differed from sorceress to sorceress.

  That three out of the seven foci the enemy sorcerer wore worked for me was already a great deal of luck, even if none of them were on par with Tissaia’s gift. They would also serve as a misdirection. Had a sorcerer examined my fake ring, they would have quickly realised it was a worthless trinket, merely buying me a bit of time before they’d search for my real focus. With my new rings, this would not be an issue. Luckily, no one but Tissaia and me knew about the black diamond she had gifted me.

  I spent the next few hours meditating and filling my new reservoirs with Power.

  Once I was done, I left the tent, using my staff as a walking stick. The camp was bustling, though most of the soldiers were resting now.

  The ones busiest were the auxiliary specialists we brought along - the engineers and architects. The plans for the fortress had been completed before our departure, but now it fell to these men to translate lines on paper into wood and stone.

  As I had offered my own abilities to speed the construction up, the fortress would be somewhat unique. The castles of the north could be broadly put into two categories. Those with magical defences, and those without. The former were rare, and often resembled castles from the high medieval period of my previous lives. The royal castle in Cintra’s capital was one such building, enchanted to prevent any random sorcerer from just making a hole with a simple earth manipulating spell, and reinforcing the construction greatly.

  They were largely considered superior, but too expensive for widespread use. Usually, fortresses like that were reserved for capitals or key strategic points.

  Marnadal technically fulfilled the latter requirement, but there just wasn’t enough money for a project of that sort, and I alone wasn’t enough for magical work of that scale, nor did I have the expertise. I knew enough to secure my tower, but to design and create a comprehensive defence for a whole fortress? I just didn’t have the knowledge, nor the decades it’d take to learn to create a self-sustaining enchantment of such scale.

  Which left us with the second category. This one was much broader, with many different types of fortifications. Some completely ignored the existence of magic, as sorcerers specialising in siege warfare were quite rare, especially with the Brotherhood's efforts to prevent sorcerers from inserting themselves into land disputes willy nilly.

  Of those that acknowledged the existence and danger of magic, there were two, somewhat complementary philosophies. Both applied to siege engines as well. Strength and redundancy.

  The first idea was to simply make walls strong and robust enough to make any magical attack relatively ineffective. This wouldn’t stop a mage that made it near enough from just moving the stone and earth away with a spell, but sorcerers were very much not inclined to rush for the walls, risking their lives with the peasants. Moreover, any competent defender would understand the danger that a mage getting near their walls would represent and would do their best to kill them before that happened.

  It did, however, make fireballs, lightning and other offensive spells that sorcerers liked to throw around somewhat pointless, unless the sorcerer in question possessed prodigious power. Ironically, it was similar to the strategies employed after the invention of cannons in my past worlds.

  Redundancy, on the other hand, was simply about making multiple layers of walls. Instead of wasting your resources building one big wall that a mage could tunnel through anyway, you made three, each approach giving the defender an opportunity to kill the mage.

  Generally, these two philosophies were combined, resulting in fortifications with two strong walls or one, along with a few lesser walls.

  Interestingly, it wasn’t really that different from how castles were built in my past lives, it's just that the textbooks used magic to justify their rationale, though I imagined the newer ones might include trebuchets in that assessment. Turns out, siege spells that some sorcerers might throw around weren’t that much different to siege engines.

  Much of the architectural and engineering details went over my head, though I had managed to contribute some ideas, especially where it pertained to magic.

  The first of this was to be the outer wall along with a ditch, the first phase of construction. The wall would be far thicker and larger than usual, on account of my help. My role was to compact the earth, forming the core of the wall, before the workers would add the brick surface. This was a somewhat unusual design, as walls were generally filled with stones and rubble, which was seen as superior. However, the engineers assured me that the thickness of the wall would compensate enough as to be worthwhile. This outer wall would eventually be complemented by two inner ones.

  This was not a very difficult task for me, as the entire operation was mathematically simple. It would still take time, especially since, despite the increased effectiveness, I would need to take breaks to draw more Power out, but it would shave months off the construction process.

  I strolled around the site, watching as the builders measured out the distances, marking the footprint of the walls and future towers with simple wooden stakes, while measuring elevation.

  We would first need to clear and level the ground before the true work could begin, but the area was rather flat and empty, so it wouldn’t take long, especially with my help.

  Soon, it was time for me to do my part.

  “Sh'aente nolla,” I incanted, the Power answering my call, before being unleashed on the uneven ground. Flattening it was my first task. Then, the outer walls and the ditch, combined into one action. This would be slightly trickier, as I would have to navigate around the future drainage and other foundations, but I was confident that my spells were precise enough to manage.

  Once that was done, the defensibility of our camp would be increased tenfold. Not something that could be taken with a bunch of hastily assembled mercenary companies.

  The real work would begin then. Temporary workshops, kilns, timber yards and quarries. Proper foundations for the rest of the walls, towers and the keep would be dug along with a sewer system. The river would be remade, so as to serve our purposes better.

  In a few years, this place will be nearly indomitable.

  As an added tidbit, construction work of this sort is rather difficult for regular mages. Quite possible of course, but this is one instance where Tanya is casually flexing on all the other mages without realising it.

  I’ve mentioned this before I think, but the stuff about foci, talismans etc. is fanon from my part. We know for certain that gems, jewelry etc. can be somehow used to enhance magic in the witcher, but I do not think the exact mechanism was ever covered. This seems like a decent, non disruptive explanation.