“Other ideas or questions?’ The guildmaster asked.

  Another master, Master Alicia Dorweather, whom I had as faculty early on in my apprenticeship and who was a master of magical rings, asked, “Single Use Spells are probably the best route, but once they are gone, then we will be back to the beginning once more. Have you considered single-use or multiple-use effects that recharge?”

  I nodded. “I have considered it, Master Dorweather, but I do not possess the skills to lead that effort. I focused on the cheap and easy use of casting points given Twilight.”

  She nodded. “It was and still is a good idea. But a healthy mix might also be possible. Advanced enchantment allows some flexibility with recharging. It can be time-based, such as twenty-four hours, or it can function based on sunrise, sunset, moonrise, etc. There are also rarer options that we can discuss later. I would be willing to lead an effort with some fellow masters, journeymen, and apprentices around this. I would not want to distract from your SUS efforts, merely augment them.”

  I smiled, “That would be sincerely appreciated, master.”

  I made a couple of notes on the parchment in front of me, listing the efforts of Masters Habberjaz and Dorweather.

  “And I may have a book or two to lend you when you have some time for a little advanced enchantment work.” She added.

  A few mages laughed.

  One said jokingly, “Way to promote your new book, Alicia!”

  Another remarked, “And recruiting master students during a goblin invasion.”

  There was more laughter, but none of it was mean-spirited. She was widely liked and respected in the guild.

  Nevertheless, the guildmaster rapped his staff against the floor. Eyes turned to him, but he did not use the silencing plate.

  “Thank you, Alicia, that will be most helpful. Let’s move this along. Are there other ideas or questions?”

  One of the younger masters in the back of the room asked, “What are you using to create exploding arrows?”

  “We are using rune magic. We have been engraving a magical rune into silver arrowheads attached to battle arrows and empowering them. They explode on contact. It is not super powerful, but the magical cost is low, and even if the arrow misses, it has an area of effect impact on nearby targets.” I responded.

  “Who is empowering the runes?” She asked in reply.

  “For now, I am a new Rune Lord journeyman who joined me yesterday. I don’t know many others that can use rune magic to help us, although I planned to reach out to the sage guild.”

  “You know rune magic?” The guildmaster asked me.

  “Just the basics, such as healing and explosive attacks. It is a relatively new interest.”

  There was murmuring around the room.

  Misreading their intentions, I said, “I apologize if this is something common among Enchanters. I know some journeymen have expressed interest in runes, but we are still working on it. If we have masters, I would love to ask for some help and advice.”

  The mages looked around at each other.

  The young mage raised her hand. “I know some basics as well. I traveled with a group to the north, and there was a Shaman who taught me how to read runes and also how to use several spells magically.”

  “That would be great,” I said. “Are there others?”

  Master Glimmerblade replied, “No, Gwydion. That is rare magic, and few of us have ever encountered a practitioner, and what few we have interacted with tend to be very secretive. The response from the room was not to chastise you, but yet another surprise about the depths of your talents.”

  “Oh,” I said, embarrassed.

  I explained. “My interest came when I learned to read Elvin and Dwarven runes. It helped me really anchor my mastery of Ancient Dwarven and Ancient Elvin. Believe it or not, it was easier than our human runes. There is less logic and history behind ours. It may be why it is so rare.”

  They just stared at me until I started to feel a little uncomfortable. I asked, “Are there other ideas about enchanting weapons to do area of effect magic other than runes?”

  That question got their attention. An older mage offered, “There are a number of advanced enchantments that are much like Single Use Spells in their effect, but are tied to a trigger or purpose. For instance, casting a fireball on a SUS arrow might work, or it might explode when the archer releases it, killing everyone nearby. If the fireball is triggered to be an effect once the arrow hits a target, it could then be released.”

  “I’d like to learn more about that. Is it expensive to cast?” I asked.

  The older mage said. “I’m afraid so. It could be an excellent specialized attack, especially if it were done in conjunction with twenty archers all firing at the same time. Because they will just look like normal arrows, it could catch the enemy off guard. But that is only a benefit if there are no elementalists around to cast the fireball themselves, and at a lower overall cost. But, there are a number of such effects that could be done, such as Inferno, Tornado, Boxed Lightning, etc.”

  I probably looked silly standing up there with my mouth open. “Those are some amazing ideas. We should plan to have twenty or so of a wide variety of these special arrows for massive AOE attacks.”

  He nodded. “I’d be happy to coordinate on our end if we got the magical arrows. There are quite a few of us capable of the enchantments, and then we would need to work with our colleagues in the other guilds for the effects.”

  “Is it like the SUS where I prep the rings and then we distribute them to the casters, or do we need to seal the enchantment after?” I asked.

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  “We can discuss the details later, but yes, we would prepare, give to war mages, and then take them back to seal the enchantment.” He explained.

  “Then let’s plan to follow up on these. We are currently limited in the power of the spells we can use. This would allow for some very powerful spells beyond what we had in mind.”

  I thought for a moment. “In fact, I could forge gold or platinum arrows in addition to the silver for just such purposes. Or, if it would be simpler, I could forge Dwarven Copper and then just apply whatever powerful spell effects we desired, and it would also have an underlying magical anchor for the spells by using the magical metal.”

  Several mages nodded in agreement.

  One of the mages sitting closer to the front asked, “Back to rings, what ideas about AOE and DOT are you considering?”

  “Both area of effect and damage over time spells are desired, but we ran into limitations that went beyond journeyman-level skills. Specifically, we had considered some of the more powerful spells like the ones just mentioned, but the range of the spell from the ring brings them very close to the city walls, and we were concerned about collateral damage on the walls or our soldiers.”

  “With good reason,” He agreed. “But there could be some options around DOTs that are worth considering.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Using wizards as an example, because by definition they are all war mages, their ‘Wu’ line of spells could work. You could have a hundred copper SUS rings that let’s loose Wu’s Dagger, and it would slam into the front ranks of the goblins. Some of the lower-level spells don’t have a lot of strength, but they are harder to hit than a person, and it doesn’t put our soldiers in the line of fire.”

  “That is a terrific idea. Would you be willing to help with this line of specialty attacks?” I asked.

  “Of course. There are quite a few of us here that can help with that effort if they are not already spoken for in other areas from today.”

  In my working notes, I added Master Link for AOE and rune spell assistance and Master Yin for the Wu line of spells and other DOTs.

  “Thank you. Each time we add to our soldiers’ attacks, double their health through healing, or somehow protect them from damage we lessen the gap between their forces and ours.”

  “How many are we expecting?” The guildmaster asked.

  “We are working on getting more accurate information, but reasonable estimates are around a hundred thousand goblins.”

  “Plus an infernal pretending to be their god.” Master Glimmerblade added.

  “There is that as well,” I admitted.

  “How many troops do we have?” A voice called from the middle of the room.

  “That I don’t know for sure, but my guess is around ten percent of the horde.”

  That sobered the room.

  Master Glimmerblade said, “We do have our protective walls, but this is why Gwydion is looking for creative solutions to do area of effect and damage over time spells.”

  “Thank you, Master Glimmerblade,” I said.

  “What about the infernal itself?” The guildmaster asked.

  “I believe that the sorcery, summoning, and wizard guilds are working with the Holy Orders, but I have not been a part of those discussions,” I said.

  Master Glimmerblade nodded but did not say more. It was not widely known that he and Master Draconis were deeply involved in defense strategies, and it was not my place to talk about it here.

  Our oldest grandmaster enchanter, Grandmaster Yadrin Herlecht, piped up in his high-pitched voice that drove apprentices crazy during long lectures. “I spent a couple of decades in my youth working with the Archmage, involving some spirits that had been all worked up by a rogue greater infernal. Our group, all since passed on, I’m afraid, worked on several unique ways to combat spirits and ultimately the infernal itself. I could look for those notes and share them with you later today if you think they would be helpful.”

  Several colleagues looked at the grandmaster in surprise. He was such a passive little guy that none had ever imagined him in the throes of adventures or battling with spirits or an infernal.”

  “Thank you, grandmaster, I would sincerely appreciate those notes and the ability to discuss them with you if they are helpful. Fighting the infernal is not on my radar. I figure that is for the war mages, Holy Orders, and The Tower to sort out. Although two of my colleagues just recently faced off with one up north and lived to escape it.”

  He whistled as he took a deep breath. “I’d be happy to share notes with them and hear their tale.”

  “I will pass that along. One is a journeyman sorceress named Jade, whom I trust and like me could use all the help and advice we can get.”

  The mages added some ideas around enchanting shields to help build elemental or Mage Force spell walls among their ranks as they advanced or retreated. And several admitted that they were working on strengthening wards to make them more nimble, powerful, and permanent.

  “One thing is for sure,” the guildmaster said, “when this is all said and done, our city is going to be stronger for it. There are other threats out there, as well as the goblins.”

  “Let’s not tempt the fates.” A wiry old enchanter said as he crossed himself.

  I froze in place.

  I did not even think about that. But what if we assume for a minute that our enemy was as smart as we are and had decades to plan an especially nasty attack? Would a frontal attack and maybe a sneak undead attack be the only tricks up their sleeves?

  “What’s wrong, Gwydion?” Master Glimmerblade asked suddenly. “You just paled, visibly.”

  The others in the room who had broken out into side conversations all stopped and looked at him and then me.

  “Masters, it just dawned on me that this seems to be an all-or-nothing play by the forces of evil. We know the obvious threat is coming at us in the form of 100,000 goblins. But in the past few hours, we also have reason to believe that there is an amassing undead army in Undercity poised to attack just before, during, or just after the goblins arrive.”

  Several mages shouted in concern.

  “But what if there is more?” I said quietly, and the room went silent again.

  “Our enemy is evil but not foolish. They have had years, maybe decades, to plan this assault. What if there is more to this than just ground and underground?”

  “What do you mean, Gwydion?” The Guildmaster asked.

  I pointed out the window to the Pillar of Heaven. “What if we are attacked from the sky as well? We know the enemy is looking for something here. We have no idea what it is yet, but it is here in the city. Their orders, as far as we have been able to determine, are to destroy every building and living resident. What more effective way than that?” And I pointed again at the Pillar of Heaven, the colossal structure crossing through the center of our Hollow World like a stalactite and stalagmite meeting in a bulbous center.

  It was not the megalith that I was referring to, and every mage in the room knew it instantly. It was rumored that the dragons lived in the center of that colossal structure.

  “But they take no role in the lives of mortals.” One mage said, trying to convince herself.

  “There are good dragons and evil dragons. Who knows what plans have been hatched in secret?” Glimmerblade asked. “And there is the sea. Great damage can come at us from that direction.”

  I looked out at a room full of surprised faces. “Masters, I suddenly feel that we should put our minds to this question, quietly so as not to alert our enemy or panic our people. But we may need to address those kinds of solutions. And that is way above my pay grade.”

  If any had teetered on the edge of deciding just how much of their precious time and resources they were willing to give, those final thoughts pushed them over the edge.

  The Guildmaster gave words to what we were all thinking. “Even if our guild halls can stand easily against undead and goblins when the rest of the town is burnt to the ground, an uncontested infernal could potentially threaten us. However, an infernal combined with dragonfire and dragon magic may be enough to destroy even our master enchanted defenses and us within them.”

  The Guildmaster looked around at all his colleagues, who were suddenly feeling the sting of mortality and fear. Neither are common experiences for powerful mages to consider. He turned back to me and said, “I think I speak for all of us, Patron. We are on board. We will assist immediately with the areas some of the masters volunteered their services to address, and we shall all discuss these new and troubling thoughts.”

  I bowed to the room. “Thank you, masters.”

  “What are you doing now?” One of the younger masters asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

  I grimaced. “I go from here to the Alchemist guild to ask their leadership why they are no longer honoring their promises of potion support to the city.”

  There was grumbling all across the room. “Better you than me, kid.” Was the only loud response I got, and it was from Master Eli Habberjaz.” But he gave me a nod and a thumbs up, reminding me he would keep his word on his promises.

  I made some final notes as our discussions came to an end, so I could follow up with the masters who had volunteered to help and coordinate with others. The help from the guild masters today will be enough to really boost our efforts. Whether it makes all the difference or not is yet to be seen. But I felt good walking out of the hall. I was newly worried about other powerful enemies, but felt good that we were working on it.

  Any thoughts, Bella? I asked.

  None that I am ready to share. You did well, and they responded well to you.

  I was not sure what that first reply meant, but I respected her privacy and timing.

  Any thoughts about the Alchemist guild? I asked.

  None that you want to hear. She said with a feeling that she hoped I took it as humor.