I turned to Sandor with a shake of my head after the boos ended about Adric’s Auntie Boo’s boom suggestion. “How are you doing with potion making?”

  He sighed. “More slowly than I’d like. We hit our goals of seven batches of seven each, but we should have been able to do far better. We are still struggling to pull in alumni alchemists since nearly all of them have moved on to other fields. I plan to dig more deeply into chemistry alumni since they have the same skills we need, if less content knowledge.”

  “Agreed. Let me know if you need help accessing faculty and alumni.”

  Sandor held up his hands, “You are busy, Patron, I’m sure my team will be able to handle this.”

  “Very good,” I replied and nodded my head in gratitude.

  He had a question, “Do you still want us to split the effort around all three types or back off skill potions and double up on magical restoration?”

  “How is our help from the alchemy guild going?” I asked.

  Sandor winced. He wore the robes of a journeyman alchemist, but his ability to influence his guild, especially in light of his using non-guild members to make minor potions, had put him at odds with his own leadership.

  He raised both hands in a shrug.

  “We’ll talk later,” I said. “You are doing an amazing job and will save many lives. I’ll get the Majordomo or the Duke to ride the alchemists. How are you on supplies?” I asked as a parting thought.

  I knew that our initial struggle to make potions was divided between collecting sufficient potion ingredients for the minor healing, skill recovery, and magical restoration potions, along with finding skilled craftsmen with the patience and detailed knowledge to create them. None of the various teams' work was easy, but Sandor had a doubly difficult challenge.

  He smiled. “Our supply problem has gone away thanks to the Irregulars.” Here, he and everyone else looked over at the youngest member of our leadership team, Junior. Even though Junior led them, Ears was scheduled to attend these meetings because both Junior and I agreed that Ears had a special talent for hearing things that others did not. But for some reason, Ears was not with us this evening.

  Junior blushed at the sudden attention. “Thanks. Umm. It's going well.” He stammered out. “Ears had something to do tonight at the docks, so I’m filling in.”

  I nodded to him and moved to the next agenda item.

  “Red, how are things coming along with weapons and armor?” I asked.

  Red turned to our newest attendee, a man as old as any four other members in the room combined. “Blinky can fill you in.”

  And sure enough, the old guy blinked about once every couple of seconds. He didn’t seem to mind the less-than-flattering nickname and was genuinely thrilled to be a part of something exciting with so many young people.

  Nevertheless, I did not call the emeritus grandmaster of both weapon smithing and armor smithing by his nickname. “Grandmaster, what update do you have to share?”

  “The city guilds for armor and weapons across all vocations are striving to increase their wares at the command of the Duke. Not a single additional apprentice is available to work on any of the Patron’s plans.”

  “Or Red’s hairbrained schemes,” Adric added.

  “Hush.” Adric’s sister commanded, and all eyes returned to the grandmaster.

  “We are lucky to have Gerty and Ollie as guild journeymen with us.” The grandmaster commented, nodding to the journeyman armorer and her peer from weaponsmithing who had begun to join the team recently. “And so,” he continued, “Mr. Red has sought out those unlooked-for and forgotten, the old and the retired. We have a team of eleven feeble old men and women, whose combined knowledge and memories amount to well over a thousand years of experience.”

  I smiled widely. “And just what do you have in mind to do that the others are unable to do?” I asked.

  The grandmaster turned to Red. The eyes around the map table followed.

  “Well, with an introduction like that, you must be expecting something pretty cool!” He said with a wide smile.

  He waited just long enough before saying, “We have no idea.”

  Moans greeted his remarks from nearly everyone present.

  He corrected, “Well, it's not that we have no idea. It’s more like I have,” and he stared at Adric, “a hairbrained idea. But it is not ready for introduction here today.”

  “Then why all the fuss?” Adric said in a disappointed voice.

  “I wanted to let you all know that we had a smith full of grandmasters ready to go to work-”

  “When you have something to work on.” I completed his thought.

  He beamed. “Exactly.”

  I shook my head and looked at the paper before me. “Well, moving on then. Let’s have an update on rings.”

  Everyone looked back at me since I was still heading this portion up myself with the help of several final year enchanter apprentices that I had handpicked from among my younger classmates. I noticed that Adric had slugged Red on the shoulder and then looked up at me expectantly.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I have a report from our three shifts that we have just shy of two hundred polished copper Single Use Spell rings for offensive spells, and forty-nine each of silver, gold, and platinum. Our focus is changing from the copper SUS rings to silver, thanks to some exceptional ideas from the leadership team. Nearly all of the prepared rings have already been imbued with offensive spells and are ready to go to the Duke for distribution by the commanders.”

  There were pleased nods from around the room. We had more than doubled my promise to the Duke, and we still had many days left and new efficiencies rolling into production.

  “We also have a total of thirty-three, five socketed Dwarven Copper rings that have not been claimed for use by journeymen. Eleven have been made for officers and are filled with elemental 7pt gems. The remaining twenty-two have crystal gems with a range of first-level experimental offensive spells associated with them.”

  There were more nods. “And,” I began, “We also have nearly one hundred copper SUS rings with Lesser Heal Other cast upon them, thanks to the tireless efforts of Steven and his cleric brothers.”

  Steven got a round of applause. Those healing spells would go far.

  “And we also have forty-nine silver SUS rings with Lesser Heal Group primed and ready to go with five health points each.” More applause. “While not major healing, it will cover a group of up to seven at a time.”

  Red said, “That far exceeds our final goals, Patron!”

  “And that is just the first couple of days. We have more time.” I replied. “And this does not take into account the recent additions by the Bishop, which we are tracking separately due to their power.”

  More appreciative nods were shared, and a few thumbs up to Steven, who smiled awkwardly at the praise.

  “With our new hires and efficiencies with Yellow Wax, while we won’t be in the thousand range of rings per day, we will see perhaps half that soon. At least, among the SUS rings.” I added by way of clarification.

  “Now, on to magical garments-” I began, but was interrupted by Bella’s urgent announcement.

  Gwydion, the city alarm has been set off at the harbor, and there is a magical fog preventing me from seeing what is happening there.

  “Show me,” I said out loud to the confusion of those around me.

  Bella changed the back wall of our meeting room to transparent, and we could see the blue harbor warning orb going off above the city in various blue colored fireworks. Each city gate had a warning color: east- red, north- orange, west- yellow. A green color meant attack from below and could come from a half dozen access points across the city. And the blue color was for the harbor.

  “What’s happening, Gwyd?” Biff asked.

  “Bella said that there is a magical fog at the harbor, and the alarm has gone off,” I answered.

  “Bella, can you get a sense of what is going on?” I asked out loud

  “Goblins. Goblins have landed and are entering the city.” She replied, standing beside me and looking in the direction of the harbor.

  Everyone broke out talking at once.

  Bella? I asked.

  She set off a loud chime that caused everyone in the map room to go silent and look at me immediately.

  “Okay, we have very little time.” I began as I opened my folder and pulled out a sheet of paper that was bordered in red. I read off some bullets I had created yesterday, skipping those that would not apply today.

  “Bella, please inform the Duke’s Council using our Irregulars, you know who is on duty. Also, tell all Patron Guards to come here immediately, wake them up if you have to. And third, if there are any nearby Watch on their way to the harbor that you can contact, redirect them here by my order. Don’t argue with them, just order them here.”

  I turned back to the table.

  “Okay, Simon, disperse the rest of the Irregulars to warn all guard stations and to take their posts.” I looked at Junior, who was wide-eyed and scared. “Junior, tell your Irregulars to be careful. You've got this.”

  I nodded at Simon, “Go!”

  “Steven,” I said, and I turned to him as the first of the brawlers and inquisitors arrived in the meeting room. They were armed and had just come off duty shift, but had not yet turned in for their sleep period. “Steven, deliver the chest of healing potions readied for the 7 am shift, along with the bag of healing rings in the vault to the cathedral, then join at the wharf with your brothers as soon as you can. Go!”

  He departed and took a brawler with him to help carry the chest.

  “Adric, take your archers, grab exploding arrows, and divide them up. Work in pairs. Make sure one pair goes to the Bell Tower for height, and the others to whatever high ground works best and is safe. Use your judgment. Go!”

  He hugged his sister, who had already teared up but was trying to keep a steady expression for him. She whispered something when they hugged, and he departed after first telling Bella, “Lady Bella, please ask all archers to assemble on the main level in one minute. Those below bring extra quivers and the red bundles.”

  I turned to Red. “I want you to coordinate with Bella from here.”

  “Gwydion, I should be out there!” He said urgently. It was the first time he had used my name rather than my title.

  “Red, I need you here. Lives may depend on coordination, and those remaining need to be reassured. Everyone is safe in here, but they will still need your leadership.”

  He looked down. “But my tricks are not ready yet.” He said.

  “There is no way this is the main attack; we would know. It is just a scouting party. We don’t want to give away too much too early. We have time for your tricks.”

  “You think so?” He asked.

  I patted his shoulder. “We have a marathon to run, and we just discovered a big hill to climb earlier than we expected.”

  I turned to the assembled guards, including a very irate Watch sergeant, complaining about being sent in here rather than the harbor. “I’ll be with you in a few seconds.”

  Facing the robed journeymen, I said as much for them as for the guards, “We will leave together as a force; it is not perfect, but we cannot run at them in twos and threes while we collect ourselves. They would overrun us. I want each of you to grab two officer rings and two heal rings from the vault. Fill your free fingers with Mage Bolt SUS rings.”

  Turning to the guards who had become silent, realizing that my diversion made tactical sense, “Each of you fill your fingers with Mage Bolt SUS rings. No time to hand them out to every guard in the city. Take ten of them. You will understand how to use them as soon as you wear them.”

  I pointed at Biff and then the door. “Biff, get them suited up with rings. I’ll meet you at the door.”

  The last fighting team remaining in the room was the inquisitors. “I need you to take four healing SUS rings, one group heal ring, and five Mage Bolts.” They departed immediately for their rings.

  I looked to Daniel, the bookkeeper, and several of the student leaders in charge of groups we did not get to in our meeting. “Back to work, and let’s set up a triage station here on the first floor in case people don’t make it to the cathedral or the hospital. Otherwise, back to business as usual.”

  There was some nervous laughter, and Red took over with them.

  “Let’s go, folks.” He said and led them out into the main floor’s open space.

  It took only a little longer than a minute for us to get coordinated, but soon we were all leaving the store and heading down St. Michael’s Way toward Market Street. The memories of the undead battle at the barricade came rushing back to me.

  I had two Watch sergeants I knew pretty well at my side, my regular assignment of guards was with them, and a third sergeant named Benjamin had joined us. He struck me as less a sergeant and more a captain or commander by his demeanor. My sergeants deferred to him immediately.

  In a stern voice, he said, “I don’t appreciate that my men are getting diverted here,” but then he softened his tone, “but I see the wisdom in it.” He looked around and did a rapid count. “Nearly thirty is far better than five, and we have some casters with us as well.”

  It didn’t seem like his comment needed a reply, so I saved my breath and kept up with the others. Biff and the brawlers took the lead, and the two patrols of Inquisitors formed up on our right and left. The journeymen were sandwiched in between. It was thought that the spell casters were soft and needed warriors around them so they could stick around long enough to help in battle. It was a good model, and while we had never practiced it, we had discussed it during the very long first meeting. I guess some good did come out of the long meeting. Biff knew what he was doing, and he had some very smart guardsmen to lend ideas.

  We turned down Market Street toward Barricade Square and saw a thirty-foot-high wave of thick white fog coming at us.

  We could hear human screams and bestial howls, but we could not see a thing inside it. That fog bank had to go.

  Things were about to get interesting.

  Again.