The Rewarp Gambit (chapter 9)

There was a third line of ballista, too. But they'd bought enough time that Camilla could see it coming. She warned Team Novis. Team Novis destroyed them before they could arm. Twelve Meteor tomes burned. They only had a few left.

They were low on Boltings, too. Another round of fliers could potentially clear the wall. They'd have Excaliburs and more arrows, but not enough to stop a full unit of pegasi. The barrier-protected mage units were replenishing from the back line. Lachesis' defenders were losing steam. Embla's attackers were not. They knew that. More and more of the defenders were forced to switch to melee weapons, as more ladders came up than they could reasonably burn or destroy, and as the walls began to crawl with Emblian soldiers. By sundown, it was clear they couldn't hold the passage down into the barracks forever.

This wasn't what Lachesis had expected. She'd expected to hold the wall until they could destroy the gate, then to destroy the gate with the vats of oil from the barracks above; then, from there, they could destroy the wall as well and leave the enemy with no way in.

But like this, if the enemy just... took the wall, they'd be trapped - forced to either just concede the gate, or retreat into the barracks with no way out. One way would be certain defeat, and the other would grant the enemy so much ground that it might as well be the same. Lachesis' original plan would hardly have worked anyway - she didn't realize just how many pegasus knights she'd be up against, and simply destroying the walkway along the wall wouldn't be enough to keep them from getting over it.

She tried to take in the state of the wall. She heard Celica roaring, somewhere to the south, and saw another explosion of fire and light to match, a new tower of flame billowing up from the wall - the pegasi around Team Novis were forced to scatter, unable to fly through the smoke -

Smoke - ?

She whirled again - surrounding the ballista, they still had barrels and barrels of tar lined up, they just hadn't had the chance to use them all -

A plan rapidly assembled in her mind; it would cost her both of her Rewarp staves, certainly, and she had to hope Genny had a Rescue on her - but they didn't have much more time, and if it really did work the way she hoped it would then just maybe they could buy themselves more time!

"Klein!" she yelled, managing to shove her way through to him - Selena, beside him, cut down two more axemen as Lachesis cut free a ladder's anchor and sent it back to the ground below. Klein brushed his hair out of his face, panting. His quiver was nearly empty. "Klein," she hissed, "if I can clear the path for you, can you and Selena roll all of this tar into the barracks?"

"What?" Selena stared at her agape. "What for?"

"Yes," Klein said firmly.

Lachesis turned around, slinging her bow over her shoulder and drawing up her Excalibur tome. There were a few attackers still crawling up the wall between them and the entrance to the gate house, but it took only two quick casts to disable them and their ladders. "Leave some along the wall, don't push them all in!" She turned back, but they'd both already started guiding the whole stack together down the wall, Selena in front with Klein pushing them all from behind. Lachesis sidestepped them and took out her third staff, Warping to Celica.

Celica jumped, startled, when she turned to see Lachesis' apparition. "Oh, Lachesis - ?"

"Can you use Rewarp?" she asked, gravely. Celica hesitated, then shook her head.

"Probably best not to push it unless you absolutely need it," she said swiftly, and Lachesis nodded gratefully. Honesty was good here. "Genny can," she added, and Lachesis nodded again; at her mention Genny turned, wide-eyed.

"I need you and Celica inside the barracks as fast as possible," Lachesis explained, "but first, Genny, you've got to get everyone else off the wall and into the keep with Rewarp. If we try to run for the stairs they're going to take the wall."

"We're giving up the gate?" Celica said numbly. Lachesis shook her head fiercely.

"Just hurry," she cried. "Start with Novis, tell the wyvern riders to move, then get Klein's side and then Sheena's, okay?" She watched Genny mouth the names in time with Lachesis' words, and the girl nodded confirmation and dashed over to Mae to get her attention. Lachesis turned back to Celica. "Trust me?"

"Absolutely," Celica said firmly. "Meet you there."

Lachesis nodded, and warped away again to Sheena's side, giving her and Gordin the same instructions; when she turned to clear the way to the barracks, though, Celica had already blasted the wall clear with her own spells, before sprinting inside with Genny just behind her. Beruka and Camilla were positioning to keep the enemy from interfering. Satisfied with that, she warped into the barracks - finding almost not enough space to stand with all the barrels.

"What is going on?!" Genny gasped, trying to pick her way over to Lachesis; Lachesis positioned herself around a few, preparing her staff again.

"We have to warp these to the side walls," she explained. "They need to be spread evenly along the whole wall. If the enemy's nearby, just break them open to make sure they don't get interfered with. I've got the south wall - "

"Wait, no, no, no," Celica gasped, trying to reach out to Genny as Genny scurried over to a cluster of barrels. "Genny's not strong enough to move these," she protested. "Genny, I'll do it - "

"No," Genny snapped, brandishing her staff. "I've got this!"

"I trust you, Genny," Lachesis promised, before warping herself away.

She and Genny warped to their respective walls and back again, bringing barrels of tar away with them each time and spreading them out over the walls evenly. Lachesis burned herself more than once. The barrels themselves were enchanted to maintain temperature, ensuring the tar inside was scorching hot and ready to burn at any moment; they weren't meant to be handled quite so roughly, but Lachesis didn't have much time.

Soon Camilla and Beruka were forced to give up the wall; when they had about half cleared out the room Celica barred it off, rolling extras in front of the door, trapping herself inside. She was pacing back and forth frantically every time Lachesis saw her, forced to listen as the enemy tried to bash away the one barrier between her and the entire host of enemy soldiers. Lachesis tried her best to work faster, and it might've been her imagination, but she thought Genny picked up the pace, too.

It didn't take long, maybe a few minutes, to finally ensure the walls were sufficiently primed; when she returned to the barracks for the last time, Celica was preparing to cast something at the door. "We're done," Lachesis said sharply, "Genny - Genny, do you have Rescue?" The girl nodded feebly, scurrying over to hand it to Lachesis; Lachesis gently ruffled her hair. "Get to the keep," she whispered. "You've done amazing." Genny nodded, visibly relieved, and warped herself away. Lachesis couldn't guess how many uses were left in that staff, but it couldn't have been many. It was amazing it had lasted this many uses as it was.

"You need me to light the fuse, don't you," Celica whispered, as Lachesis turned back to her.

"I don't have a fire tome," Lachesis laughed weakly, raising her arms - she had two swords, two tomes, and three staves, all jostling around on her constantly as she moved. "I can't carry any more."

"That's fine." Celica sighed deeply, then took in a long breath, steeling herself. "You can't warp me out with you, right?"

"I've got Genny's rescue," Lachesis promised. "I'm going to go up there and count to five. You light the fuse before then, and we'll be good."

"Okay." Celica smiled shakily. "You know, when we hid all that powder in the walls, I thought something like this might happen. I thought I'd try to be ready for it."

The next impact against the door came with a horrific splintering sound; Celica jumped, and Lachesis turned briefly to see it cracking away from its hinges. "Okay, I'm going," Lachesis gasped. "Hurry!" Celica nodded; Lachesis warped herself away. Her staff disintegrated in her fingers as she arrived.

She dashed out to the balcony - everyone else was already there, Klein and Gordin priming the ballistae on the guard towers, Selena, Sheena and Effie preparing their bows, just in case - but Lachesis' eyes were fixed on the center section of the outer wall. The wall itself was crawling with soldiers, preparing bows to fire on the keep, but they wouldn't get a chance to fire. Lachesis sprinted to the parapet and raised her Rescue staff high. This was not a staff you were supposed to use blind, but she couldn't afford to do things by the book just then. Devoid of a clear line of sight to Celica's position she'd have to settle for an educated guess, and a clear mental image of Celica - of that little smile in the library, when she'd first brought the mage dinner -

A ripping sound of air splitting sounded beside her; Lachesis reached for her blade to be safe, but it was Celica who appeared from the shimmering light beside her, collapsing onto her knees and gasping with shock and relief. Lachesis opened her mouth to speak, but at that very moment, the wall detonated.



It had been Celica's idea to use hot tar to pour through the gatehouse even if it were to be opened, if they had some kind of a duct to pour it through. It was dishonorable, sure, but Lachesis had had enough sacrifice for the sake of honor for many lifetimes over. So she'd taken things a step further.

It turned out that when they Askr for tar in their provisions, Askr suggested something else to go with it. Something much more effective. A terrible substance Lachesis had not heard of before, called black powder.

They didn't have enough of it to destroy the wall entirely, and frankly, all the better. There was enough to cave in the gate, and enough to shatter the walkway and the entire upper section of the wall; with the sudden ignition the barrels and spills of tar burst into flame, too, and in the blink of an eye the entire outer wall was suddenly topped with a roiling coil of blazing fire, billowing black smoke into the sky. Lachesis couldn't watch it after that - she jumped, shaking, and turned away.

But looking away didn't stop the sounds. The sunset was filled with panicked cries and screams of soldiers trying to escape the blaze, or those unlucky enough to have been disabled or trapped in it. Lachesis had expected it to be gruesome, but...

"By the gods," Celica whispered, beside her. Lachesis winced. "That's... horrible."

"May Embla learn not to provoke us again," Lachesis said quietly, her voice trembling. She felt Celica's hand on her shoulder and looked up - she felt pale, and Celica looked worried - but she didn't say anything, just guided Lachesis away from the wall.