1 Preparations

Avina looked down upon a huge, pitch-black camp full of swirling shadows from the safety of the fortified wall of the Fort of Dawn. She watched with the other sentries as the rest of their army slept and after a few hours, she also decided to get some rest to prepare for the inevitable battle.

Her chambers were huge, with bookshelves and chests around her everywhere but Avina only used a small part of it - she did not actually require that much space. She sat down on her bed, calmed herself down and began to focus on the elements around her. Avina could feel the different elements and she slowly gathered them together to create a shining halo around her head. She then went through the process again and again until her eyes began to droop and she flopped back onto the sheets, asleep.

"Master of Magic!" the messenger knocked on the door frantically, waking Avina up. She walked over and opened the door to see the messenger. "Has it started?" she asked him quickly, and he nodded his head before running off. Avina frantically gathered the elements and changed into her Master of Magic robes. She opened the door once again and stepped outside into the massive, green courtyard where soldiers were rapidly gathering.

From the courtyard, Avina could already hear the booms as the fort walls repelled the Shadow Cannon fire with the help of magic. Through a magic sense, she could see the spirits zipping around and bolstering the elemental shield provided by the mages that stood upon the wall. She increased her pace as she walked to find her best apprentice in front of her, causing her to stop.

"Xedarin," she nodded her head and her apprentice did likewise. He rapidly began to provide her with details about their preparations and the movements of the enemy. Avina found out that the enemy was testing the strength of their elemental barrier with their Shadow Cannons, that could release many shadows when it hits. As she got up on top of the wall, she could see the shadows created by the explosions on the barrier growing larger and larger.

She frowned at these shadows - they would tire out the mages whilst destroying the barrier. She held out her hands and gestured for Xedarin to follow her direction. Together, they created spikes that grew out of the barrier and these spikes were sustained by the elements floating around and in the barrier. Avina nodded with satisfaction as the army finally mobilised and moved behind the gate, ready to defend the Fort of Dawn

As she watched, the shadows circling the camp suddenly disappeared - in fact, the whole camp disappeared altogether! Avina gritted her teeth and sent out an elemental detection in a circle around her. She could only sense the barracks, the men, the opposite wall, the barrier dome. She continued to search outside the barrier when suddenly, out of the blue, a huge magical disturbance thrummed in a military formation that was as long as the castle wall itself!

She spun around on the spot, only to see the camp on the other side of the Fort. She groaned along with the rest of the army and the magicians. She flew down to the white-shirted officers of the army who were meeting together and were discussing the problem. "Master of Magic, what should we do?" one of the officers ran up to her just as she landed onto the soft grass of the courtyard.

"Well... there are two options that we could do. We could immediately mobilise the army and move out and try to get to the wall before the barrier is destroyed, or we could prepare defences right here and fight them with all the advantages we can get," she explained. Almost immediately, the officers began to argue about which way to choose. The commanding general made an attempt to stop them verbally, but to no avail. Avina sighed and waved her hand - immediately, all of the officers stopped making sounds. Their mouths continued to move but no sound came out.

She nodded with satisfaction. "General, I guess that it is up to you to decide how we should proceed,". He nodded and pondered for a few moments before looking back up at the Master of Magic and saying, "We will fight to the end right here. Oh, and could you please lift the silence from the officers? I think I might need them to do a bit of talking."