Chapter LIX: The Siege Begins

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(Reyvin's pov)

"Congratulations, you are being rescued." I say dryly, my mask hiding the annoyed grimace I carried for almost being too late.

The tall Nord simply gapes at me while carefully touching the spot on his neck I just healed.

"Right, introdu-" I pause and raise a hand in a grasping motion to stop another barrage of arrows heading our way and then flick my hand toward the attackers, a thunderous clap resounds everywhere as a massive fork of chain lightning explodes about a dozen forsworn bowmen "Rude." I snark.

Harald finally gathers himself and gives me an appraising look "You Flame-tongue?"

I chuckle "It seems my reputation precedes me, an honor to meet you, Thane Fair-Hair." I bow lightly.

He grunts and offers his hand "The honor is mine Wizard, thank you for saving my ass."

I return the gesture and as I am about to begin asking for a general report a tired archer yells from one of the towers "Another attack incoming!"

I look down to see the Forsworn rushing toward us in a maddened charge "How many did you lot kill already?"

Harald sighs "Well over three hundred, but their numbers seem endless."

I look over the camp and with my enhanced eyesight notice a constant trickle coming in from the other end of the valley "It seems their numbers are far greater than we expected."

"You think Torygg's men will be enough?"

I cup my chin in thought "Possibly... better to make sure just in case." I snap my fingers and Scorch appears in a flash of flames, startling many of the Nords.

"What do you want pops?"

"Go and tell Torygg we will need a lot more men than earlier expected, have him recruit the gangs or something, might as well make use of the ingrates."

He bobs his head rapidly "Throw degenerates at other degenerates, got it!" and launches himself into the air toward the east.

Harald gives me an odd look and shakes his head "I am not even going to ask."

"Wise." I quip and turn back to the forsworn "Your lads are tired from all the fighting right?"

"If you wanted to understate it, yes." He grumbles.

I smirk behind my mask "Would you like to see how I earned my name?"

He snorts tiredly "Be my guest."

I walk to the edge of the wall, stray arrows being flung downwards before they can reach me. I take a deep breath and focus on my crown, pulling at its latent power. Three words enter my mind 'fire' 'inferno' and 'sun' I focus on their deeper meanings that I have been meditating on for the past months and a welling of power emerges from my very soul.

I breathe in "YOL" and forcefully still the power in my throat, as I breathe out I add "TOR" and the ember in my throat becomes a raging inferno. Finally, as it leaves my mouth I let out a roar that turns into a shriek "SHUUUUUUUUUUUL!"

A wave of fire far greater than anything I ever managed near-instantly covers most of the field, completely incinerating all of the corpses along its original targets, the poor fools do not even have the time to scream.

My soul throbs under the sudden strain, but the crown does its job and I still feel well enough to stand. I turn back to the Nords who are all looking at me with silent awe, that is until one of them starts banging his shield and the others soon join them.

The chant of 'Flame-tongue!' resounds through the entire town.

Harald raises an arm "That is enough lads, take a breath before the milk drinkers come at us again." His men follow his order and he turns to me, a mix of respect and disbelief in his eyes "I have heard the stories of what the tongues could do, but this really is something else."

My heart beats at a maddened pace as I finally manage to calm my breathing "Trust me it is far harder than it looks" I point at my crown "Without this, that would have easily killed me."

He guffaws "If it were easy, everyone would do it."

"True." I give him a sideways glance "There is already one among your people that can..."

He narrows his eyes "Already testing my loyalties eh?"

"It is after all my job" I shrug.

"That is fair." He waves it off like it wasn't a big deal "I can tell you right now that even though Ulfric is strong and as you say a tongue, he dishonored himself when he abandoned the Greybeards. No true Nord would follow him."

"Yet many do." I say as I look over the somewhat panicked Forsworn shifting around their campsite.

He makes a grimace "Fools, opportunists, and gloryhounds all."

I hold back a grimace as I see a Hagraven berate a tall Reachman at the center of their camp "While I would love to continue throwing shade at the unapologetic cunt that is Stormcloak, we do have other business to take care off."

"Aye" He nods seriously "What do you want to know?"

"Numbers, supplies, possible avenues of attack... hold nothing back."

He gestures for me to follow him to one of the towers and speaks as we walk "We are a hundred warriors strong with another four hundred conscripts."

"I know what Nord shield brethren can do, but what should I expect of the fresh ones?"

He waves his hand in a 'so-so' gesture "Many of them know to swing an axe or draw a bow, but most don't have armor beyond padding or leather and about a hundred are young lads and lasses I have running supplies."

"Better than expected if I am being honest." As the words leave my mouth I frown "Though still less than ideal... are we at least safe from the east and north?" I ask referring to the high cliffs rising above the town.

"We are" He nods "The first thing I made sure of was for some goat-herders and hunters to make any possible passage on those sides a living hell for any fool that dared enter."

"Excellent." thank all the Divines this man isn't an incompetent fool "What of our supplies?"

"More than enough to last us a month at this pace..." He looks away "If that damned brat Torygg didn't warn us about the cave-dwelling milk drinkers we would have been already running out of arrows."

You are very welcome you ass "He is a good King, if a bit young for the position." is what I say.

"Speaking of" He turns back to me as we finally reach the tower "When can we expect reinforcements?"

"Sybille Stentor should be here in a day, followed by mercenaries I ordered my retainer to hire in two and finally the army in four or five." I quickly list off.

"I am glad you at least were able to reach us so quickly." He says as we climb the thick wooden tower.

"Not curious how I did it?"

A scoff "I know better than to question Wizards and their tricks."

We finally reach the top of the tower just in time to see a young Nord woman slip on a bundle of arrows and catch her fall with her hands while letting out a tired gasp.

I hear Harald grumble something to himself while looking away.

Naturally, I hold no such mercy "Ah, lady Elisif, a pleasure to finally meet in person."

She looks at me and flinches, toppling herself over the arrows she was carrying.

Dear gods, what does Torygg see in her? Well besides the almost perfect skin and hair...

She shakily gets up "I don't believe I know you sir..." She looks at her father who is still busy looking anywhere but at her.

I snap my finger and my mask disappears, instantly there is recognition in her eyes "Master Reyvin" she curtsies "I apologize for not meeting with you earlier, thank you for coming to our aid"

I wave her off "As I keep saying it is my job, and you obviously had more interesting things to look at while you were in Solitude."

She looks away with a blush.

Harald finally turns back to us and blinks upon seeing me "Well I'll be damned, I expected you to be some grouchy ancient Telvanni."

I scoff "Oh please, the mushroom dwellers have nothing on me or mine." I look down on my robes "At least they have good taste."

He guffaws and looks to his daughter "Eli, go bring us something to eat, the Reach bastards seem to have been scared off for the night."

She nods and scampers away.

"Is she always so..." I try and ask.

Harald snorts "Clumsy and absent-minded?"

"I wouldn't want to insult your family..."

He waves me off "Don't mind it, she is just tired from running up and down all day" then lets out a tired sigh himself "I've coddled her too much it seems."

We approach the edge of the roofed tower and look over the enemy camp, the sun is starting to set and torches are being erected across the plains, almost reminding me of a city at night with the number of flickering lights.

"We fight so our children do not have to." I say wistfully.

He grunts in acknowledgment "That we do" his eyes turn to mine "Though I wonder why someone as young as you would be saying something like that?"

I shrug "Just something my father used to say."

After a prolonged silence, Harald lets out a long breath "Well" he cleans his hands roughly "That is enough of that, let's get to work." he leads me to a nearby table with a map spread upon it and we get to planning.

We discuss troop rotations, positioning, unit composition, and even the most minor details of where arrows should go. After some discussion, I ended up asking him what the firmest position on the walls was.

A bit confused he led me to the gatehouse, it had two short stone towers that were open at the top, perfect for what I wanted.

As I walk up onto the northern one I look back "You don't mind if I scribble something into the stone?"

He tilts his head "This another one of your magicks?"

"Yup" I smile "And you are going to love it!"

"Have at it then" He waves me off "Any help is welcomed."

I turn back to the stone and summon my staff, and with a practiced hand start carving out a set of runes, well I say runes but they are combined with a long string of text in my old language that I added in as a secret code for this specific spell.

A good ten minutes later a wide circle of lightly glowing arcane runes and Cyrillic characters stands before me. I gather my Magicka and pour it out feeling for a distant connection, after a while I feel a ping in my mind, and with all my mental might pull.

The next instant there stands a large eight-legged orichalcum platform with an equally metallic ballista sitting atop it.

"What in Zenithar's name..." I hear Harald mutter.

I turn around and spread my arms "I present to you... Gatecrasher."

He looks over it and his surprise slowly shifts into glee as he starts chuckling cruelly, he turns to me and smirks "You know what brat, I think I like you."

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I require more stones to fortify this position.

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