Spin Offs, Geth A

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Gethelrad Jindesh

Geth had always been aware of the difference between power and skill. She had been born to power, world changing power. Within the Mages Guild of GreensBridge she was counted among the five most powerful, based purely on capacity and affinity. Conversely, despite having had nearly two hundred years of practice and study, she was barely ranked within the top quarter of her peers when it came to applied skill.

Then there was Tanfardi, one of the Ellodran, a pure blooded ancient with more power and skill than even the Grand Magus of GreensBridge. The two of them, the Magus and Tanfardi, were of a similar age, so long as one did not count the ten millennium that Tanfardi had been trapped in a state of suspension. Yet, while the Magus appeared and acted like an old man who knew more about the world around him than any of his peers, Tanfardi came across as a bumbling teen who had lived a sheltered life.

While Geth had been very amused watching Tanfardi interact with the world around him, she had also been disconcerted by his naivety and, at times, dangerous assumptions. So far it had made for a rather awkward courtship. Perhaps even a disappointing courtship. It was early yet though, and their visit to Swampdon might reveal more of the complexities of Tanfardi’s character. At least she hoped it would.

The City In The Trees was only a few dozen yat ahead of them. Dark clouds gathered to the north. Geth looked forward to their pending arrival, most of the last three eight-days had been spent travelling. For her that had meant sitting on a broom.

Brooms, despite their popularity in folk traditions as the conveyance of witches, were not overly comfortable to ride on. Initially she had tried straddling the broom. No doubt her fellow mages, those that had come to see them off when they departed from GreensBridge, would be snickering about her nearly disastrous first flight for a decade or two to come.

Shortly after Tanfardi had destroyed the slavers and departed from his associates, Geth had, quite by accident, discovered the perfect position on the broom. Well, maybe not perfect, but certainly better. In an attempt to avoid some belligerent crows who kept flying at her, she had been forced to slide back along the broom, her butt had come to rest on the upper part of the broom head, she had been sitting side-saddle. The broom tilted to an angle of around fifteen degrees, relative to the ground and stayed balanced. Not only was it a more comfortable position but it offered better control.

As they came closer to Swampdon she saw the source of the black clouds to the north. A vast expanse of woodland, perhaps fifteen or so yat northwest of the city, was ablaze. Tanfardi pointed towards the conflagration and increased his speed in that direction, she willed her own conveyance to its best speed, far less than what the ellodran’s enchanted cloak allowed him, and followed.

She took a quick look down as she passed over the western end of the city. She saw a few rooftops through the autumn coloured trees and a causeway spanning the swampland between the city and the closest woodland area. The north end of the causeway was fortified and well manned.

Geth dared not allow herself to be too distracted. She had already had a collision with an insect, back on the third day of their trip and it had almost killed her. Racing along above a forest, she had been fascinated by the way the trees looked as she flew above them and had not really seen what had hit her. It had been small and struck her in the chest, just above her blouse. It had hurt tremendously, she had nearly fallen. By the time she regained control and reached the ground to inspected the impact point she was taken aback by the painful swelling and discoloration of the bruised area.

Ahead of her she saw Tanfardi make a broad gesture, his staff appeared in his hand and he pointed it towards the trees. One moment there had been a blazing fire, consuming a score or more old trees, the next moment the flames were gone and the smoke receded. Tanfardi flew towards the next area of burning woodland. As Geth passed over the first area he had extinguished, she was surprised to see dozens of people running southward and then a moment later another larger group, or two groups actually, engaged in close combat.

It seemed the war had nearly reached the city. News from Swampdon had indicated that the locals, with the help of a vast horde of Phwanna had been able to keep most of the fighting further north and west.

Tanfardi had extinguished another vast stretch of burning woodland and was now heading towards the plains. Geth followed, she could see other people below her but the remaining smoke and brief glimpses did not allow her to see many details. She decided to raise more of her protection spells.

As she neared the edge of the forest she saw that a great battle was raging on the plains. Tanfardi, well ahead of her by this point, unleashed elemental fury.

The first time he had done this she had nearly been blinded and had almost been knocked out of the sky from the resulting concussion his attack had created. Thankfully, she had just raised her defences which now included protection for her eyes and ears. She ducked low, across the length of the broom and though she was buffeted she retained control of her flight.

He soared on ahead of her, opening up the distance between them.

She realized that following after him served little purpose at this point. She needed to better understand what was happening down on the ground to be of any use. Another great bolt of energy arced downward, she circled back towards the causeway and tried to discern what was transpiring below.

Along the edge and into the forest, the situation was the most chaotic. She could see small units of both Tannican and Swampdon infantry. Some of the units were engaged, some seemed to be repositioning and a few seemed to be in full retreat. There was also a loose formation, trickling in from the plains that consisted of soldiers from both sides. That made little sense. She circled around again, dropped down to just above the trees and took another look. They were undead, recently animated from the battlefield, as best as she could tell they were heading to the causeway.

Geth had been recently exempt from the Guild’s prohibition on mind magic and necromancy. With the increasing likelihood of a siege on GreensBridge by the Tannicans, the council had decided that they needed a few more people who understood such things. She could handle a few undead, maybe even a few dozen at a time. She tracked back over the forest to a point where the terrain was forcing them to clump together then she commanded a group of them to destroy other undead.

She briefly moved northward after that, then circled back towards the causeway, staying close to the treetops. When she saw freeholders she gave them an assist, typically casting restorative and healing spells, occasionally a spell that would boost their performance. If she saw a group of Tannicans she would cause them to fumble or trip, sometimes she clouded their minds with fear.

Despite supplementing her spell casting with mana stones and crystals, she was draining her natural energy reserves rapidly. Thankfully there was no sign the enemy was going to break through to the causeway. She flew higher, increased her speed and headed back towards the plains.

To the northwest there were many thousand Pwhanna, not the horde she had expected, yet still a massive force. Ahead of their main position they had three circling groups, each of many hundred mounted men, with bows and spears they attacked an army of the undead that was doing its best to close with them. The undead were clustered thickly, she chose three groups opposite of the wheeling circles of cavalry and commanded those groups to attack the undead behind them.

To the west she saw massive arcs of energy slamming into a large Tannican formation. She could see floating siege platforms, Tanfardi must have targeted one of them as a series of explosions left it in smoking ruins. The wrecked platform slowly fell and clumps of burning moss briefly rose into the air as they were consumed. She caught sight of her mate-to-be, he flew across the width of the army’s formation and unleashed twin bolts of energy as he passed over. It took him only a few moments to make his pass, he cut the formation in half and then another platform was ripped apart by a series of explosions.

She veered away from that part of the battle. She felt it best to give Tanfardi room to work. To the south she saw a loose formation of freeholders, there were pennants and standards of all sorts, many of them of a religious nature. They held a high point at the edge of the swamp, perhaps there had once been a village there. Smaller groups of soldiers were moving towards the rally point from multiple directions.

She decided to circle the battlefield again and nearly reached the causeway when Tanfardi returned to her side, “The Tannicans have been routed. I think we should pay our respects to the Watcher.”

She would have rather found a good meal and a comfortable place to rest, instead she said, “Lead on then. This could take a while.”

She had tried a number of times when she was younger to converse with the Watcher in GreensBridge. Those experiences had lead her to the conclusion that such conversations were pointless. However, it was what they had come here to do.

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