If I understood Aisling's explanation well enough, the iọ stone acted as a sort of power source for the other two runestones. The first stone that was set up, oed, connected back to a command center in Umbraedomis. She referred to this one as the command stone. And finally, the syg stone acted as the group's catalyst for spell encoding.
The command stone would receive the order to fire from our command center and that would set off a chain reaction to the iọ and syg runestones to collect ambient Aether and begin casting the desired spell.
With this system, we could fire Strategic-class spells, complicated magick that required dozens of mages with INTELLIGENCE attributes above eighty-five.
Something not even Rias could assist with yet.
You'd need a party of mages as strong as Annaeus to bring something like that into play, which wasn't common.
Most magick practitioners would hit their growth limits well before then. No matter how much you train, nothing can break those limits.
Well, that's unless you've been blessed by a Goddess and have undefinable affinities to every attribute.
The command stone was also capable of interfacing with and providing the Aestori ballistae with some form of target locking and aim assistance, like the MARK TARGET ability that Mei's eagle companion could provide at a small scale.
To summarize everything Aisling tried to impart, the runestones were essentially extremely powerful magick artifacts that increased our combat potential by a massive leap.
My entire 'bust down the walls to prevent a prolonged siege' plan was built around how well the army could deploy the ballistae, so I welcomed any increase to their power.
Aisling made a point to stress that with the runestones now online, we could begin our attack by midday—but that seemed awfully quick.
Considering how lacking our intelligence was after the Renaultians stepped up their defense, I wasn't prepared to blow apart the city's gate and be swarmed by void-beasts or something equally terrible.
A two-day coma would put a hamper on things.
I called for a war room and within an hour I had all of our commanders or their representatives.
From the Crimson Seekers, I had both Hanna and Luke. They came with the heads of their SI-Martia and SI-Minervia divisions, Knight-Lieutenant Garrett and Knight-Lieutenant Baker.
Julius was here for the Order of the Scarlet Wing.
The Aestori Divisional Cores—all three of them—had their own representatives, but Aisling was there to oversee them all.
And lastly, Hailey was here for the incorporated divisions that now fell under the Imperial Army.
"Alright," I started, "I've brought you all here for this call-to-order to finalize and set our siege plans into action. I've gone over and approved Julius and Aisling's proposals for division assignments. In addition, we've decided to go with Luke's suggestion for using team names over communications."
Nashe and Ellis distributed a packet of documents to each of the participants.
I continued with my briefing, "Details are enclosed for your divisions, review those later. Outside of any interference or news that could change our plans, we'll be firing the first volley of ballistae and rune-powered magicka bolts at Axio, tonight—in about ten hours. We're hoping to disturb the Renaultians regular sleeping and patrol schedules to cause as much chaos as possible."
I signaled to Flik and she laid out a detailed map of Axio—as we knew it to look months ago—out on the table.
"We will fire at the Maarin district gatehouse and outer towers simultaneously. Once the Scarlet Wing's forward sentinel teams, Specter-One and Specter-Two, confirm a breach, half of the Assault teams from the Wing and the Aestori Cores will begin to clear a way through the district. Grand-Paladin Vynn will remain here and coordinate with her Minervia teams to keep communications up-to-date between all teams. Any questions on this part?"
I looked around the room but saw only the hardened faces of my friends and allies.
"Great. We want the entire Maarin district under our control by dawn. Grand-Waystrider Devins will lead the Specter teams up into the city walls and begin dismantling any Renaultian gendarmes they encounter. Once an inner tower is cleared, she'll call Command, and Command will call an Assault team to man the structure."
I traced out some painted lines and arrows that covered the streets of the city.
They were numbered and colored to coordinate with specific teams that would have those areas fall under their responsibility.
I tapped my finger against a spot where one large tower was indicated, "The Maarin Divisional headquarters was here, within the two great towers that overlooked the industrial and harbor district. Once this location is secured, Knight-Captain Mitchell and the Seeker teams will begin slowly moving supplies into the city and establishing a forward base. The other half of the Assault teams will be on standby and begin to clear the common areas and into the Vanixian district at sunrise. Questions?"
Once again, nobody had anything to add.
I wasn't sure if that was the cause of my growing nervousness or if it was from something else.
It had been a while since I'd left something important up to a coin toss. Every decision lately had been concerning hundreds—now thousands—of lives. As much as I wanted to just flip a coin and let fate decide my course, I couldn't bring myself to risk my people's well-being.
Making these impactful decisions based on logic and guidance from others was something new, and it made me feel uncertain.
I missed when Julius and I could just let any whimsical plan be our course of action.
"Alright then, we'll end it here and everyone can grab a quick rest before the action starts. Julius, be prepared to hand over command to Hanna before then."
Julius smirked at me in an annoying way, "I am prepared to step down from my position as commander. In fact, I am already prepared for the worst case scenarios as well."
I sighed, "I wish you wouldn't prepare for such things without my permission. It would put me in a difficult situation if you were to encounter something you consider worst case."
-✵-
"Hey, Momma Airis, whatcha doing?"
Akari's voice disrupted me, pulling my focus back from a place between meditation and full-on disassociation.
"Hi, kiddo. I'm trying to… how in the Aether do I explain? There is a connection within me to my soul, if that makes sense, and I'm trying to, uh…" I began making awkward gestures with my hands, "Well, I don't really understand it myself."
"Oh. Is it something important?"
Akari was looming over me as I lay in bed with a shy look across her face as if she had something she wanted to talk about but wasn't sure how to bring it up.
"Nothing that's more important than you." I said, sitting up in bed, "What's on your mind?"
She fidgeted.
When I went to reach for her, she began to speak quickly, "I wanna come with you during the battle!"
I choked on my tongue, "Gaaah! You what? No way, it's war. And you're a kid!"
"Auntie Rias is a kid too!" Akari pouted, "But you let her help. I want to help. I can help, see."
Akari cast a spell wordlessly—something complex, judging by the magick sigils that appeared in the air around us.
Our room was encased in a barrier spell almost identical to BLAZING BARRIER.
A voice called out from the corner of the room, "Whoa! That was a quick spell cast. Sturdy structure too. You've got some talent there little miss."
I turned to see Flik standing next to a chair that hadn't been there earlier, tapping a gauntleted hand against the barrier.
"Yeah, Akari is quite the sorceress," I admitted, "but I have reservations about taking her into combat. I'd rather not risk her safety when she'd be more secure in camp."
Flik turned her head in thought and crossed her arms, "I don't about that, Your Eminence. I'd say the safest place in this whole peninsula would be the place right next to you. Even if you take out the whole blessed by the Gods thing, there's the fact that you have five knights with instant communication devices that can call Command for support, two party-sized divisions of supporting personnel—many of which are accomplished spell casters themselves, and priority fire support from both the Specter teams and Seeker's managing the siege weapons."
As my guard captain listed fact after fact, I took a moment to consider the points. I had planned to leave Akari safe in camp but, after the near-abduction incident, there was a nagging voice in my head that didn't want to leave her alone in case the Renaultians had any weird ideas.
The twins had misunderstood and assumed Akari was my biological daughter.
Whatever that bastard Renault wanted, it apparently could be achieved with or without me—which likely put Rias in an equally terrible position of being under threat of abduction as well, but in her case, she'd be surrounded by dozens of trained artificers and mages in Command.
"Fine," I groaned, "but if things go south, I want you to use that AETHERSTEP ability of yours to high-tail it back here. Okay?"
Akari beamed back at me, "Mhmm! 'kay!"
-✵-
The sun fell and I still had no luck accessing my Iteria.
I mentioned it offhandedly to Ikuye while we were getting ready to depart outside the camp to oversee the runestones.
"Oh, yeah, that happens sometimes." she replied.
"It just, happens, sometimes?"
"Yep! Think about last time, you were sitting in a quiet room for half a day before you could get the proverbial spark to light, right? It gets easier to access the more you do it but when you're stressed out, tired, or preoccupied with other things it'll be hard."
Her input was surprisingly insightful.
I stowed away my desire to unlock a new Iteria power for now. If things went well and I could get some time to meditate later on maybe I'd pick it back up.
We arrived at a hastily thrown together tarp-covered overlook and reunited with Hailey.
The rest of my companions were already in the field heading to Axio or in Command coordinating what we were about to do.
All three runestones were in view from this location. The crimson glow from the barrier they emitted was barely noticeable in the pitch of night.
"Are we ready?" I asked, my question aimed at two senior officers nearby.
"Just about, Your Majesty." one of them responded, "We're waiting for one more ballista team to report in."
I turned to Hailey with a smirk, "How about you? You're taking secondary in the field, right?"
She patted a hand on a satchel slung over her shoulder.
"Yes. Julius is primary with Aisling as a standby. I'll be assisting recovery operations with the Church's Light teams. We've got all sorts of potions and scrolls split across the support teams."
"And the, uh… the trinket Rias and I worked on?" I asked quietly.
Hailey pulled a corded leather necklace up from under her shirt. It had a metal pendant in the shape of an eight-pointed radial star and glowed a haunting blood-orange.
"Yes," she whispered back to me, "I'm wearing the creepy orange spike wheel you two made for me, what in the Aether is this supposed to be?"
I suppressed a laugh as she tucked it underneath her shirt once more.
"I'm not really sure what it is. A star, I think. It just felt right when I was drawing up a draft for Rias. It should keep you safe, and that's what matters."
She narrowed her eyes at me but didn't say anything else, just stared down at where the pendant lay beneath her uniform.
The weird feeling and crackle of static that accompanied someone trying to reach me over the communirune drew my attention away.
I willed the channel open so anyone could reach me and Hanna's voice was in my ear.
"Seeker-One to Regal-One."
She was using the team names I'd approved earlier today.
"Go for Regal-One." I replied, stepping aside to focus.
"We have confirmation of all Specter and Assault teams in position. Seeker teams are awaiting the order to begin the attack."
I took a deep breath and placed my left hand over my chest.
The cold metal plate sent a chill down my arm.
I exhaled, looking over to where Hailey was smiling and laughing with Akari.
My eyes followed on behind them, to the small orbs of torch and magi-tool lights along the towers and great walls of Axio.
"Regal-One to Seeker-One, begin preparations to fire."