"Is... Is that possible?" Elira asked.
"In theory, yes. In practice? It's highly unlikely. It would require inhuman precision and willpower, to run that spell with an experienced mage - and these guys are trying to run this thing on divine power they can barely control."
Cassian quirked an eyebrow.
"So why are we worried about it?"
"Because the unlikely part is Trent gaining power, the utter destruction of the surrounding area is almost certain."
Elira looked quite distressed.
"So what can we do to protect all these people?"
Isara responded, but her eyes were glued to the magic circle.
"Cal and I need half an hour of unrestricted access to the hollow - it will give us enough time to reroute the array and destroy this section."
They needed the inner sanctum to be truly empty for this plan to work, their actions would be so obvious that even the masking cloaks wouldn't help.
"Any suggestions how are we supposed to do that? It's literally the only place in the city that is guarded around the clock." Cassian asked.
No one could come up with anything.
"I think we should sleep on it, it's almost midnight anyway. Tomorrow we can ask the Elders for ideas, and maybe Ellie can try to gauge how much does the Archdruid know about the enchantments in the hollow." Isara said.
The rest of the party could only agree, it was quite a long day and they needed to rest.
***
"HE'S GOING TO DO WHAT?!"
Lydia was positively furious, and Calen was starting to wonder whether he should have told about Trent's plan in the first place.
"THAT LYING, SCHEMING, POMPOUS SON OF A BITCH, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?! I SHOULD RIP HIS HEAD OFF AND USE IT AS A CHANDELIER!"
Lydia punched a nearby wall - the blow was strong enough that she left a perfect impression of her fist in the bricks.
The Elder exhaled sharply.
"Okay, I'm done screaming, we can talk now."
She moved towards the nearest bench as if nothing happened, so naturally Calen followed.
"Emptying the inner sanctum for that long won't be easy... but it's doable." She cringed a little "We can start a grand council, that will get every member of the circle in one place..."
"But?" Calen prompted.
"But I need a good reason to do it, Vinifer won't agree unless there's an actual emergency, and we can't reveal Trent's secret too early, or he'll run away and activate the enchantment." Lydia bit her lip. "There's one thing I could do, but it's a last resort sort of thing."
Well, at least they had a plan b if they can't come up with anything else.
"I'll talk to the others maybe we'll be able to come up with something." Calen looked around. "What's the today's training?"
They were standing on am open plaza in the deserted part of the city, the only notable thing about the place was the truly astonishing amount of training dummies that Lydia dragged here.
"Yesterday we trained precision, today we're working on your firepower - both literal and proverbial." She declared. "You got a significant power boost from the Prowler, but you haven't had the chance to test it out yet."
Lydia was right, he could feel he was stronger than before, but he had no Idea by how much.
"So what, am I superhuman now?" Asked Calen.
The Elder threw him an amused smile.
"Hardly. Your body is being slowly refined into a vessel capable of containing the divine flame, but a passive boost from strengthening a piece of a Sun domain won't get you where you need to be - that's why you need additional enchantments"
Lydia snapped her fingers, and grabbed a big pouch that was laying next to the bench she was sitting on.
"That reminds me, I've scrounged up some special herbs for you. I found dried white jade mint, a perfectly preserved moon rose, and even a silver lotus."
She handed him the bag, and he almost buckled under its unexpected weight.
"Why the hell does it weigh so much!?" Asked Calen.
"We had a LOT of the mint, and I included a book on how to use most herbs found in the Sun Kingdom."
Calen put the pouch back down, and gestured at their surroundings.
"So I'm assuming the obscene amount of training equipment is somehow related to today's exercises?"
Lydia walked over to the closest dummy and put ab arm around this shoulder.
"Exactly, we're gonna test your attacks against individuals and groups, and we're gonna use these little guys to help us."
It was obvious at first glance that the figures weren't quite normal. For one, they looked like extremely detailed wooden mannequins, the joints were barely visible, and there was something weirdly life-like about.
The human-sized dolls were also clearly enchanted in some manner, as deep swirling grooves lined their entire bodies.
Lydia patted the dormant mannequin.
"They were designed by the mage who created the original array around the great tree. They're extremely energy efficient, and can be charged by both magic and divine power."
Calen looked around the plaza - there were at least thirty of them just here.
"Why would you have so many of them though? Didn't you mention that your circle used to have very few combatants?"
"Oh, he made only one of them, but he left us the schematics. We assembled the rest after the invasion, to help train more warriors."
The Elder peeled herself off the dummy, moved to stand behind it, and opened a all hatch between it's shoulder blades. Then she walked to another one, and repeated the action.
When she saw Calen was standing motionless she pointed at the first mannequin.
"What are you waiting for? Go ahead and charge it."
He obeyed the instruction, and approached the opening in the doll's back. Inside he could see a fist-sized orb cut from black stone, its surface covered in runes.
'So it has a logic core, huh. It's basically a rudimentary wooden golem.'
The orb really took very little of his magic - merely a spark, and it whirred to life. The patterns on the mannequin lit up, and it straightened its posture, but remained still.
It was awaiting orders.
Calen activated all the remaining puppets one by one, and asked Lydia:
"Why are we training on those anyway? Shouldn't I train against monster dummies or something like that?"
"First of all we don't have anything like that - we copied the schematics, but changing the design even slightly proved to be too much for us." Then the Elder's expression darkened. "And secondly, conflict among humans is inevitable - just look at our current situation."
"Surely, the situation here is a unique case, no? I doubt that every human settlement has a genocidal maniac among the people in charge." Calen was still sceptical.
Lydia handed him a wooden sword.
"This specific scenario might be one of a kind, but think Calen - do you really think everyone will be happy with the supposed saviour who's five hundred years late?"
Calen frowned, he hasn't looked at it like that, but... she was right.
He was chosen to deal with this invasion, and whether he wanted or not some people would see him as the one responsible for the current state of the world.
"...Should I hide my mark when we get to the next city?"
Lydia considered his question for a while, then shook her head.
"It should be fine as long as you don't advertise it. Most people don't even know what the Flamebearer sigil looks like." She slapped his back. "Now stop talking, and start hitting!"
She mumbled a phrase he didn't quite catch, and one of the mannequins assumed a battle position.
"Don't use the flame in the first round, I want to see your physical improvement."
Calen didn't wait for the doll to strike, he charged and delivered a powerful strike to the shoulder joint.
Something clicked, and the arm fell off.
The dummy didn't seem to mind though, as it immediately counterattacked, punching at his head wit its intact arm.
Calen managed to parry the blow, but he was pushed back.
"What the hell, why is this thing so strong?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the opponent.
"Since they can't use a weapon, and you have one, I put them on the highest setting. They're probably about half as strong as I am."
After a few more exchanges, Calen finally found an opening, and delivered a devastating slash to the midsection of the puppet. Just like with the arm, something popped, and the mannequin split in two.
"I didn't break it, did I?"
"Nah, don't worry they're designed to do that. They're supposed to mimic the damage a real human would receive."
Lydia bent down and picked up the loose arm.
"You only aimed at the joints, but they can recreate any injury in pretty much any place."
As if to prove her point, she snapped the wooden forearm in half. Instead of splintering, the limb bent in an unnatural way, mimicking a broken bone.
"Do we have to fix it?" Calen asked.
"Just put it on a one pile, it'll reassemble itself in a few minutes." She pointed at a group of five puppets. "Now we're going to check the flame."