After the ceremony we walked into the castle, closing the door behind us, Sylf was Steelwing we're both waiting for us, standing like statues next to the doors.

I was aware they were there thanks to my extra sense, but Treble jumped in surprise when they approached us, not expecting them there, his wings extended ready to fly but we were indoors, so he just ended up smacking me on the face by accident.

"Ow... Don't get them flappers open in here! Also hey you two, you gave the new king quite the scare, but hey he's barely just got his position so cut him some slack, he's a bit jumpy and nervous, aren't you dude?" I joked to defuse the tension I felt, hopefully Steelwing wouldn't outright refuse this, or everything I did would be for nothing.

"I... this is very scary honestly, I am doing this because grandpa said you can be trusted and I believe him, and mister Boreas has been nice to me so far, telling me I'm the key to helping the nation prosper. I want to help our city and country be as wonderful as I've read it used to be, I want it to be even better. For the first time I have hope, I have a way to make things right!" We shared a hopeful smile, nodded to him in agreement with his words, I will help him in any way I could.

"Exactly what I hoped to hear from you dude, and I'll help every step of the way, you're my friend too, and friends help each other when they are in need.
General what do you think? Will you accept the new king chosen by Boreas himself? Or would you rather keep ruling the nation yourself?" There is no point in dilating the discussion further, time to get straight to the point, the General has a worried and even saddened expression as he looks at us.

"Being the leader of the nation isn't easy young lad, you have to make difficult choices, sometimes you have to send good griffons to die, all to protect the citizens and the nation itself, you are aware of the war going on, right?" He asks solemnly, Treble nods slightly.

"I know a little bit, that we are at war with the island states and that despite our superiority in the sea, they have a larger army, is that right?" Treble answered with concern, his voice shaky.

"It's much worse than that young king, they have a larger army as well as more weapons and armor, they have a better economy so they can keep fighting far longer, and most importantly they are much harder to invade directly, as they are surrounded by seas." The General states grimly, his face showing how little chance Griffonstone had of winning this war, and they weren't the instigators, but now they had new allies...

"You are king now Treble, I support you fully, but I fear that if we don't deal with the Islanders we will cease to exist as a nation, they could be advancing on this city any day now, our forces are all deployed around the Guto river, denying them access to the port, but the spies we have within the island say they are preparing to invade, we dont have enough griffons to stop them, we just don't... The civilians have little to no experience and would be slaughtered, not to mention they lack armor or weapons." I gritter my teeth, growing worried and feeling a pit in my stomach at the news.

"Our allied provinces are mostly farming villages and they don't have any sort of armed forces, they don't even have metal tools, our nation is very primitive, we lack a good source of metal and the little we do have is hard to process because we don't have enough infrastructure." He concluded with a sad tone, I had to agree that if things were this bad we were screwed.

I could see the color drain from the face of the little king, I was feeling quite worried myself, what could we even do against an army? Was there a way to repel an army non lethally? Diplomacy?

"Do we know their numbers? And what about ours?"

"They an army 4 thousand strong, and we have one and a half thousand." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, I couldn't just fight them fair and square, their numbers were just much more than ours!

Thinking that I could help, I proposed some ideas about preparations to survive and even win.

"I don't know a lot about warfare but I can offer some ideas..." I got three nods in response so I continued.

"My father knows a large area spell that could inflict a very undesirable effect on them. But we don't have enough materials for it, the divine Hallow spell would work and areas could be set up to cause fear, but the spell would need a lot of expensive materials, probably over ten thousand bits worth of rare incenses and oils, and I don't think they have those here." I discarded that option, as good as it would be, the area would be too small and in the end it wouldn't really do anything to keep them away, nothing to prevent them from firing crossbow bolts from a distance so it would only work indoors.

"That could have worked but we sadly also lack such incenses, Griffonstone is quite poor as you must have noticed." I nodded, sighing sadly, hopefully that would change soon if we survived this, someday maybe I could be strong enough to face an army and my presence alone would be enough of a deterrent, just as Celestia was for all the other nations.

"I could try intimidation, and of course also fighting non lethally but against so many? Spells could work only to a point, I would run out of mana even if I wanted to kill them all, which I definitively DO NOT. I'd resort to using cantrips, they could work but I will need help.

"I will lend my aid in both spellcasting and direct fighting, if you need a break I can take over, but remember I'm not as capable as a battlemage as you, my magic is more complimentary than anything." Mom offered with a small reassuring smile.

"Yes thank you mom, but I don't want you to risk injury so we will definitively have to ask a dad for help as well as a favor from you General." I said cryptically, he gave me an expectant look but I continued my explanation first.

"Hold up, let me finish, I also could design a way of spreading a large shield over the entire city, but that would leave the farmlands and outer farms vulnerable to raiding and pillaging, and we would starve inside the barrier in the long run, but that would imply I had a way of powering such a barrier for so long, We will need to fight back, what else can we do? I refuse to let this nation get conquered after working so hard to help it get back on track! I will protect my investment." I huffed out a cloud of frost in exasperation, I definitively wasn't eager to fight off an army, to involve myself in such a war, but what would I do? Let them be attacked and overtaken after all I've done for them?

I couldn't let them do that, I maybe could intimidate, use strategy, take out priority targets from afar using long ranged weapons... No, I know I can kill, I don't want to, no way I will become a murderer.

Then again maybe I wasn't up to the task of saving them.

But what if they didn't give up? Would I be able to live with myself after taking lives? War is horrifying, brutal and it changes a person forever, I would definitively be negatively affected, I... I don't want to kill anyone, not if I have other options, I will use stun spells, I will use telekinesis, target non lethal weak points and incapacitate as much as I could, that could work.

"General? How many soldiers do we have on our side?" I asked the large griffon who seemed lost in thought.

"Our army is about 1500 strong as I have already explained, but we are lacking armor, about half of the soldiers have plate armor, while the rest have chainmail or leather armor, we just don't have enough metal to make enough for all, the enemy imports metal from Equestria in large amounts, but the relationship between the two nations deteriorated when Equestria opened trade with our nation, yet they still reluctantly trade goods, I am intrigued by the idea of you making a shield around the city, how would that work?" He asked with a curious and hopeful expression.

"I could design a spell matrix that would draw energy from one being at a time, the spell would need an artificial focus to be self sustaining, an enchanted gemstone of large enough quality and size, like a large diamond of another gem could work, in it I would need to carve the runes precisely, then every time one wants to use the shield, they would need to only pour their magic into the gem, powering the spell and sustaining it, by my estimations... For a shield of that size it would take about... One mana unit every second, at least with my understanding of shielding, the shield would also be pretty difficult to destroy unless they have magical anti shield weapons or anti magic artifacts, digging underground wouldn't work either."

I thought out loud, making the calculations in my head with the knowledge I had, it was limited, and the shield was too generalized, maybe a more specialized shield could be way more efficient? I haven't experimented more than with small scale shields made for a few, such a large shield however...

The shield would use extremely high amounts of mana per day, around 86400 units.

I knew the runes for a regular shield, and the invulnerable, slightly larger shield, but that one was just unnecessarily strong in this case.

"I can do it, but each day we would need to take turns charging the gem, it would only last a few minutes with the three of us, but it would also drain us of all magic and leave us unable to fight with magic, if only we had an artifact..." I looked at Treble who was holding the Idol still, but he looked tired of holding it by now, it was a heavy object made of solid gold after all, and he was not that strong.

"Hey Onyx? Sorry to interrupt, but Mister Boreas says he can be the spell's... catalyst? And if you give him the spell matrix and pour your magic into the Idol and cast the spell, he says he could even use the magic from griffons on the city, despite the lack of a focus that they have, griffons still have magic inside them and if the citizens offer their magic every day, the shield will always be on!" I smile at the amazing news, perfect! Now we had a way to protect the city.

But I had a question first. "How can the griffons give their magic to power the spell if they lack a magical focus? And would they suffer any negative side effects?"

"Mister Boreas says that the Idol is specifically made to connect him to the griffons, and now that they all have acknowledged him again, he is quickly regaining his connection to them, he will be able to ask them directly for their magic and sustain the shield for a long time, and since griffons normally don't have a use for magic other than to manipulate clouds, they don't need their magic for combat, unless they use storm clouds to attack, he also says that griffons have more than thrice the magic needed to keep the shield running, and their magic regenerates faster than the rate of consumption of the spell, so no one would be injured or even tired from it." This is excellent news! Yes it would make sense, their mana pool would be around 100 for adults and down to around 20 or so for young children, so if the consumption rate is about 17 and a half per griffon per day, the shield should be sustainable Indefinitely!

"That actually makes a lot of sense, we will take advantage of that so the shield doesn't depend on my magic and my companion's alone, because if that was the case, I don't think even between the three of us as would have enough mana to power it for more than an hour, and we would run dry and not able to help in the fight at all.

Time to get to work on that spell but I also wanted to ask for a favor.

"General Steelwing, sir I need you to get your blacksmith to modify a set of armor to fit my dear mum, and I want to ask you for a set that would fit an unicorn, for he is going to go into the fight as well, I know your army is lacking armor but trust me when I say that this unicorn is really going to help more than two dozen griffons, he can use magic to both weaken our enemies, strengthen our allies and even heal wounds during battle. Please sir?" I bowed my head down.

"You plan on fighting the invaders? To involve yourself in the fighting personally? I know you're a dragon and undoubtedly you can hurt a lot of them, but the odds are four to one, not to mention that you will have to probably kill and may die, battles are unpredictable, they are terribly dangerous on this scale, you are endangering your lives, you're not even from this city, so why?!" He asked both confusion and disbelief. I smiled slightly, the reason was simple.

"Because I made a few friends here, and I want to protect them, I want them to have a future for them and their descendants, your nation, and of course I also benefit from this, your gain is my gain, you'll see why very soon." His expression went from confused to impressed, and then to a smirk that I shared.

"You really are trying to gain as much influence here as possible, aren't you? There is no question now why you found the Idol and brought it back, you've surely impressed even our god with your ambition, well if you help us win this fight, we will owe you, at the very least my troops and myself will owe you any favors you want, as long as it's nothing too crazy, wouldn't wanna go into something worse than an army four times the size of ours, right?" He approached and offered his talon, for a handshake, one I promptly returned, he is strong, I may have some competition it seems, we are evenly matched but he seems to be putting a lot more effort, we end up calling it even, because I don't feel like overexerting myself.

Still he got my paw a bit sore, I respect that.

"You got yourself a deal, I'll get the armor you want refitted, but I need to send her." He says pointing to Sylf
"To the blacksmith to get the measurements, as well as the pony you came in with, he can get one of the steel plates readjusted, the sooner you two go the better."

"Can you add a horn guard for him? Unicorn horns are very vulnerable points so having a metal barrier around it to block direct blows would be wonderful, in fact I'll get him to the blacksmith myself and explain what he needs done, I promise you won't be disappointed by his powers."

"You have earned the trust of not only myself but most of the city too, no one likes the nobles, they already were seen as nothing but annoying, despite all of us being greedy, they are extra, they used to have their uses, funding the army, but lately they have not being helpful and even refused to stop trading with our enemies, but because of their wealth they were hard to punish, you however made them cower and most importantly you made them shut up."

"I just wanted then out of my way, don't usually feel like tolerating those who insult me to my face, I decided to go for a lesson in humility instead of attacking them, now they know they are just regular everyday griffons, if they forget I will happily remind them again." I smiled at Steelwing who laughed and patted my back.

"Hahaha you are a little terror Onyx! Don't change, good on you for not letting them walk all over you like most griffons here do!" I suppose I could be seen as a bit intimidating, but at least the people agreed with the punishment, griffons also raise porks for eating, so the symbolism was pretty clear now that I thought about it...

Our conversation concluded, and with Treble following close next to me and mom behind, we walk towards the door of the castle, walk outside and wait there, sitting down on the steps, I call dad over the telepathic link.

'Sorry to ask you, you must be relaxing at home but I need to ask you to come to the blacksmiths shop near the castle, please? I'm going to have you fitted in armor, I have to talk about something important to you in person here, so come over okay?'

'Mmhh? Whyyyy do you always gotta wake me up from my afternoon naaaps? Alright... I better get there then, you sound serious, are you at the castle's entrance? Want to wait for me there pweasee?' He is a goofball, never fails to bring a smile to my face, hopefully he doesn't suffer any injuries, physical or mental, I don't want him to have to fight directly, in fact he may just be healing and empowering our allies, I'm hope he will agree to that.

'Sorry daaad it's really important that you come here, you'll get an armor fitted to you, steel plate armor that you'll need to get used to.'

'If that's what you need of me, your majesty, will be there. See you in fifteen minutes, bye love you colt! Oh and tell our sweet wolf lady that she's more beautiful than any mare for me I have ever seen, would you?'

'Love ya too fluffy pon! We'll be here, and I'll tell her that right away.' I shake my head chuckling amused by his antics, turning to look at Sylf who is staring at me, looking a bit confused.

Giving her my most charming look I can manage, smiling warmly and relaxed and approaching her slowly, grabbing gently underneath her snout with one hand, while looking into her eyes with a loving look.

"Hey mommy? You're more beautiful than any mare I have ever seen~"

I try to not burst out laughing as her face quickly starts blushing, I approach her more as if I was going for a kiss, her snout is slightly open and she licks her fangs nervously, confused by what I'm doing, and completely speechless until I break all the tension by moving forward and starting to nuzzle her snout's side innocently like I usually to to show my affection, it's the equivalent of kissing someone on the cheek, in my old life, where I lived people often greeted each other with kisses on the cheek, specially family, here the equivalent was nuzzles or even licks, but licks were considered more intimate.

"I also love you a lot mooom!~ by the way dad told me to tell you that, just imagine it's from him okay? You're the second prettiest girl I know, so I can see why he thinks so highly of you." I pressed my head against her chest and just relaxed, purring contently on her warm and fluffy bossom, she is super jacked, her muscles feel like steel covered in warm soft fluffy black fur, she also smells wonderful like a forest of pine trees.

Did I just... Well she's a very sweet mom, the best I could ask for and we love messing with each other often. I probably would get grounded again or she would prank me in return.

"Bhahaha dude That was awesome, you're pretty brave to do that, the look on her face was priceless! She's still a bit red, are you okay miss Sylf? You... Uhm I think you may have messed up by pulling that prank bro, miss Sylf is definitively planning to prank you or something, I can just tell by the look she's giving you, andddd I should shut up now before she gets me next." Concerned, I pulled back from the hug and I'm faced by a mischievous smirk from her, she wasn't blushing anymore but she was back to her confident and proud self, she's not the type to stay embarrassed for too long, I know her, but she's not too difficult to fluster either, I wonder what thoughts go through that mind of hers that make her get so flustered at times... Maybe I'll dare to ask when I'm a bit older.

"Oh me? Prank my own son? That's just preposterous your majesty! My very own son? I could neeeever~" She giggled and booped me on the nose with her paw, making me look cross eyed at it and shortly after sneeze at having some dust get into my fussy nose, she clearly did it on purpose.

I sneezed about 4 times, all the while my mum giggled at me, a satisfied smirk on her face.

"Bless you~ hehehe that's what you get, maybe you'll learn to not play with girl's feelings hm? Don't think you're off the hook tho, but I have to admit you got me good, embarrassing me, your own mother, in front of the young king?! How scandalous... I think another prank at a later time will be needed, we are giving a bad example to Treble, forgive us, my son is a real pawful sometimes, but I promise he means well." I give a mock glare to her for blaming it on me, she just rolled her eyes with a smirk and stuck her long canine tongue out at me.

"I find that trust you two have the most amazing and fun I've seen ever, it's like you are the best of friends and have been for... A long time, I hope someday I can find someone that is so close with me too, having a mother... If that's what it's like then I really am missing out." He says with a few tears falling down his face, I move close to him and pull him into a hug, comforting him by patting his back

"You have close friends, Sable clearly close and she cares about you, and, despite him being like your grandpa or father in role, Mr. Gruff is also a good friend of yours, and now I am your pal too! Not to mention all the griffons who you haven't met yet that could be your friends in the future! I'd just recommend you are wary of nobles who try to take advantage of you, just be vigilant, but I'm not saying you shouldn't become friends with them as well." He smiled slightly, nodding and sniffling, returning the hug and then moving back a bit.

"I will come visit you in here of course, and you will visit me too at my home because once you become king officially and start running the country, you will have diplomatic visits near where I live, and from there you can visit me directly, we can hang out and play anything together, maybe have dinner with us and talk about anything that comes up." I encourage him further, his mood now uplifted, mom also nods smiling at him and moving closer to offer her affection.

"Onyx is totally right, you're always welcome in our home, son please explain to him how to get to our house from the castle, so he can find his way whenever he wants to visit." I nodded and told him what street to take and how to arrive there, while he nodded and asked a few questions, until he had memorized everything relevant, promising he would write it down later.

"T-thank you... I feel honored to be your friend, you will become very well known here, all of those nobles who claim to be from ancient bloodlines, you shut them up with that spell in front of everyone, you stood up for me so I can help the whole nation, I won't forget that ever, but yes I'll visit as soon as I can get this nation out of the hole it fell into."

"Well said, I think I we made a good choice today, but let's get prepared, because we have to make sure the nation survives! Oh there he is, hey dad, here!" I get up and wave at the approaching pony who notices me and trots closer, we all get up as he comes and get ready to go.

"Hey everyone! How did it all go? Sorry I went back to the orphanage to get a nap, where are we going?" He came up to us and greeted all of us one by one, the pony way of course with a hoof bump or a nuzzle for those who he was close with, mom and I.

After greetings were over we walked towards the nearby blacksmiths forge, while I proceeded to explain everything to him, his face went from amused by the pig joke I made on the nobles to happy that Treble being chosen as king, going to him and congratulating him, then his smile and optimism went away as soon as I mentioned that this place would be invaded soon, and that we would be helping to protect and defend the city, and he would be in charge of empowering and healing the soldiers.

He frowned, then just looked sad, seeing he needed comfort we stopped and held him for a while.

"Onyx? P-please... Tell me you aren't asking me to participate in a war, please, you aren't serious a-are you?! Did I misheard or misunderstand really badly?"
His tone is almost desperate, looking at me with pleading eyes, to tell me I'm just playing some prank on him or something.

It's not the type of pranks I like... "I'm sorry dad, this is not a joke, I'm serious, I wouldn't joke around with something as serious as this, specially with you, I know what I'm asking is a lot, but this isn't a war that Griffonstone asked for, they were declared war and threatened to either give up their nation or be invaded, what option do they have? They just want to continue existing."

It seems that was the wrong answer, as his eyes start to get misty and wide, I can almost feel his emotions, that almost choking sensation you feel in your throat when you're trying not to cry, that... I know it too well, I know he is feeling it now too.
But the weight of what I was asking of him was too much, he broke down crying soon later, shutting his eyes closed.

He spoke while crying, I expected he would say no, I was right.
"I-i don't wanna be in a war, I don't want others to suffer and die! What am I going to do? I can't fight... You saw me trying, I just can't, I wouldn't be able to hurt someone, I would rather just give up. I'm so sorry!" He sobs and mom whispers reassuring words on his ear, I just hold him and gently caress his side and back, I really understood him, I was like that the first time I went into the first dungeon, I was in denial too, but he is confused, we are doing this to save lives, not to lose them, and he was the key to save everyone, both allies and enemies.

He doesn't deserve to suffer because of my choices, he may have gotten stronger, he may want to help and be a chosen from a goddess but he's a kind and innocent pony who just wants to help others at heart, I am asking too much from him, if there was another healer here I would not bother him with this, but he was the best we had.

I need to tell him, it's my responsibility because I brought them all here.

"I understand that dad... I truly do, i'm really sorry for asking for that, you don't have to fight at all, that's not what I'm asking of you, we just want you to heal griffons who get injured. I promise you won't have to see any of the fighting or even be near it if you don't want, I'll try to talk them out of it, I promise okay? You are under no obligation to even be here... In fact if you want to go home I can send you there right now, Its far but it's within my ability thanks to the teleportation circle we have at home." He doesn't answer for a while, crying while mom and I hold him and comfort him, I could tell he was terrified of this situation, of violence and killing, of dying, of watching us die.

His crying slows and he regains enough of his voice to speak, yet its still faint and his voice is unsteady.

"If you help us, you will help save the city and every single griffon here, I have a few plans that if they work, we may just win without even having to fight, I just want your help in case anything goes wrong... But my offer still stands, I can send you home and mom and I will stay to make sure the city is saved, I promise you, it will be saved." I reassure with finality, trying to make him see things aren't as bad as he may think.

"I... I appreciate the offer to go home, and despite my mind screaming at me to accept and just run away, to leave this city to go hide, be cozy at home, I can't let either you two here without me, or abandon the griffons from this city to die trying to defend their homes or be conquered and... who knows what they will suffer? I-I'm terrified yes, and I can't stop acting like a foal, crying." He suppresses a choked sob and wipes his eyes with his fetlock and continues.

"Goddess I am like a little foal, I want to just escape home and be safely away from this, but I... I won't abandon you all, I won't let you all risk injury or worse, and not having someone to patch you up, I won't let you die, I would not be able to live with the guilt, you're my wife Sylf and I love you, and you're my son Onyx, and I love you as well." He takes a deep breathe and his voice now sounds more steady, he wipes his eyes once again from the fresh tears and blinks until he is able to see clearly again.

Sylf interrupts with a gentle squeeze. "And we love you back, always and forever, even if you do run away, we are not a crime syndicate, we are a family, and if you don't want to be here neither me nor Onyx will stop loving you or caring deeply for you, so choose what is right for you, not for us, its your right as a thinking being." I could only nod, she put everything much more concisely and easier to understand than what I said, he is in his right to deny to help and ask to be sent home.

But her words seem to only make him more determined to stay, somehow, maybe he... I hope he is realizing that things aren't as grim as they first appear.

"I will stay, I will help, I will heal and I will empower magically our friends from Griffonstone push back this invasion! I will also do my best to fight with non lethal attacks, I don't want to kill anyone, I... I can't, it's not something I want to learn to do, not something I want to get used to either. By my goddess I will fight and I will defend others but I will not kill anyone!" I felt a bit confused at his change in attitude but I smiled softly, maybe he fought his fear and won, I did the same, eventually being able to attack the things I used to fear, I still fear but I don't freeze or want to cry when I see a spider, even a monstrously large one, he won't run away now I see, I really owe him one, or a few after this is all said and done.

I give him a stronger hug now, smiling with pride at his newfound bravery, now we just need to get him ready.

"I'm really proud of you, I am so damn proud I could kiss you! On the side of your muzzle I mean but as I said before, I completely agree, I don't want to kill anyone either, so let me teach you a very very handy spell called bolt of stun, I'm sure you'll love it!"

"Now now son don't be hasty, I will kiss him first!" Sylf says and quickly moves in front and kisses him right on the lips, making him blush visibly before he returns the kiss, they start kissing soft for a minute or two, while I move close and give him a small smooch his the side of his muzzle at the same time, making both of them chuckle, the mood is lifted despite the previous topic, I wont let this misfortune ruin things for us, I will make this work, and if everything else fails I will safely get us back home.

After the small moment of tenderness we went back to talking about non lethal spells for a while, he had a different set of spells than me so it would be useful for him to learn some of my spells, he could if he put in the effort, I focused fully on explaining to him the bolt of stun, the main stunning spell used by the royal guards.

Then we went to get him and mom measured from snout to tail, armor has to fit well or it would not be protective enough.

I left the armor I had in my inventory to be refitted for mom, the large armor was meant for a large griffon, not too dissimilar from Sylf's size, the blacksmith was surprised from the armor appearing from nowhere and by the high quality of the armor, the decoration and the craftsmanship of it all, I simply explained it as magic and moved on, I suppose ancient Griffon Empire armor was of superior quality of what they make today, hopefully he would do a good job, but he reassured me that he was an expert and I trusted him, after all he had made the General's armor set and the plate and mail armor the soldiers wear.

Treble returned to the orphanage with us after that, but now the General had sent guards to watch over him, and they stayed outside the doors protecting from any possible break in.

I stayed with dad and mom all day, we taught him the stun spell, and we showed him it could be powered further to be more effective, with a heightened version it would work despite the targets armor, enchantments were the only way to completely block the effects of the higher level bolt of stun, anti magic or magic diffusing materials would work to stop the spell as well, magic resistance could weaken it to the point it was useless too, like I had.

We spent all evening training on non lethal magic, and he quickly learned bolt of stun, now the three of us could more easily disable non lethally enemies, without causing injuries.

After getting done with that I started to seriously work on my spell for a city sized shield, I had the basis for the spell, I knew a lot of the runes for shielding and I had experience with shield, but while before I used just already completed and prepared spells I needed to draw up my own, I started working on it right away, scratching with my claw on the wall, I almost got reprimanded for doing that but I told Gruff I would pay him for the repairs, I just really needed to write and we didn't have paper or parchment, and the spell was complex and long, I needed the whole wall.

I knew it would take me a long time, but I didn't expect to have to be up all night drawing spell matrixes and formulas that worked with the runes I had, it was a hugely complicated spell counting all the safety measures, I couldn't make a spell that simply expanded from the point of origin and pushed everything outside, not without risking it failing and killing everyone indoors in a horrifyingly violent way, I needed a spell that would slowly shimmer into existence already at its final position.

Ensuring the spell targeted only those who would be considered enemies was also a challenge, for that I used the connections made by Boreas with all griffons in the city, he was able to control those and he could check if there was any griffon not connected to him.

Another exceptions were all other species of creatures living in the city, like cats, birds, insects and other animals, were would they fall under? In the end I made the shield only target creatures larger than me, so wildlife or pets and just regular animals could travel freely and not become stuck inside a barrier, birds would definitively die if they ran into the shield so this prevented such issues.

The shield would also not cut anyone in half upon appearing, it made the enchantment so upon activation there will be a spell active on the area nearby that will push anything away without causing damage, the shield itself will fade into existence slowly and only once fully created it will become a solid barrier.

I made all of this safeguards because I don't want to accidentally kill anyone even if I mess up my calculations, the most important and more thoroughly checked part was the fail-safes.

I will really need to sleep after this is done to be fully prepared in case the enemy comes for us, a sleepy and sluggish mind can cost me my life.

Author's Note

Good evening readers! if you're reading this then I'm not straight