"Shortly, yes. I'd feel more secure in a few days, once the walls are repaired."
The binding stone had finished clearing out most of the courtyard, but its reserves had finally run dry.
August had turned his attention this morning to drawing in magical energy from the leylines, and would set the binding stone back to work in a day or two.
Until then, Gharrick Pass was unprotected. The keep was fully repaired and fortified, but it was far less defensible without an exterior wall.
August would have liked to block off the pass itself, but he lacked the Champions to defend such a long line of wall.
Assuming he even had the time to build it in the first place.
Suddenly, a trumpet cut through his thoughts. The note was short, but piercing.
"Champion! Bastion! Are you here?" a voice shouted from afar.
The trumpet blew again.
"I think somebody wants us," August muttered. He rose from his chair to investigate the disturbance.
By the time they reached the entrance of the keep, the trumpet had blown three more times. Each time was further apart, but the shouting became incessant.
August wanted to leave the nuisance be, but there was only one reason somebody rides up to a Bastion's keep and requests their presence like this.
Well, two reasons.
But the person blowing the trumpet would have been less panicked if he was here to summon August on behalf of Lady von Clair or some other noble.
"I'm here, soldier," August called out as he pushed the keep's gates open.
A man wearing an Empire uniform sat on horseback in the courtyard, riding around in circles. Most likely a private soldier, given he lacked the emblem of the Emperor.
'Maybe one of Lady von Clair's men?'
"Are you the Bastion?" the soldier called out.
"I am. August Straub. You're one of von Clair's men?" August asked.
"Yes. I'm so glad you're here." The soldier closed his eyes for a moment and his horse whinnied nervously, picking up on the mood of its rider.
He stroked the horse's neck. "Calm down, girl. It's fine."
"You're in a hurry. I take it you need help," August said.
"Lady von Clair formally requests your aid, Bastion. She understands you only just began your posting…" The soldier's eyes lingered on the gleaming keep behind August.
He surely knew it had been a ruin not long ago.
"Leave the formalities for your lady. Where do I need to go?"
The soldier stared at August. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it.
His horse tried to move forward, but he pulled her back.
"Trantia. Lady von Clair is under siege at Trantia. Please help her," the soldier said. "I need to keep going, Bastion. Lady Nair must also be told of this attack."
'Nair?'
"You mean Vera Nair, the sorceress?" August probed.
"That's right, Bastion. I'm sorry, but I must be off," the soldier shouted, already riding down the pass.
The soldier's figure vanished from sight while August and Fei watched.
His horse was fast, and possibly enhanced with magic.
"Trantia? That's too far on foot," Fei said. "He must have left hours ago to get here so fast. And the carriage left last night."
The horseless carriage ran automatically on magic. The spell commanded it to return to the capital after dropping August off, so it had.
That left August and Fei with no immediately obvious transportation methods.
"Maybe not hours. That horse is fast, and Trantia didn't look that far away on the map," August said.
"I'm more curious why Lady von Clair is sending a message to a famous sorceress by horseback.
Surely she has some means to contact the region's protector using magic or some faster means."
"Protector? I thought you said that's our job?" Fei protested.
"It is, but Nair's a fairly well-known sorceress. We can work with her," he said.
When the Amica Federation had attacked the Empire from behind, Nairbhad been the only line of defense the Empire had at Gharrick Pass.
She had gone down in history as a sorceress who fought until the end for her country.
Naturally, she lost, and the Empire was destroyed. But her name had lived on through almost every retelling of the fall of the Anfang Empire.
In August's mind, she was a comrade fighting to stop the end of the world.
"In any case, let's worry about that later. For now, there's a town under siege. Hopefully things haven't gotten too bad," August said.
He reached for the magic of the binding stone.
"Should we really go by ourselves? If they need this sorceress, and Lady von Clair's soldiers can't handle it, then can we?" Fei asked, eyes wide.
August ruffled her hair. "You're new to being a Champion, but consider this to be your first actual mission.
Chances are the attackers are only bandits, and anything less than an enemy Champion, sorcerers, or demons are too weak to threaten us anymore."
"Really?"
"Really. You'll understand that once you crush your first bandit army single-handed." He chuckled.
Ignoring her pout at his dismissal of her worries, August drew on the binding stone.
It was low on power, but he only needed a tiny amount. He cast his hand out and white sparkles drifted out.
Where they landed, a pair of metallic horses sprung into existence, seeming to unfold into this world from thin air.
The horses were made entirely from steel. Empty space filled voids between overlapping plates of metal, and they had no actual heads.
These were metallic automaton horses, rather than real ones.
The binding stone lacked the power to summon living creatures, as it couldn't create or destroy life directly.
So almost everything August summoned was some form of metallic or earthen creation.
Fei stared at the summons with wide eyes. The horses stood perfectly still, even as August mounted one.
"Are you coming?" he asked.
"I don't know how to ride," she whispered.
With a flick of his wrist, August unsummoned the other horse. Fei flinched and looked down at the ground.
"Fei," he said. "Fei, look at me."
She looked at him. Saw his outstretched hand.
"Are you coming?" he asked again, holding his hand out. "We have a town to protect."
She took his hand, and he pulled her up onto the horse in front of him.
A moment later, the horse took off toward Trantia.