Blue Valley City hadn’t suffered from the occupation, at least not visibly. The city still stood, its walls rising as high as ever, some chimneys sending up smoke. Obviously, the Zarian had changed the wards and defenses enough that we couldn’t simply barge in, but a casual observer might not have noticed anything from this distance.

Until you looked closely enough to see the Dominion’s flag raised over the city.

It was early morning, and the horizon behind the city was still dyed in warm tones, although from my position it hid the sun from view. My surroundings were alive with activity, though. I’d rarely sensed this many soldiers in one location before, and it was only one of several camps we’d erected, anchoring the defensive fortifications we’d set up encircling the city. The siege was in motion, but one way or another, I doubted it would last long.

We couldn’t starve them out, and trying that would hit the civilian population far harder than the Zarian soldiers. It was an open question which side would get reinforcements first, at least in significant numbers. The walls were big enough and packed with enough qi that we couldn’t simply knock them down, but they weren’t as much of an obstacle as they would have been for an actual medieval army. The qi shield covering the city posed a larger problem, since it meant we couldn’t simply use our planes or fliers to bomb the Zarian from above.

“This is going to be my first real battle,” Elia said, fidgeting as she looked at the city. “Any tips?”

“Don’t drive yourself crazy over it,” Lei said. “It’s not such a big deal.”

“And we won’t get near the thick of the fighting, anyway,” Yarani added. “Besides, I’ve been in a few battles, and they’re scary whether it’s your first one or not.”

“Right, you used to be a soldier, didn’t you?” Elia asked, brightening up a little. “Did you fight a lot?”

“Not really, mostly against the nomads, and then on the Earth Continent, like the others. Things used to be peaceful around here.”

“Good times,” I muttered.

“I remember my commander’s face when I explained how I was leaving, after I accepted your offer.” Yarani smiled. “That was kind of fun.”

“You must have left a lot behind,” Lei commented. “Did you stay in touch with your comrades?”

She shrugged. “A little, but not much, to be honest.” She glanced outside the base’s window at the commotion. “Some of my old comrades are here now, actually.”

I presumed that more would have been here but didn’t make it. Perhaps the thought occurred to her, too, since after a moment her expression darkened. We stood in silence for a few seconds.

“Where’s Kajare, anyway?” Elia finally asked.

“Talking to the commander of the Terbekteri troops,” I answered.

My mood brightened a little as I thought of my husband. I’d spent last night with him, and we’d taken some time to catch up. It was good to be reunited with him, not just because of that.

“I doubt they’re going to be much help for this one,” Yarani commented. “Although they’re instrumental for keeping the river clear, I’ll give them that.”

I nodded. The last thing we needed was for the Zarian to land reinforcements on the coast by ships, and preventing that was what I really wanted Terbekteri reinforcements for, at the moment. Help in the assault was a bonus.

“I think it’s about time now, isn’t it?” Lei asked.

Elia jerked and looked outside, clearly surprised. I just nodded. “Let’s join Kiyanu and the generals.”

We left the room where we’d been watching the city and walked down the corridor, then out the door. They’d put up a pavilion outside, with a good view of our positions as well as the city. Off to the side, a light cultivator had set up a shimmering screen hanging in the air that showed a close-up of the city walls, while smaller windows showed us the other Imperial forces.

Everyone rose and bowed when we entered, but I waved them back to their positions. Kiyanu was in the center, flanked by the highest-ranking generals of this army. And also Wei Jun. He was too valuable to keep out of the war, but no one trusted him to lead the vanguard, so he just kind of hovered here and helped with the planning even as the army officers gave him some space. His clan’s fighters had been broken up into smaller groups and put where they couldn’t do too much damage if they turned, but would still fight effectively.

I personally thought those precautions were a little too paranoid, but the coup had been sponsored by Zarian, so I could see their point.

“Your Grace,” the officer overseeing the radios and communications talismans said, “all siege positions report ready. The weapons are primed and targeted.”

Kiyanu nodded. “Good. There’s no point hesitating. Begin the first phase, generals.”

I narrowed my eyes and watched attentively as the siege truly began. Formation array-covered shields withdrew from walls and emplacements, showing equally rune-covered barrels. That was all we could actually see, though, since they were laser weapons. Basically, they were just larger, stationary versions of the laser guns we’d tested before. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to overcome the dependency on qi, so they still used some, in the formations, but the main power source of the actual attacks was electric.

Two dozen siege weapons scattered around the city began their barrage, and we could see the city’s shields shimmer like a heat haze as it tried to deal with the high intensity electromagnetic radiation. This wasn’t the first time we’d used the concept, so obviously the Zarian would have their shields ready, but our main goal was putting a strain on those, anyway.

“They’re working well,” Tenira commented. She’d quietly stepped up beside me. “A little too much heat on the delta versions, but manageable.”

“We could stand here all day and just batter away at their shields,” Yarani said. “I’m curious how long they’ll just sit there.”

“Well, we have other tools, too,” I said. “Although I’m hoping it will be a bit longer until they muster for a counter-attack.”

Of course, I didn’t get the siege-breaking charge I’d been hoping for. Instead, large qi attacks began to arc out of the city, targeted at the positions of our guns. I sighed and crossed my arms, watching on the screens and listening in to the chatter in the command pavilion with half an ear.

We had thick walls and formation shields to protect our weapons, of course, but I knew they wouldn’t stand up to a concentrated barrage. That was the trade-off here. The whole point was not to get into a slugging match of how much qi each side could put up.

“Let’s try out Project Smite,” I suggested.

Kiyanu glanced at me, then nodded. “Do it, General Poteri.”

Poteri talked into another communications device, and one of the screens shifted to show the sky above the city. A few seconds later, a boulder larger than the city walls were high entered the picture, arcing towards Blue Valley City.

Smite was a very simple concept. I’d chosen the name appropriately, in my own opinion. With a mix of complicated pulley and launcher frames, somewhat like a catapult turned up to eleven, and clever uses of spatial qi, it enabled attacks of pure, extensive brute force. These boulders, stone wrapped around heavy metal, couldn’t be stopped easily, but would crash forward to flatten anything in their path. At the moment of impact with the city’s qi shield, they would have enough energy to produce massive craters if they actually hit the ground, and the shield would definitively have to bear it. Even better, they weren’t going to go away after their momentum was arrested, they’d just be hanging there, and the shield or the Zarian cultivators would have to keep them aloft until they could move them aside safely.

We didn’t have many of the projectiles, but they were totally worth it.

And I hadn’t even put any effort into these tricks. It was just the first real battle of a longer campaign, after all. These were probably our simplest tools.

“I think we can safely consider those to be an unmitigated success,” Tenira said. Despite her words, she wasn’t smiling, just looking at the unfolding scenes with intense focus.

“Your team has truly risen to the occasion, Lady Tenira,” General Poteri agreed.

“How’s the situation inside the city unfolding?” I asked.

“We can’t be sure of the details,” Kiyanu answered. “We have little more than long-distance imagery. This isn’t exactly the time for anyone inside to be sending reports. But I’m sure you know that better than me, don’t you, Inaris?”

I shrugged. I had done my best to use my abilities to help our preparations and spent hours asleep, sending my dreaming mind into the city’s counterpart in the weird space I experienced dreams to be in. I had successfully contacted a few of the people Kariva had placed in the city. They were all essentially deep-cover agents, who had realized that the best thing they could do was lie low and not fight the Zarian conquest and occupation at all. Except for these dreams, they’d had very little contact with anyone else, and been very careful about gathering information.

As a result, we had a general idea of how the Zarian had appropriated the city’s magical defenses and their military positions, but they wouldn’t be able to do much sabotage even if we were willing to risk it.

I just hoped that the city would come out of this okay. The Zarian had only occupied it for a short time, after all. From what they’d told me, and my own impressions, it was confirmed that the invaders had not been able to put down roots in any meaningful sense. The people of the south simply hated the Zarian too much. Of course, I knew better than to think there would be no lasting damage.

“They’re starting to move,” one of the other officers reported. She looked up and gestured at one of the screens, causing the view to zoom in, and made a few red circles appear to point out movement.

I leaned forward. “Are they starting an attack?”

“Might be, my lady,” Poteri said. “They seem to be gathering strength to the north.”

I frowned, and saw that Kiyanu did the same. We were in the south, while the river had roughly an east-west orientation, so this was directly opposite us. And, incidentally, far from our strongest concentration of forces, which the Zarian had to know. It made sense to me, but it shouldn’t; even if they managed to break through our encirclement to the north, it wouldn’t matter. With cultivators, both sides were too mobile in combat and pinning a force down was a lot harder than that.

“Let’s muster our defenses,” Kiyanu decided. “Everywhere, this may well be a faint or distraction. We have time, people. We don’t need to rush a storm of their walls.”

Everyone nodded, and the officers set about implementing his direction. I ran a hand through my hair, then noticed I was doing it and made myself stop. I was feeling uneasy, although I didn’t know if that was something connected to my bloodline or just the general situation. Certainly, I’d never been relaxed during a battle, and sitting on the sidelines watching didn’t make it easier.

“Should we scramble the Lighters, as well?” General Wu asked.

“Yes, let’s do that,” Poteri answered. “They’ll have their chance to prove themselves today.”

“Lighters?” I questioned.

An explosion shook the view through one of the screens, and another defensive emplacement went up in flames, its energy cannon turned to slag. We were losing too many of them, I couldn’t help but feel, even as, elsewhere, cultivators were trying to repair others or setting up replacements.

Kiyanu glanced at me. “It’s what the soldiers have taken to calling our new units. Simpler than Imperial Army Auxiliary Corps, I suppose. It doesn’t hurt that most of them carry your laser rifles.”

I nodded. As if she was sensing my thoughts, Tenira passed me a sheet of paper. Glancing at it, I saw a breakdown of the company and its armaments. Besides the laser rifles, a few of the fighters had more conventional gunpowder firearms, others more versatile tools like grenades. All of them working with no or only minimal qi.

“There’s only about a hundred soldiers,” I noted.

Kiyanu shrugged. “We’ve only had the weapons finished and fully past their tests for a short time. These are all prospects who’ve failed out of joining the army or the scraps of local garrisons. People who’ve had enough military training they only need a week or two of supplementary instruction to be combat-ready.”

“Almost all soldiers are employed elsewhere, even the weakest ones,” Tenira added. “On the front or taking the places of stronger soldiers inside the Empire. Monster attacks don’t stop just because there’s a war on.”

“But don’t worry.” Kiyanu smiled faintly. “If this works out, their numbers will swell explosively.”

I nodded, frowning in thought as I looked at Tenira’s papers and glanced at the squads I could see in a viewscreen on the left. “I know. We have the production capacity.” I chewed my lip. “Assuming we give them a few months of boot camp, we could have double the numbers of our regular army in auxiliaries in six months. If we can muster the recruitment?”

We could have a lot more people with guns, if we didn’t restrict recruitment to the third stage. And maybe if things turned dire, I would accept weaker cultivators. But they just didn’t have the same physical strength and speed. It wouldn’t be worth it, not unless I want fodder to throw into a meat grinder. No thanks.

“That depends on how things turn out here,” Kiyanu replied. “If they prove themselves, I doubt it will be a problem.”

I looked back at one of the squads of Lighters waiting in formation behind a defensive emplacement. Their uniforms were black with the Imperial phoenix in red embroidered on one shoulder, and a flame focused through a lens on the other. They looked snazzy in the new uniforms, but the fighters inside them didn’t quite measure up. They shifted around more than regular soldiers, eying their surroundings with wariness and in a few cases barely concealed apprehension, gripping their weapons tightly. This would be a trial by fire, I knew.

I turned around, but before I could continue the conversation, a loud sound came from one of the communication devices, and a hush fell over the room. I looked around, noting that a few of the view screens were flickering, and others’ view was shaking, even though I could sense there was no earthquake.

Aston materialized beside me, his aura rolling off him like an angry cloud, while other guards surrounded my companions. I barely noticed it, or the way the officers in the pavilion were starting to swarm, those more accustomed to being in combat pulling out weapons.

I winced as something inside my senses seemed to twist, as if the world was folding in on itself in a spot just a hundred meters away from me. I stepped forward on legs I suddenly had to steady, to the edge of the pavilion, and saw what I had failed to expect to ever come from our enemies.

We weren’t the only ones who had developed new tricks.

But while I and my companions had turned to our memories of other worlds, of advanced technology and physical cleverness, the Zarian hadn’t lost their focus on qi. Yet instead of something completely new, they had chosen an old, problematic field, and breathed new life into it. The boom echoing through the air, vibrating in my bones, proclaimed their success.

An open area between the buildings and the beginnings of the defensive emplacements shimmered and twisted as a flood of qi rushed out, and turned on itself. Then everything snapped into place, and ranks upon ranks of Zarian cultivators marched out, every one of them with a higher cultivation than me.

Officers and guards around me formed up, and Aston started edging me away, but I kept my focus on trying to see as much of what was happening as I could. The Zarian force wasted no time in attacking. Hastily raised buildings blew apart and crashed down, and a defensive position anchoring wards and abutting large guns followed a moment later. A squad of Dominion elites stepped through the flames they’d just created, and one of the Smite constructs crumpled in on itself.

They’d managed to surprise us, and now, the real fight started.