I sat down on the bench to recover. I would have liked to drop the large shield around the dome--the storm flies had long since concluded that their assault was pointless--but I knew that as soon as I did, it would resume.

Eventually, an elderly woman wearing the black-and-white uniform kneeled in front of me and began to speak.

"This one thanks You on behalf of all." She was trying to speak formally, but a hint of breathless excitement and Rokeshan drawl ruined it. "We had wondered what caused the appearance of dawn rising in the west in the midst of such a crisis, and we had hoped that it might herald Your Return. Is Your Sister here as well?"

That question kept hurting, so badly. Maybe eventually I'd be numb to it.

"No," I managed to say smoothly, carefully maintaining control. "I was unable to protect her in the battle with Oscanion. I still grieve her." The woman's face grew solemn. "Please, there is no need to speak so formally. It would make me happy if you spoke to me as you would to anyone else."

"I understand," she said.

I swapped topics, to the current crisis.

"I can maintain a stalemate against the city's assailants, but I lack the ability to drive them away. I have heard that you have powerful enchanted weapons, and warriors to wield them, who might assist me? I could protect them while they fight. Once the city is safe, I will help any who are hurt, then assist with repairs."

To her credit, her demeanor instantly switched to efficient crisis management mode.

"We have weapons in a vault, on the lower level," she replied immediately, speaking rapidly. "And members of our order trained to wield them. We thought a battle unwinnable, and tried to outlast the attack instead, but with You here," her voice became forceful, words clipped, "they will be honored and glad for an opportunity to fight."

"Good." I nodded, and she turned to issue the necessary instructions to her fellows.

"Justice and Salvation," they all said, some with better pronunciation than others, before hurrying off.

When they returned, I recognized the weapons they brought, all radiating the blue impression of enchantment to my mage-sight. They were all among those treasures from the southern half of the world that had been lost to Oscanion's army. Apparently, they had been recovered in the aftermath and brought here. That made sense, as all significant cities south of Rokesha were depopulated by the war, and Rokesha appeared to have special significance as the city at which Oscanion's advance was halted, where "the Sacrifice" had been made. They had been wise to save their remaining mana supply until it was needed.

It was needed.

I effectively had a detachment of eight significant single-spell black mages and one ice-launching green mage to work with. It was no Izena, but it was something.

I instructed the man wielding the not-actually-a-crossbow ice launcher to focus on nymphs. Shooting ice at adult storm flies would be worse than pointless, and somebody had to keep the nymphs from being a nuisance. From what I had seen of the weapon in the past, it would poke holes in nymphs well enough.

Nothing more needed to be said. I cast shields on all of the volunteers, and we walked outside through the hole I had used to enter.

The storm flies and nymphs were waiting for this moment. As we emerged, they immediately sent a continuous stream of ice spears at us. My allies did not even slightly flinch as the ice shattered against our shields. I inferred that they had seen the resurrection inside the dome, and were in a fever of unshakable faith in my abilities at the moment. It was well-placed. Green magic was fundamentally weather magic, not as good for combat as black magic. I could defend against attacks like this comfortably.

The only true risk was if the storm flies could summon one of those twisters directly on top of us. I did not have full confidence in my shields' ability to keep such a powerful and chaotic spell from flinging the warriors around. But mercifully, it seemed that they could only summon the storm system that generated the twisters, not precisely aim the twisters themselves.

My allies fired lightning bolts and fireballs at the nearest storm fly, concentrating their fire. I was impressed with their skill. They adjusted quickly to the storm fly's defensive strategy, learning how to place and stagger their attacks so that it struggled to block them all. An incoming fireball would force the storm fly to produce a wall of water to block it. The fireball would be blocked, but vaporize the shield in the process. Immediately, a lightning bolt would follow and punch through the hole.

It was very impressive indeed, and it happened repeatedly, without them making any communications that I could see. Of course, it was undoubtedly helpful that they could focus purely on aiming and sequencing their attacks, paying no mind to defense. They would all have died in the first five seconds if not for my shields. This ability to focus on all-out attack, with no attention paid to self-defense, was always a great advantage to having a white mage on your side.

It was only a matter of time, and eventually the beleaguered storm fly fell to the ground. The other fly and the nymphs soon deemed the fight a lost cause, with the eerie simultaneity of the mindless, and retreated to the sea.

I was glad. The enemy appeared not to be aware that our weapons' charges were badly limited. They may have eventually succeeded if they had pressed longer.

I turned away from the retreating enemies, to the one that lay upon the ground in the plaza surrounding the dome. My allies had fired a few more blasts of magic to confirm that it wouldn't get back up, then wisely decided to save what remained in their weapons.

I waved them away from the corpse, for fear of what it might contain, and walked to it cautiously. I was secure against attack inside my own shield, the storm surrounding the corpse having mostly subsided anyway. More significantly, I was reasonably confident that I would be able to recognize and purify any taint that might jump to me, or attempted mind domination, at least enough to retreat before passing the point of no return.

Confident enough to take the risk, given the potential reward, and because somebody would need to deal with this corrupted godlike corpse sitting in the middle of the city. If I couldn't do it, then no one would be able to.

Let's see what I could learn.