People.
Not creatures.
Prisoners.
Figures crowded behind barred lower windows beneath the compound, their pale faces barely visible through the dark glass.
My stomach turned.
The Priestess hadn’t just been collecting power.
She’d been collecting magical folk.
A goblin slammed both hands desperately against the inside of a window as witches descended toward the lower courtyard.
Bella landed first near the stairwell with impossible fox-like grace while two shifters immediately moved to guard her flanks.
“Maeve!” Bella shouted upward. “The lower level extends beneath the cliffs!”
Of course it did.
Nothing around the Priestess could ever simply exist in a reasonable layout.
My broom swung lower again, almost impatient now, as the pendant burned hotter.
Below us, the battle spread wider through the compound grounds. Protection spells burst through the air in arcs of gold and blue while shadow creatures shrieked from rooftopsand broken walls. Orcs pushed steadily through the western entrance, forcing the compound’s shadows inward toward the central structure.
And through the chaos, the witches kept moving together.
Helping one another.
Protecting one another.
One older witch nearly lost control of her broom near the south tower, only for another to grab her wrist midair and steady her before they both burst into shaky laughter.
A goblin landed directly on top of a shadow hound and began hitting it repeatedly with a frying pan.
Twobble pointed proudly downward again. “Ground support is thriving.”
The compound groaned as the entire hill shifted beneath us.
It didn’t collapse, it moved.
Stone cracked along the northern ridge while black magic spread through the walls in jagged lines. The windows flickered violently as something deep beneath the compound seemed to wake further.
Ardetia went pale.
“Maeve!” Nova shouted.
I turned just in time to see the upper towers begin twisting.
The shape of the compound blurred for half a second, rearranging corridors and stairwells beneath shadow magic.
The Priestess was changing the structure itself.
“She’s trying to separate us,” Nova warned.
The broom lurched again beneath me, toward the central tower, the highest point of the compound.
