[Open]

[rowan_narrators]

Who: Tamber, anyone who'd like to encounter him
What: Arrival in Jhelbor
Where: Western Gate
When: Monday afternoon, about half an hour after the fire

Comments

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho didn't think she had ever been this afraid in her entire life. One complete circuit of the wall, just to be positive, and she'd confirmed that the fire was trapping them completely. Even from here she was starting to feel the heat. She wasn't actually sure how many times she'd walked around the edge, but she knew it was more than once. She couldn't stand to look at the fire any longer - she felt caged and nervous when she could see it, so she went down the nearest staircase to make her way back to her building. There was someone walking just ahead of her, and doing so very slowly, so it was easy for Cho to catch him up. She didn't recognize him, but she very much doubted she'd met everyone here already. "Are you hurt? Here, let me help you." And she offered her arm and shoulder for him to lean on, because she knew that taking just a bit of the weight off a wrenched ankle made all the difference in the world.

[rowan_narrators]

Tamber leaned on her, gratefully. He shifted Ankhyrad to his far shoulder, so that she wouldn't interfere with Cho's support.

"Thank you," he said. "I'm headed towards the city center."

[tenuefarfalla]

"All right." Cho kept her pace slow and even, trying to move no faster than she thought was best for an injured ankle. "Were you... out there? Did you come through the fire?" She turned her head to look at him, feeling she could support the weight he was leaning on her with less than her full strength, and got a good look at what it was he'd moved to his far shoulder as a tiny human face peered at her from around the boy's head. "Is that-- a fairy?"

[rowan_narrators]

She probably could support his weight with less than her full strength; Tamber looked small, as though he hadn't yet reached the extent of his teenage growth spurt, and he was wiry. Slim and strong.

"It closed behind me on the road," said Tamber. "If I'd delayed further, it would have blocked me from the city entirely."

The support was quite a relief.

"Like a sprite?" asked Ankhyrad, in confusion.

"No," interrupted Tamber. "She's a sylph."

[quahl]

Quahl was pacing back and forth. They were cornered. Another tactical advantage for the infamous demon general -- or so she assumed.

When Tamber stumbled into the room, Quahl immediately motioned for the doors to be closed and the two guards left quickly.

"Scout, report."

[rowan_narrators]

Tamber drew himself up to his not-terribly-significant height; Ankhyrad extended her wings, in respect, giving Quahl a short bow.

"General River Royal's army is encamped half a mile from the city," reported Tamber. "Both he and his second in command, Nazarene, I believe were present, though I only counted the soldiers at one hundred fifty, perhaps as many as one hundred seventy. I believe the ring of fire to be the work of twelve fire mages he has at his command."

[quahl]

If Quahl was taken by surprise, she certainly didn't show it.

"What size were their food rations?" Or in other words, was River Royal planning on starving them out? Or was he going to attack?

[rowan_narrators]

Tamber cast his mind back, calling up the picture of the camp. "I saw none," he said. "But I rode quickly to get here, and there were no support staff in the camp itself; it's possible they followed, at a slower pace." In fact, it would make a lot of sense. Wagons couldn't travel as fast as horses.