Tinker’s breath caught in her chest as the thought connected to all the elements of the new shield spell.
The elves had nothing like computers. Dufae had never dealt with a software virus. He couldn’t grasp what the Skin Clan spell did as a whole, but Tinker recognized an attempt to stop a virus. The spell identified the domana genetic key that allowed them to link with Spell Stones and rewrote it. Of course, none of the shield spells that Dufae knew would block that link. It would make no sense for the elves to create something that interfered with their most powerful weapon. An enclave’s defensive barriers wouldn’t hamper their domana from setting up a connection in the middle of battle. Nor would a sekasha’s shield spell, since they often overlapped with their domana. Dufae had been a double; he might have known a great deal of lore on the Spell Stone construction but he had been born long after the Rebellion and the Clan War ended. It was possible that the creators of the Spell Stones designed the initialization process in the way that they had because it was the one thing that couldn’t be blocked.
Any domana not shielded by the twins’ spell would lose their ability to call the Spell Stones. With one spell, the elves were about to lose their great weapons against the oni horde.
There was a muffled boom from the southwest.
“What was that?” Tinker glanced out the windows of the mobile office.
Fireworks burst across the river, somewhere over the Hill District — a bright bloom of color and then a deep boom.
“What idiot is setting off fireworks in a war zone?” she growled.
Even as a second fireworks display went off over the Hill District, another shot upward from Downtown. A sudden golden flower painted against the dark rain clouds. Then a third set over Mount Washington.
This wasn’t one random jerk setting off fireworks. This was a signal. She had a very bad feeling about this. The first fireworks had been over Oakland.
“Domi!” Stormsong shouted from the casting circle.
Tinker felt it shiver down her back. She was out of time. She ran toward the casting circle. “Oh shit, this is it. Trigger it!”
Out in the northeast where Haven must lie, she felt a massive shield go up. The twins must have created a spell to encompass the entire village. A few moments later, one went up in the heart of McKees Rocks. It could only be Oilcan.
Tinker hit the edge of the casting circle and Stormsong triggered the spell.
Tinker had expected something in Oakland and as various shells of the shield spell rose around her, she felt the enclaves react, starting with Sacred Heart. The newly finished enclave defensive shield rose. The other enclaves triggered their powerful defenses, nearly identical to the one on Sacred Heart. The new shield, however, didn’t go up in Oakland.
“Shit, shit, get the new spell up, Forge!”
Forge or Jewel Tear cast a Stone Clan scry, revealing a massive number of ground troops moving uphill from the river’s edge.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Forge,” she whispered as she realized that Oilcan hadn’t gotten a copy of the spell to their grandfather.
There was a massive flare of power to the southeast near the Rim. The scale of it took her breath away. Almost instantly the outer shell of the shield flashed to a blinding light as it deflected the power of the incoming spell.
Tinker whimpered. What would it do to the people whom she loved? All the people who looked to her for protection? Would anything be left after the oni had crushed all the resistance?
The End