Once all of the Summoned Beasts were so adorned, they were sent back to the Beast Realm to conserve the Mana of their Summoners... and, Obai’s old companion Kola-nose the Diamond Tusk Elephant told him, to show off their new looks!

Then the Contracted Beasts and Plants were treated as the Summoned ones had been. Archmage Obai’s own Burning Acacia Tree now had literally dozens of the sacred electrum Fires Burning mistily upon it, every limb that could strike now a weapon ready to wound and Burn the Undead or Creatures of the Dark. Its fiery nodes and clusters of seeds, as well as scarlet leaves, were now accented by true Flames of Holy sort burning all about it, an incredibly eye-catching thing!

His comrade Jihim’s proud emerald-scaled Kongmato, his family the only lineage in the world known to contract with the great Dragon-Birds, perched in the branches of Obai’s Burning Acacia as it moved to cover the main entry to the city, rising over walls hastily thickened and raised even further, though they might as well have been made of wax before the claws of a King Beast.

As each Beast was treated, they were firmly reminded on how NOT to fight the Undead, paying strict attention to her and her words, especially the Canines, Cats, Snakes, Lizards, Gators, and two Ironscale Saurial Drakes among the ranks of the Contracted Beasts.

While the Beasts looked impressive, it was the Plants that were the most stunning, mostly because of their sheer size and many tendrils and limbs. The Trees brought forth were the most daunting, but the Vines that rooted themselves before the walls and formed a thorny hedge of electrum flames all about the city were probably the most dangerous, given their reach.

Commander Briggs and the Wolverine Hunters had already left the city, there to begin the process of harassing King Mogobo and keeping track of where it was. It was less than an hour before magic was both visible and could be felt on the horizon.

The eight men who’d gone to build the buildings had departed with them. Somehow, they had excavated out sufficient underground shelters, complete with air circulation, water flow, sanitation facilities, and space enough for all the refugees, along with illumination, and even an escape tunnel that led UNDER the river nearby!

The Earth mages that he worked with had been utterly astounded by the sheer skill and control of the men from Michigan, the rock and stone moving to their thoughts and command as easily as if it were water. The whole design was executed swiftly and decisively, like something done hundreds of times before!

Doing such a thing would have drained the native mages of Earth Mana entirely, but the Wolverine Hunters had simply done it as if it was nothing special, and gone off with the others.

It was both shameful to not be their equals, and extraordinarily generous of them!

Archmage Obai sighed as he considered the open areas beyond the city walls. The area for a full mile back was unobstructed by trees, only the occasional wooden dwelling that was likely going to be destroyed in the fighting to come, a risk those who lived there had chosen to take. Now, they were likely all inside the city with their cattle and chickens, rows upon rows of corrals and coops set up to accommodate them and their feed animals. Cans of paints were used to mark the animals, and although some greedy fools would doubtless abuse it, it was the fairest thing they could do under the circumstances.

He had a Sage, here in his city, which meant he was not in control of his city. As she wasn’t Ojibwae, the greedy miser, and had brought salvation in many forms, it was not a bad situation.

A Sage who was younger than his daughter, had a unique Noble Fox and a Monkey Ruler for Bound Beasts, and control of Magicks he had never seen before. He had quietly had a couple of his more tech-savvy underlings go looking, and word that she was a Sage had not made it onto the internet.

If it did, she was already one of the most famous Archmages in the world. She would turn the world of magic upside down if it was confirmed she had that much power already! All by itself, it validated her path of the Typeless Element Mage!

She was doing something with Air and Lightning Magic now, he could feel the power boiling in the air above them. The clouds that were slowly streaming in seemed rather too white, however, so he wondered what she was doing with them, even though they also seemed to be preternaturally heavy with incipient rain, a squall ready to fall at any second.

But they did not do so, merely gleaming oddly overhead in the night sky, brooding and ready.

“Is there any way I may be of assistance, Healer Fae?” he asked, deciding that a Title good enough for a Vassal of a High Emperor Beast was good enough to be used by him!

It took him a moment to realize he had addressed her in his native tongue, as opposed to English or French, and she may not have understood him. Then he realized he had understood her perfectly earlier, and so thought she’d been speaking his own language...?

“Save your Mana for the fighting to come, Elder,” she replied politely. “Do you have the Adept spells of all your Elements? I will supply them for you now if you do not.”

He found himself laughing despite himself. “I am not a tremendously wealthy man, but I did manage to bid for positions and secure all of the Spellhouse spells for myself, thank you.”

“The ability to heal the Plants of yourself and your allies is going to be important here. They are the single best defenders you will have, as they are not subject to the soul-striking effects of many of the Undead attacks. You and your people are doing your reputations and Traditions proud as Summoners and companions to the Green, Elder. Well done!” she nodded to him.

The slender Archmage found his chest puffing out almost in spite himself. Such praise from a Sage was very uplifting, even if she was barely a third his age! “Our ways are old and well-proven,” he bowed to her in reply. “Africa has the fewest Beast Waves of any of the continents for a reason!”

“Indeed it does,” she agreed. Her skin was dark enough to almost be one of his own people. He wondered what tribe she hailed from, especially if she understood his own language so readily. “Our largest problem will be the Plants’ lack of mobility, as we do not know the direction King Mogobo will attack from. I will add to the defenses, but our true power will be in the Ward, and the Light Mages empowering it.”

He was about to ask her what she would be bringing in to help them now when a Plant burrowed out from around her feet in a spiraling, loving embrace of thorned stalks, the razored points gleaming like the edges of crystalline knives edged in gold, the emerald stalks glinting like crystals.

The buds of the flowers opened on the plant, and Archmage Obai nearly cried out in awed wonder.

An Imperial Rose Bloodline!

No, TWO of them!

He had seen a handful of King-level Plants, all of them with absorbed or enhanced Lineages improved with great time and effort by their Contractors. He had never seen an Imperial Plant or its Bloodline, as they were sought after with crazed determination by the most powerful masters of Plant Magic and hoarded away safely as the priceless things they were, gifts to a Great Family that could enrich and empower them for generations!

The Roses opened, and as he could sense, they indeed were of different hues!

One was blazing with vivid scarlets, oranges, and yellows, the hues shifting and glowing like flames themselves, brimming with a power any Beast of Fire or Light would instantly respect.

The other blossoms were diamond silver, cold gleaming perfection frozen in a moment of time, petals with the subtlest shadings of blue, violet, and purple hinted at in the complex layers of the bloom, water condensing on them and refracting the ambient light hypnotically as it froze in impossibly delicate tears.

She noticed him gaping at the interwoven Plants. “Ah, this is the Golden Heavenly Sun Rose and the Crystal Starsilver Moon Rose. As you can see, they complement one another amazingly. They will have no difficulty commanding and coordinating the defense of the many Plants.”

He could only watch in disbelief as the Flowers opened up further at her touch, while their vines poured over the edge of the city wall, down and past her as they grew and grew and grew...

He stepped up to watch as they wove through the Vines and Brush, around and through the Trees, and none of the famously territorial sapient Plants dared to act against the Imperial Roses. He could sense them extending to a massive distance out of sight, and knew that in addition to being Imperial Plants in Lineage, they were also at least Duke-Tier themselves!

Healer’s Fae’s fingers touched two great Blossoms opened to nearly the size of her head, and her Holy Electrum Fires burned upon them... them, and dozens of other Roses, and more importantly, every single one of the six-inch dagger-thorns upon the Roses!

Fires ignited in streams and clusters, joining those already burning upon the Plants arrayed outside the walls, gleaming with new heat or chilling light that did not harm any of the other Plants, but only seemed to fill in any gaps among them with hundreds, nay, thousands of new waiting Holy Fires!

Archmage Obai found himself swallowing as he looked at what just that one interwoven pair of Roses could do. Those thorns looked like they could slice and stab through solid steel without effort, and he had just seen them expand with whip-like speed and control.

There was no one in the world who would publish the fact they had an Imperial Plant and were using it. He certainly would have heard of it, especially anything as stunningly lovely as the interwoven Roses!

“Healer Fae,” he asked in a small voice, “may I ask where you gained your Roses?”

“The tendrils of Crystal Icerose Emperor and Burning Firerose Emperor form the foundation of the nests of Ice Phoenix Emperor and Fire Phoenix Emperor respectively. In ancient times, they would pollinate one another using the Phoenixes to carry their seeds and pollen back and forth. I was able to convey one to the other, and the conjoined Flowers are from the seeds of that most recent pollination, elder.

“Naturally I have also been nourishing them with my own Mana to aid their growth, with somewhat unique evolutions happening to them as a result.”

“Somewhat unique evolutions...” Archmage Obai repeated numbly. A seedling from two Plant Emperors! She had a Plant Companion equal to the most legendary Plants in the world! He was not sure that there was a Plant in all of Africa with as noble a Bloodline as her Roses!

She walks with the Will of Emperors...

“Do you have a Beast Tide you like to Summon, Elder?” she asked him calmly.

He blinked, and realized instantly where she was going with that. “I do!” he confirmed quickly. “Do you wish me to Summon them?”

“Inform them of why quickly, so I may treat them quickly and you may return them equally as quickly,” she nodded to him.

Archmage Obai smiled as he reached out for Kola-nose. His Diamond-Tusked Elephant Companion had many kin who had gathered under his protection as he grew stronger, long become a Duke of his kind with the aid of Obai over time. Many of them were weaker, only Crystal or Steel-Tusked, but for a Beast Tide, that was generally more than enough, as scores of massive Commander-level Elephants pounding through a position and trampling flat everything in the way was the normal result of Summoning a Beast Tide so powerful.

Despite his misgivings and somewhat fearful awe, Archmage Obai found himself smiling.

The Holy Flames that Healer Fae would be putting on Kola-nose’s herd might not have much effect on things not of Dark Mana... but when a Beast Tide of great Elephants was shaking the world and coming down on you, Holy Flames blazing from feet and tusks and trunk, was anyone going to care that the Flames wouldn’t actually burn them?

They’d just scream and try to run!

Laughing quietly, he did remember that he should have those Summoners under him do much the same thing...