Arcata was still and pensive on her horse near Sha'ah. This would be where her legacy was decided. They had to do more than just win. They had to win decisively. If too few men lived, there wouldn't be enough to hold the fort should the beastmen return. In theory more people might come, in time. But how many, and in how long?
From the moment she'd learned the fort was occupied, she'd known it would come to this...live or die, here on the frontier. Knowing that didn't make it any easier though.
"Sha'ah," she said quietly. "Let me start the lights before you blow the horn. I can only do a handful at a time. Once I've gotten a few groups out, start sounding. I'll keep lighting as you sound three times. By that time, the others should have hit the breach."
She took a breath to steady her nerves, concentrating briefly on blank white; a trick for control she'd learned at the Magisterium.
"Then get on my horse behind me. We'll take some shots at the beastmen on the way to the breach to join the fight."
Arcata couldn't help but fret, though she tried to keep it from her face even if Sha'ah was the only one to witness. Had she done all she could? Should she have given a speech to rally the men? Their spirits seemed all right to her, but would they show their fears when she was there?
Minutes dragged by. She squinted at the black mass of the fort in the fog.
"They should be in position by now. I'll start the lights. Give me a minute or so, then start the horn."
The cantrip was easy, and oddly soothing. Magic was something familiar, something old and comfortable. It sprang from her blood with the confidence of a child who had not yet learned the world could be cruel.
In the fog before the gates of the keep on the borderlands, lanterns of cold blue light began springing into existence. They arrived in irregular clumps, moving impatiently to and fro. Their bearers were not in sight...shrouded in the enveloping mist.
(Spamming Dancing Lights. Each group of lights starts low and she moves them up so it seems like they're slowly being lit, not just suddenly appearing. Each round she casts as a standard, and use her move to move someof the lights she's already cast. She makes them in staggered, interlocking patterns, so it's not obvious they're coming in groups...and she doesn't move entire blocks, but rather just a few at a time, to further make them seem like individuals. Within a few rounds they start to organize in to ranks, like an army would.)