As he would tell it to me afterwards, Michael was soon awoken by the sound of an enormous explosion: the sound of the Imperial Army destroying the city walls. As this happening was entirely expected, he knew what to do. He put on his armour, gathered his weapons, and headed to the watch tower for assignments.
When he got there, he was awestruck by the size and power of the enemy forces. They must’ve had more infantry brought to bear on this invasion than we had population in our entire state. On top of that, they had siege weapons and were not hesitating in the least to use them. It seemed they were less interested in conquest than wholesale destruction. There was no hope of resisting that onslaught.
“Commander! Reporting for duty, Sir!”
“About time! You’re the stablemaster’s lad, no? You’ve had melee training? I want you on the front lines! There’s a company forming in the armory right now. Get out there and kill some imperial scum!”
“Sir…!? We’re _fighting_ this? There’s no way! We’ve got to evacuate!”
“Evacuate to where, kid? Bah, you courtiers are all alike. Cowards, every one! Get out there!”
“Yes sir. Say, has Jenna been by for orders yet?”
“It don’t make one goddamn bit of difference to you if she has. Now get on the battlefield before I stab you myself and save the imperials the trouble!”
“Yes sir.”
Michael went down the stairs and walked right past the door to the armory. To go on the front lines against a force that size would be suicide. Half the city had already been destroyed. To escape alone into the untamed forest surrounding the city didn’t provide very good odds of survival either. Sleeping in the forest without someone awake to watch your back would be tantamount to sleeping under an enormous sign labeled “Eat me” if wolves could read signs. Amidst the chaos of the castle preparing for battle, however, there was almost no chance of finding somebody if you didn’t already know where they were.
That means if I had woken up when I should have that day, we’d probably both be dead.
I woke up in a fireman’s carry on Michael’s shoulders just outside the city walls. Well, to be precise, I woke up just as he was dropping me so that he could fight off imperial patrol that had gotten around to the far side of the city. Fortunately, I thought quickly and by the time I was half way to the ground I had cast Fireball. Unfortunately, I had just been dropped. From like six feet in the air! That really hurt!
The fireball simply destroyed the imperial patrol. They were probably all dead even before Michael went around and slashed them with his sword for good measure.
“You’re awake.” he said. His eyes were sunken into his grime and blood covered face.
“You dropped me.” I said, more as a defense mechanism against the shock of my surroundings than as actual repartee.
“Yeah, sorry. The empire has destroyed most of the castle. We’ve gotta move.”