taxonomites | [Location: Holo Taxon]

Briar buried each of his hands in a jar of the temple's medicine supply, green energy flowing from his fingers into the dried plants. The medicines were due for a renewal, and this would double their strength. They would be needed.

The Yanxing emperor had decided his empire was not vast enough, and his troops were coming. A temple might be a terrible thing to target, but it was a strategically sound one. Living Circle temples were centers for mages and healers, and they would be as vital to the defense of Gyongxe as civilian militia. Briar's first priority was always Rosethorn and Evvy, but doing everything he could to help temple mages and healers survive the onslaught came in a close second. Time was limited, and he set aside his current jars to move on to the next pair.

Bells rang, a warning rather than a call to service. Briar's head snapped up. Extending his magic through the network of plants in and around the temple, Briar withdrew as several of them died. The temple was burning. Where were Rosethorn and Evvy?

Briar ran toward the fires rather than away, keeping an eye out for Rosethorn's familiar green magic as he went. She would always be where she could do the most good, unless she were looking out for someone. He stopped very briefly to pull a jar of burn salve and three cloth-wrapped balls of thorn seeds from the kit slung over his back, then broke into a sprint. He had to find them.

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Briar might not be able to find Rosethorn's magic at that moment, but he would, if he kept going, find himself faced with Willow's. Her eyes were pitch black and she had a barrier up around herself, between her and the hellgod in front of her. She was chanting something in Latin, but as soon as she became aware that someone was approaching, she turned around.

"No! Don't come here! She'll-"

But the distraction was enough for Glory to gain control, pushing past Willow's barrier and sending the witch flying through the air towards Briar. Willow scrambled up, breathing hard.

"She's too strong!"

Briar only spared a second to glance down the hallway past Willow and Glory, hoping to see Rosethorn and Evvy. Then he tucked the thorn balls and burn salve into a belt pouch for easy access. Briar used a tiny tendril of magic to release the hemp ties holding his knives in their wrist sheaths so that the weapons could drop into his hands. "That seems like all the more reason for me to stay," he informed Willow matter-of-factly. "I can help fight, and I can probably reinforce that barrier, or at least come up with a secondary one."

"You can?" She was confused, but hey, who was she to deny help when she needed it? Thinking quickly, she pulled out a pouch from her pocket. A small bag was pulled from that and thrust into the boy's hands. "One pinch of that, one of this." Another was handed over as she took out two as well. "I'm gonna let the barrier down. When I throw mine on her, you do the same. It'll take a minute to work, but hopefully... it will."

She had a plan. A teleportation plan. If it worked, Glory would be far gone from them in a matter of seconds. And Willow would likely end up with a nosebleed again, but she didn't care. It would be worth the trouble.

Briar used his own power to test what was in the bags. Crushed dried plants. Well then, perhaps he would be more use than he'd expected in what the unfamiliar mage attempted. "Give me just a minute."

He wrapped his magic around the contents of each bag, strengthening the ingredients. They regained the power that fresher plants would have, reminded of what they had once been. Briar took pains to do so in equal measure for each in order to maintain the balance necessary for whatever use she intended to put them to. He might not be much help for the actual spell, but he could make it easier for her to cast. "Alright, whenever you're ready."

Willow didn't have time to ask what he was doing. Her attention was on Glory and her barrier. Once he said he was ready, she nodded. "Okay! Letting it go now!" And she dropped the barrier.

Glory started walking towards them, all catty bitchiness, complaining about how the barrier had ruined her hair and pissed her off. Willow stood her ground, knowing how to fight this enemy. Once Glory was close enough, Willow yelled, "Now!" and tossed her components forward, showering the hell-god in a mess of glitter.

She didn't even stop to breathe, chanting softly in Latin for a few seconds as Glory looked around.

"Oh come, on glitter? Really? That's so-"

Willow cut her off mid-sentence with a clap of her hands. Glory disappeared in a flash of glitter and Willow fell to the ground, now nursing a bloody nose.

"...It worked."

He flung the powders forward at Willow's request, eyes widening upon seeing their results. He wasn't had no idea what language she had been chanting, but Glory's disappearance spoke volumes. Willow seemed a little surprised by this development too.

Briar knelt down next to her, suppressing his bigger question for the more important one. "Are you alright?" He offered an arm for help to sit up if she wanted it. Since he had the supplies with him, Briar pulled a handkerchief from his kit and handed it to Willow.

The plant mage managed to contain his curiosity only long enough to make sure that Willow wasn't suffering any more severe aftereffects than the nosebleed. "How did you do that? I wasn't sure what you were trying, so I couldn't do anything other than strengthen the plants used in those powders." Even if he'd known, Briar would have been of no further assistance. Briar had never heard of anyone with power quite like this, and he certainly didn't possess it himself.

Willow managed to sit up, pressing the handkerchief to her nose. "I'm fine. Thanks." At least it wouldn't be a week-long nosebleed this time. She was far more powerful than the last time she'd attempted something like that. "It's probably not going to be a permanent fix, but it'll at least give us some time." She just didn't know how much. One of the kinks in that spell had always been exactly where the target got teleported. For all she knew, Glory would be right behind them.

She looked around carefully to be sure that wasn't the case before she answered the other questions.

"It's part of my witchy magic. I don't use it much since there's still a few kinks to work out a-and it's a really powerful teleportation spell. But for something like this? Definitely worth trying."

"Yes, but you were using plants. I'm a plant mage, a strong one, and I couldn't sense what you were doing." The chants made it seem more like academic magic than ambient, but even so, Briar couldn't name a single mage he'd heard of who could make people truly vanish to suddenly appear in another location.

Briar heard a dull thump from the direction of the gates and winced. The emperor's war mages had entered the fight for real. That was the crack of a projectile hitting the wall. The temple mages were starting to slip. After another worried look down the hallway toward the gates, Briar turned back to Willow. "Can you move?" he asked, voice soft and serious. "This isn't a safe place to be anymore. The gates won't hold long." He remembered just how little time there was, the pulse throbbing in his ears serving as a countdown. If Briar didn't move quickly, he would lose his chance to find Rosethorn and Evvy, to escape from the temple.

"The powder stuff's just something to help the spell. It's not what actually does it."

But she nodded anyway, glancing around. She couldn't quite hear what had him worried, but she'd trust him after he just helped her deal with Glory. Or whatever vision of the hell-god that had been. She pushed herself to her feet and nodded again.

"Where should we go?"

She'd follow him if he had any ideas. Otherwise, she would just run off in a random direction and how they got to safety. Sooner rather than later.

That did make sense. If plants were inherently capable of such a thing, Briar's magic would be able to access that. Willow's power was still very impressive, even if Briar couldn't hope to replicate a bit of it.

"You," he told her, just the slightest emphasis on that first word, "should go that way, second left, first right after that, and out the side gate. Quick, before the emperor's troops cut off that escape route." He looked stubborn enough that arguing with him would obviously not do much good. "I've got someone to find before I leave," Briar informed Willow grimly.

Just because he looked stubborn about her leaving didn't mean she would actually obey him. Willow wasn't in any mood to leave him alone, not now when they both clearly needed the help. She shook her head.

"Not alone. I'll follow you, but I-I'm not leaving without you."

[Location: Holo Taxon]

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