Leareth groans and tries to sit up, rubbing his forehead. Flinging up a barrier in the fraction of a second's warning he had ate the last of his reserves, his shield-talisman is actually hot against his skin from taking the brunt of the rest, and his vision is wavering in and out. :Maitimo we have to move - get under cover...: He is not sure he's currently capable of standing. 

He can carry him - he's just got no idea where might even possibly be safe - well, not here. The window is shattered; what's outside like- 

Debris is everywhere. The sculpture nearby is now in fragments; the rosebush near their window is smouldering. 

There's movement, further off. To human eyes not much more would be visible, but the moonlight is plenty for Quendi vision to work with; there are humans in uniform, carrying weapons, soldiers presumably. There are some shapes that definitely aren't human, a pack of enormous wolf-like creatures and some large lizards standing upright; they are also wearing harnesses with weaponry, and moving coordinated with the rest. Searching.

An enormous feathered shape, not quite right to be a bird, swoops across the sky. 

Leareth starts grasping for a node, but - no, there have to be mages out there, currently they don't seem to know exactly where he and Maitimo are and if they're smart and well-trained then tapping a node will give it away. :I can cover us with an illusion: That doesn't take much power. :Go. We need to reach the Gate: 

He carries Leareth through the window, bounces everything he can see to Leareth who can presumably interpret it better than he can -

- looks through any available eyes anywhere in the city - how many soldiers are there, what's between them and the Gate -

The main wing with the Heralds' quarters is between them and the Gate. It's also in rubble, but many of the people inside seem to have gotten out alive. There are at least a hundred soldiers, human and not, convening on it now. 

The Gate is under attack. About a dozen Heralds are trying to hold it. None of them are mages. There are a dozen more of the winged creatures above it, making dives at it and being held off by - something, it's not clear. One falls in a crumpled heap to the ground. 

:Gryphons: Leareth sends, his mindvoice tense; he has to grit his teeth to hold the illusion together, even though it involves barely a whisper of power. :Either White Gryphon - clan k'Leshya - or Iftel. More likely Iftel. Vkandis. Uniforms might confirm - do you see sunbursts, sun insignia?: 

Yes.

And this is probably very rude but he osanwës Karis, directly - sends the uniforms - Iftel - Vkandis - What does He want -

What

Mindspeaking can deliver information more densely than speech; osanwë can't, but it can do richer. He can send the explosion, the view of the army from outside his window - not the view from the streets now, in case that gives it to the enemy - the sunbursts, Leareth's summary -

- what does He want, Leareth's not His enemy anymore - 

He is able to pick up distinctly fewer Heralds than he could at first. 

I have no idea what you mean! Iftel - Vkandis - I did not know there was any connection before today! My Suncat is not here - her thoughts go almost breathless-feeling with panic - perhaps because she knew–

If Quendi come through later I would like them to know it was beautiful here, he says, with a arguably-reckless degree of disregard for whether this will put her on bad terms with her god or something - there are even fewer Heralds - the path ahead of them is dense with the invading army, an illusion is not going to cut it -

:We need to make it to the Gate: Savil's mindvoice interjects. :None of the Heralds there are mages, can't get word out and we have to. I'm coming. Here: She flashes a sense of her location; it's not far, she's ducking around the rubble of the Heralds' Wing. :Is Leareth hurt?: 

Mostly tired - but very tired -

:Oh, you just Gated back, right, damn it– GAH!: She breaks off the Mindspeech connection. 

Leareth I don't see how we get to the Gate 

:Need to think a moment - was Savil–?: 

He lost the Mindspeech link but he can still find her eyes to look through, and show it to Leareth -

There are at least a dozen of the enormous winged creatures trying to dive at her. From the angle, she's crouched on the ground - but she's holding them off, amazingly, a shimmering barrier that throws off sparks every time they strike it, and she's trying to aim attacks past it as well but the gryphons are fast and they must be shielded–

:Can you get her mage-sight too: Leareth is drained enough that even stretching his Sight across that range is a challenge. 

- he can try to find and send that too -

Her barrier glows with magical energy, brighter where she's reinforcing it. Her attacks blaze with it. The gryphons' life-force shows up brightly as well, several of them with the additional glow that Leareth at least can interpret as indicating Gifts. They all have shield-amulets, not Leareth's design but a similar idea. 

Her barrier is weakening. 

And then something else wades in, something Leareth will recognize, a moving rippling area of space that's magic, smaller than a Vala, with no accompanying physical form at all.

It descends from behind the gryphons and where it meets the barrier the barrier's not there.

It envelops Savil. 

And her mage-sight vanishes. Then the view through her eyes is gone as well. 

No. NO. Every part of Leareth is screaming that this can't be happening, but - that is not, in fact, how reality works, he doesn't want it to be true but...they knew, already, that one of the Maiar had gotten out. He's not completely sure that he recognizes this Maia but he's fairly sure of it and it's one he absolutely doesn't want to meet again at all. 

Who can shut down Velgarth magic at short range, which has to be what just happened. 

Leareth's mind moves down a dozen paths and all of them are dead ends and he already knows the answer.

:Maitimo. We cannot, at this point, both get out. Are any Velgarth Herald-Mages still alive?: