Network

Network
Celari landed two streets away from the park in a controlled dive that scattered loose gravel across the pavement, her wings folding back into arms before her feet had fully settled, Asha clutched against one hip and the baby secured in the careful sling that had accommodated Celari’s shift. 
The street was in chaos.
Frythgrove and Vuldran knights converged from three directions at once, drawn by the alarm and commotion. Even the civilians who had been going about their evening business were scattering toward doorways and side streets away from the area.
"Have there been other attacks across the capital?" Celari asked the first knight who reached her, her voice sharp with the effort of staying calm for the children's sake. "Where is the king?"
The knight's face did something complicated.
"The king and the king of Bharin haven’t returned to the capital," he said. "There haven’t been any other incident, but we’re sweeping the streets just to be safe. 
"Then why do you look like you have nothing under control?"
The knight glanced at his partner, who had gone slightly pale then back at Celari.
"The incident at the pack is over. Per the knights nearer, Lady Isorai and Lady Rangiora are just fine. Lady Isorai dealt with them. We’re… just a bit surprised.”
She blinked. “Already?”
He nodded. “By the reports, she had killed them all before you had even landed.”
He cleared his throat. "We're still assessing the damage to the park and the surrounding areas. There's a light running south from the park, connecting the streets to the palace that none of us know the purpose of yet. We’re waiting on word from the palace.”
Celari shivered. Isorai was truly terrifying.
She turned back as a shape in black flew toward them, moving fast and low. Rangiora was cradled in her arms. She landed in the street a moment later, and Celari's breath caught at the sight of her.
She was clean.
That should have been impossible given what the knights had just described. No blood on her clothes, no scorch marks, no trace of whatever violence she had used, either. Her hair was settled. Her expression was relaxed, and Rangiora was curled against her shoulder, quiet now, thumb tucked near her mouth.
"You three okay?"
Celari nodded. 
"Good. I'll explain more later, for now, we get the girls settled and check on the injured. Let’s get you back to the palace.”
"Okay," Celari said.
She shifted Asha higher on her hip and reached out to brush a hand along Rangiora's hair as the knights fell into formation around them. They walked back toward the palace together through streets quickly. When the three of them were on palace grounds, Isorai called Ruhkaal and Draevir. 
“I need you both back here as soon as you can manage.”
“Something happened?”
“Another attack with Blighted. I think there are more in the city. We can’t let them escape, so were’ going to do the ritual for Vuldra tonight.”
She felt his surprise move through the bond before he nodded. 
“We’ll head back now.”

Ruhkaal and Draevir arrived at the palace within the hour, Draevir still riding the high. Ruhkaal was grim and focused, barely holding back his fury from whatever he’d heard about the attack. Celari had taken the girls deep into the palace's interior, surrounded by every available knight in the royal quarters. The baby slept through it all, but it took some time to get Rangiora and Asha to settle. 
Twilight was settling over the capital. The sky bruising toward purple at its edges, and Isorai stood in the central courtyard with Ruhkaal and Draevir flanking her. 
"This isn't going to be gentle," she warned, summoning the book. 
“Is that a grimoire?” Draevir asked, his eyes wide.
“It is.” She smiled. “I imagine your grimoires will be in Bharin castle.”
“Multiple?”
She nodded and looked at Ruhkaal. “Ready?”
He nodded.
She took a deep breath and started the incantation. The pages lit up and the stones beneath her feet rumbled. She pulled from Draevir and pushed his power south and southwest to the trees there, raising the protective hedge connected to the Great Tree's network. 
She sent Ruhkaal’s fire deeper into the earth and pushed it out to every volcano in the territory, filling every channel that was open, until they glowed against the bruised sky and shadows at the edges of the territory. 
The wind howled and turned bitter cold. Draevir gasped, likely watching her hair turn white and the roar of white fire starting to blaze. She pushed her mind out through the lattice over Vuldra. Every Blighted member of the Southern Council’s packs  in the capital stuck out in the lattice as bright points of red light. 
The humming harmonized with the lattice. She tightened the net to ensnare every one of them and pushed deeper beneath the city, beneath the forest and all the way out to the sea. 
The continuous green wall to the south surged up. The root systems dove deep and wide, threading outward until they hit the darkness she was searching for. 
She pushed the fire to follow. The heat poured along the roots into the deeper halls and trapping them, ensnaring them in a circle of heat until she could push the lattice down. 
One by one, they were caught.
The deeper wells began to fill with molten heat, warming the stone to unbearable heat. The Hall shrieked and thrashed racing to escape south, west, and north, but already trapped and isolated from the deeper Halls beneath the sea.
The lattice closed tight and directed the fire into it. Resistance was short-lived as the heat poured in, scorching the shrieking, wailing creatures in the dark and sending their energy back through the lattice into the sacrificial ritual. She drew the Blighted inward, gathering it up to cast it from the world. With every creature drawn in, the trees grew stronger, the first burned hotter and filled the wells faster. 
The screaming that followed echoed up through the earth, but there was nothing to answer it as the underworld gathered and sucked them all down in little more than a whisper of wind and cold. 
The ground beneath the courtyard cracked open.
A stone skull rose through the fissure, vast and pale, its jaw unhinged as the ritual settled. Currency spilled out in a glittering, overflowing flood, filling the space around their feet. When the last coin fell, the skull closed and sunk back, leaving the earh unmarred. 
Draevir swooned on his feet with a giddy grin. 
“That was fucking cool…” He slurred. “When do we do that again?”
“Hopefully, never,” Ruhkaal panted, slumped over on the ground.
Above the palace, the ancient tower that had stood dormant and cold flared to life with golden fire. The flame burned high and bright above the capital. Its light swept outward in a wave that washed across the sky, settling a golden hue into the stone of every building it touched.
The barrier rose and locked into place around the entirety of Vuldra's territory, complete for the first time in generations.