"Absolutely no idea. I was thinking of just trying several angles while you looked to see if there is any reaction."

"Sounds good," he agrees. He readies an uncoloured thread, making sure not to slip it inside the door. 

And Zephyrinus starts throwing pebbles in the doorway's general direction. There is non-zero reaction to them, but it's very mute.

"I'm not getting much of a reaction," he says. "There's something, but-" he shakes his head. "Maybe it'll need more reinforcement before anything can go through?" 

"Okay, let me try again." He does some more fortification.

The sound of someone approaching at a fast pace interrupts his attempt. A runner rounds a nearby hill, calling out when he sees them. 

"General Jaim! General, the fort is under attack!" 

Jaim snaps up from where he's crouched, watching Zephyrinus work on the portal. He begins running for the horses immediately. 

"We're going to have to cut this short," he calls back to Zephyrinus, "It seems the enemy has attacked the fort." 

As he mounts, he orders the messenger to give him a situation report. 

The attackers are a large force of Imperial mages who approached on foot under cover of invisibility illusions. The wards have been breached. They were working on breaking the walls down when he left roughly 40 minutes ago.

Zephyrinus takes a moment to change into his Hibera form and then follows. He covers himself in an ice armor.

"Back to the fort!" He orders his elites, "Push the horses as much as we safely can." 

He proceeds to follow his own orders, setting a fast pace back to Fort Kiat. 

The fort is burning when they get there, the walls long breached and fighting visible in the space between the buildings. Jaim directs his people to stay in pairs and watch each others' backs, and then rushes towards the Command Center. 

A few people try to get in his way. He gets them out of his way as quickly as possible with blasts of water, leaving them drenched but alive. The Nomad takes over after the third one, drawing lightly on his pool and enhancing it to do so. 

Okay, fort on fire. How about if you suddenly do not get to be on fire? The presence of water makes it convenient for Zephyrinus to create a giant ice prison where people can hang out until they are calmer (and willing to surrender). He is ruthlessly efficient, though not letal.

Anyone on the Cialin side thus released from combat immediately goes to the aid of the injured near them. They get a makeshift infirmary set up fairly quickly, the original building having been 1) set on fire and 2) covered in ice. 

Jaim, meanwhile, crashes through the door of the command center, running headfirst into the Commander in the middle of holding off a quartet of enemy mages, defending the stairs. The bottleneck of the hallway gives her a bit of advantage, as only two at a time can get close enough to attack. The other two are hanging back and throwing attacks in when they get the opportunity. Upon Jaim's entrance, they turn back, eager to face an opponent they can actually fight. 

Still in a hurry, he tries the same thing he was using in the soldiers outside, but these two are a higher calibre of mage - one of them counters by turning it to ice with a quick word, sending it back his way. He dodges, glancing anxiously at the stairs when he does so. He can just barely sense Ilek still up there, fighting off at least three others, with his baseline unextended senses. He's still not at 100% - his overuse of mana the day before, trying to get to Ilek during the ambush, and then the experiments earlier have taken their toll. He turns his full attention on the fight he's in, hoping to end it as quickly as possible. 

Zephyrinus is following him close, but in a sense, he is trying to keep track of multiple things at once. The fact that Jaim had to dodge an ice anything is personally offended, so he feels very strongly how ice should behave in that corridor: in their favor, maybe freezing balls of ice that prevent the attacker's mouth to close down without making them suffocate. Then they can be dragged away.

He glances back at Zephyrinus, briefly, grateful when the mages choke, and are dragged away.

The Commander falls heavily against the stairwell entry when her fight is interrupted, breath coming hard and hands going to a wound in her side. He looks back to her when she calls out.

"General, Prince Ilek- there were too many, I could not stop them all-" 

Jaim nods, rushing past her up the stairs, "I can sense them, Commander. See to your wounds, we can deal with this." She's too injured to get up the stairs, anyway. 

"Excuse me." Zephyrinus says, grabbing Jaim by the shoulders. And then he creates an ice ramp to slide up much faster.

He stiffens a little in surprise, but is more than happy to go along with the increase in speed. 

The second floor looks like a disaster area. It is no longer actively burning - only smouldering lightly - but the walls between the hall and the rooms have been destroyed in several places, the floor is similtaneously charred and slick with water, and blood splatters can be seen here and there.

Ilek is facing four Imperial mages, ducking in and out of the cover of the remaining walls, taking potshots at them when he has a chance. All of the mages have Artefacts - including at least one Greater one, an ornate Blade etched with lightning and clouds. When they reach the top of the staircase, the mage wielding that one turns quickly, tossing a storm of fire their way - without an incantation. 

Without any easily accessible earth to block it with (or the speed to do that in any case), Jaim quickly throws up a thick wall of water, which will hopefully block most of it on its own, and more if Zephyrinus freezes it. 

His mana pool is getting very low again. 

Oh, the wall is definitely frozen. And throw back. Though that's mostly a cover, so he can take they both to the ceiling. His people, he knows, need to create the habit of looking up and that's in a society where nearly everyone can fly.

The mage nearly falls over getting out of the way. Jaim helps him along with a carefully sourceless blast of wind, sending him sprawling to the soaked floor in another room. Then, he peers around from their new vantage point, trying to find Ilek with his eyes, before paying attention to his senses - that way, the room to the right.  

He taps Zephyrinus' shoulder, pointing in his brother's direction. 

There they go, with a snowstorm and a lot of ice pellets being thrown around as a distraction.

Two of the mages fall down under the torrent if ice, the pellets striking some vulnerable spot on their bodies. A third covers their head, ducking down behind some furniture for shelter. The mage with the Blade attempts to clear the indoor snowstorm by heating the air, so he can find where the interference is coming from.

Ilek is sat behind some furniture of his own, frantically trying to stem a heavily bleeding injury in his thigh.

"Shit," Jaim bites out, "He's not good at Life magic- can you set me down-"

"Yes. I will take care of them."

Blade mage, understand this: If Zephyrinus wants a room to be cold, that room will be cold. If you're going to use your toys for pointless exercises, maybe Zephyrinus should take your toys. Some strategically placed ice should do the trick.

Blade mage is alarmed and annoyed! He attempts to escape the ice, forming a cloak of lightning around himself - a futile effort, but one almost has to admire his tenacity. 

Duck-and-cover mage, meanwhile, is attempting to escape out a hole in the wall of the building. 

Jaim hurries to Ilek's side once he hits the ground, falling to his knees beside him and reaching for the wound. 

Ilek scampers back, alarmed, "What-" then he recognises his brother, "Jaim!" 

Agitated by the movement, the wound bleeds worse. Ilek scrunches up his face in pain, a panicky light in his eyes.