"List them in order of proximity to you before we took you."

The poor Ifteli soldier is terrified and so so confused and this doesn't make it easier to suddenly remember all the names of commanders from other species divisions that she got some very brief introductions to earlier today– no, last night, it's nearly morning now. She has no idea what's happening to her except that this is the worst day of her entire life. 

She can remember the gryphon commander's name and rank, and his second-in-command, and she knows a sprinkling of names from the ratha and kyree and dyheli units. She can't remember any of the tyrill (lizard-people) names because she finds them unpronounceable. 

"That's probably enough that I can shut them down as long as they can't get through the shields in a serious hurry," Promise tells Leareth.

"How much of a hurry? I am confident I can buy you thirty seconds to a minute. Probably longer but I cannot be utterly sure of that, if they have sufficiently good mages." 

"Depends how smart they are."

"Because if they are smarter they will find more ways to be hostile and evade your orders?" Leareth shakes his head. "I - am at least confident I will know in time to rapidly Gate us out if we get into trouble. And you are un-killable anyway."

He takes a deep breath, and casts a sound-barrier over the two of them, just in case they're not in fact speaking too quietly for the soldier to hear. Not that she seems to be paying any attention.

"- Since it seems we are being forced to work closely together, I should tell you another relevant fact about myself, which is that I am also immortal. I am one of the only humans who is, it is difficult and the gods sabotaged all my early attempts to set it up for others. Also my method is - bad - so I would really, really prefer not to get killed now." 

"...your method is 'bad'?"

Leareth is very paranoid about sharing details of this, but - it's relevant and he's kind of being forced to trust Promise, right now, and so far he hasn't actually seen any indication that he shouldn't trust her. "It involves killing someone each time I have to come back. Also it takes weeks to months and I would end up far from here and missing much of my memories, so it would be ruinous in terms of organizing any kind of response to this attack." 

Sigh. "Understood. I can heal you if you get hurt and don't die straight out."

"Thank you." Leareth casts a few more barriers to hold their prisoner, just in case. Not that it's even possible to get out of here without either a Gate or knowing the location of the well-hidden secret door. "Shall we go attempt this?" 

Nod.

Leareth re-establishes the scrying over the moving troops. They're spread out right now, which is annoying of them; the biggest amassment is the ground-cavalry section, now about a half-mile ahead of the foot troops and a mile behind the gryphon wing. He asks Promise if she would rather start there or with the gryphons, who are fastest and probably the most dangerous but also have much smaller numbers, only two dozen of them. 

"Gryphons first."

"You only know two of their names, right - do you need to capture those two and obtain the other names, or can you still fight the others with sorcery?" 

"I was going to have them tell me the others' names in the moment, and try to get more names for the remaining contingent next."

"All right. My plan is to bring us through the Gate and then immediately shield. If you need me to do any offensive magic or compulsions in addition to shielding, you can shout it to me or something." 

And he very carefully starts setting a Gate for about a hundred yards ahead of the gryphons, since they'll cover that distance in the time it takes to complete it. 

Promise has some wordings at the ready for as soon as they drop through. "I'm not actually sure your shields would block sorcery."

"Oh, it seems very plausible they would not, foreign magic and all–" a quick, tight half-smile, "that is why it seemed best to open on friendly terms with you. One reason among several." 

And then they're through, and half a second later, before any of the gryphons can react to the sudden Gate out of nowhere, he has a barrier-shield dome over both of them, holding off the burst of levinbolts that arrive a second after that. It's a very well-coordinated attack and he feels the strain of it, has to reach out for a node to replenish his reserves, but the shield holds solid. 

"HOLD," Promise hollers, and "state the names of all gryphons present, nearest to me first!" enforced only on the higher ranking of those whose names she has.

The gryphons at the lead immediately stop attacking and instead glide and coast to a landing, about thirty yards past the shield. Both of them, clearly incredibly confused, start listing names. Slightly talking over each other, and muffled at this distance, but it's mostly comprehensible. 

Snap snap snapsnapsnap "HOLD," she calls again, periodically through this performance, till they're all landed.

And then there's an uneven crescent of gryphons sitting where they landed on the snow-dusted tundra around them, unmoving, looking at her. 

"You know," Leareth says, "you are very scary." He's smiling, though. "What now. Will your orders hold them until we come back?" 

"Yes, though if we might not I'd like to give them a way out under some condition so they don't starve here."

"Yes, that makes sense. Is there a standard way out that you could specify?"