"Yeah." Onward, then.

There's other opponents to face - fortunately mostly weaker daedra, but it's enough that injuries both small and large start to accumulate on the two girls, and their potions will only go so far. Lilou heals herself whenever she has the magicka; it's turning out to be a better idea to close with the daedra than to stay back and blast, since most of them are stronger at range, so she doesn't have to ration quite as much.

But - she can heal herself, and Berengere can't, and that apparently means Lilou feels she should take the majority of the hits.

Berengere disagrees with this assessment. She is the one wearing heavy armor here, and Lilou's daggers will be more effective at finding weak spots when she's not also tanking hits. The greatsword doesn't require that kind of finesse.

......Fine. But they'll switch if they get low on healing potions.

Protecting people like this is what she's trained for.

...Yeah. Lilou knows.

She also wants to learn to heal others, though. Berengere - should remain in top form, so she can be as useful as possible.

She will.

Good.

The towers seem to be a bit of a maze, but... They're able to fight their way through, and end up meeting one of the guard who'd survived and escaped, and who's willing to follow them in to help retrieve his companion. 

It's not easy, but - 

They find the mechanism and get the gate closed. Fortunately, it then dumps them outside where the portal had formed. 

...That is fortunate. Getting back would have been- difficult.

...Yeah. Especially in time. 

Lilou's tired, bone deep - but the captain is rallying his men to at least help those trapped evacuate, and...

They can't afford to tarry.

Fatigue potion?

Will probably help with the physical parts. 

She's mentally tired, too, which sadly no one has invented potions for yet - though Berengere's presence is coming close. 

Pat?

Lean!

"We shouldn't wait too long to go in..."

"No."

Off, then, to join the guard as they form up for their rush into the city.

Hopefully there's still something left to save.

Some buildings, at least, though the place is crawling with scamps and clanfear and a few dremora. The scamps and clanfear seem to be just causing random destruction - or eating bodies, or flushing people out of basements to set them on fire and then eat them - 

Yeah, it's total chaos. On the bright side, the largest chapel must have been a converted fort or something, because it's still standing. The dense stone is turning away flame, and narrow high windows give the defenders room to shoot down some of the hordes of daedra trying to break down their doors, and also at the daedra trying to get into the other shelters.

Those same defenders are able to help make sure the tides turn - very reasonably keeping to sniping and pouring boiling lantern oil on attackers at first, but as the siege shatters the doors of the chapel open, and the guards and better trained civilians who'd gotten to shelter there advance out under support from priests armed with a bevy of scrolls and potions and spells, pivoting to help start clearing the city at least a little. 

With any luck, this will coincide with the guards' advance from the gate and they can catch the bulk of the daedra in a pin.

Seems to! It helps that the chapel is pretty far back, and while the keep hasn't kept it together nearly as well, there's still defenders remaining who can at least harry the daedra from a third direction. 

Junior acolytes fan out in the wake of the chapel's defenders to provide emergency medical aid to the wounded, and get anyone recovered who can't fight back into the chapel's walls until the chaos dies down. The smoke and unnatural clouds had been visible from a long ways off, too, and Kvatch's stables and therefore couriers weren't caught in the initial wave - reinforcements arrive early on, imperial patrols and a unit from Skingrad and several adventurers the most helpful. 

It'll be a long, long fight, though, and they might be clearing lesser daedra out of basements for weeks or months yet - but the clouds that had gathered over the gate begin to disperse, sending up a cheer among the defenders and shrieks among the daedra, and the day can be won far enough that they're mostly on a more controlled clean-up before sundown. 

Berengere and Lilou can tag out earlier - they start falling into loose shifts early in the fight, and Lilou's anxious to find Martin.

Besides, she can help fortify positions against retaliation much more effectively than she can stab daedra. One of those is more or less her actual job, and it isn't the knife work. 

They do have an empire to think about. Bigger than this one city.

They can duck into the chapel and start asking around.

People either have no idea who they're talking about or get suddenly very awkward (or oddly mullish) about the questions.

And eventually they attract the attention of one of the priests. A fairly high-ranking one, too.

"I understand the two of you are looking for a Brother Martin."

"Yes. We have an urgent message for him."

"Unfortunately, Brother Martin no longer exists."