Old Friends and Old Business

[Harry Dresden]

The gates hadn't shut yet, though a guard informed him that they would close at sundown, which would be in about seven hours. A quick line of questioning revealed that there was a keep in those woods where the ghouls seemed to be coming from. The soldiers couldn't get close; something was stopping them. They were due to get support from a magician in Dalaran in a few days, but until then all they could do was respond whenever they could. Harry had mused that they needed better communication and lookouts, and set off for the magically fortified keep.

It hadn't taken long for him to run up against the wards. Their structure was fairly sturdy, and familiar. He examined the magical energies closely; they looked like interlocking, small structures. Legos of magic. They'd stand up to a brute force assault and keep on kicking, but they weren't as strong individually as they were together. An attack targeting just one piece of the wards would bring it down easily, and the others would follow suit. Harry gathered his will, pointed his staff at one of the pieces, and muttered the spell; "Forzare." The sphere of force shot forward and punched a hole in the small bit of ward he'd targeted, and the others around it fell in an invisible cascade of force. "Sloppy."

The keep loomed ominously in the middle distance, and Harry advanced cautiously, staff and blasting rod at the ready. It was entirely possible he'd been meant to get past those wards, after all.