The town of Wallsend had once been exactly what its name implied. In an earlier era, the route to Newcastle had been fortified by an outer wall stretching in a rough semi circle almost ten leagues from the port, turning the entire peninsula into a sort of immense fortress keeping out the marauders and savage war bands. Wallsend had originally been the site of a 'league fort' constructed along the wall to provide housing for the garrison, anchoring the northernmost end of the peninsula on which Newcastle stood. But that had been long ago.

As the Kingdom of Albion had gradually become more tightly unified and siege technology improved, the wall had become obsolete and unnecessary. It had been gradually dismantled, its stones becoming the building material for a trio of outer fortifications that ringed Newcastle proper. An attacker would have been forced to reduce these castles in turn or else risk harassment from the rear while moving on to siege the city itself.

The castles too had fallen by the wayside with time. Two had been completely demolished in previous conflicts and uprisings. Their high stone walls built to resist trebuchet and ballista had been no match for cannon. They lived on now in Newcastle's modern fortifications, supplemented with brick to absorb the impact of cannon shot. Ironically, the advent of cannons had also sparred the last castle, after a fashion.

Gunpowder had first been brought to the continent by traders from Rhub Al Khali. The recipe for producing the most effective mixtures, the exact ratio of sulfur, to saltpeter, to charcoal, and the optimal size and shape of the powder grains, had all been a closely held secret for a time, but only a time. The Kingdoms of Halkegenia had seen the utility of gunpowder for themselves and had wasted little time in replicating the far eastern Kingdom's advanced weapons. In concert with magic, it was a powerful new tool for siege and naval warfare. In fact, it had been the advent of shipboard cannons that had spurred confidence for the second to last crusade.

A modern war demanded large quantities of gunpowder. More than could readily be produced by an army in the field, making its manufacture, storage, and transport essential to a campaign. Gunpowder production was dangerous, requiring skill to prevent sparking while producing a high quality product that would ignite reliably and with a degree of consistency in power to be made useful in gunnery. An accident in production could not be allowed to spread or a whole powder mill could be destroyed in a matter of moments.

The Castle at Wallsend had found new life, its walls reinforced with fire wards and turned to the task of holding destructive forces in rather than weathering them from without. The stone of its keep and turrets had been recycled to construct the mill buildings, and its dungeons and cellars had been converted into powder storage.

Despite all that, it was still a castle, built to keep people out. Getting in undetected would not be easy. Not for normal humans anyways. Fortunately, they weren't normal. It was questionable whether half of them were even human. In the dimness it was impossible to tell the mages from the Faeries, all were garbed in deep blue cloaks meant to conceal them and break up their profiles in the dark of the night.

Slipping free from Newcastle had proven half the challenge. The Rebel forces had the city encircled just outside of cannon range, but they were reluctant to approach the fortress walls as long as the Royalists could still use their own cannons. Newcastle had been a Naval Port and there had been ample cannon shot stocked before the siege had started. In fact, the only thing they were short on was gunpowder.

Moving through the ruins of the city under the cover of twilight, they had made use of an old underground canal to make their way out into the marshland beyond the siege. From there, their small group of trained mages and blooded Fae had managed to slip away without being spotted. But there had still been close calls. The Rebel patrols might have been unwilling to approach the Fortress, but they were diligent in their sweeps of the surrounding countryside.

The journey to Wallsend had taken the better part of an hour on foot. The Faeries had natural speed and endurance while the mages utilized a wind speed buff to keep pace, allowing them to make good time even over broken ground. They had arrived at the edge of the forest overlooking the town and its attendant castle just as the sun completely set.

The castle wasn't very big. A squarish set of walls surrounding an inner courtyard and rectangular keep. Even in its prime it would only have been able to house a small contingent. And by now, with its outer walls partially dismantled and much of the interior taken up by storage and the milling equipment, there wasn't much space left for accommodations. The responsibility for housing the local garrison had been transferred to a more modern Fort built on the far side of the town.

Asuna blinked, feeling her vision returning to normal with a slight sense of disorientation, like she'd been starring at a computer monitor for a bit too long. At her side, Prince Wales lowered his spy glass.

"No sign of extra dragon patrols." The Prince observed. "It is as we expected. The Rebels have grown complacent."

"Yeah, well, I'd probably be pretty complacent too if I knew all my enemies were bottled up or dead." Caramella whispered at Asuna's side.

"Don't get too confident." Asuna warned, recalling the information that had been given to her by Wales' subordinates. "The troops here at Wallsend are front line forces."

"And traitors to King and Country!" The young mage knight Lucane spat at the ground at his feet.

"That may be." Wales agreed. "But this is not the time for vengeance. Ending the lives of traitors is not our goal tonight." The Prince's eyes narrowed. "Am I understood Lucane?"

The Knight placed a hand to the hilt of his sword-wand. "Of course, my Prince." He said reluctantly.

"Good." Wales said. "Now then. The castle only has a light garrison. Most will be quartered in the new Fort. If the castle guards are alerted we may still be able to complete our mission, but if they alert the Fort . . . That cannot be allowed."

There would be killing tonight. Guards would have to be taken by surprise and eliminated before they could sound the alarm. Cold blooded murder. But that wasn't what they were here for. Asuna looked over her shoulder. There were twenty four of them in total. Twelve Faeries and twelve of the Royalists' surviving Mages. All of the Faeries had seen battle and all of the mages were of at least line class.

"Lady Asuna, take Lydel and his men with you." Wales said to Asuna. Though they had planned the mission together. Once the operation had begun, there could be only one leader. Asuna and the other Faeries had agreed to subordinate themselves under the Prince for the duration. Wales turned to a sullen looking mage who's clothing was festooned in small pouches. "Lydel, take your men, go with Lady Asuna and destroy the stores as we planned. The rest of you, with me."

"Yes Sir." Lydel nodded softly.

The mage and three of his fellows came to stand at Asuna's side. Lydel and the others were 'sappers', combat engineers. Their job on this mission was to make sure that the powder stores were completely destroyed, and the mill along with them. The task of protecting the sappers while they worked had been left to Asuna and three of the other Knights of Blood, Caramella, Ivan and Shio. The rest would go with Wales. There task was two fold, to eliminate the patrolling guards and any unexpected arrivals, and see to the mill's stocks of sulfure.

"Lydel, Bartholomew, Lucane. Start your time pieces now. We have seventy minutes to complete our tasks and return here." The gathered mages each removed a hefty pocket watch and did as instructed. The watches apparently weren't very accurate, but they could at least be expected to keep reasonable time for a little over an hour.

"Good luck, Kino." Caramella gave her partner a wave as she followed after Asuna.

Sweeping in from the forest, moving in a crouch through the grass, the walls of the old castle, the powder mill, rose up above them. It was a dark and almost moonless night. They would be almost invisible, but the guards would also be on high alert for any suspicious signs. This was the most dangerous part of the mission. Before they were inside the walls. The guards had the high ground and could sound an alert that would be heard by the main garrison forces stationed on the opposite side of the town. The only advantage they had was the element of surprise.