Last Thursday, on April 28th, the magical world was shaken by the news of another attack by the enemy forces. The runic bridge designated to evacuate the students and Staff of Bothwell was blown up as a result of sabotage, effectively cutting the school off from the rest of the world.
Three days of silence from Bothwell made us fear the worst – the enemy had won; the lives of the Staff and students were lost.
And then, on the night of April 30th, the magical world received news from an unexpected source: the Paladins from Bodiam.
According to their account, Bodiam had been surrounded beyond the hope of escape, fending off the enemy until somehow, someway, the civilians could be evacuated. For two weeks, they had been sending out calls for aid and for two weeks there was no response – until finally, last Thursday, their message reached Bothwell.
Faced with the possibility of sharing Bodiam’s fate, Bothwellians discovered a way to open a portal which, if properly fuelled, would allow all Staff and students to evacuate before they, too, became trapped. Risking their lives, Bothwellians organised several missions to Golden Hollow, an area infested by White Fang terrorists, in order to gather resources and redirect the portal to safety.
We are told that they ran out of time on Saturday evening. With the enemy breaching the wards around Bothwell, the Staff and students had just enough crystals to power their portal.
And yet, in an astonishing gesture of bravery and compassion, they sent the crystals to Bodiam, allowing for the safe evacuation of 70 civilians and 20 Paladins at the cost of their own lives.
What does it mean for Bothwell? According to Astoria Ritter of the Bodiam Outpost, the Bothwellians decided to fight their way through the battlefield of Golden Hollow. We don’t know whether they made it through, but both the Guardian Order and the Rosencrantz Order have sent reinforcements to retrieve as many survivours as possible.
There was one more unexpected outcome of those dramatic events.
On the night of April 30th, the sky lit up with a flare sent from the Bodiam Outpost. For the first time in centuries, Bodiam has abandoned neutrality to join the witchards in the war.
We are no longer alone.