Mayor Gold Underwood. wood, nodded. Satisfied as she put the final touches on the hasty sigils, she dug into the ground with the point of her sickle. It was sloppy work by her usual standards, but it would help keep those company folks contained, and the fire would do the rest. She stood and stretched, working the kinks out of her back, and then nodded to Tobias, who had followed alongside her as she worked her way around the cabin in the woods, filling the symbols she etched into the ground with a mixture of lamp oil and some of the more specialized herbs and flowers she tossed into her little basket, the sort of things she kept on a high shelf out of the sight of prying eyes and the reach of curious fingers. They had been able to work in a tight circle, staying as far clear of the surrounding trees as possible with the aid of her daughter. Nina was a deft hand with a cloaking spell. It wouldn't keep them hidden from anyone who looked directly at them, but it was handy to deflect a casual glance out a window, say, and allow them to move all but silently. Now Ms. Marigold and Nina, Tobias and Franklin, and the other men gathered around the outside of that circle. One positioned at each of the 13 sigils Marigold had carved into the ground, the men all carried guns. And as Marigold nodded to the youngest one, Kristoff, he lit the torch he carried, and then those of the two men on either side of him. One by one, the assembled miners passed fire to one another. When the last of the torches had been lit, Tobias silently raised a hand. Across the circle from him, Franklin Moses raised his as well, so that any man from any point around the circle of wards would be able to see the signal. At Tobias' nod, he and Franklin both dropped their arms, fingers pointing down, and every man lowered his torch to set alight the symbol etched in front of him. Power thrummed through the ground as the sigils came to life at the touch of flame. It coursed down the double lines that connected each sign, gathering power and forming an impenetrable wall of magic-kissed fire. Startled, the men shuffled back a step or two. The Miss Marigold, Nina, and Tobias held their ground, and the others quickly settled. Standing straight, faces set with determination. The blessed fire bathed their faces in a righteous golden glow, and their shadows stretched long behind them. Tobias opened his mouth, ready to give a signal for the next part of the plan, when the cabin's front door opened. A short white man with a scar over one eye and heavy muscles packed into a finely tailored suit stepped onto the porch.