Verna was desperate.
Her two armies of reinforcements had crumbled, while the remaining dark elf mages basically went to her to take refuge. But come to think of it, these dark elf mages weren't outsiders in the first place. Back then, in order for Verna to protect herself from both of her daughters' conspiracies, she sneaked a group of spies into her daughters' families to monitor their activities. Due to that reason, it went without saying that these spies weren't devoted to their so-called 'matriarchs' and were the first to hide in the back of the army once battle commenced. That was how they avoided disaster and retreated to report the situation.