In the inner palace, echoing around it's sacred halls amidst the paintings of the past emperors is a cry, the cry of the harem.
Their ungodly screams.
A fire is blazing within the palace where the emperor stays during his days and sleeps deep into the night.
"Get the second corps moving," A young man in his mid twenties waved his sleeves coldly, "No one leaves this place."
Immediately countless shadows moved turning the night into the day as nothing could hide beneath their gaze.
The entire capital was thrown into a panic. Word spread quickly.
The emperor of Carrien who had ruled for the last hundred years. The Pillar in the North. The strength of Carrien and the Heart of the Blizzard blessed by Aria, had passed away.
But it was not a natural death as the citizens expected, but rather a painful dreaded murder using special soul melting fires.
Fires belonging to the greatest religious institution in the known world, Kidira, God of Merciful Fire, the one who unites through pain those that would otherwise be lost inside it.
Such a church now bears the full brunt of the wrath of the Carrien Elite.
There was a reason that despite the vicious fighting between his sons for the throne, that no one assassinated the current emperor.
It's because he was beloved.
Within two days of the Emperor's death rebellions began in every corner of the empire. Dukedoms rose. Countships declared independence.
Princes declared their rights to the throne.
In just a single week the entirety of the once proud, united north, had been completely turned upside down.
Encoded messages arrived the very morning that the empire was thrown into civil war.
In Shion's study deep in the mansion, an assortment of important figures met.
Agashi. Shion. Nova. Tarci. Nefamiti. Hardvar. Alias. Yu. Seramia. Warren. Dratan. Leyalt. Trigo. Huantu. Marcus. Netman. Keneth. Senal. Baroli. Clay. Anept. Satree.
The core of the southern defensive line against Rekarsus and Kendogan as well as Tensent and Lancard.
"What are we going to do?" Alias said into the strained silence.
Nefamiti spoke coldly though it did little to hide his stressed tone, "This is just another challenge we must overcome, and we will overcome it as we always have."
"The fairies have been sending word constantly about human scouts coming into the highlands, they are armed and have many sigils." Yu said evenly, "We don't know where they all come from, but our count is over a thousand."
"The nobles from the wedding banquet." Alias said coldly, "It must be them."
"I will go with my unit to stop them immediately." Huantu said mercilessly, "They won't be able to come through the mountains in force, I will only need two hundred men and I will be able to stop two thousand."
"I will come with you!" Anept said seriously, "I have trained my whole life for true combat, allow me to assist you."
Huantu looked over at the comparatively skinnier Anpet and nodded before looking to Agashi for the final decision.
"You're unit will act as the core, take an extra five hundred men from those who were bandits of these mountains and later joined us, they will have the most experience in that environment." Agashi waved his hand without looking up from the map of the Dra territory laid out before him.
Every front had become a war front. They had been surrounded on all sides and as the Grand General of the southern border, he needed to set up a proper defensive line at all costs.
But, 'It would take at least fifty thousand-, no, sixty or seventy thousand men to properly defend an area this large without the forts finished yet...!'
He felt pressure. Immense pressure.
Fighting for Durlivan was out of necessity, something which later became a given as he fell in love with the people and the place. But fighting to protect Rafulnas and Kishar would be a whole new playing field.
"I can muster at the most right now, two thousand men to the warfront," Warren said seriously, "I will lead them in the defense of Kishar here and here."
Warren pointed to the lowland plains in the deep southern border of Kishar as well as the lush forest to it's west where it's bordering with Lancard and Tensent.
"Two thousand won't be enough, Marcus, take your unit and another thousand men to his aid, that should make up the numbers to around five thousand," Agashi marked three points on the map, the two previously mentioned and a new point where a large river lay that is required to pass over if one wishes to reach Kishar's main city quickly, "Should things go wrong on either front and you take more than two hundred casualties, immediately retreat to the bridges and destroy any others except for this one, hold that point."
Warren nodded and Marcus took a bite of some food he somehow snuck into the study.
'Now, the last, and likely most important point in the southern defense.' He thought worriedly.
Rafulnas.
'Should Rafulnas be breached, then the Oley territory will be breached and trade will stop with Durlivan and in turn with Tensent and Lancard which would cause an uproar with the two delicately placed pieces, which could lead to them attacking us while we are most vulnerable turning it into a hopeless battle.' He clenched his fists.
Shion took his fist into her hand, he took a breath.
'Rafulnas must be protected at all costs.' His eyes wandered to all the possible large scale entry points.
It's their vital point, and their weak point.
In the many years of it's operation, it has never truly seen war, and it has never truly seen strife due to the republic's influence over it and it's affairs causing it to be off-limits even for the wasteland raiders like the Mazkata, lest they wish to go to war with the greatest economic powerhouse on the continent.
But now... things have changed.
Agashi speculated that with the civil war and internal strife within Carrien, as well as the brutal war of genocide going on between Rekarsus and Kendogan, that the Republic would be in dire strife as well as breathing ways for their massive mercantile fleets dry up and they are forced to instead change their factories and forges to instead cater to the manufacturing of weapons causing a gap of at least two months where they will be completely paralyzed as they adjust to the sudden changes.
"Two months..." Agashi muttered, "...we need to somehow hold Rafulnas for two months."
At that moment Trigo smiled and spoke, "Don't worry, I've not been slacking in my maintenance of Rafulnas."
He pointed to three points on the very front line of Rafulnas to Rekarsus and then spoke, "I have three forts built in those places with several camps and bunkers spread around the area, they've been built over the span of the last year secretly, in preparation for this day, I will only need the men."
Agashi's vision suddenly cleared. A plan began forming in his mind and a smile crested his face.
Nova, who had been standing in the back prepared to offer men if push came to shove relaxed, the tension ever so slightly left his body, 'He has a plan.'
He took a sip of his tea and stopped worrying about the southern border. Instead, his mind moved to what would need to be done in order to defend against Duke Sercan and his forces which would certainly take this chance to attack them while they are off guard.
For this reason, Nova downed the last of his tea and stood up going for the door.
Just before he left he caught Agashi's gaze, a strong conviction emanating from them.
Nova nodded and as he made it down the hall his last words drifting into the room, "I entrust the south to you, brother."
At his last word, it was like a gong had gone off in the room for all but Shion, Traci and Warren who were already aware of their close relationship.
"Move out to your posts, lock down the south, no one comes or goes," Agashi said coldly, "Bring Pitir and Lucio here to see me immediately, ah and, Seramia..."
"Yes?!" Seramia who'd been stuck in a stupor of her own jolted.
"...the church grounds are to be expanded as large as possible in order to house as many faithful as possible, also, begin going to the refugee's currently in the city and do you're best to ease their worries, this will be you and your churches mission in this times." Agashi straightened up, his eyes still lingering on the map below him/
Seramia nodded but he didn't see it, "I will have my Acolytes prepare to carry out their oaths."
She left along with the majority of those in the room.
Now, only Trigo, Shion, Hardvar, Dratan, Yu, Clay, Keneth, Baroli, Satree and Senal remained in the room awaiting orders.
"Did you manage to map the wastelands?" He said to Hardvar who immediately spread out a brand new map of the wastes between Dra and Rekarsus and Kendogan, including the wandering wasteland tribes that live in the space between as well as their names and chieftains levels.
"Good, I'd like you and Dratan to go and gather as many of them as possible for a meeting here in two weeks time," Agashi said calmly, "If they won't come, then destroy them."
Hardvar nodded and spoke, "Boss... these wasteland tribesmen are proud, but if defeated in single combat, a chieftain can be forced to submit their rights as the leader of their tribe to the victor, I believe rather than having a chat with them it would be faster to subjugate them."
"Kiddo... are you planning on uniting the wasteland tribes for this war?" Dratan asked evenly, "I understand that they will be a great asset in a war like this but, do not underestimate them."
Agashi looked at the two, "I know."
"Still!" Kenneth suddenly cut in, "The Carrien Elite will not look upon this favorably and you may even be classified as a rebel and traitor to the empire, dooming not only yourself but his highness Surnova."
"Even so...!" Shion suddenly slammed her fist on the table, "What choice do we have? Against armies that are more well equipped with cavalries and many powerful Battle Master level combatants what are we to do? We have to take this gamble!"
"...there might be other options," Clay suddenly said, his entire body freezing as everyone's eyes fell on him, "t-there, as you know, there I have been mingling and making secret contracts with nobility from Lancard and Tensent..."
"...You want us to sell them out?" Hardvar said coldly, "We could likely buy an alliance with Lancard and Tensent should we choose to sell out the lesser nobles who are trading with foreign nations behind their backs, but it would cause us to look bad..."
"No!" Clay said powerfully, "Merchants take their connections very seriously! I could never sell out a partner, it would be like selling out my very morals! No, I believe we can use these connections to try and get Tensent and Lancard into the war."
"Hey, wait!!!" Alias' clumsy voice shouted after them but it was too late.
"Hohoho..." An aged voice suddenly rapted the walls of the study, "You want our kingdoms to ally with yours for a war?"
As he turned the corner both Pitir and Lucio had already arrived in front of the study looking in and eavesdropping on the conversation inside.
"As Tensent's representative, I have just one question to ask..." Pitir said coldly.