'This is feels dreadfully familiar.' Theo thought as he stared at the sunken, dry eyes of Captain Aubrey. 'Why do I always have to be the bearer of bad news?'
Aubrey had almost broken down at the news of the Prince's death, which was understandable. The Prince had spent much of his tenure leading both the royal navy and army; he was famed for his strategic mind, and was almost worshipped by the soldier's sworn to the Irearith name.
'I remember seeing him from a distance once, he was insanely charismatic.' Theodore mused.
"I'm sorry for doing so at this time, but I'd like to discuss our actions for the days to come." He said. "I know the news are extremely disheartening, trust me, I felt the same as you when I heard them, but there are more pressing manners at hand, and we have people to save."
Although for her, she not only had to deal with the death of her leader and idol, but also with the fact that with the royal family dead, then she's fresh out of a job. There is no royal navy with no royal family to serve, after all.
Aubrey wiped her runny nose with a handkerchief. "You-you're right, I cannot wallow in misery right now." She tightened her grip on the handle of her sheathed saber. "The Prince gave us a mission, and we must complete it, even if he is…. Even if he is no longer with us."
The captain seemed to channel her grief into anger, and her anger into work. For the rest of the day, she prepared extensively for the nagas' coming attack, and had planned with Theodore thoroughly in order to prepare countermeasures.
"The Nagas are almost stereotypically arrogant." She said. "In our engagements with them, we realized that they would taunt us with their presence, create imaginary flaws in their formations that were actually traps." She paused. "Catalina is no exception; her favorite tactic was to slither into the shore alongside some of her captives, and to torture them publicly, she'd stand just out of reach of our ranged attacks, and would taunt our men by name, names she tortured out of her captives."
Aubrey's face twisted in anger. "I've lost many hot blooded men to that tactic, seeing their comrades suffering before their eyes while they were powerless against their enemies broke their spirits. I have tried many times to take advantage of her tactics, and even managed to surprise her a couple of times." Her teeth made a strange sound, ground in frustration. "But they just slither back into the sea, they'd lose some men, sure, but their magic users always managed to escape, costing us way too many losses."
"Worse, she keeps doing it again and again." She gnarled. "It's why she got so infamous in the first place."
"I see…" Theodore said. "Do you have any idea how to take advantage this time? With our horses I think we may be fast enough to give chase."
"It may not be enough, she's way too cautious for it to work, although…" She looked to him with a cruel glint in her eye. "You said you're a master aura user, right? Then I think I may have an idea…"
Her plan was certainly… different, although Theodore wasn't too enthused by his part in it.
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They came back to a cheering audience, the mining village was filled with the cried of overjoyed wives and thrilled children.
The captives hugged their families in their warm embraces, it was a sentimental scene, one that reminded Erling of the whole reason he fought in the first place.
A woman approached him, handing him a warm wet towel.
"Here." She said. "You might want to wipe the blood."
He gingerly held the towel from her hands. "I guess I am dirty." He commented, wiping the warm blackish stains on his face.
He examined his benefactor, her ragged clothes denoting her as one of the captives. She was beautiful in a home girl next door type, and even the dirt and grime didn't hide her beauty in the slightest.
Her smile showcased the dimples in her cheeks. "I'm Helena, my father is the village's chief." She spoke. "I want to thank you for your arrival. I fear without you, our warriors would have lost the fight."
He solemnly nodded back. "Just doing my duty, my lady." He answered. "I wish we could have come earlier, I heard many other people died to the Kog'zul's wiles."
She laughed, it sounded pleasant to the ears, like the chiming of bells. "I am no lady, or is that what you say to every woman you meet?"
A slight smile crept up in Erling's face.
"Not every woman, no." He answered.
They stared at each other's eyes for a moment, not knowing what to say or what to do.
But before anything could happen, they were interrupted by an awkward cough.
Erling sheepishly turned back to the source of the noise, noticing the armored old man looking at them with bemusement.
"Father, I was just thanking this knight for rescuing us, I'll be going now." She quickly explained herself, before leaving for other matters.
Erling looked bewilderedly at her leaving form.
"I hope you don't have any untoward intentions toward my daughter, Sir." Echoed the rough voice of the older gentleman from Erling's side.
The knight commander roughly coughed, as if something was stuck in his throat.
"I assure you, nothing of the sort is happening." He explained himself.
The rough stare of the old chief gave way to slight amusement. "Good." He said. "Commander, I wish to speak to you about our situation. I fear it may be graver than we feared it to be."
"Aye." Erling answered. "You heard the big one speak of their "Great tribe", the Kog'zul are simple creatures, but even they can differentiate between different groups. A great tribe to them implies the presence of a grandmaster aura user, or one of its equivalents, within their midst."
"That's... a predicament."
Erling nodded. "Indeed, with the presence of the master we contended with at the caves, they should have the advantage in terms of experts. But in the previous battle I noticed that not all their warriors were aura capable, in fact, aside from a couple of apprentice equivalents, there was only that master."
He scratched his chin in thought. "Most of my men are journeymen aura knights, while I can be considered a grandmaster. It is a new development, so I may be at a disadvantage against their leader if he turned out to be more experienced."
"You think we should thin them out? Lead attacks into their lands and kill the mundane soldiers?"
"No, the Kog'zuls have greater resilience than a normal human, aura may give an advantage but killing them isn't that easy." Erling shook his head. "We should reinforce our fortification, now that we're here; we should be able to both lower casualties and kill most of their raiders. I already sent a messenger to the Agis castle, so I'm sure we'll receive reinforcements within the week, two weeks tops. How is the village with supplies?" He asked.
Erling and co. brought with them enough supplies to last two weeks, and he indicated in his message to Vedas that this conflict may be lengthier than they predicted. So whatever reinforcements are coming they should be bringing with them more food for both the people and the horses.
"A lot of steel and silver, but not much food I'm afraid." The chief answered. "We have enough to last 10 days as long as we ration them out, but it's going to be though." He meaningfully glanced at Erling. "If we go with your strategy, we better get help from your lord, no offence."
The knight let out a full blown laugh. "Don't worry, our lord isn't going to abandon you lot. Plus…" He mockingly covered his hand over his mouth, as if he was telling a secret. "He's broke, so he badly needs your money."
The grizzled veteran's laugh was throaty and filled with hearth. "I guess that's a better reason than any!" He commented.
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The over the next two days, Vedas was still busy with organizing his lands. The Madras have thoroughly exploited the region in secret, while his father had neglected logistical and economic issues in favor for military matters.
Most lords were raised to be like that, they were often reliant on their taxes in order to finance their matters, and looked down on merchants and lords who consorted with them as they thought their professions to be for lower stock. After all, the Irearith people were warriors, you'd find that one in a hundred men had their aura rekindled, and any lord who didn't was looked down upon and ridiculed in the higher echelons.
"If I see one more paper I'm going to kill someone." Vedas complained.
At his right stood his trusty butler and chamberlain Richard, he had already completely recovered from his injuries and took to his job with gusto, not that he ever undertakes a task without giving it his 100%.
On his left was the strangely apathetic Roland, the young man seemed to come into his role as chief scribe (his underlings being other scribe apprentices, teenagers basically), and had showcased an eye of detail that allowed Vedas to avoid many pitfalls in the establishment of his burgeoning administration. He also was a sarcastic little shit, so that balances out.
Richard and Roland got along scarily well; Vedas at this point was almost scared for his life.
"Just a bit more, my lord." Commented Richard.
The Lord Agis just sighed and got ready for another boring session of filling up paperwork. But his unending misery got interrupted by a brown furred, golden eyed, majestic owl entering through the window.
A ecstatic smile formed on the lord's face. "Otis!" He exclaimed.
The owl eagerly landed on his lap with a joyous coo, eagerly enjoying the pleasant scratches of his master.
"Gentlemen." Vedas began. "Meet Otis, my familiar."
""Greetings, Otis."" His attendants greeted, totally seriously. Otis' seemed to acknowledge their greetings, and hooted, almost as if greeting them back.
Vedas just sweat dropped and continued his exposition. "This is the first time you met Otis because when I came here, I sent him on a very important mission. Isn't that it Otis? You beautiful little bird, you!" He awed and hawed at the owl, petting him in affection.
A light surged from Otis' eyes. "You see, as my familiar, Otis and I share a bond that allows me to cast spells through him, or in this case, his eyes. So I sent him over our lands in order to get a general idea about the state of them, and this is the result." A hologram screen appeared in front of them, originating directly from the familiars eyes.
"Psychometry is very useful, and one of my specialties besides, it allows me to create a highly detailed map directly from Otis' memory. And he, the dutiful little boy that he is, has been flying for the last few days over every single inch of our lands, non-including the Silverblight forest of course."
"It is quite impressive." Richard observed. "The details in this map exceed any of the ones in our possessions, once we transcribe it, it will serve us quite well in many matters, my Lord."
Indeed, the significance of accurate maps in both logistics and warfare is not to be underestimated. And at least in Irearith, their mapmaking methods are quite inadequate, which allows for some faults in their design.
"In my adventuring days, Otis served as my primary scout and information gatherer, I got skilled enough with my spells that not only can I transcribe spells from his memories, but I can also do this."
The another hologram appeared next to the map, while a red pin appeared on the map's hologram, right on the southeastern borders between the Agis lands and Silverblight forest.
The hologram showcased many men, armored and equipped with weapons, moving through the shrubbery, hidden from bystanders.
"Bandits?" Presumed Roland.
"Maybe." Vedas answered. "Or could be knights, disguised as bandits, who knows?" He shrugged.
"The only thing that matters is that they're trespassing on our land, and that we know about it." Each of the men lighted up in white light, for most of them it was just a wisp where their heart should be. "I also cast reconnaissance spells through Otis, as you can see, most of them are not aura users, and as a general estimate I'd say their strongest is barely a journeyman, a couple of knights should be able to deal with them."
"It is quite fortunate that we managed to locate them so early, if they were to attack small settlements along the Kingsroad…"
"They'll get bigger, more skilled, and become a major pain in the ass." Finished Vedas.
And that is the case with bandit bands, they start off weak and uncoordinated, but aura users thrive in battle, and before long their sole journeyman may become ten, or worse, he'd somehow reach master and declare himself to be some sort of bandit lord.
Kingdoms were made from worse scenarios.
"Plus, you'd lose so much tax income from the villages along the Kingsroad." Roland commented.
'Yeah, and that.' Thought Vedas.
The door suddenly opened, letting in a bulky looking fella in impressively heavy looking armor.
"Ah, Xavier! I was about to call for you, sorry for having you hold court in my stead." Vedas says.
The man is Xavier, Erling's temporary replacement and a bonafide gentle giant. He was also holding court instead of Vedas, the actual marquis, and has showcased a sense of enjoyment towards the activity.
"No worries, my lord." He hands Vedas a letter. "More importantly, this just came from the mining settlement, the messenger said it was an urgent message from Erling."
The letter floated from his hand into Vedas' hand, he quickly opened and read it.
"A Great tribe, shit."
"Did you just say a Great tribe, my lord?" Interjects Xavier. "Then that must mean…"
"Yeah, a grandmaster aura user or its equivalent, plus there was another master within their midst." He lightly throws the letter in the chamber. "Call Ovia. And tell her I may have finally found a use for her services."
"At once, my lord." Responded Xavier, before shimmying out of the room, the door barely allowing his large frame through.
__________________________________________________________________________________
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Theodore asked Aubrey from his compromised position.
"I'm sure, this is the only way."
They were looking at the contingent of the nagas heading out the shore, his knights were prepared to flank them from both sides of the shore, while his footmen joined the sailors in order to fortify and defend the town. But Theodore was with neither of the two, he was preparing a… daring maneuver, shall we say?
"There she is! The bitch is here, along with her victims."
And sure enough, from the sea slithered out a large Naga specimen, she had lighter looking scales and was at least twice taller than her closest ally. A couple of her men were dragging some cages along with them, they housed some men in deplorable conditions, naked, starved, and tortured, and none of them seemed to hold the way to live.
Catalina had seemed to order a couple of her men to attack, as they slithered in the sandy beach at strangely incredible speeds.
"Alright, that's our chance!" Aubrey exclaimed as she lighted the fuse.
"I'm still not sure about the feasibility of this plan- OOOOH!" Theodore's words were interrupted by quite a loud an explosion, but it wasn't an attack; it was the sound of gunpowder used as propellant to send something heavy.
That something was him, his body lighting up in a blue hue in order to shield him from the backlash.
Theodore cursed all that led to his life, as he stared at the shocked expression of the enemy journeyman mage.
'At least it'll make for an interesting story' He thought. 'Now, all I have to survive.'
Silver lining, this should count as flying, no?