"Meisa you have orders from above."
"You can't tell me what to do!" She can't help but stomp her foot like an impertinent child, it's been continuous work, investigating Alrodena, going to the Cold North, investigating Pomeroy, fighting desert people and now sitting as a witness in the negotiations.
Palafox is a slave driver!
There are no work benefits in this army! And only recently did Meisa get a certificate promoting her from Misertus to Peritus. Basically from common grunt to uncommon grunt.
"You need to tail a large group of combatants headed north east to the Great Platform."
Palafox leans forward, trying to intimidate Meisa. She just looks away to the side.
"How many?" She tries to think of a way to decline the offer, but if she does, she will have to leave this place and return to Kakhda Hanbat City and the rest of her responsibilities. How about all that work?
"Isn't that your job, now go along!" Palafox grabs her shoulders and throws her out of the office. With a heavy thud she lands on her butt on the marble floor.
Meisa rubs her butt, which had taken most of the impact, and rises to her feet, grumbling under her breath. She takes off toward the exit, wondering why Palafox keeps bringing her to meetings like this. As soon as she arrives outside, she spots a familiar face coming towards her.
"Yamada Ieri." Meisa groans.
"I'll accompany you. Come on." Ieri clicks his tongue, wagging his finger, making her follow.
"Come on, you've gotta get used to the military ways here. That woman Palafox is always pushing me into a corner. If he thinks I have something to say, I might as well just say it to him directly."
"Okay."
They walk in silence for a moment, until Yamada speaks again. "I saw you were looking pretty stressed today."
"I'm thinking about my plantation back in Ducia. There's some communication problems with Kaleo, there seems to be an issue there." Meisa shrugs.
"Pack your things, let's meet up on the Elmer Cave entrance." Ieri dissappears from her sight.
Meisa goes back to her tent, packing a few of her things in her little bag. Once that's done, she swallows the bag whole. She walks towards the entrance of Elmer base.
"Let's set off."
...
The Great Platform is north, the air is stale and suffocating, the great wooden platforms built by the ancients are large, more than a dozen of them, forming a mass the size of a continent.
The platform is empty; it's early morning and the only movement is between the platforms. Meisa's eyes scan her surroundings. The platform is huge, spanning kilometres, stretching hundreds of meters from end to end, and the top has not even railing with metal bars on it to keep people from falling off. If anyone fell from the heights of this platform, they would splatter into purple paste below.
The continent sized Wooden Platforms are lifeless, no animal, human or plant lives here, making the air unbearable. On the opposite sides as far as she can see, are two military bases with a dozen Elves. One side from Alrodena and the other is the remnant of the old world.
"Here they come." Ieri appears behind her.
"Where?"
"About half a kilometre south of here."
Meisa starts walking slowly in the direction where Ieri indicates, and within minutes the entire front line has appeared before her.
Meisa stops, and Ieri stands beside her.
"This is it..." Ieri says quietly.
"They probably already know we're here." Meisa scoffs, sitting on the flat wooden ground.
Ieri sits down next to her, resting his hands behind his head.
"Don't worry. They won't try to attack us."
"Why not?"
Ieri looks at her with his eyebrows scrunched up.
"I worry for our kid's intelligence."
She blinks twice.
"Let's go watch. This type of battle happens too rarely."
They sneak closer, staying hidden in the shadows of the ancient wooden structures. Meisa can feel the vibrations of the ground under her boots as the armies clash. The air is filled with the cacophony of metal upon metal, the grunts of soldiers, and the occasional thunderous roar of spells being cast. The smell of sweat and fear is palpable, even from their safe distance.
First, a trio is seen sticking their head out of their trench, spewing out a massive amount of water, direct turning the ground in front of them into mud. Combat is usually about evasion instead of confrontation, making the battlefield relatively silent, apart from the loud bursts of fire and wind. The two sides first spend hours prodding each other with long range attacks, and occasionally going over to fight with the sword. Meisa spends nearly a week watching them fight, with not a single one of the combatants falling in battle.
"They're playing around." Ieri whispers to Meisa. "They're just testing each other."
Meisa nods, she's seen this before. They're like two predators circling each other, waiting for the other to show a sign of weakness. But she can feel the tension rising, the anticipation of something more significant to come.
Days turn into weeks, and the stalemate continues. The two armies spend their time fortifying their positions, occasionally sending small skirmish parties to probe the enemy lines. Meisa watches as archers from the Alrodenan Elves shoot arrows that are swiftly deflected by magical barriers thrown up by the opposing side. They then respond with their own volleys of spells, most of which are deflected by the opposing mages. It's a dance of power, and both sides destroy each other's infrastructure on a stage of splintered wood and dust.
Unsurprisingly, no elf has died in these skirmishes. After all, it is a fact that all elves are cowards, afraid of death. For an Immortal race, no one wants to face a premature death, everyone wishes to live for decades, ironically making death all too common for their lowet ranks, as they are used by fodder to save the lives of their superiors.
Meisa's snake like eyes carefully observe the chaos, the dust that was once on these wooden platforms are gradually aired out or burned off as they destroy the remaining infrastructure left and right. For observers sent to monitor such battles, this is an all too common sight.
"They're not even giving it their all," she murmurs to herself, a hint of boredom in her voice.
"They're waiting for something," Ieri says, his gaze sharp as he studies the two armies.
"Or someone," Meisa adds, her eyes narrowing as she looks towards the horizon.