It was not obvious to the people around her, but Linea was nervous about what waited for her. She had called in a War Council together with Lady Lalana and only after the most important leaders in the city had arrived, she realized that this would be the first War Council she would have to lead.

From her entourage only Senia, Evira, Lady Talura and Lady Saliara were in attending. They had already taken their places in the library of the countess which would have to be enough for their purposes. Lady Lalana had also joined them ahead of time to prepare a map which her court lady had brought with her. The court lady had excused herself afterwards.

The first to arrive were the three baronesses, whose suzerain Lady Lalana was. Two of them were not much older than Lady Lalana herself. The third one however was ancient in comparison. Her skin looked like dry parchment and she was supported by a young woman in for every step.

“My Ladies, I present to you the Much Honorable Baroness, Lady Tavana of Antina,” Lady Saliara introduced the first one, a woman not much older than her brother Shandir.

“It’s an honor, Your Royal Highnesses,” Lady Tavana greeted them. She kneeled in front of Senia and held her hand for a second. If multiple higher-ranking nobles or even royals were present, only the highest ranking would be greeted so extensively, as this would get out of hand rather quickly if too many nobles met. This presented a small problem now as Linea was the younger princess, which put under her sister in ranking. But her role as the expedition’s leader and her status as a chosen put her above Senia. Apparently, the city had been cut off from communication before they were informed of that.

Senia gave her a quick look, but Linea shook her head. She didn’t want to lift that little misunderstanding until everyone was present. She hated to explain things twice or even thrice.

“I present you furthermore the Much Honorable Baroness, Lady Tira of Tivanis,” Lady Lalana continued.

“It’s an honor, Your Royal Highnesses,” Lady Tira greeted just as Lady Tavana before her. She as well went for Senia instead of Linea with her reverence.

Linea noticed however that Lady Tira looked somewhat familiar. After racking her brain for a moment her name made something click in Linea’s mind.

“You’re Nora’s older sister, aren’t you?” Linea asked bluntly.

“Nora is indeed my sister,” Lady Tira answered with a smile. “I hope she is well?”

“She was injured in an ambush on our way here,” Linea said, which led to Lady Tira blenching slightly. “She wasn’t in a critical condition anymore the last time I saw her. One of our group took her straight to the temple. We can go there together after this.”

Lady Tira nodded tight lipped.

“More importantly, where is your mother? Lady Pinara?” Linea asked and while she did so, a dreadful suspicion crept into her head. “Please, don’t tell me…”

“Yes,” Lady Tira said with a sad voice. “She was part of the group trying to break out. We assume her to be dead like the rest.”

Linea clenched her fist, but also stood up from her chair and walked over to Lady Tira. She took her hand and looked her in the eyes.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Linea said.

Lady Tira just nodded.

“Don’t mean to be rude, but can we go on? My old bones would like to sit.”

Linea looked past Lady Tira to the old baroness. Before Lady Lalana could introduce her, the woman took it into her own hands.

“I’m Cali,” she said and then mentioned towards her companion. “This is my second oldest great-granddaughter Sivala.”

With that she nodded towards Senia and let herself fall into an armchair directly in front of the fireplace. Lady Lalana sighed loudly.

“This is the Much Honorable and Highly Respected Baroness, lady Cali of Calira.”

“Oh, I heard stories about her,” Senia said and looked at Linea. “She was a Void Hunter in her younger years, but in the last war with the humans she joined the army together with her sister, the then-baroness of Calira. When her sister was captured by the humans together with her men, Lady Cali single-handedly fought a whole regiment to free them. But her sister had already been executed.”

“Thanks for reminding me,” Lady Cali noted dryly.

“The last war? That means she must be over two hundred years old…”, Linea calculated. It wasn’t rare for a Moon Elf to reach triple digits in age, but due to their dangerous lands mostly nobles reached those numbers. But even among them, two hundred years was ancient.

“Again, thanks for reminding me,” Lady Cali said and rolled her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Lady Sivala said and bowed before Senia. “My great-grandmother has gotten unbearable after my mother died together with our old countess.”

“I can hear you, girl!” Lady Cali said from her armchair.

“I know, I spoke loud enough!” Lady Sivala commented and massaged her nose-bridge.

“You seem rather calm despite your loss. My condolence for you as well,” Linea said.

“Thank you, but my mother was a beast. I can’t say I’m overly sad.”

“A little more respect!” Lady Cali snarled from the side.

“Respect to those, who earn it, grandmother!”

Before the two could go into an extended fight, a knock sounded at the door. A man in elaborate cyan-blue robes entered.

“Ah, perfect,” Lady Lalana said using the man as a distraction from the embarrassing behavior of her vassals. “May I present to you the Archmage Lundir of Taldira.”

“It’s an honor, Your Royal Highnesses,” he greeted them and bowed before Senia and looked at Lady Lalana afterwards. “Bilandir should be here as well in a moment. He arrived on his horse when I entered the keep.”

“Perfect, we can start the council as soon as he arrives.”

A few minutes later another man entered. He looked adventurous to say the least. His hair was a wild mane, and his leather armor looked like it had seen better days.

“I present to you Sir Bilandir, Guildmaster of the Taldirian Branch of the Void Hunters’ Guild.”

“My honor,” he said and bowed to no one in particular.

Senia and Linea just nodded. It was obvious that the man had other things to worry about than protocol. Linea looked at Senia and motioned her to explain the situation.

“Right,” Senia noted and addressed the room. “To clarify things, the leader of our small expedition force is not me, but Princess Linea. I’m under her command as well.”

“Really?” Lady Lalana asked and everyone else looked as confused as her.

“Yes, really,” Linea answered and tried to suppress her annoyance. She knew she wasn’t what they had expected, but it of hurt nonetheless. “You may not have heard it, but I was chosen by our goddess to deal with such problems.”

To speed things up, she presented them her mark. As the crescent moon glowed on her forehead, the attending people bowed deeply before her. Except for the old Lady Cali.

“Eh, who would’ve guessed?” she stated. “Two chosen in a lifetime. I can still remember Lady Saria. Saved my husband back then.”

“And I shall follow her footsteps in saving this city,” Linea commented. “Let’s get this started. We’ve got stuff to prepare. Lady Lalana, how many troops can we field?”

Lady Lalana was taken aback by Linea’s fast change of topic but delivered the information.

“We have roughly two thousand men under weapons. Twelve hundred half-trained spearmen, three hundred swordsmen, two hundred fifty crossbowmen and one hundred archers. The swordsmen and archers are from our standing army and city guard,” she listed. “Cavalry-wise we only have one hundred fifty mounted knights, of which twenty are landed knights.”

The feudal system allowed not all soldiers to be knights as it would be too expensive to maintain such a force in peace time. Instead every barony had a handful of landed knights, which supervised a village or in rare cases small towns. Those landed knights were the lowest noble rank and the only one where the gender did not matter. They in turn provided the most capable people with some of their land to manage. Those knights were not noble, and their position wasn’t hereditary per se, but most children of knights became knights as well.

“That’s not much cavalry…”, Lady Talura noted.

“True, but since the surrounding area consists mostly of hills and forests, we never focused much on light cavalry. We spent more of our resources on the Void Hunter Guild,” Lady Lalana explained. “Our main problem is that we lack military leadership. Our most capable men followed my mother, and no one came back. The only one with notable experience in leading an army is Lady Cali, but…”

She left the rest unsaid, but everyone knew what she wanted to say.

“I’m too old for this sh…” Lady Cali started, but she was firmly interrupted.

“Grandma!”

Linea chuckled. The old crow really didn’t mince matters.

“The only one who has any kind of leadership experience is Sir Bilandir, but his expertise is focused on guerilla warfare against small packs of Torra,” Lady Lalana noted and looked with a wry smile at the man. Sir Bilandir nodded in agreement. The situation gave Linea the feeling that Lady Lalana had already asked him to take up the position of a general.

“Well, we may be able to arrange something,” Linea said and looked at Lady Talura. “As my military advisor, do you see yourself fit to lead the army of Taldira? You have the most experience as far as I can guess.”

“Certainly, My Lady,” Lady Talura answered. “I would have to inspect the troops as soon as possible.”

Linea looked questioningly at Lady Lalana.

“That’s fine by me. I’ll lend you my court lady for assistance.”

“All right, next topic,” Linea said and looked at the mage. “How are the mages doing?”

“Not very well, My Lady,” Archmage Lundir said and looked at his feet. “I’m technically only the deputy Archmage of Taldira, since the actual Archmage went with the Countess. To be appointed Archmage, I would need to be assigned by the Royal Mage Council in Luna’sindranar, but as we can’t contact them I’m limited in my actions. The other free mages don’t oppose me, but they don’t follow my orders without discussions every time. The Sorcerers’ Guild and the Enchanter’s Guild are completely under my control as I’m still allowed to conscript them in times of crisis.”

“You could make a royal edict giving him the position in this crisis. The position would be revised after we can contact Luna’sindranar again,” Senia suggested much to Sir Lundir’s joy.

“Well, sound good to me,” Linea said and shrugged her shoulders. “Can you write something like that?”

“Of course,” Senia said proudly.

“Perfect! Sir Lundir, please continue,” Linea said and looked back at the mage.

“Yes, My Lady. We have currently four free mages in the city which would fall under my direct command with your edict. The Sorcerers’ Guild of Taldira consists of twelve men and women, who rotate night and day to keep the shield alive that protects us from the Torra. The Enchanters’ Guild only has four craftsmen, who do their best to enchant as many weapons as they can. But there are lots of weapons and only few enchanters.”

“All right, they can keep up with their routine. I want you to gather the mages after this to tell them I expect them to follow your orders. I won’t have any insubordination while a dark mage roams outside the city,” she said with a stern voice. The man nodded, and Linea switched her focus on the Void Hunter.

“How is the Void Hunter Guild?”

“Not good,” Sir Bilandir said straight away. “We were the first to encounter the invading Torra, and we were the first response to it. We led the evacuations of the surrounding villages and fended off the infiltration of the city. But it came with a price. We lost our strongest members and are reduced to roughly thirty percent of our required strength. The remaining twenty-five members are divided into ten fully trained Void Hunters, who are all injured and not fit for combat, fourteen novices and myself. Right at the moment, the temple does its best to heal the injured, but our guess is that only two of them will be combat ready before the attack.”

“That sounds depressing,” Linea stated and sighed. “Well, at least I might be able to help with the injured Hunters. I’ve already planned to visit the temple afterwards. You’re invited to join us.”

“Very well, My Lady,” he said and bowed. He smiled lightly, which was the first time he had done so since he had entered the room. “But what about Princess Senia?”

“What about her?” Linea asked confused.

“Strictly speaking, she is a novice of the Void Hunter Guild. But on the other hand, she is a princess. I need to confirm the command structure. Am I supposed to follow her lead?”

Linea frowned and looked at Senia, who seemed determined.

‘I hope she doesn’t expect me to give her the command,’ Linea asked Sarah, who had stayed out of the discussion for now.

‘Looks like it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. She is as inexperienced as you are. And she isn’t even supposed to be here,’ Sarah commented.

‘She won’t like that…’

Linea held her gaze towards her sister, who had noticed Linea’s hesitation.

“Keep your command, Sir Bilandir,” she said and Senia’s face turned red in an instant. “While my sister is most certainly capable and talented, you know the people and the area. Switching the leadership on such a short notice would be foolish.”

Senia seem to understand Linea’s reasoning, but her expression made it clear that she had a different opinion.

“Besides, mother would be frantic, if she knew I have endangered my sister needlessly.”

The mention of their mother was meant to remember Senia of her looming punishment. And Linea was sure that their mother would be angry as soon as she got notice from Linea’s messenger. Linea saw that Senia’s face lost its color quite rapidly. Her tactic was working.

“I would like you, Sir Bilandir, to add Senia to your other novices and train her. I don’t want her on the battlefield. If anything happens to me, she will take command. Until then she can make herself useful with the other novices.”

“As you wish, Your Grace.”

“Good, now let’s make a plan,” Linea said. “Lady Talura, any suggestions?”

“First of all, I suggest that we arm every citizen with a weapon and even it is only a spear. I think Sir Bilandir will agree with that the Torra will not stop their slaughter just because they are civilians,” Lady Talura said.

“She is right. I think a militia as a last stand defense would be more beneficial than just let them be slaughtered,” Sir Bilandir agreed.

“Do we have enough weapons for that?” Linea asked skeptically.

“Not yet, but with the support of the free mages, we could create them,” Sir Bilandir answered. “I don’t know the capacity of those mages, but if possible, we could even create shields for them like the spearmen have.”

Linea looked to the Archmage.

“Will this be possible?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow.

“It should be,” he noted and scratched his chin. “I must check it, but the spears alone should be possible. If we shift the enchanters from their current work to this, we should be able to provide shields as well.”

“No, don’t do that. I’d rather have them enhancing the combat ability of the main troops,” Linea said. “Their expertise with enchanting is more important than arming the militia.”

“As you wish, My Lady.”

“All right, Sir Bilandir? Do we have any information what exactly we’re up against? Numbers and types of Torra?”

“Sadly no,” Sir Bilandir answered grimly. “Our scouts were the first to be killed, but that alone tells us that the enemy is highly coordinated and large in number. From what we have seen, the enemy has subjugated a lot of the fauna in the area. Wolves, boars and some bears.”

“Yes, we had the pleasure of meeting those,” Linea noted. “We also had contact with an orc. Any sightings of those?”

“No, but the number of simultaneous and coordinated attacks implies that there are at least three of them apart from the dark mage himself. But we can’t be sure of their number, since the dark mage could have corrupted many people, we were unable to evacuate.”

“Well, nothing we can do about it either way. We lack the resources to find it out without your scouts,” Linea said and sighed. “Looks like the cards are stacked against us.”

The Taldirians looked sadly to the ground and Linea noticed that she should have said something more encouraging.

“But the enemy doesn’t expect me. I have a few cards up my sleeves he doesn’t know about,” she said with a happy smile on her face. No one seemed to share her enthusiasm but at least they didn’t look as hopeless as before.

“All right,” Linea said and clapped her hands together. “My idea for the fight is to hide behind our walls. The dark mage has to to invest a lot of power into breaking or overcoming them. Best case is that he grinds his forces against our defense until there is nothing left. Our archers and half of the spearman should man the walls where the enemy attacks. The sorcerer and the militia should be distributed around the whole city wall in case of a surprise attack. When the enemy forces are weakened enough, we will make a sally with the rest of the army. You will tie down the remaining forces while I’ll eliminate the dark mage. The free mages will stand as reserves in case something goes wrong or the dark mage pulls something unexpected. Any additional suggestions to my plan?”

Everyone seemed to think about it, but only Sir Bilandir came up with something.

“I suggest placing most of the Void Hunters with the main force. However, two of them should lead the novices, which we should position on top of the walls to provide additional defense. I don’t want them on the battlefield, since they are inexperienced,” he explained. His last remark made Senia growl slightly.

“Sounds good,” Linea said and nodded. “I will try to recruit the priestesses to the cause. I know that the Priestesshood of Luna doesn’t particularly likes to be involved in bloodshed, but I’m the chosen one. Perhaps they will follow me. We could use their protection from the corruption.”

Since no one had anything to add to her plan, Linea concluded the War Council with the notice that after arranging what they had decided, everyone was free to come to her, if problems arose.

After most of the attendees had left, Linea talked to Lady Tira and Lady Lalana.

“I will go to the temple first. I want to visit Nora and you are invited to join me, Lady Tira,” Linea said and then shifted her gaze towards Lady Lalana. “Afterwards I would like to inspect the city. The walls in particular. Can you…”

“I will show you around, of course,” Lady Lalana quickly said and blushed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“It’s all right,” Linea said with a chuckle.