Derek spent a total of two weeks in the mustering grounds. His time was split learning from the primary leaders of their company, learning the basic commands that the other soldiers learned with the infantry, cavalry, and support teams, and finally attending planning meetings of the various forces gathered in this location. He learned many things, but they were in vestigial forms. At this point he could perform the actions required of him, but didn’t quite know why everything needed to be done in every case. The lessons were very beneficial but it was like trying to drink a fast flowing river in many cases.

At the end of the second week, a new force camped near the Church’s encampments. This one was the personal retinue of the Grandmaster of the Order of the Ardent Dawn. Composed of 500 paladins and clerics, the formation was entirely made up of heroes that had surpassed tier one. This was one of the sharpest forces on the continent, with the squadron leaders even reaching tier five and many of the command staff were experts of tier seven and higher.

This force had set off from Solreach in spring with the express purpose of following the Grandmaster to lead the Crusade. He would lead the forces mustered from all over the northwestern portion of the continent in this grand endeavor. As one of the most acclaimed generals of his generation, he was a widely respected man and few of the soldiers in the crusading force doubted their inevitable victory.

The morale of the troops began to rise with the arrival of his force. Most notable was the renewed swagger of the local Chapter of the Order. Now that command had passed from the Captain Kalne to the Grandmaster, they immediately began to act with the bluster they had showed earlier in the year.

That day, the leaders of the various forces were called to the Grandmaster’s encampment this time for the final instructions before their march. Derek and Tristan followed Captain Drake towards the Grandmaster’s encampment. The Quartermaster and Paymaster were left behind in the encampment to prepare the final preparations for moving out the next day.

As the three entered the Grandmaster’s encampment, Derek heard a voice he recognized from nearby, “Oh, isn’t that the Abomination from the Thorne Clan? It’s rather bold of you to show up here isn’t it?”

Looking over, Derek recognized the Paladin, Rhys Wallace, standing among a group of other members of the local Order in the encampment. Glancing around he saw that the man’s loud words had drawn attention to them. There were some people looking on with curiosity, while others looked to have varying other emotions, not least among them was alarm and aggression. Members of the Order knew what Abomination meant and they had little reason to doubt their brethren.

Drake turned to Derek, “Best to ignore it. We have been summoned for the meeting. If they take action to delay us, the responsibility will be theirs. If we respond to their taunts and are late, it will be a different story. The right people know you aren’t an Abomination. This fool will only harm his own reputation by spreading slander and lies.”

Derek nodded, “Yes sir, let’s keep going then.”

Seeing that his taunt had no effect, Rhys said a few more things to try to goad Derek but failed. The three moved on to the command tent and entered. After the others arrived the Grandmaster began outlining the final plans for march and directing the different forces to move forward.

The plan was for the forces gathered at Windreach to split into two and approach the north along two lines. In the east, the first column will travel along the High Road through Trowa, Telis, then Norintal. The column would be joined by local forces along the way before finally entering the barbarian north. After a week's march north of Norintal they would enter the Charis Basin where the various forces from the northeastern part of the continent would gather together before commencing the true subjugation efforts on the way to the Shrine of Light. The second column would head up the western coast. First it would move through Stormham, Elnon, then Calith before proceeding on to the Basin to join the other forces.

The Windreach companies had been placed in the first column along with some of the mercenary companies and other local ruler’s forces. This column would be led by Captain Kalne of the Cathedral, and his force was attached to it. Meanwhile, the Grandmaster would take the other column.

The various forces would leave at different times, with the second column leaving in the early morning and the first leaving at noon. This would prevent them from fouling up each other’s march. By the end of the day, their routes would have diverged and both columns would encamp quite a distance from each other. Judging by the distance of travel, the first column was expected to arrive in the Basin a month after they started marching, while the second would arrive in the following days.

This was preplanned. All of the forces of the campaign would gather in Charis Basin in the first week of the next month. There they would meet with friendly tribes and hire seasoned scouts for the campaign to come. That would also serve as their base of operations for the campaign. The might of the entire northeast of the continent was focusing on that basin, with almost eighty thousand soldiers converging on it from ten different columns.

Derek was amazed by the logistical effort required to plan the whole campaign. He was particularly awed by the genius it would take to cause such varied forces to arrive in the theater of operations from so many places within such a short period of time. From what he had heard, this plan had been drafted on short notice in spring by the Grandmaster himself. His estimation of the man’s abilities grew as he looked over the meticulous plans drawn from a thousand miles away.

Looking at the man, he seemed to be in his late middle age, with a touch of gray coming in at the sides of his copper hair. There were crow’s feet and some other creases on his weathered face that hinted at the years the man had spent campaigning, but an observer would never have been able to guess that the man was in his eighties. This was definite proof of the man’s high tier and body attribute.

As the planning session ended and all of the Captains of the various forces had received their orders, the old man finally signaled for the meeting to end, “That’s it. Go, get some rest. We have a hard march ahead of us and a difficult campaign after that. You are all dismissed. Oh, Captain Kalne, Captain Drake, you and your staff should remain. I have some things to speak to you about.”

The other Captains got up to leave the moment they were dismissed but stopped to glance at each other in confusion after that last instruction before shrugging their shoulders and leaving, The Chapter Master of the Order from Windreach glowered at Derek before leaving. Seeing that, Derek’s confusion was cleared right up. This was the man that was shamed in front of the people of the Academy all of those months ago by the Guardian of the Cathedral. Now that his master was here, the dog was starting to bear his fangs again.

Once the others had left, the Grandmaster looked the remaining people over. Aside from Drake, Derek, Tristan, and Kalne, there were also four of Captain Kalne’s people. Two were familiar to Derek. One was the little Priestess, Diana, while the other was her constant escort, Anthony. Next to the two of them were two knights in armor with a full helm. These people had been participating in all of the meetings so far but no one had questioned the secretive individuals’ participation once, not even the Grandmaster.

“I have heard that there has been some conflict between the Order and the other forces of Windreach these last few years, including the Cathedral, Willem. I have even heard that there was some conflict between members of the Order and your young Adjutant Drake. I want to let you know that I will not tolerate continued conflict.

“I will punish any offender strictly according to military law, whether it is you or one of the members of my Order. I have already instructed Ordino in my expectations and I will not show favoritism to either side. We have a difficult task ahead of us and I do not want internal struggles to undermine our efforts. Do you understand?”

Hearing the Grandmaster’s words, they all nodded their acknowledgement. Thinking things through, Derek recognized yet another layer of depth in the Grandmaster’s plans. The man had known about the conflict in the city and had planned to keep the forces of Windreach and the local Order apart. He had even come specifically to take charge of the march that the Chapter Master’s forces would be taking. It may have looked as if he was explicitly supporting his subordinate but from another angle he was actually placing the troublesome individual directly within his eyesight to prevent any mistakes. Derek was once again awed by the man’s foresight and meticulous planning. His confidence in the campaign had risen to a new level.

Finally, the man dismissed them. Drake turned to the two of them as they left the tent, “I hope you two learned something from this.”

“We did.” The two affirmed, before laughing at each other for responding the same way. The Captain laughed with them, then led them out of the encampment.

The next day was busy. Their company was one of the first from the first column to march that day, but their departure was slated for noon. Once they completed packing, Derek and a few of the others watched the other companies marching down the road. By noon, half of the forces gathered in the area had already left. Shortly thereafter the Windreach Academy Free Company fell into place behind the Defenders of the Cathedral.

They proceeded until late in the afternoon before pitching camp near the border to Trowa. The various other forces filed in and began setting up their own encampments as the afternoon drew towards dusk. The last unit to arrive had finally finished right before dusk.

After running some last errands for the day, Derek sat down in front of his tent to polish off his dinner. He felt a little sore from riding all day and was grateful to finally relax. He still had some minor misgivings due to this being his first campaign but listening to the spirited discussions around himself, he couldn’t help but be excited for the campaign to come. Even as he felt the exhaustion from the day, a smile started to cross his face.