We landed beside a group of blue tents set up behind the front. The soldiers paid us little heed, used to the dragons travelling to and fro. In fact one of the dragons was there now, a majestic looking golden dragon which seemed to have a ‘beard’ of scales. “Child.” It said warmly in their tongue, nodding to Teal. It looked happy at that, moving forward for a quick nuzzle after we’d dismounted.

“This is Karacun.” Teal said to us. “My mentor, they have been the one organizing our attacks. Also the best warrior I’ve known.” She said, she turned to Karacun and began to speak in her own tongue. “I am bringing the Seraph to see their leaders.” It said, to which the golden dragon looked down at the group, cocking its head curiously. I nodded, taking a simple bow.

“You can understand me then?” The dragon spoke, a low rumble that echoed in my chest. I nodded, gesturing over to Teal. “I see… The land before us is far more dangerous than it used to be, exercise caution.” It dipped its head at me, before turning back to the rest of its brethren. I looked over to Teal, inclining my head towards the blue tents.

The inside of the tent held about four to five people. One of them was a man with grey in his hair, he wasn’t in armour, but from the way the others looked to him as we entered it was clear he was the one in charge. “They really didn’t sell you too short…” He said absently. His eyes shifted to Azarint. “It’s been a while old friend. Nice to see you’re still alive.”

“It’s good to see you as well captain.” Azarint said, a genuine smile on his face. “You’ve done well for yourself.” The other man snorted.

“Maybe, personally I figured you were going to have words with me about the Republic.” He said with a tired smile. Azarint shook his head.

“We never had the luxury of questioning and guiding our superiors even when we served.” Azarint said. “And in fact you were never related to the parts I disapproved of, so that would’ve been wasted effort.” He shrugged. The man shook his head, turning to me.

“Well, in any case, you must be the Masked fellow I’ve heard about from Cale.” He said, turning his piercing green eyes to me. “Even after what he’d said, I wasn’t expecting you to be here…” He rubbed his chin. “I assume this is about the giant abominations we’ve had coming out of the portals.” He said blandly, looking out towards the Edratchi. I cocked my head and he gave a tired smile. “Trust me, you get used to it. It’s an endless stream of horrors.”

Azarint hefted up his axe. “A friend gave these to us and told us to help you out.” He said. “That man holds an aether blade.” He said, pointing to me, then looking to Frejr. “I would suggest we leave it to the general how to utilize our abilities.”

Frejr agreed with a nod, while Numen mumbled assent. Rince looked over to Frejr before nodding as well. The general looked over to me with interest, while one of the other people blanched and stared at me. “Huh, that will be helpful…” He said. “Are there any limitations to the use of your weapons?” He asked, leaning forward onto the table. Qent seemed to hesitate, and I took the lead.

“The aether weapon will require me to be almost entirely alone.” I said. “Anyone close to me will get their souls damaged or outright torn apart. The moment I turn it on, the Edratchi are likely to focus entirely on me.” I added. “Left alone I’d carve a straight path through their ranks. Lasting until the nearby aether reserves start to diminish. From what I read, you’ll want to put most of the other weapons together, they draw on separate elements, so they’d run out quickly unless they have the others around to balance their usage. The bow can stand alone.”

Qent cleared his throat lightly. “He’s pretty spot on there, basically both groups will be really good at causing a huge ruckus, but only for a short period of time, and if we’re close to each other that time becomes even shorter.” He cautioned.

The man stared at the map for a moment. “Hmm… that changes things…” he mutters. “Lone, do you remember those plans we’d originally suggested? We might be able to adjust them back again, could you come over here and sketch it out?” He said, turning to one of his subordinates, before turning back to us. “You’re welcome to remain for the planning period if you want, but otherwise you can go to rest and prepare.”

Frejr and Azarint stayed behind, whilst the rest of us left to set up camp. “Azarint sure seems to know a lot of people in weird places.” Rince said. “Remember that time we had to visit the Breath of Sky? Hard to believe he knew one of their current leaders.”

“I don’t remember that.” I said, pursing my lips and thinking back. “Who even are they?”

“Oh, you weren’t there at the time.” Rince said. “You were at the Republic. They’re a group of mages, we got called in when they and the Tower got caught in a uh… dispute.” He explained. “Azarint helped make sure it didn’t go further than that, otherwise we’d probably have had to fight them…”

“No thanks to my brickhead of a superior.” Qent said with a sigh. “Who’d have thought a mage could be so dumb…”

“Well the rumours do say that Azarint used to be a part of some old order or something.” Numen said with a smile. “A stalwart protector until the nation fell.”

“You put way too much stock in rumours.” Qent said. “He’s most likely one of the soldiers displaced by the wars of Neath. We lost a lot of records from that time, we don’t even know how many nations there were to start, but at the very least the Republic wasn’t the only one that large. Makes you wonder if Cale came across any nations that got cut off from us.”

“Well if he did we sure didn’t hear about it.” Rince said. “Wouldn’t that be something though? Wonder what they’d think of the dragon.”

“Probably the same thing I did: We’re going to die.” I said. “I can’t even imagine how anyone managed to take them down before.” I said, shaking my head. And with their ability to blend in, to morph… They could probably take us out in a day… “Somehow I feel like we’re missing more of the story than usual…”

“Well it’s not like it matters right?” Numen said. “They’re on our side now, and they seem friendly enough. I mean, Teal’s been helping us even though she doesn’t have to, she’s practically a member all on her own.” Well she actually technically is… just not in dragon form.

“She’s been helping out?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Well… it feels like a her…” Numen said. “I think…”

I thought back to when she’d taken the form of that noble girl. “Well… I guess I can see it.” I said, an amused smirk on my face. “What’s she been helping with?”

“You name it really. Ettins, Wyverns, no point in her going after slimes or dires though, she herself says that her size prevents her from going after those.” Numen explained.

“What about that girl that was with me last time. Has she been back for more work?” I asked.

“Occasionally?” Numen said, putting a hand to her chin. “She doesn’t come around that often really, and recently she’s been coming around less and less. Though really, we don’t need her around that much, there aren’t nearly enough jobs here, she’d probably find more at other towns.”

I nodded. It made sense at least, after all Teal would know if there were jobs that needed to be done at the time. We set up the rest of the camp in relative silence, sweeping away the snow and cursing every time we slid on an icy patch. “You guys notice the soldiers looking at us right?” Rince said, after we’d finally started our campfire. I turned quizzically to see some soldiers surreptitiously looking at us. When they noticed my gaze they turned away.

“Best we can hope for I think…” Numen said. “Remember when that guy came back to Torven to talk to Hakten again? I didn’t think anyone could exude so much disapproval without saying a word…”

We heard Azarint before he arrived, the snow under his feet crunching along with the dirt. “We’ve decided on something of a plan.” He said. “It would be best if you came to give your opinions as well before we assign the roles.”

I stepped into the tent, looking over to Frejr who stood next to the general. “Good to have you here…” He said, his eyes still focused on the map. “Lone, walk them through the plan.” He said, gesturing to the man standing beside him. As he raised his eyebrows he continued. “It was your plan after all, you’d explain it better than I could.”

He nodded, clearing his throat. “Right… So when the dragons came we’d considered this plan before, though eventually we had to discard it. More than half of our men were fighting nausea every time they went up there. Not to mention the other problems.” He gestured to the map.

He tapped on the map. Gesturing towards the section between the two forces. “The plan in this case is to use a three-pronged attack, with you and the other irregulars taking the leads here and here.” He said, pointing to two parts of the map a bit away. “They’re fully entrenched, so flanking them is nigh impossible, instead we’re ostensibly going to commit to using you to take ground from them. With the dragons we couldn’t hold the place, advancing our men under the auspice of dragon fire wasn’t helping anyone.”

“Ostensibly?” I asked. “So you’re going to try to smash their lines then? With a group of reserves?” I pursed my lips, staring at the map.

“Something like that. Once they’re committed we’re going to pull back. Then let the dragons take out the centre with as much fire as we can get. After that, have the lamias follow their worms underneath them to secure a foothold.” He said, pausing. “Oh… we haven’t told you about the spectres in the scarred lands have we?”

“… I shouldn’t be surprised, I’ve heard the casualty reports.” Azarint said. “That much death… must have created an unprecedented number of them…”

“The real problem is that the death of the demons created their own spectres, they’re different, smarter, more powerful, and when we first brought down one of those behemoths…” He shuddered. “Half the fighting will be on them alone.”

“Not if they come for me…” I said quietly. “Are they still mostly mindlessly hostile?” I asked. Lone nodded. “Then that’s what we’ll do… The Aesor will take them out, and I’m not as easily affected by them anyway.”

“Well I don’t have a better plan, I’m in.” Numen said, Rince nodded agreement.

“The plan will probably change once the battle starts.” The general said. “Watch the banners, Lone will walk you through what they mean. We’ll try to get ready as soon as possible, most likely tomorrow.” He said. “Get some rest.”

We walked back to the tents we’d set up, Numen passing out the rations we’d brought with us. We spent most of our time on our equipment, finally falling to sleep after our food. No need for watches this time, especially in the encampment.

I was woken up sometime around midnight.

[The portal.] Page said. [It’s open.]