“NATO forces were forced to retreat during the Battle of Podet Lake. The objective was to cut the enemy supply line in half and to set up a staging ground for artillery. Two Infantry company supported by an armored platoon was sent as a strike force with the intent to be followed up by a large force.

Because of the mid situation, the three Abrams and six Bradley’s got stuck at different stages of the operation. This forced the infantry to protect them while Engineers tried getting them unstuck. Besides attacking as one organized group, the formation was split up into three separate group. While not far apart, the distance was far enough that each group struggled to support each other.

Another company was deployed at the lake by helicopters. The military was hoping that deploying infantry by helicopter in advance would help offset the mud crisis. The Air Assault was successful, ground forces failed to relieve them before the Empire came in force.

The Empire attacked each group separately, keeping every unit pinned down. The Empire were using a specialized wagon that is designed to move swiftly on the mug, being pulled by a domesticated mole like creature which can quickly move through the mud. Biologists are still trying to figure out what this creature is.

This was also the first time NATO forces witnessed a large elven force within the Imperial ranks. While it is normal to see non-humans within Imperial ranks, Humans have always been the dominate force. From soldier reports, the mud seemed not to influence their movement, allowing them to move around quickly and sustain and firefight with longbows.

Mages were used, forming mud monsters, and using the mud as a weapon. Energy, Sky, and Lightning attacks strike the 10th Mountain position. This usually is not an issue however the soldiers were forced to remain in their positions as they give the Engineers and stuck vehicles cover.

The battled lasted for nine hours, with the only thing preventing the Imperial forces from overwhelming the entrenched forces was the Abrams and Bradley’s turrets and M777 artillery support. With that, all forces were able to retreat to Marais. A recovery Air Assault force was able to recover the besieged company at the lake and bring them back to Marais.

What allowed for a clear retreat was the arrival of US and Australian Apaches was able to force the Empire back long enough for vehicle recovery vehicles to recover the stuck Abrams and Bradley’s.

This battle is considered the bloodiest battle for US soldiers’ sense the Battle of Philadelphia. Fifteen dead and thirteen wounded. The brass believed the ground would be stable enough for a ground assault because the lack of rain for the past week. Colonel Henry Camble said he never seen mud and rain fall like this.” – Free Alnus News

***

--- League Principality ---

August 21st, 2025

Princess Piña Co Lada gets off her horse and adjusts her armor. Making her feel more respectable. She then looks over to Grey. "Is this the final group, right?"

"I believe so. My contacts said the last three were sent here," Grey responds.

Pina takes a deep breath. This has been a hard time for her, having to face many foreign ideas and challenging some core beliefs. But deep down inside she feels great for what she did. Before the war she never would have done anything like this, never seeing what the point would be. Now, she feels like nothing could stop her.

She cannot help herself but smile from her recent accomplishments. In Alguna, her title had no weight(1) but was able to get what she wanted because of the situation that was unfolding. Trading her crown(2) for a human life which allowed her to save those tree prisoners. While the move was not popular at first, she decided that even if she never sees these people again, it was worth it. Winning her first battle made her feel like she belongs out here with everyone else.

"Why are you smiling Princess?" Bozes Co Palesti asks.

She looks over to her good friend. "Everything is great. This was not easy, but we are finally at the final stretch."

"You do realize when you return to Alnus, he is going to kill you(3)," Jules points out.

Right then Pina good mood goes away. She knows that is a risk when going back. From her time around Sharpe, he seemed to be a reasonable man, there is no way he will keep that promise. Still, he does not seem like a man to walk back his word. She committed to making amends for her mistake and if this is what needs to be done, so be it. She decided it is not about her but her team and people. Everyone will suffer if she wavers now.

"…shut up Jalin," She says back to him with a glare.

"We should get this over with." Beefeater E Caty says and then starts walking to the palace doors.

Pina looks over to her friend and then back to everyone. "Grey and Hamilton. Come with me. Everything else, replace our supplies and be ready to go."

As she gets off her horse and starts heading to the palace, she feels much pride within her. Everything she has done and the chooses she must make, whatever happens, she feels happy that she went on this quest.

As she walks, she looks around the city. The League Principality is not like the Kingdom of Elbe and Algnus. This is a small confederacy of smaller city-states, all ruled by a collective leadership.

Wedged between Alguna to the west, the Elbe to the north and Toumaren to the east. They mainly stay to themselves unless called upon by the Empire.

As her fellow Rose Knights and she walk up to the palace door, they suddenly open. These Elbe soldier’s walkout, this one-man looks ferrous he storms out of the palace.

"These horses of bastards. No honor at all," This man says.

She stops and looks, recognizing this man. "Prince Astile? What are you doing here?"

Astile stops and looks to her. "Your highness." He says and then kneels to his knees.

This act confuses her for a moment, why is a prince of Elbe kneeling to her. We are enemies now, Elbe allied themselves to the Americans. She then has this other feeling that she does not like, him bowing to her. This has been norming all her life however this seems strange now.

"You may raise prince. What brings you here?" Pina asks.

She assumed that King Duren sent his eldest son here to form an alliance against the Empire. She honestly cannot blame the League Principality for switching sides, there is no way the Empire can provide security for them. And if they try to resist, they will end up like what happened with Alguna.

Astile stands up and faces his princess. "I came here to help form a rebellion against my father. He has betrayed his oath to the Empire. He is destroying our way of life just to make nice to the enemy."

What Astile said shocked her. She was not expecting that one of King Duran sons to be planning a coup. Maybe not everyone in American occupied territory agrees with their beliefs. For a moment she believed this was hope in defeating the Americans if everyone unites against them. However, she remembers the reality and that she decided to make amends.

"What is going on in Elbe? What do you mean by destroying your way of life?" She asks him, confused by that statement.

She can see this stressful and frustrated look on Astile face. He clearly does not like the changes to his country. "I don’t know if you heard but my father signed this treaty with the Other Worlders."

"Do you have a copy of it?" She asks.

"Yes. I have many copies of the treaty on me right now. My father sent me to these kingdoms to help prove the good intentions of the Other Worlders. The enemy has this strange magical device that can make many copies of something at once." Astile says as he grabs a copy of the NATO-Elbe treaty.

"Ok, thank you. Please give it to Hamilton here. We will have to read and study this later." She speaks. She can see that Astile is using his father's diplomatic mission to build up his rebellion.

She watches as Astile hands Hamilton a copy of the treaty. There are a few pages, all on the American plain style of paper. She has seen it before in Italica. Those people can write so clearly and in such small print.

"He is changing the natural order of the world. These low life Other Worlders want us to pay slaves coin for their labor on anything they buy form us. We have to give the Other Worlders a portion of our food and we have to concede land for this... companies... of theirs," Astile states, confused by that last word.

None of that sounded bad to Pina. It just shows that the Other Worlders are remaining consistent. If they plan to outlaw slavery in Falmart, that is not a bad idea. And sharing resources, the Empire does that right now. To her, all this sounds like a power struggle. She will have to look at the treaty later.

“Are they paying for your harvest?” She asks him.

“Well…,” Astile responds and then fidget a little. “Yes, but that is not the point.”

"Just remember your highness, you still have friends. If your Rose Knights do not mind help us rally support, I will be in your debt." Astile says.

Hearing that Pina stops and thinks on how to respond. She decides that it is not a good idea to get herself wrapped in another quest. He is trying to start a war while she is trying to end one. It is probably best if he does not know why she is here. He will take great offend towards us returning the Other Worlders prisoners.

A thought just shocked her as she thought about Astile's statement. A part of her considered him the enemy while she viewed the Other Worlders as her allies. The worst part is that she does not know which thought is correct.

"Thank you for your loyalty Astile however right now I have Imperial business to deal with. When I reach Sadera, I will tell the Emperor of your commitment," She said. She then almost extended her hand out for a goodbye greeting. She had to stop herself, realizing that is the enemy custom.

Astile notices that strange hand movement but does not comment on it. "If you are here to enlist their help. Don't bother, they are traitors. All of them. The League and Clan Elbe have been allies for generations and now during our worst of days, they betray us and the Empire."

What he said hits her hard but not for the reasons he stated. She thinks he is right; loyalty is hard to come by these days. She knows from personal experience since she screwed people over who placed their trust in her.

Pina looks away and sees the moon in the bright blue sky. "I understand. The only thing we can do is try and build yourself up and do what you believe is right."

What she said pleased Astile. "Well said, Princess. Good luck." He gives her a salute and walks away.

Once Astile Elbe rebels walk far enough away, Bozes walks over. "So, what are you going to do with them? They will make this harder."

"We will stay away from them for now. We have our own quest, and I am sticking with it," She responds and heads inside.

Once inside, they all see a round table. These five councilmen all around the table. They all seem stressed out like they just had an intense debate or argument. Most likely because of Astile request.

"Good afternoon my fellow Leagues." She says, wanting to start on a good tone. She learned from the Algnuna conversation not to just walk in like she owns the place.

That is one of the councilmen looks over. "By the gods, why won't you Empire folk just leave us alone. We have nothing left to give. We just told your prowar friend no."

She feels then intensity from them all. She just decides to ignore that. "I didn't come here to enlist your help."

"Good. We cannot fight this enemy. We don't have enough troops to form another army and we need to get ready for winter." Another councilman says.

"I understand. If you help me out, then you won't have to worry about me or the Other Worlds from Alnus." She states with confidence. This is her last part of her quest; she isn't going to let anything stop her.

Pina can see that she got their attention now. They want out of everything that is going on and she does not blame them. To her, this will be a fair trade.

"I am trying to create a dialogue with the Americans at Alnus. When we invaded their world, we took some of their people as slaves. I am here to collect them and return them. If you give them to me, I will pass a good word to the Americans. They and the Empire will then leave you alone. Do we have a deal?" She says with confidence, not willing to accept anything less.

Pina sees them look at each other however none of them speaks. Something seems to be off as they all look nervous now.

"Speak, this is a simple trade. This is your best option to get left out of the war," She states again, pushing the manner.

That is one of the councilmen stands up. "I am sorry Princess; we cannot give in to your request. You see-."

Right then Bozes interrupts the councilmen. "What do you mean? You have no idea how hard things have been. You know this is a fair trade. Just give us what we want, or we will tell the enemy that you are holding your people."

There is a short silence in the room as everything figures out their next move.

"You see. We no longer have them. You see…," The councilmen say.

Pina takes a deep breath, already knowing what he is going to say. "Let me guess, these people in cloaks arrived and took them?"

"How did you know?" A councilman asks.

"We ran into some. We freed three of the American prisoners from them." Hamilton responds.

Only negative thoughts are racing through Pina's mind. She just feels like the gods have cursed her. Why is that when she gets so close to completing her goal something goes wrong. She begins to wonder if she is big of a screwup.

That is when Grey walks forward. "Tell me everything. These people are apparently organized."

The councilmen look at each other and then at him.

"You see when we learned that Sadera was destroyed by the Other Worlders. We decided that we were going to return the slaves. Just like what Clan Elbe did, we wanted to sign a peace treaty. These people in cloaks arrived a few days ago and demanded them. Willing to pay a create amount of gold. We rejected," A councilman explains.

"How much gold?" Bozes askes, course of the amount.

"Five thousand coins. Each," Another councilman responds.

"Five thousand each? Why didn't you take the offer!?" Pina asks, cannot believe that they gave up that much. Her crown was not even worth that much.

"You can't spend the money if you are all dead," Grey speaks for them.

"Correct. We know how easily the enemy destroyed our army. We decided there was no amount of coin they could give us. They just left after our rejection. And then the next day they were gone." A councilman says.

"Gone? How could they just be gone? Didn't you have guards," Bozes asks.

"Yes man. All five guards were slaughtered, without a sound," A councilman says.

"How many slaves and how long ago?" Grey asks.

"Three and two nights ago," A councilman responds.

That is when she sees Grey turn around and look at her directly. "We still have time. If we move now and split our forces up, we might find them."

Pina looks at Grey and sees the conviction in his eyes. She decides that she cannot give up now either. Whoever these people are, there is a good chance whatever these cloak people have planned, it will not be good for the prisoners.

"Well. They wouldn't be going to Toumaren. It looked like the ones we freed said they came from there. The ground looked like they were coming from there anyway. They could be going west to Alguna however that country is in flames and full of the Americans. Unless they were planning on returning them which I doubt then they wouldn't go that direction." She says, speaking out loud to herself.

"If they were going north, we would have seen them," Bozes states.

"Unless they weren't using the main road." Hamilton points out.

"Yes, and if Grey's contact is correct, there are no more American slaves in the region. But they are deep behind enemy lines then. Going north they run into Alnus and Elbe. Going through Toumaren, they risk running into the Elbe and besides, they wouldn't have come to this direction if they were planning on going back through there."

As she thinks, putting a picture of the map in her head together. The Americans are covering the West, North, and East at this point. That only means they can go south, through a ship.

"Ok, this is the plan. Councilmen, I need all your cavalry to sweep the countryside, just in a cause that I am wrong. The Rose Knights are heading south to your port city. Since they cannot leave by land, they have to by sea. It is the safest route right now." She tells everyone.

***

--- League Principality ---

August 22nd, 2025

Pina Rose Knights are rushing as fast as they can down south. Everyone is split into teams to help cover more territory. Luckily, the League Principality is not a large Kingdom, that limits the possible route these people in cloaks can take. All she can do is hope that her theory is correct.

All she can do is think about is Sadera burning down to the ground because she failed a second time. That she failed her knights on their first real quest together. That she will never regain her honor again because she allowed these people to slip through her fingers.

"This is hopeless. They could be anywhere. Maybe they did go east." She says as her group slows down to get their bearings.

Hamilton rides over to her. "Princess stays calm. We are so close; we have to be. We will find them."

She looks over to her and smiles. "Always the positive one, aren’t you."

They both smile at each other and then look away, scouting the area.

"Pina, so how long did you know?" Hamilton askes.

She looks back over to her friend. "You mean that American boy? I always knew. I was just focused on myself honestly. What was his name again?"

“Andrew…,” Hamilton looks over to her, blushing a bit. "Really? That long?"

Pina giggles. "You were curled up with him back in Italica(4). I saw when I went into that room to talk to their leader Sharpe."

"Oh, I didn't know," Hamilton says as she thinks. Still bright red.

"That is ok. When we are done here, I like you to tell me why though." She says to Hamilton, scouting around again. "We should go that way."

"First, you are not angry with me?" Hamilton asks.

She looks back at her. She has never been angry about her crush. As she said before, she was too busy prioritizing what she wants.

"No. You have been a great servant and friend. Do what makes you happy," She says, giving her blessing.

They both shake hands as one of the Rose Order riders rushes up.

"Princess! Jalin found them," Margarita Boro Auspex said.

"What!? Really?" She said.

"Well, he found some villagers. They say they passed a group of people in cloaks. They were transferring three slaves." The female knight says.

Pina heart begins to pound hard, this being great news. Maybe there is a chance after all. Something does not seem right more she thinks about it.

"That is the long way to the port though. Why are they going that way?" She asks herself. She then looks to everyone and rallies her knights to go to Jalin's position.

It would not take long to reach his location, her knights only a few leagues apart. As she rides there, she thinks of a way to fight these cloak people. The last fight they just rushed in there and got surrounded. This time we should be more careful in fighting since we have the numbers now.

Pina begins to think about doing what Panache did last time. This time more organized and not just based on luck. One group can distract while the other flanks around and attacks in the rear with the horses. These strange, cloaked people do not seem to wear armor so it should be easy.

When Pina grouped finally reaches the Jalin group, everything seemed off. Everyone is off their horses and looking around. They are in the forest and it looked like a large ground set up camp here not that long ago.

"Jalin, what is the matter? Where are the cloak people?" She asks.

Jalin looks up at his princess. "I am sorry your highness, but you want to see this yourself."

"Ahh… ok." She says and gets off her horse.

She starts to follow Jalin. As she walks, she can pick up the vibe that something is wrong. "Jalin, what us wrong?"

"Well, we found the three Americans," Jalin says in a depressed tone.

That shocks her. While he has proven to be loyal, he has not shown that much respect to the Other Worlders. The fact that he is using their national name tells her something bad has happened.

When she arrives at where Jalin wanted to take her, she sees Beefeater there looking away. She has this disgusted look on her face.

Her eyes widen after seeing that sight. She walks over and looks to where Jalin is looking at. All she cans see are body parts, blood, bones, and organs everywhere. The ground is pure red from all the blood.

During the raid on Sadera, she saw bodies and blood everywhere form then attack. None of that even comes close to what she is looking at now. "By the gods, what happened."

Pina can hear both Hamilton and Bozes gaps as they walk over and see what she sees. She even can hear Hamilton tearing up from the sight and she cannot plan her. She would join her if she were not so shocked by the sight.

"Are they… the…," Pina tries to ask, already knowing what Jalin said.

"Yes, your highness. They harvested them. I don't even understand why." Beefeater says, mumbling to herself.

She is struggling to wrap the new reality around her head. So close to freeing these Americans from slavery just to find these three mutilated in some sick ritual of some kind.

"We are undone… this is it. We failed... I failed!" She says out loud this time.

Jalin looks to her. "Your highness, let me take you away from this."

She looks at him. "You don't understand Jalin. The Americans are going to crucify us all for this. Look what they did just because we enslaved a few of their kind. What do you think they going to do because of this…?"

She cannot stop her mind from racing. All she can do is look back at all the body parts and the pools of blood. "Where is Grey…"

"Princess," Beefeater says as she comes to her princess side. "Keep yourself together!"

She looks to her long-time friend Beefeater. "You’re kidding? It is over like were done. Everything we have done was for nothing. Everything I have ever done, everything I have tried to do has been one big joke. This never would have happened if we didn't take them away from their homes. If I wasn't dicking around-."

Right then she feels this slap on the face and then a hub from Beefeater. Feeling that hug, she begins to cry a bit.

"Pina, everything will be fine. We did not do this. Those people did this. We can find them and honor them by slaying those bastards. And we must find out why they are doing this," Beefeater says with some conviction in her voice.

Jalin walks up. He looks back at all the mutilated body parts and then back to his princess. "This camp still looks fresh. They cannot be far. If we hurry, we will catch up to them."

She takes a deep breath, enjoying the comfort of Beefeater. She wipes the tears from her eyes and looks at her fellow knights. "Jalin and Beefeater are right. Let us go get them."

Many of her knight's cheer, all wanting revenge for this barbaric act. They all get on their horses and gear up. Once everyone is mounted, the Rose Knights head out to find these mystery cloak peoples.

As the knight's ride through the forest trail, heading southwest. All Pina can think about is the horrors of war. This truly is not a game; innocent people being brutalized like that. No wonder why Sharpe does not look for glory. There is no glory in being torn apart like that.

The more she thinks about it, there must be something more going on. It became clear that if she did not find that first patch, the same fate would have happened to them. At least now she knows Knight Elbera did not die in vain, she died preventing those American prisoners from suffering a horrible fate.

"What is the plan, Pina? When we run into them?" Bozes asks.

"I have been thinking about that. Jalin and Beefeater, take your teams around. The rest of us will attack directly." She said.

"Didn't we do that last time? That didn't really go our way," Bozes asks.

"No, this time it will be different. We are ready and prepared." She counters.

---

It took some time for Pina scouts to find a large formation of tracks. It had to be those people who mutilated those American prisoners.

Right up ahead is another camp. It looks like to be a good twenty of them. Just like that first group, these one is also in those green cloaks.

Over by the wagons, they see this small animal cage.

"I see a small girl there. See. Why didn't they kill her like the rest?" Margarita asked.

Looking more closely, Pina sees an American child in the cage. "Not even the children are safe from this horror."

It felt strange for her to say that since the only reason why they are even here is that her people were the ones who kidnapped that child in the first place. However multiple wrongs do not form a right, so Grey always said to her. She now wishes she took that advice more seriously.

"Alright, ladies. Remember the plan. We attack but stay in formation. Don't let ourselves get surrounded again. If we stay together in a line so we can help each other. All we need to do is direct them to us." Pina tells her knights.

She then pulls out her sword and points it to the camp. "Charge!"

Pina knights and herself break form their cover and charge the camp. As they charge, two arrows fly towards them. One hitting Bozes shield and the other hits the chest plate of another one of her knights.

It looks like a few of the enemy are archers, desperately trying to stop them so their troops can get ready. Just like last time, these people seem to be prepared for an attack. She starts to think they are not standard soldiers or even militia, their security is pathetic.

The Rose Knights clash with a large group of the cloak people. The sound of steel and warrior cries can be heard throughout the camp.

Last time her knights scattered when they charged. This time everyone is staying close. Staying close and are more organized.

A decade of Grey's training seems to be paying off, while only their second battle her knights can stand toe to toe with these people.

As she swings her sword and slashes this one Human man down.

Getting a clear view of the camp, she sees about five of the enemy rushing away into the forest. One of them carrying this bag.

She hears this man yelling from her side. Looking there, she blocks this sword with her own. Being forced to take a step back from the sheer strength of this man. Her friend Bozes comes by and rams her sword right into the man's side, nearly cutting him into two.

Catching her breath, she looks to Bozes. "Thank you. Where is Jalin?"

Bozes nods and then looks out. She smiles and points. "Right there."

Looking to the direction Bozes is pointing, she sees about fifteen of her Rose cavalries coming out of the forest.

They ram right into the most of the remaining cloak warriors. Taking out the archers that were taking cover in the back. With Jalin troops arrived, the battle is effectively over.

She rushes over to Jalin. "Bozes, Beefeater. Take command and clean up here! Free that girl there."

She then jumps on the back of Jalin horse and points out in the forest. "Jalin, about five of them have escaped. There protecting something."

"I got it. Knights, charge!" Jalin yells and then begins riding into the forest.

As they ride through the forest, searching for these remaining cloak people.

"Fan out, they might have separated. Look for the one with a bag. They seem to be protecting it. I want it." She yells to her knights.

As they ride through the brush, she hears three of her knights to the left yell out. She looks over and sees them ride up to this cloaked man and watches as they slash him down. Over to the right, she hears the same thing. They are cutting this elf down with their sword.

"Where is he," She mumbles to herself.

"Don't worry. Just keep your eyes out." Jalin comments back to her.

That is when one of her knight’s yells that she sees someone.

Looking out, Pina sees this strange, cloaked man rushing as fast as he can. Shorter than a Human but too tall to be a dwarf. In his hand is this large brown bag with red all over it.

"That is him. Get me close." She orders Jalin.

"What are you planning?" Jalin asks back as he rides to that man.

"Just do it!" She responds as she gets ready to jump.

Once Jalin dives right up to the man, Pina jumps off the horse and rams the man. They fall to the ground.

She forces herself to get up quickly. Her body tired from hitting the ground this hard. She crawls over and grabs the bag. To her surprise the bag seems to be very heavy.

Once she grabs the bag, the cloaked man grabs her arm, trying to make her let go. Looking up, she sees his face. It is that strange-looking beast from before.

She watches as he pulls out a dagger, going to table her in the head. But then this hand grabs the beast arms and this other fist rams right into its head, knocking whatever this man is out cold.

After getting up, she grabs the bag off the ground. "Thank you, Jalin."

"You are crazy Princess. You are crazy." Jalin says, nodding with respect.

He then looks down at this beast. "What un the underworld is this? This is what you saw before?"

"Yes. I have no idea what this thing is. Maybe Grey will know." She responds, looking down at the pig looking man.

She looks down at the bag, feeling this dripping feeling on her leg. She sees blood dripping from the bag.

Opening the bag, all she sees inside it are all these different kinds of organs. They must be from the American prisoners.

After seeing all those body parts and organs in the bag, she has this horrific expression on her face. "Who are these damn people? Why in the world in the underworld would they do this? This is Siflis doing."

The two gods she hates the most, Hardy the ruler of hell and the underworld. Siflis, best describe as the god of just evil. She pushes people to do evil acts like rape, mutilation like she has seen today and all other sadistic acts. Those are the easiest way to describe what she has seen in the last two day. Even then, this seems to be the extreme, ever for Hardy.

Jalin walks over and looks in the bag. With the same horrific look on his face now, she grabs his sword and walks over to the pigman. "I'm going to cut his head right off."

"Wait!" She yells.

She thinks about her question more. Why would anyone do this? If these people were goblins, orcs, or other creatures like them, this would make more sense since they would eat us. Even then, they would not do a ritual and protect these organs just for food. This is far more complicated and planned out.

The more she thinks about it, the more questions appear in her head. There is something more going on than she knows, and she needs information. Clearly, another faction is at play in this war and she needs to find out.

"We are taking him as a prisoner. Maybe handing him over to the Americans will help. They will understand what happens if we hand over the thing who did this to their people."

Jalin looks to her and takes a frustrated breath. He puts away his sword. He then looks over to these two women knights. "Bind him. We are taking him with us."

He then looks to the strange looking, pigman. He then kicks it in the stomach and then walks away.

She watches her knights take the cloaked man. She follows Jalin to get on his horse. "Alright, let's gather everyone and head back to Alnus."