“Matriarch, we have to finish off the Mizo within the month,” said Taeral. Although young, he excelled in all things maritime. He continued speaking, “The Tulco Dynasty is being pressed by the horde from the east. If we are too slow, we might not be able to offer our services before they are razed to the ground.”

Although, knowledgeable when it came to ships, he still needed work on his patience. “Do not fret. The Tulcos have been around for half a millennium. They will not crumble in a day. There is something valuable in the castle of the Mizo chief and it isn’t any less valuable than what we would get from that dynasty. If we do not act now, the Mazo will claim that item in the name of the Goddess of Fertility.”

Taeral unwillingly backed down. “Then should we set for the capital?”

I called out to the master of the axe, Folwin. “When will the men have fully recuperated?”

“In two days at the most. The spirits in this area are unnaturally weak, especially near the rivers so the healers can’t exert their full power.”

Yes, I had noticed the same and I could guess it had something to do with the artifact I had my eyes on. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to verify the situation.

“Taeral, clear the area of boats and men. I need to commune with the spirits of the river.”

The elf in his fifties, bowed solemnly, his large metal hoop earrings created a small hum as the wind passed through it. It wasn’t pretty, nor practical. Especially in battles, however, he clung to tradition even though we had been chased away from Yggdrasil. Home of all who live according to the spiritual doctrine.

An hour later when the Byrding ships had been cleared of the area I slowly entered the warm waters of the southern continent. Finally, when my cloth pants had been fully submerged, I slowly lowered my head into the river. I let my silver hair spread out in the surrounding waters and closed my eyes. Finally, when I fully submerged my head, I activated my spirit sight and little blue wisps appeared in my vision even though I had closed my eyes. After a few seconds, they noticed me and made their way to my eyes and ears. However, when I felt their cold touch, they did not speak nor play around. They seemed tired, terribly tired, especially for water spirits who are always energetic and playful.

“What happened,” I asked, concerned for their well-being.

“Oh, condemned child,” said the spirit in my left ear.

“A great hero has been summoned,” continued the spirit in my right ear.

Next thing I knew a projection appeared in my left eye. There I saw great streaks of blue lightning being formed out of the surrounding mana. Then in my right eye I saw complete and absolute darkness.

Both spirits in my ears started to speak in unison, creating a resonance and ripples in the water. “For a month it was absent. For a month we were asleep.”

Soon, in my right eye a dim white light started to glow around the living beings and the river.

“Only now can we see, but only dimly. Even if a grade 10 spirit mage wished to seek our powers, we could only grant them grade 7 magic, so is our state.”

All of this was of great concern. Heroes were only summoned on the eve of great hardships or demonic invasions. Whatever struggle the Tulco dynasty currently faced might not even be an appetizer to what was to come. However, that wasn’t even the worst of it. If that hero decided to face us, we would be defenceless as our powers, granted to us by spirits, couldn’t be used against the saviours of the world. Or so it is ordained by the Queen of spirits Yggdrasil.

“Tell me,” I spoke into the water, “Where might we find the hero currently?” If we could bribe him to switch sides, or even stay neutral it would be for the best. Plus, we are elves, if we could say that the spirits had lost their power due to the Mizo people, I might convince him to switch sides without any loss.

Instead of speaking. The spirits showed me map of the river system, and there, beyond the fork where the capital laid, I could see a large white dot. It was the hero. We would need to contact him before taking any action against the chiefdom. Since he wasn’t in the capital, the kingdom might not know of his existence. This would make the whole process a thousand times more easily.

I thanked the spirits and slowly raised my head out of the water. Soon after one of my shaman’s handed me a soft linen cloth to clean my hair after which I changed out of my wet clothes.

“Bring me Taeral and Folwin,” I told my shaman. She nodded and left with small footsteps. Her green tog, which went all the way down to the ground prevented her from taking long strides.

Soon enough Taeral arrived and bent the knee. Yes, although young he was intelligent and could easily understand meanings with a glance. On the other hand, it took Folwin a few seconds to understand what was happening.

“You are to send ten of your best men on your fastest ship. The rest will be left to the shaman I assign you. Only travel at night and make sure not to be spotted.”

Both lowered their heads to convey that they had understood and accepted the mission. If this took too long, we may not be able to arrive at the Tulco Dynasty; however, the hero was of greater importance.

#

It had now been a week since we had the war council. In that time, I wasn’t called to the headquarters even once. Well, that worked for me. I was able to concentrate on training my troops and thinking up plans for each eventuality.

While I sipped on some water over the map of the area an infamous mage entered. It was Grezzo, my supervisor. “Let’s go.”

It seems that the Vikings were finally moving. When I entered the tent after Grezzo all the other commanders had already arrived. As soon as Klazzia laid eyes on me, she began to speak. “This is a meeting to inform you all that nothing has happened.”

It seems that I was wrong, they hadn’t moved just yet.

“The sea people are still at the mouth of the river. We do not know why or when they will move. Our latest information is three days old and apparently, they didn’t seem to have any injured nor did they seem to be planning something.” She started to move a little triangle out of the dot which corresponded to this city. “As such, most of the chiefs had the time to consolidate near the capital under the High Chief.”

The other commanders seemed just as confused as me; however, Klizza paid no mind to it.

“As such we march tomorrow morning. In three days, we’ll have reached the capital. And soon after all troops will march to meet the Vikings at the mouth of the river.”

Well, this made sense, the troops had been levied for nearly a month now. This drained not only the treasury and the moral of the people, especially the villagers who wouldn't see their family for the next half a year at this rate. Just like a tumour or a parasite, everyone wanted to cut it off as soon as possible even though it might not be for the best. Now with the Vikings either unsure of their victory or waiting them out, they had no choice but to move on them.

#

The next morning, the thousand and five hundred strong mercenary company left alongside the chief of Gorune's troops. He, on the other hand, had two hundred professional warriors and a nearly two thousand fresh recruits and reserve warriors. Apparently, he also had fifty mages, which was about a quarter of what the High chief possessed. In this regard, Klizza was quite the remarkable figure since she had two mages besides herself.

In two days, we marched nearly seventy kilometres, of course, as we were still in the chiefdom, we didn’t encounter any issues. Finally, when we were five kilometres from the capital, we saw hundreds of banners fluttering in the skies around the capital. There must have been at least eight thousand men here, all ready, to face off against a hurricane which had already ravaged the land a decade ago. And behind them stood the strongest fortification in the chiefdom.

The capital’s walls were made of yellow bricks and went up nearly six metres into the sky. A thick iron gate protected it against any wooden battering ram. Inside the city, the high chief’s castle stood even higher, surrounded by eighth grey stone towers, from which archers or mages could assault anyone powerful enough to pass the first layer of defence.

Yet, these eight plus three thousand troops would be forced to leave its safety and plunge headfirst into the storm.