Izan (Ministry of Information)

‘’The Barbarians have been letting refugees pass through their lands unmolested for months now, anyone and anything fleeing from further north has safe passage either to Paradisum where they are mobilising an army or across the grasslands into Sandersorian lands if they aren’t willing to fight.’’

''They're only harbouring warriors?'' I with a gruff of displeasure, ''that means only the dregs are making it into our lands.''

‘’Yes, the minister of Orientia has been complaining about the swelling population of refugees making a camp in his province. What’s the situation further north?’’

‘’More than 20 000 Hito have fled into the Tundra to join the Barbarian ranks which were already bolstered by fae, elves, orce and dwarven forces not including all the other human peoples that have been migrating to Paradisum since the sidhe made their home here. The numbers have swelled to over 2 million by our rough estimates with weapons and magic training freely given to any that make it past the initiation processes.’’

That's a lot of refugees, ‘’How many of them are warriors?’’

‘’Lord, all 2 million-plus I mention are warriors ready to fight.’’

''..., that’s a large number.'' A force of 2 million warriors could wash throung Sandoria like a wave. ''How are they able to arm such a force?''

''The Hito have opened their tombs,'' the ambassador says with meaning.

''What does that mean ambassador?''

''Every Hito is forged a blade as a coming of age, if they become a samurai another blade is forged and if they become soul samurai a zanpakuto is forged making it three weapons in a lifetime. These blades are kept as memento mori to honour the dead becoming a large cache of weapons over time as people die. In times of war they open their tombs and claim all those weapons to arm themselves.''

I get it immidietly as I imagine thousands of weapons collected from generations of death and burial, ''the Hito have opened their tombs,'' poetic. ''What do we know about their average strengths?

‘’The Hito are reported to be fierce fighters with a focus on spirit and soul magic difficult to counter, yet they were ravaged by the invaders by all accounts,’’ I hear implication how serious the situation is. I'm smart enough to understand the implication of a foe capable of countering soul magic as the bigger threat than even a force so large.

''What do we know about these Hito?''

''The Hito are warrior people with their culture focused around weapons that can damage the body and soul. I have had several of my aids compile reports on what is known about these soul weapons, we have no counter for them.’’ Yet the invaders made short work of them.

‘’How well did they do against the invaders?’’

‘’They were completely decimated lord, the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. All their villages have been razed to the ground, they speak of humanoid monsters that cannot be killed systemically slaughtering village after village with no care for life or reason. The invaders aren’t numerous but they are powerful beyond anything we’ve ever heard off, some of the Hito elders close to Archmage were killed as easily as everyone else the refugees reported to the Tribal Council when they spoke of what happened.’’ Its fortunate we managed to get an ambassador into the Tundra otherwised we'd be sorely lacking in intellegence.

‘’We expected the invaders to have reached the Tundra by now, we’ve been mobilizing and recruiting since the troubles started. How best do we combat these invaders if they get past Paradisum from what you’re seeing?’’

‘’With all due respect Lord Izan if these invaders get passed Paradisum Sandersoria will be lost in its entirety.’’

...

‘’We’re calling in all the senior mages from their towers. All the Grandmasters and Archmages are compelled to fight by writ of the king, we haven’t mobilized in such power since the founding of the kingdom,’’ I declare in case the ambassador isn't aware of the force we're bringing to bare against this threat.

‘’And none of that will be enough if Sandersoria stands alone,’’ I'm advised with a stern voice.

‘’What do you advise ambassador?’’

‘’We should be standing with Paradisum when the invaders come lord. They are much better organised and equipped than we are at this stage in time, I’ve never seen anything like this. They’ve made allies through their trades and through the fae of nearly every intelligent race this side of the Titans. The Highlanders and even some of the distant Stone Dwarves that fought against them in the last war are said to be on their way up here to bolster their numbers.

‘’Lord Izan, if we don’t form an alliance with them now while they face their greatest threat we may never be able to do so again. And if they survive this invasion intact they will be the power on the continent, not us, not with everything they’re accomplishing as quickly as they are accomplishing it.’’

‘’An alliance with the Tribes is what you’re there for ambassador if you feel so strongly why hasn’t it been made a reality?’’

‘’They want King Magnus to come to Paradisum.’’

‘’What now?’’

‘’I’ve already done most of the work and a preliminary alliance has been drawn up I’m sending it right now, it has a lot more concessions than we are used to giving to our neighbours but we would benefit from it also.’’

‘’Ambassador, don’t run from the issue.’’

‘’I told your aid last we spoke, the Council of Chiefs wants King Magnus Sanderson to come in person when they fight before any agreement between us and them to be validated.’’

‘’That’s absurd, the royal person will not go to an active battlefield in a foreign country.’’

‘’Well that’s what they want.’’

‘’Why?’’

‘’They want to see his strength.’’

‘’They expect the king to actually fight?!’’

‘’Tribal thinking is unique, they can’t understand how someone could rule the whole kingdom without being uber strong. They want to see him fight so they know what he can do, so they can respect him, or not.’’

‘’My headache is getting worse, alright ambassador I’ll bring your suggestions to the king. How much time do you think we have?’’

‘’Not much but the invaders seem to be taking their time. They have fliers come as far as the Hito village at the foot of the tribal mountains but they haven’t attacked the territory yet. The scouts report that they’re currently invading the Water Gargoyles in one of the mounts a month northeast of here.’’

‘’Water gargoyles?’’

‘’Yes I didn’t know such existed either but apparently there are a lot of sapient creatures we share this rock with and fortunately for us they are still taking the brunt of the attacks.’’

‘’Alright, so we have at least a month before Paradisum is at war.’’

‘’Maybe, maybe less I really can’t tell.’’

‘’Alright ambassador, anything else I need to know about?’’

‘’Yes, the force of 20 000 strong that left for the Maori last year hasn’t been heard from since. No one here knows what happened to them but they never made it to Maori lands.’’

‘’Great, we might have an army of Barbarians wandering around our territory somewhere unsupervised. We also lost track of them long ago and with some unknown creature depopulating half of Cretia Province we haven’t had anyone-,'' wait a moment, ''Maybe they also got afoul of whatever’s out there eating people, hopefully.’’

‘’As you say Lord Izan.’’

‘’Anything else?’’

‘’Yes, the invaders seem to be impervious to mana attacks. That’s the rumoured consensus and the fae don’t seem surprised.’’

‘’Bloody gaol! Just like these doghead beastmen we’ve had attacking unwalled inhabitants in Cretia, how is Paradisum planning to deal with them?’’

‘’As we speak Hito smiths are forging soul-weapons for some of the more promising prospects from amongst the Paradisans enmass but I honestly don’t know their overall strategy.’’

‘’Alright, keep in touch if anything new comes up.’’

‘’Yes Lord Izan.’’

__

Izan looks around the dim-lit room at the six others that witnessed the scry call, scowls and worry from all the aids. No one is sure what to do.

‘’Pull up all the reports to come from Paradisum and go through them, see if we missed anything and how we could capitalize with the current situation. Contact the ambassador to the Maori, get an update of what’s going on there and get him to float a possible alliance in which we unite our armies then move north to bolster the Paradisum army. He must see how amicable the Maori are to that, urgently.

‘’Get an update from the Highlands, matter of fact get updates from all our ambassadors and partners. I want a transcript of this call sealed and sent through royal channels to the king, for his eyes only. Get High General Zuko a copy of the transcript sealed with the ministry seal and hand-delivered directly; make sure the king knows he has it. Go.’’

They leave quickly to perform their duties, an overworked Izan activating the scrying crystal again to receive another update.

‘’How go things in Paradisum,’’ he asks a senior spy and investigator in the region.

‘’Busy,’’ the muffled voice says as the scrying crystal lights up.

‘’Tell me all.’’

‘’It’s a shit show, the invaders are impervious to magic.’’

‘’Which neutralises our greatest advantage.’’

‘’Yes, our mages will be useless in this fight.’’

‘’Which will change the dynamic of power in the kingdom quickly, the doghead beastmen from the rift in Cretia have already created a wave of unrest as the effectiveness of the mage system is questioned.’’

‘’Politics are above my station.’’

‘’How is Paradisum preparing?’’

‘’They are investing much into deviant mana evolutions, anything unique or different. They are leaning heavily on the Hito forged weapons, they’ve apparently been proven effective against the invaders.’’

‘’How come the Hito did so badly though, word is they were decimated.’’

‘’Yes, completely overrun but they put up more of a fight than any other force in the invasion path so far. For some reason the invaders are taking things slow but they could be here by tomorrow if they wanted to. It’s rumoured they’re consolidating their gains from the Hito sacred sites, the places they keep the soul weapons of their dead.’’

‘’Repository of weapons, how amicable are they to sharing those weapons with the rest of their allies?’’

‘’The idea was floated in the tribal council but the Hito wouldn’t hear of it at first, it nearly dissolved the alliance before it started.’’

‘’Should the kingdom be worried about this alliance?’’

‘’Absofuckinglutely! I’ve never seen anything like this, the numbers are swelling daily and everyone is itching for a fight. The barbarian tribes are salivating at the mouth for a chance to test themselves, it’s being spoken of as the fight of the century. They have communication channels going much further than ours and have allies coming in from places I’ve never even heard of.

‘’It’s mostly the presence of the sidhe fae bringing people here, it’s believed the sidhe will protect the city as they did when we came north if all else fails.’’

‘’Will they?’’

‘’No one knows but they’ve certainly invested a lot of resources to this place to just let it be burned down now.’’

‘’The Hito are said to have kin in the deep parts of Gaia, under the ground. Any truth to this and possibilityof reinforcements?"

‘’Yes but their passages are blocked now, last communication indicates their Underworld settlements are experiencing struggles of their own. No reinforcements expected from there.’’

‘’What would you advise I advise the King?’’

‘’Join the alliance while they still think they need us. The fact of the matter is that if the invasion gets through Paradisum and its allies Sandersoria is next on their path and we’re fucked. We should focus on training our warrior awakened, psions and any other deviant paths that aren’t purely magic based. Those hidden sorcerers, those rune-smiths, sanguine feeders any and all comers. Otherwise, I don’t think we can survive what’s coming if the invaders aren’t stopped here.’’

‘’Anything else of interest?’’

‘’The army that went south is officially reported as missing, there has been no word from them in over a year.’’

‘’How many invaders are there, the reports have been very inconclusive on that.’’

Sigh, ‘’from everything we’ve been picking up there are about a thousand or less.’’

‘’What?!’’

‘’I know, it’s crazy. An army of this size and such scramble to face a thousand invaders but think about it, they’re coming in through a world gate. A gate only the most powerful on the planet have been crossing for as long as our histories report. We can’t imagine what type of powers we’re dealing with here.’’

‘’So they’re scary strong.’’

‘’So they’re scary strong yes.’’

‘’Okay, keep me posted if anything else comes up, use the fastest communication channels available.’’

‘’The security risk?’’

‘’Irrelevant compared to what we’re facing.’’

‘’Affirmed. One last thing.’’

‘’Speak.’’

‘’You should speak to the king about an evacuation plan.’’

‘’Come again?’’

‘’The Hito were hit hard and they weren’t prepared for the eventuality of having to run. Look, don’t bite my head off the thought itself is scary and crazy but speak to the king.’’

‘’Your concern is noted.’’

‘’Out.’’

‘’Out.’’

__

Fuck!

Someone abruptly enters the dim room as Izan relaxes. ''Lord izan,'' he acknowledges with a bow announcing himself before keeping quiet waiting to be addressed.

''Speak.''

''The rift in Cretia is gone, the doghead are gone.''

''Confirmed?''

''This is confirmed, a stranger has come asking reward for it.''

''Great, more madman mana awakening getting out of hand.''

''He isn't like that sir, here is a direct report from Capital,'' he inserts the marble into the crystal without preamble. Izan notices the Aids excitement and steps away weighing his behaviour and words carefully.

A man appears on the crystal, tall lean, handsome dressed strangely but clearly ostentatiously. He floats in the air landing lightly in the middle of Malcum Square in Capital with the city guard forming around him with enchanted shields.

The image skips to him standing before the court with an intimidatingly muscular man standing like a living sculpture of male virility at his side.

''People of these lands, I am a stranger in your world passing through and see your lands desolate of life's welcome. The bantu-prides ravaging, farming your people as resources and a wild Amarok feeding on all life west of the world portal. A portal I've closed for my own reasons but I wonder what that service is worth to you, what would it be worth to you if I dealt with the Amarok as well?''

The image freezes with the recording ending.

''How long ago was this?''

''Not 21 minutes ago lord.''

''Get my carriage ready, I'm going to see the king.''

''Yes lord.''

This could be our chance, this stranger could be how we come out of this on top.