Icestorme, Thale

  In each capital city, each of the members of the Dracosenati and the Conclave of Scales has an official residence. They are usually used during official visits, or personal ones. Given the ongoing Siege, the residences in Thale haven't been used much except for those belonging to the Aquamarine and Topaz representatives of the Conclave.

  The Silvermoon residence will be the first one opened in over a hundred years. The little steward entrusted by the Countess led the group consisting of the young lady and lord of Silvermoon to an upscale district not far from Icestorme Hall, but it was a distance away from the transit plaza. The buildings all had similar structures that were unique to Icestorme with the white-gray stones being the primary building material.

  The residences in this particular neighborhood had stately buildings behind stone walls and wooden gates. Behind the gates, the originally sandy ground had been artificially terraformed to be able to grow unique gardens with seasonal flowers and shade trees. When they arrived at the gate, Darius used his identity token to unlock it. It swung wide. The horses and the carriage went through, following the path to the main building.

  The guards dismounted and the two girls disembarked from the carriage. The Noxies returned to their humanoid forms. They put away their transportation. Isa took a position behind Britiana while Darius took the lead in opening the front door. Once it opened, Amadeus stepped forward to stop him from entering, instead sending Lazarus to lead the team inside first to check things out. They might seem lackadaisical and close to their boss, but they took their identities seriously. Darius was the young lord of Silvermoon and they were his guards.

  The steward pursed his lips sourly but didn't argue with this operation.

  It wasn't long before Lazarus returned and nodded to Amadeus. "My lord, my lady, magus," he said, stepping back and gesturing to allow them inside. Darius led the way, followed by Britiana and ZsaZsa.

  The residence hadn't been used in awhile and the furniture was covered with cloth, and there was a sense of emptiness inside. Lazarus explained to them the layout of the building, leading them to the bedrooms, and explaining there were also quarters for the guards.

  Darius dismissed the guards to rest, assigned a small room next to Britiana's for Isa with a bland look that gave away nothing about what he was thinking. He then retired to his own room to rest. Although he didn't do anything but watch, being in a heightened state of tension for several hours like he and guards had been in was tiring in its own way.

  ZsaZsa was assigned a room near Britiana's and excused herself to rest as well. She worked hard all morning.

  Only Britiana and Isa remained in the hall. "We can talk later, my lady. You should rest," he said to her with a slight professional bow.

  Britiana smiled slightly and entered the room she'd chosen.

  The good thing about the residence was that it had all its furniture and amenities, including bedding. It was just that it was a bit stale from the long disuse. A simple cleaning spell helped diffuse some of the staleness and opening a window helped bring in some fresh air.

  A distant sound of thunder made her look up at the sky. Though the sun shone through the dome, the sky was always a pale blue. Now it was beginning to turn gray and the sunlight wasn't as prominent. "Looks like we might get to see a blessing from Oshango while we're visiting. He must approve of the Bridging Array," she declared with a smile on her face. Humming to herself, she changed into something more comfortable to take a nap in.

  As she was bustling around she contacted her brother. she scolded him lightly.

  There was a brief silence. he said.

  Britiana pursed her lips. She herself was flabbergasted by that.

  Darius mentally chuckled. he conceded. he said.

  She giggled. she asked innocently.

  Her answer was an exasperated order; before he cut contact.

  Still amused, Britiana climbed into the bed for a nap.

  They rested for about an hour before beginning to stir again. They knew that their mother, Zane, and Morganna probably had a lot to discuss, so they wouldn't see her for a while. They gathered downstairs in the main sitting room. It was only mid afternoon, too early for dinner.

  They intended to discuss their next steps when ZsaZsa spoke up. "I won't be staying in Thale any longer," she said.

  Britiana glanced at her in surprise. "No?" she asked, a little disappointed that her friend wouldn't be playing with her anymore.

  ZsaZsa shook her head. "I'll go meet Aunt Raven in New Bienskurr and spend some time with my Mama and Papa," she explained.

  Britiana understood and smiled. "Then, go ahead. We'll be there in a few days. You and Deputy Darovan can draw the array on this side. Are there enough people in New Bienskurr to activate it?" she asked.

  The dark haired girl nodded. "Some of our mages are still in New Bienskurr," she said. "I'll be off now. Peace be with you," she salutated.

  "Go in peace," Britiana said. Darius echoed the sentiment.

  ZsaZsa changed into her Drake form and flew around until she disappeared with a crack.

  Britiana sighed. "Let's take a walk around the area before it rains?" she suggested. Even now they could hear thunder getting closer. "We can find a restaurant that's still in business," she suggested. There should be places that specialize in local ingredients.

  Darius didn't see any reason to refuse, so the group, minus one, left the official residence.

  --

  Morganna first led the two visiting dignitaries to her office and offered refreshments. At some point during their journey, the two healers returned to their place of employment and the mysterious guard that had been hovering around Morganna disappeared. The only people to notice didn't comment on it. Being a sensitive Silver Dragon, Chrystianna noticed but didn't harbor any curiosity about it. Zane noticed, but since he knew Dahlia was here on an assignment, never brought it up. Morganna assumed that her hired mercenary was starting to do her job.

  The old mage Eldrin Whimblethorne stayed behind in the plaza to study the Bridging Array. It wasn't necessarily polite, but no one could stop his thirst for magical knowledge.

  They made polite small talk until Marius came to his mother's office. He left the bulk of cataloging and redistributing supplies to his younger brother. He knew why Zane had come and he was itching to start the process of liberating Thale.

  The foursome made their way to the military department. There was a war room with a sand table set up showing many points of data. On a three dimensional map of Thale and the surrounding waters, were many points of data. There were points showing each hostile race involved in the Siege, where they've attacked before, how recently, and where they've been spotted, and other such details.

  Less than five years ago, monstrous shark-like creatures called the Bloodfin began attacking fishing villages on the outskirts of Thale, but began to continuously push inward. Morganna's husband, Terrance Stormbringer, was the High General of Thale at the time. He led people to push back against the Bloodfin. He succeeded, but at the cost of his own life, leaving her widowed and her sons without a father.

  However, the Bloodfin were becoming bold again. In the past few weeks, raids on fishing villages started anew. This time, the Bloodfin teamed up with Wyrms as air support. They've had to evacuate villages around the periphery of Thale into Domes. So far Bloodfins and Wyrms have not been able to break into those.

  Zane studied the sand table and listened to Marius' report of recent activity. It was strange. Well, it's always been strange. Bloodfin were savage creatures. They were intelligent but they didn't have the kind of intelligence where they could plan a Siege and keep it going for over a century.

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  "The Bloodfin and the Wyrms are the main attack force on land and air. What about the sea? There are always reports of any vessel getting close to Thale from sea routes disappearing," he said finally.

  Marius used a hand to slightly shrink the image of Thale in the sand table, showing more of the surrounding waters. "Part of the problem is the Wyrms. They have nests in a triangular formation around Thale," he explained.

  The Eternal Mountains were a massive range that completely encircled the planet in an elliptical. The mountains were large enough to have several peaks even coming out of oceans. The Eternal mountains passed through a small edge of Thale. They had been affected by the catastrophe that split Thale into islands, but the places where they were in the water near Thale had several peaks on either side visible.

  It seems Wyrms had taken them as their nests. On the other side of Thale, a smaller mountain range had also broken apart, leaving a deserted island with a pile of rubble and one remaining peak that Wyrms had taken over.

  "The biggest problem is the Nixies," Marius explained.

  Emphyralis had many underwater races. The most prominent are mermaids. They were allies of Dragons, often intermarrying with Aquamarine Dragons. They lived around the Naias Reef near the southern coast of Varmur. They preferred warm waters. They had water related abilities.

  Nixies were similar in their power sets, appearance, and anatomy. They appeared as the half-human half-fish category and could be eerily beautiful. But unlike merfolk, they couldn't exist on land, they had mouths full of sharp teeth. They were savage, bloodthirsty, often hunting and feeding on mermaids and other seabound races. They were once driven to the Isolated Expanse, the large, almost empty ocean between the easternmost Vedanta and easternmost Myrkir. It was unknown when they moved to the surrounds of Thale, but they had been involved in the Siege since the beginning.

  Again, they were intelligent creatures, but not the extent of planning and maintaining a Siege.

  "Whenever a sea vessel gets close, the Nixies use their powers to control the water and sink them and feed on the crew," Marius explained. Showing several red marks where they've been able to discern or even observe the occurrences. It hasn't happened in awhile because no one's been foolish enough to send anyone to Thale. But sometimes vessels can get lost. Nixies can create a confusing mist to also confuse sailors into coming closer.

  Zane was frowning fiercely. Aside from Bloodfin, Nixies, and Wyrms, other hostile races without much power mixed into the chaos to pick up scraps, but those three were the strongest, most troubling. Yet none of them had the intelligence to plan this. Something or someone was behind this.

  The immediate thought was that there were Dragon Hunters left behind. They had the technology to remain hidden. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that they could live in a stealthed spaceship near Thale.

  However, Zane knew that Dragon Hunters prided themselves on openly hunting and killing Dragons. From the intelligence they'd been able to gather, the Dragon Hunters themselves didn't release the Plague. It was their scientists. It didn't stop them from taking advantage of their weakness. He couldn't completely rule it out. It just didn't seem likely.

  A Dragon? Not impossible. There were always traitors. First, isolate Thale. Weaken its military. Kill the leader and take over. With the Siege, it would be almost impossible for the other nations to intercede.

  Yet, the time to act would have been before the Bridging Array was in place. Now, Thale could get reinforcements at any time. He couldn't make sense of it.

  Finally, he spoke. "Your Grace, please have mages secretly brought to Thale and build Bridging arrays to the other capitals. Secretly send them to the capitals as well," he spoke to Chrystianna with his request.

  Chrystianna frowned thoughtfully. "Will it be possible to keep it secret? Carving the array causes a bit of commotion," she said.

  It was Marius who answered. "Now that we know what to expect, it's possible to hide the activities. However, there is still the problem of Draconite," he added hesitantly.

  "Myrkir will provide the Draconite for our array," Zane stated.

  Chrystianna nodded. "The others will do the same," she assured. They'd already discussed it before. However, it seemed like the timeline was accelerating beyond what they expected. "How will you hide the activity?" she asked.

  Marius smiled slightly. "Every Tower has their secrets," he said.

  Chrystianna accepted that as truth. "I'll make sure public attention is on Britiana and Darius's intentions to go to Cruinog. As far as the general public knows, Britiana, ZsaZsa, Raven, and Delaney Crowley are the ones who know how to lay the array. With them gone to Cruinog, no one should suspect other mages are secretly installing Arrays in the meanwhile," she mused.

  Zane nodded. "That was my thoughts as well," he said.

  Morganna was listening quietly without interrupting. "You suspect someone in Thale is behind the Siege," she said quietly.

  Zane shook his head. "Not necessarily Thale. The person or persons could be anywhere," he said. This left the room in thoughtful contemplation. Truthfully, he was correct. They had no idea who could be behind the Siege. Zane broke the silence once more and began to make solid plans.

  --

  New Bienskurr, Silubra

  When the Earthborne arrived on Emphyralis, their landing point was an area of the Eternal Mountains in Silubra that was uninhabited. It closely resembled their homeland the way it was a thousand years ago. The forests surrounding were lush, the earth was rich, and the air was crisp and clean. It was wonderful. When they first arrived, the oldest of them broke down into tears at how wonderful their new home was.

  They decided to make a home right where they landed, while they sent some of their hunters out to explore the area. Eventually they found other villages near the mountains. Some villages were humans, some Elves, some they had never even seen before. In the mountains, they even discovered Dwarf settlements nearby, but far enough that they wouldn't interfere with each other.

  These explorations eventually connected them with the Dragons and they eventually met with Chrystianna Silvermoon. They were wary of her, but she was very welcoming to them. She merely registered their identities, helped them establish New Bienskurr and educated them on the laws of Emphyralis.

  It was during this process that they learned about the Dragons' battle with the Hunters. Their young leader agreed to help them with this battle in repayment for the hospitality. Chrystianna had wanted to refuse, but the grateful Earthborne insisted. They were hunters themselves. Some may have regrets about coming to Emphyralis for various reasons, but no one regretted joining the battle against the Hunters, not even when their young leader was injured.

  ZsaZsa's father, Niklaus Daratranzanoff, was one of the heroes of the Hunter Wars. He met her mother, Lorena Morningstorme during the war. She was something akin to an assassin. She was a Shroudweaver, her camouflage was nearly flawless. She was also a battle mage, except, unlike most battle mages who were ranged warriors, using their staffs to cast spells from a distance, Lorena was more like an assassin.

  When the war was winding down, Lorena decided to have a child while preparing their homestead. Every Earthborne that came over, were able to claim a section of land in New Bienskurr to live on. Lorena turned that wild mountainous land into a home, building a house, a workshop for herself after the war for Patternwoven crafts. She didn't intend to remain a battle mage after the war.

  When the war was over, ZsaZsa's father came home. Trying to find his own path in this new world aside from hunting and fighting, he explored his own land, eventually finding a Draconite vein in his mountains. Learning from him, other Earthborne also found Draconite veins. If not Draconite, then precious metals or gemstones.

  Now New Bienskurr was a rather rich settlement. The thousand or so people spread out over a large section of the Eternal Mountains. Though Raven didn't live full time in New Bienskurr, she also had her own settlement, but she gave her nephew the rights to oversee it because the two pieces were next to each other. She only had a small cottage she lived in when she visited.

  ZsaZsa's parents, on the other hand, had a large villa. Lorena's family had been a rather ordinary Patternweaving family in an Amethyst village near the Eternal Mountains. However, only she and a few other orphans were left after the Plague. Ten children, the oldest barely eighteen, the youngest less than a year. They looked after each other and grew up alone. Now, these ten children called New Bienskurr home. Not all of them married an Earthborne, but several did. Those who didn't worked elsewhere, but there was always a place for them in Lorena's home.

  When ZsaZsa arrived in her own living room, she saw an "aunt" and an "uncle" visiting her very pregnant mother. These two were members of her mother's workshop. Gruff and silent, Uncle Daroc Everdawn was a large man who was currently making a delicate length of lace, his needle glowing faintly as he wove magic into it. Meanwhile, delicate aunty Beryl Moonweaver was etching patterns into a bejeweled tiara. Her mother sat in front of a loom with a big belly as she wove a beautiful pale cloth with subtle patterns.

  "ZsaZsa's here," Daroc boomed jovially.

  ZsaZsa fluttered and turned into mist midair and returned to her humanoid form. "Uncle Daroc, Aunty Beryl. Mama, where's Papa?" she asked curiously.

  Lorena glanced at her daughter. "He and Raven went to a meeting," she said flatly. Usually a rough, jovial woman, for her to speak so flatly indicated there was another problem.

  ZsaZsa frowned. "What's wrong?" she asked, sitting on the sofa beside her mother.

  Lorena shook her head. "I think there are some people demanding to return immediately. It's a bit of a headache for your father and the other elders," she answered. She didn't intend to hide the problems from her child. Despite falling in love with a warrior, her husband still had backwards views toward women. He preferred to coddle and protect their daughter like Earthborne men have been doing to their women for generations. Lorena, taking arms against her enemies when she was still a child, refused to do so. it was sometimes a source of friction.

  ZsaZsa sighed. "Delaney is the only person at the moment who can even get us back to Cruinog. She has no obligation to do so. She's doing it because she wants to repay Aunt Raven and Britiana for helping create the Bridging Array to bring the witchborn over," she said sourly.

  Beryl snorted but didn't say anything. As outsiders, it wasn't their place to criticize or judge the Earthborne for their internal struggles.

  ZsaZsa felt no such qualms. "Maybe I should go to the meeting," she said, jumping up.

  Her mother reached out to grab her arm immediately. "Sit. Raven and Niklaus know what they're doing. Don't get in the way," she scolded lightly.

  ZsaZsa sat back down with a pout and put her face in her hands, elbows on her knees. "I know, but it's so annoying," she said. She tried not to be sad or angry, but she knew that the people clamoring to go back were the same people who saw her existence as something that was a threat to their existence. Even if she ignored it, it didn't feel pleasant knowing her kin could feel that way about her.

  Finally, she stood. "I'll go start making dinner," she said. She couldn't think of anything else to do. At least cooking would keep her mind and hands occupied. Her father couldn't eat food, but ZsaZsa, her mother, and the other Dragons did. Still, her father enjoyed the smells as he drank bloodwyne with them. She began humming as she walked away.

  Lorena glanced at her daughter's back. She shook her head and continued working.

  --