The Call to War

Chapter 37

The entire council sat anxiously around the large table within their meeting chamber. The battle in Elenoir ended two days ago with the Alacryan forces being defeated. However it was a bittersweet victory, as General Pasta Bloom also died in the attack. Blaine tried to make it sound like an acceptable sacrifice considering the retainer he had killed in the process, but not even he could accept his own words. Now the only obstacle to deal with was the spell that the Alacryan forces used to get through the forest that was still in effect. In an attempt to remove the spell, a dozen of the most brilliant scholar mages in Dicathen were dispatched to study the spell and determine how to remove it.

As for the battle at the Wall, they were still awaiting more information. During the entire battle Captain Flamesworth was reporting that everything was going as planned. But several hours ago Arthur contacted the council, reporting Captain Flamesworth being removed from command and arrested for treason, along with his noblemen co-conspirators, and that a messenger was already enroute with all the evidence and the casualty report. To give them a head start, he used a communication scroll to send his report on the battle, stating his absence from the beginning, being his decision to try and aid in the defense of Elenoir. He explained everything from seeing the spell activate, to his battle with the retainer above the forest, to the message he received from Kathyln telling him what was happening back at the Wall. Commander Virion was the only one who received the report, but he informed the council of everything he said, except how he left Elenoir. He told the council that his absence was due to his battle with a retainer, so it was at least half true. He did this in an effort to protect Arthur from Blaine and Pricilla Glayder, in case something had happened to Kathyln, as they had not been able to get in contact with her or Hester.

Knock

The door then opened and a middle aged man looking like an adventurer still wearing his armor walked in.

"Council members," he said with a bow. "General Leywin sent me to deliver these to you."

With that he placed his hand over the table, and brought out several stacks of scrolls, parchments, and loose papers. Immediately Priscilla and Blaine started looking for the casualty reports. They soon found a folder with a stack of papers filled with names labelled casualties.

"I'll help you," Merial offered, and was immediately handed a small stack of the papers.

Quickly the three skimmed through the lists of names. Blaine paused when he came across Lilia's name, and immediately thought about how Curtis was going to react.

"Oh no," Merial breathed out.

"What is it? Did you see Kathyln's name?" Priscilla asked in a panic.

"Oh no, I'm sorry. I just saw Arthur's father Reynolds had died in the battle," Merial replied.

Alduin, Buhnd, Virion all closed their eyes and had a brief moment of silence for Reynolds, while also feeling sympathetic to the Leywin family.

"Damn," Virion thought to himself. "With that Alacryan fleet coming, I need Arthur at his best. There's no way he'll be in any way capable of commanding troops like this. Will he even be capable of fighting properly?"

Virion was not thinking as Arthur's former mentor, but instead the Commander of the entire Dicathen military. Just yesterday three hundred Alacryan ships were spotted and suspected to be heading towards Etistin. The plan had already been put into motion to send every available soldier there to aid in repelling the invasion, along with all of the Lances. Mica and Aya however were not being called up, as Mica was working to root all Alacryan supporters in Darv, and Aya was just on standby in case they couldn't remove the spell through Elshire Forest. Meaning the remaining three Lances needed to be there at their best.