And Such Are Stones

7. Days of Mist

At first, it was just one ship, not even one of the bigger ones. Their signature colors were black and red. Black was probably a reference to the black stone towers that dotted the landscape of almost every continent of the world ... especially the continent to the south of Nataria. Maybe it was the color of their souls.

Red? Who knows what that color represents? It might have something to do with their violent tendencies toward everybody else. Red was the color of blood and the color of the part of their eyes that was usually white on everybody else.

The ship never docked or tried to contact anyone else in the bay. It was still enough to run off all the trade vessels that were at anchorage. Everybody had heard the rumors of the Nafril. Wherever they went, death and destruction came next. All of the ships that could leave for somewhere else did so.

The port was empty now, but the bay was filled with those black and red ships. They came a few at a time, and then the bay couldn't hold any more, and they were staging outside in the greater ocean. There were transports, and there were those fast cutters. The last to arrive were the ballista ships. They were tall and wide with a flat deck. There were scorpions on the forward deck that could fire up to three large bolts at a time ... and that was on each shot.

There were also large deck-mounted catapults, and stacks of bags and barrels filled the extra space on their decks. King Eringus had all non-essential citizens taken north into the Mist. What else could he do? They watched as the assault ships lined up to attack, and still, what could they do?

The city of Nasra could only be attacked from the bay. It was situated with cliffs behind it and the Mist made by the priests on the sides. The ocean was the only clear path, and Nasra, or Southland for that matter, didn't have a navy to speak of. Their boats were for trade and for fishing.

The stone walls zig-zagged back and forth to reach the city from the port, leaving anyone trying to enter from that side totally vulnerable to arrows from the top of all the walls. There were even raised bridges from wall to wall that allowed rapid movement of the city defenses wherever they needed them. They just weren't ready for the siege weapons.

Nobody had ever attacked Nasra by sea before. It was always considered one of those places that wasn't strategic enough. There really weren't any resources that anybody else could take advantage of. They had the King's Apple in the center of the country, and the pearls from the northern coast were a pretty good money-maker ... but there really wasn't anything that would make somebody else want to take it over to possess.

King Agustus never really understood the motivations of the Nafril. They didn't really need a reason. The fact that something wasn't under their control already was enough for them to attack it and make it theirs. That's just something completely alien to a man of peace.

When they came for the first time, it was about fifty years ago. They were haughty and seemed to think they were superior to everyone else. They demanded that they be allowed to purchase land in or near the city to build one of their towers. Agustus didn't like them very much.

He did some research about the towers and about their actions in the lands to the south. He decided that he didn't want the towers to be built after all. The towers were how they started their infiltration there, and now they wanted to expand here in Nataria. Southland was peaceful and thriving. Agustus understood what happens when you allow a totally different ideology to infect your people. He sent them all back to their ships.

They came back again, and this time, they attacked from the eastern and western coasts. It was troops that came across the land and tried to take Nasra from behind. The Priests of the Nimbus used spells of illusion to confuse the soldiers, and they turned back to their ships before they caused too much damage.