Chapter LXV
in which an assembled continental army lays siege to Kingsport
Message
Pan's Sentinels send the message broadcasts the message that the Continental Army's crafted over the city of Kingsport an hour before the siege is set to begin. The only immediate response is a volley of corpses launched over the city walls. No Westerners desert. With the Cont. Army finally assembled, every takes their appropriate place. Felspar begins its march south towards the North Wall. Brenthia is positioned to advance southeast towards the northwest corner of the city. Ussetra marches from the west towards the East Wall. The Vulshik begin an amphibious approach towards the unguarded South Bay from the sea. And the Desertlanders and Silvestri wait for teleportation to the beaches east of the East Wall and an empty warehouse in the middle of the city, respectively.
The Felspar Advance
Felspar takes heavy losses as they attempt to take the North Gate. The Westerners are very prepared for their arrive and are able to easily disrupt Felspar's gate and wall breaching maneuvers with the exception of Okmark's squad of null soldiers. They break their way into the city and Okmark is immediately confronted by a legionnaire. Red watches from the sidelines as the Westerner counters Okmarks nullification sphere by using magic outside of Okmark's sphere of influence to quickly launch himself back and forth. They fight on even footing until Red revokes the Legionnaires magic during one of his attacks, causing the Westerner to get stuck in Okmark's null field without the ability to quickly exit. The legionnaire yields and accepts Red's suggestion of immigration.
The Marine Invasion
The Vulshik sneak into the city under cover of water. It seems no one was set to watch the bay. They quickly take the dock and jet towards the center of town as quickly as they can while also dealing with ballista aimed seaward and ship cannonfire aimed at the docks. Eventually, their advance is halted by magic that causes the buildings they were climbing over to become unclimbable. A legionnaire appears. Nykulls and Haas fight him together. She finds that this one is more devout than Asoth was and elects not to sever his connection to Shul. Instead, she spends most of the time keeping Nykulls from certain death as he and the legionnaire recklessly attack each other without regard to their own health. It's an even match throughout until the effort of their combined attacks decapitates him. After his death, some of his men are convinced to yield and lay down their arms. The vast majority continue to engage the Vulshik.
Haas continues on to the pillar. She tries and fails to take down one of the Westerner spellcasters weaving the summoning spell.
The Beach Advance
The Desertlanders quickly advance towards the East Wall from the beach thanks to protective illusion magic from Maus. He keeps the archers on the walls confused enough for Glad's archers to pick off as Glad cuts a path through the gate. The opening ends up getting closed by the debris for a kinetically hurled building. He and his men work at clearing the rubble and engaging with the the Westeners on and behind the wall. As they prepare to push through and join the Vulshik, Tyrus' army swoops in and pins the Desertlanders between two rows of Westerners. Glad is called to duel Tyrus as he once promised as his men clash against the Shul'Garoth. Maus offers his assistance, but Glad refuses.
Glad recklessly charges his foe, powering through the damage he takes from Tyrus' teleporting spear. Tyrus grabs and breaks Glad's wrists when he gets in grappling range, but Glad just smiles. Having gotten as close as he needed, Glad releases the enchanted spring loaded dart hidden in his right arm bracer. It hits its target and teleports Tyrus to the pit. Glad gives chase. Tyrus impales the Sentinel on his horns as the sand from Chracio's pit surrounds and pulls them both. Glad relents before the drowning becomes fatal and allows Tyrus the opportunity to attune. However, when he stabs the legionnaire in the back when he deems that Tyrus is not taking the attunement process in good faith. Victorious, Glad rests up and heals at the edge of the pit before returning to the siege.
Maus is able to help the desertlanders regain some ground in their disadvantage position by causing the Westerners to see an illusion of an incoming meteor. He assists the army as best he can before making his way towards the pillar.
An Ambush of Trees
Frax leads the Nurifra, who largely ignore his orders, into the middle of the city where they quickly engage the Westerners with surprisingly success. They remain outnumbered, however, and it becomes clear to Frax that they'll need reinforcements if there's to be any chance of them not being slaughtered wholesale. He moves about block by block keeping an eye on the Nurifra and minimizing casualties until the Sentinel of Nurifra arrives to the scene on the back of a large ent. The ent carries them both to the pillar and tosses them behind enemy lines. He aids the Sentinel as best he can until he makes an escape into a nearby building that he then clears.
When the dust settles, Frax realizes the scene of the Silvestri dead looks like the prophecy that Syntyria drew him. She had predicted the siege, not a devastating incursion into the Silvestri's territory.
An Assemblage of Armies
The surviving fragments of the Cont. Army descend on the pillar of Emeri and surround the four legions guarding the work of their spellcasters. The ensuing battle is a violent, chaotic mess with no real ground being gained. Duke Okmark, who cleared an area in the center of the surrounded West by crashing an airship, is injured from the resulting crash and incoming volley of attacks. He remains boxed in until Brenthia is able to dig their way towards his position. Taking down the spellcasters proves to be a tricky business. Even when they can be reached and their protections are breached, they quickly flee into throngs of their comrades. And those who die or are transported far away do little to slow the progress of the Westener's summoning spell.
The Heretic arrives at the Eleventh hour, offering to take them all down in exchange for the Foxes letting Okmark fall in battle. They refuse his offer. Instead, Haas swoops him up in dragon form and flies him close enough to the gathered magical energy to dispel the spell. The rest of the Foxes work in tandem to minimize the attacks thrown their way. In short time, the effect is dispersed and the battle rages towards its end. Some of the West accepts the Foxes entreaties to yield and choose to either go home or accept their offer of immigration. The more devout soldiers fight to their deaths. The Heretic, displeased by Okmark's survival, pays off his debt of legionnaire heads and begins collectGing Shul'Garoth soldiers. He and Cadence see each other on the field and he promises her a "next time" before leaving. Glad tries to assure Cadence that she's likely strong enough to prevent him from paying off his debt to the Heretic and begins collecting Westerners to attune, as does Aeonis.
Emeri's Sentinel does not survive the battle.
Aftermath
There is much work to be done in the aftermath of the siege. The various armies celebrate their victory but many struggle to process the toll of the battle in various ways. And there are wounded and mentally traumatized to be tended to. Felspar suffered particularly heavy losses and end up demoralized. Chracio too is split over how to deal with the damage they took against the legion. However, the experience also brings them closer to the Ussetrans who were their allies on that particular fight. The Vulshik are split as well. The pious see their victory as necessary and part of Vulsh's will. The less pious see the victory as a charity to the humans and an unnecessary loss of Vulshik life, believing preventative military action unneeded because Vulsh would never allow Shul to take the peninsula. The Nurifra take their dead home with them, along with Westerner corpses. And Emeri and the allies mourn their Sentinel.
Though Soren of Vormyll and his friends participated in the sage, there is much talk, particularly from the Felspar camp, about Vormyll's lacking investment in the defense of their homeland. Soren is as diplomatic as he can be, but it's clear from his comrades that there is a brewing divide between what the Archon of Vormyll wants and what the people desire.
1000 of 4000 Brenthia soldiers died
700 of 1800 Chracio soldiers died
2500 of 5000 Felspar soldiers died
1500 of 4000 Ussetra soldiers died
300 of 1200 Vulshik soldiers died
There is also the matter of the surviving Shul'Garoth, who must processed. Representatives from the Cont. Army's component nations and pillars divvy up the latter task. Glad makes sure the desert isn't left out in this regard and sets his men to processing Shul'Garoth. He also has his own, already attuned Shul'Garoth deserter sent in to translate the skills of prospective attunees. Aeonis makes his own appeals and is able to attune the surviving legionnaire, Lemulin, who sets about a new mission of uniting the rebellious factions of the West against Shul. He finds an ally in Red, who chooses to accompany him on this mission, and Glad, who offers a tentative alliance between the desert and whatever rebellion Lemulin can whip up. Lemulin accepts the offer of help and mentions that he knows something of import about Chracio and the deserts place in this global struggle against Shul.
The Wars to Come
In the morning, the Foxes are summoned by Duke Okmark to counsel him on how trustworthy Aeonis is. He's been giving the offer of attunement some thought and finds himself split. On one hand, he obviously views his nullification ability as a curse, though Haas and Red do their level best to assure him that his current powers are quite miraculous and were instrumental in their victory. On the other hand, he has been counseled by someone he trusts not to trust Aeonis. This unnamed individual believes that Aeonis deals are often purposely deceptive, which lines up with Gar's previous statement of distrust. Glad mentions that Aeonis has thus far been on the up and up and very useful during the siege, and that it's the nature of negotiated alliances to sometimes come with drawbacks.
Okmark agrees to Aeonis boon attune and negotiates terms whereby he won't be set against people he was previously sworn to protect. Things take a turn when his nullification is lifted. He realizes the true nature of his ability. Unlike his soldiers, his nullification is less an intentional effect and actually the side effect of him having his own, massive, independent reserves of quasith such that he cannot draw in any of the ambient quasith around him. When he realizes this, he also realizes that the unnamed counsel he was relying on knows about his true nature than he let on. He rushes off in a fury, but the Foxes are able to stop him from doing anything rash by having his best friend Soren persuade him to cool off. They are unable to get a straight answer about the identity of the person Okmark is so mad at. They learn only that his parentage being revealed could have adverse impact on his political career.
Cadence stops by the group shortly after and takes all this new information in. She's unsure how much more help she can be in the conflicts to come. She believes she has the ability to cut off whatever it is that allows people like her, Cyax, and Okmark to exist, but the group believes that even that action could be the desired result of what some omniscient, third party is pulling the strings of these global conflicts. Like the Foxes, Cadence feels some invisible hand shaping things around the world. She has a group she's been working on to investigate the theory that includes Gar and puts them in contact. Aeonis reveals, during their discussion, that it's possible that some actors on the stage or trying to set up a way for them to freely use quasith reserves and so influence the world once the "game" is in it's final stages and the dragons leave.
Coalition
The next morning, the heads of the various coalition factions have a meeting. Okmark kicks things off by acknowledging and thanking the everyone for their help and participation in the conflict. When the floor is opened up, Glad brings up the different threats that remain on the continent. This eventually turns into a testy back and forth with the Brenthia leadership who believe Glad is both underestimating their ability to handle whatever comes their way and too eager to jump into another conflict and with Okmark who is dissatisfied with what Glad cautions regarding the Heretic. Lumulin, invited to the meeting as a representative of Aeonis, shares what knowledge he has about Shul's plans and movements, most crucially, that the desert was the original invasion target. But those plans were scrapped when the Silver Foxes investigations provoked an early testing and Encis won Chracio a tentative peace. Lemulin also reveals that Shul was the original inhabitant of the desert. Chracio was only able to move in due the space his absence left.
Bobbi gets visibly more and more angry as the conversation continues and storms out of the room. Haas leaves to comfort her. Bobbi is upset because she doesn't the coalition is placing a proper and respectful focus on acknowledging the contributions each has made to the battle. Haas returns and intercedes, spreading Bobbi's message and asking the alliance to consider whether or not the siege could have succeeded if any at this table were not presence. At meeting's end, the coalition has reaffirmed support for this broad continental alliance and is eager to decompress from the previous day's battle. Glad, however, leaves unsatisfied with his comrades' ability to remain focused on what he considers to be obvious threats.
Watcher
After the meeting, the Silver Foxes take Lemulin to the Azzurite Map Room. His updates fill in some of the red in the desert and he adds a red and green pillar on the coast that he says is called, alternately, A and B, by the two tribes who have waged constant war against each other since it's inception. The map around Kingsport also shifts from red to static and finally to a blue and silver mix. While in the Map Room, Lemulin takes note of the observer watching them and, spurned on by the Foxes, is able to call out to the observer. He gets a name C that Bobbi uses to summon from Arcadia what turns out to be actually be C, the past Sentinel of Azzur rumored to have died a great many years ago. The Foxes verify that he holds no ill intentions for the world and recruit him anew in the ongoing conflict between Azzur and Dionastra. It turns out C is greatly concerned by the sliver of gold in the map snaking it's way to Felspar.
The Foxes return to the Felspar encampment to discover everyone in a rush to get to town. Emeri has returned. They pace ahead of the crowd, carried by Haas in dragon form, and witness the spectacle. She makes a speech about the siege, explains her absence during the war, and thanks the support her pillar received before outlining her plan for improving the city. The Foxes join in on the celebration and help each other decompress and process the death toll of the war. Bobbi takes her leave of the group, promising to return and help in what ways she can against the Dionastras response for torturing those captive greenscales.
Horn Eater
Shortly thereafter, the Foxes meet up with Gar the Necromancer who adds some context to the complicated political game being played out across the continent. There are various factions trying to hasten and postpone the start of final phase of Dhynn's game wherein the dragons take their leave and those left behind have limited access to the quasith they provide. The constant push pull of this hastening and postponement makes it hard to pinpoint what each player's end game is or whether they're acting from their prime motivations or acting in reaction to other player's meta-gaming Dhynn's game. What Gar does know, though, is that the Heretic is a definite player of the game but not actually a direct enemy of any of their dragons. He doesn't seem to give a shit about Vulsh or Chracio, focused instead on the moves of players like Dionastra and Vormyll. Vormyll, or rather Jas'Ro, is also playing this game and strongly positioned, even though Vormyll is the most divided of all the pillars. Gar suggests that driving a wedge between Dionastra and Jas'Ro would be an effective way to weaken his position and allow room for a rival Archon to move in. Jas'Ro believes that he is using the Dionastran's mind magic and manipulative abilities to his benefit. And the Dionastran's, of course, believe themselves to be manipulating Jas'Ro himself. Gar shares his belief that Shul is also being manipulated or pointed towards targets. And he confirms that the person who attacked the Pit was a Priest of Dionastra.
Before taking their leave, Glad inquires about what magics Gar is working on. Gar pulls out a box with a contorted Shul'Garoth corpse. He's been studying the properties of their horns. He shaves Glad a slice who discovers, upon eating it, that the horn conferred him a short noticeable increase in his physical strength. Glad retrieves the head of Tyrus and offers it to Gar for study. Gar discovers the ability to create those speared weapons Tyrus used during the war and another skill he does not name that he blocks from taking effect, saying it was something that would be dangerous to himself but useful to someone like Glad. The reveal of Tyrus' heads causes Glad to reveal how their encounter ended. Haas takes offense at what she considers a spiritual affront ... killing an attunee during the attunement process. Glad is unperturbed and unashamed. He made the offer of attunement in good faith and considers Tyrus' death to be an honest mishap. Taking her anger out on the wrong person, Haas revokes Tyrus' skull with her net before leaving. Glad apologizes for the disruption before taking his leave too.
They find Aeonis escorting a woman around camp who looks quite dead. She turns out to be Syntyria in somewhat resurrected form. And while the Foxes are initially skeptical that this upholds whatever deal he made with her, they accept the resolution. Frax takes possession of her in exchange for a boon. The Foxes also encounter a female Shul'Garoth who fled her native country in search of opportunity and stories. NAMELESS introduces herself to the group and quickly agrees to join their reckless and sure to be dangerous journey into the heart of Dionastra.