Fortress Al-Mir

“They’re here.”

Arkk looked up from the library desk to find Ilya standing at the door. For a long moment, he just stared, smiling softly at the tall elf. Until Ilya cocked an eyebrow in the way she did when mildly irritated.

“Sorry,” Arkk said, clearing his throat. “I’ll head over in a minute. Just finishing things up here.”

Ilya didn’t turn to leave. Hands on her hips, she stepped closer, all but glaring around the room. She narrowed her eyes at Zullie, not that the blind witch could tell, then turned a deep scowl on the other person present. Or, rather, other thing present.

With a grimace, Arkk wrapped an arm around Ilya’s waist and tried to lead her toward the exit. “Actually, let’s head over now. Wouldn’t want to keep the King’s army wai—”

“Arkk,” Ilya said, her voice harsh and firm. Her feet remained firmly planted on the floor despite Arkk’s efforts. “Why is there a skeleton in the library?”

“Uh… That’s… Well, it’s like…”

“My fault,” Zullie said, casual and unbothered. “I required a test subject for an experiment that wasn’t likely survivable. We figured the dead wouldn’t mind.”

Silver eyes glared at Zullie, then glared at Arkk. “The horse was bad enough. And what’s that it has in its hands,” she said, peering down at the orange-yellow crystalline block it held. “Part of the portal archway?”

“A keystone,” Zullie said. “A new one. It will potentially allow us access to the domain of the Laughing Prince—a place Vezta called the Forlorn Festival or the Necropolis—though at the moment, we’re trying to decide on a way to scry on other planes without actually visiting them first. We don’t want a repeat of what happened to Agnete.”

At the mention of the purifier, Ilya’s anger diminished. She looked to Zullie with her lips pressed in a thin line, then to Arkk. Eventually, she looked over at the skeleton. “Fine,” she said, finally turning away from the library. Stopping at the door, she looked back. “That army is closing in. They’ll be here sometime today. Harvey spotted riders breaking away, heading toward Elmshadow. If you want to be there to greet them in person, better get over there soon.”

“I will. I’ll—”

Arkk didn’t get to finish before Ilya stalked out of the library. The doors in Fortress Al-Mir opened and closed automatically for his employees. She still somehow managed to slam it. He cringed at the noise but sighed in relief. She was mad. But not mad mad.

“Good thing she didn’t find out you had a whole army of skeletons.”

“Shush,” Arkk said, shooting a glare at the witch. There was no heat in his eyes, however. “Thanks for taking the blame.”

Zullie shrugged. “I don’t care if she’s upset with me. I work for you, not her.”

“Still,” Arkk said, retaking his seat at the desk. “About the project… Do you think it is feasible?”

“If we had one more portal structure, one we could dismantle for the crystalline material, we might be able to figure out how to make keystones for all the planes based on the examples we have. But we don’t have one. Not unless you’re willing to take apart the highlands portal.”

“No. If we could relocate the entire thing, that would be for the best. But not to use as parts. I want it ready to connect to the Anvil at any moment. Our portal will be used for the Underworld, Silence, Necropolis, or any other plane we gain access to. We can reevaluate which portals go where after Agnete is back. Not before.”

Zullie sighed but nodded her head, knowing Arkk wasn’t going to budge on that. “Is Agnete even… I mean, how is she doing over there?”

“She’s still alive,” Arkk said with a frown. Closing his eyes, he focused on Agnete. “They seem to have put her to work. She’s been building a whole variety of things, every day, all day long.”

“Slave labor?”

“I don’t think so. If anything, I would say that she is quite happy and willing.”

“Does she even want to come back?”

That was a question that Arkk didn’t have the answer to. The only thing he could say was that, “She’s over there because of me, so I’ve got to leave a way back for her no matter what.”

Zullie hummed. “It’s a shame neither of the walking fortresses in the Underworld had archways. Having our portal connected to realms other than the Underworld is causing delays in revitalizing glowstones for siege and ritual magics.”

“I know. If you have a better solution, I’m all ears.”

“Actually… Now that you brought it up…”

Arkk wasn’t exactly sure why, but he felt a sudden weight. Like he had just stepped in a bog. “Is this more Xel’atriss magic?”

“Maybe.”

“You’ve been somewhat hit or miss lately. Mostly miss. Did you finish outfitting the soldiers stationed at Leda’s tower?”

“Ugh. Those were hardly worth the effort. They’re weaker than Kia and Claire, weaker even than the shadow armor. It’s because they can’t see the reality layers like Kia and Claire can. Should have just put Leda’s soldiers through Project Liminal.”

“Not everyone wants to be permanently splintered across infinite versions of reality,” Arkk said, wondering if anyone had ever said something like that before. He doubted it. “Their gear will let them do what they need to do. Once we neutralize the avatar…”

“In any case, yes, I finished,” she said with a begrudging look on her face. Zullie quickly perked up, dragging out a notebook from somewhere else in the library. “And this new project is nothing like those failures we suffered while trying to deal with Evestani’s army. You recall the planar magic in the Duke’s ballroom?”

“He stole the light from—”

“The realm of the Holy Light, I believe.”

“Yes, I recall,” Arkk said, looking down at the open page. He wasn’t quite sure how Zullie found the page with her lack of eyes, but he figured he was looking at the right thing.

Crystalline Infusion Nexus was scrawled across the top of the page. An elegantly drawn device, roughly half the size of a person based on the comparison sketch. At its core, a series of intricate, interlocking crystalline conduits formed a lattice that, according to a descriptive scrawl, would pulse with vibrant colors, drawing raw magic from alternate planes of existence. Mostly the Underworld. Uncharged glowstones would go into the central chamber where they would be bathed in a steady stream of magic.

A way to charge glowstone crystals here, instead of having to cart them back and forth to the Underworld.

There was one small problem. “It says most of the device is made out of the portal structure.”

“Which is why we need to locate another one,” Zullie said. “Maybe shave off some of the crystalline material—I doubt they need to be as thick as they are. Or dismantle one of the ones we have access to. Could I propose sending Priscilla, and perhaps a few other fliers, through to the orc homelands? They’ll then break apart that portal and carry the pieces back through the regular Underworld portal. It’ll even be much faster than the initial expedition because we can send them straight there.”

“Then both Agnete and Priscilla are out of commission. My two best options for actually getting the Binding Agent in contact with the avatar.”

“Bah,” Zullie said, scoffing with a dismissive wave of her hand. “My dark elves are just as good as any dragonoid or purifier. Better, even. If we could get more volunteers for Project Liminal—”

“Stop, stop. We’ve cycled through these discussion points a dozen times. I’ll think about it, but it might not be until after the avatar is dealt with.”

“By then, we probably won’t need the Infusion Nexus.”

Arkk wasn’t so sure about that. Not if what the Holy Light’s avatar had to say had any truth to it. He still didn’t trust a word of it, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t listened.

Standing, Arkk said, “Keep up with your other projects for now. And find out if the Necropolis can actually help us, and whether it is worth visiting. I’ve got an army to meet.”

“Fine, fine,” Zullie said, slumping back in her chair just as Arkk teleported out of the room.

He went straight to the ritual chamber, went through the hops, and emerged at Elmshadow’s currently stationary Walking Fortress. Another teleport and he found himself at the highest point of Al-Lavik. The roof.

He looked out to the east, easily spotting the columns of the approaching army. They weren’t far off at all now.

A certain tension welled in the pit of his stomach. Just seeing them approach like that. If what the Holy Light’s avatar said was true…

And here he was, about to invite them straight to the heart of his secondary base of operations.

Who to trust? Who to believe? Everyone had an angle that they were going for, their own plots and plans. The Holy Light’s avatar said that he was doing her a favor and she simply wanted to repay that debt, but that sounded like a steaming cowpie to Arkk. Not only would she not say what that favor was but the information she had given him wasn’t all that helpful.

Then she said she wanted Agnete back. Arkk was fairly sure she didn’t mean from the Anvil, if she even knew Agnete was there, but back in the chains of the Inquisition.

Prince Cedric was aiming for total subjugation of all factions in Mystakeen. He was being more cautious than during the Vaales rebellion, but that was only because of the relative strengths of his opponents. Namely Arkk and Evestani. Both were factions far beyond the rebelling nobles in Vaales. Behind his serious demeanor and firm handshakes, he was plotting Arkk’s demise.

That was the warning. An… addendum to the prophecy of the oracles that Sylvara and Inquisitrix Lui had delivered.

Arkk narrowed his eyes at the columns of soldiers. They were here as allies today. They weren’t in any kind of battle formation, nor did they haul siege equipment and magics. He had already fully investigated every cart they had through scrying. They weren’t here to fight.

Not today. But tomorrow? The day after?

Rekk’ar’s words drifted through the back of Arkk’s mind. It would be easy to maneuver them into a position where they would suffer great losses against Evestani. With this army out of the way, he could easily lay claim to the entirety of Mystakeen. Possibly Vaales too, if he wanted. Leda’s tower would move and that would free up his Walking Fortress for relocation to wherever it might be needed to ensure his dominion…

All it would take was sending ten thousand soldiers to their deaths.

Arkk closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh.

They were just people. Regular people. They didn’t have the power to slice through reality or bend shadows to their whims. They didn’t have the backing of a god’s avatar nor fanciful flying ships as reinforcements. They had marched and marched and marched. They were exhausted and tired and still had battles to fight. They probably didn’t even know what kind of game they had gotten caught up in.

What then? Should he put some thought into having the Prince assassinated? He would never be left alone if that happened. Not that he would be left alone if he seized the lands for himself, but if he crushed this army to do so, he would buy himself enough time to fully secure his borders while the King cobbled together another fighting force. If he killed the Prince, it might cause some disarray among the army, but they would end up taking orders from the King eventually.

There was another option.

He could reject the King’s army’s help. Keep them at a distance. Close enough that they could watch the battle, but far enough that they couldn’t stab him in the back. He needed to demonstrate sheer overwhelming might. Enough to vanquish any thought of their ability to fight him from the rank-and-file’s minds. Crush their spirit so thoroughly that, no matter who commanded them or what their orders were, they would fear the thought of incurring his wrath so that they might favor the consequences of insubordination or even desertion over facing him.

The question was… could he manage that?

Hands clasped behind his back, Arkk walked around the roof of the tower. Even from the highest point around, not including the peaks of the Elm mountains, he couldn’t see the Evestani staging area. They were too far off. Yet he knew what they looked like. He had studied them, watching as they built up their encampments and bivouacs. They often used that fog to protect from scrying, but they hadn’t used it while on the move. He knew their force, their equipment, their supplies. He knew how they fought thanks to previous encounters. He knew how the avatar acted.

Company Al-Mir numbered approximately one thousand strong. Not all were fighters, however. The actual number was closer to eight hundred. But even if he added in everyone, even the blacksmiths and Larry the Butcher, Evestani outnumbered him by a factor of ten. At least.

There was a reason he hadn’t taken the fight to them. There was a reason he wanted the King’s army.

Yet, with all the advancements Company Al-Mir had made, all the magical equipment, the experimental weaponry, the magical rituals and power granted by the [HEART], the training and the effort everyone had put in… Arkk thought he could, perhaps, fight off Evestani. As long as their countermeasure against the avatar worked, a thousand could beat fifteen thousand without trouble.

The problem was that it wasn’t just Evestani. The Eternal Empire was a problem. They possessed magic and weapons that he didn’t yet know the full breadth of yet. He had poked and prodded them on their journey here to try to learn their capabilities, but he still didn’t have the full picture. They numbered fewer than Evestani did, possessing only about eight thousand soldiers, but even that practically doubled the number of soldiers in the enemy encampment. With those invisible flying ships they possessed, it was hard to tell how many more soldiers they might have hidden out of sight.

And they were starting some kind of construction projects around the Evestani staging area, also hidden from view. More airships? Or something else entirely?

Could Arkk beat Evestani and the Eternal Empire?

That, he was less certain of.

Dakka alone was worth twenty regular soldiers. But he didn’t have a thousand Dakkas. Only a hundred and fifty orcs had been outfitted with the shadow armor and scythes. Not all of them were as good as Dakka was. Even assuming they were, it wasn’t enough.

Gorgon were a force multiplier, able to spew caustic venom and petrify key targets, rapidly changing the state of any battle they participated in. But there were only seven of them. They couldn’t be everywhere at once.

Kia and Claire… Kia was still getting used to the changes that came from Project Liminal. If she recovered in roughly the same time as Claire had, both of them were…

Well, Arkk didn’t exactly know how effective they would be against an army. They might rip through it. They might get killed because of unforeseen complications. The abilities granted to them through Project Liminal were strange and powerful, but not without limit. Claire, even now, couldn’t fight forever without feeling like she was splitting apart, falling outside reality—whatever that meant. So, while they were strong, Arkk had no way of estimating how much damage they could actually do.

Richter’s battlecasters, augmented with the power from the [HEART], were ten times that of regular spellcasters. But they numbered less than fifty. Arkk’s spellcasters, with charged glowstones backing them up, could act as a full army’s worth of bombardment specialists. Unless the avatar was dealt with, Arkk doubted bombardment magic would so much as scar his opponent.

He could march the Walking Fortress to the army, crushing them underfoot. But again, not until he dealt with the avatar. This time, there wasn’t a mountain in the way to take the brunt of the attack.

Agnete and Priscilla each were worth five hundred regular soldiers, at least. But Agnete was gone. Priscilla might be able to freeze over large swaths of the enemy, but he needed her to engage with the avatar.

Vezta and Lexa could slip in, assassinating key individuals. Potentially even spare bodies for the avatar, though Arkk doubted the avatar would be so foolish as to keep them all in one spot a second time. But they couldn’t fight an army on their own.

Arkk walked the perimeter of the tower, cycling from the east side to the west side and back again as he thought. More things kept popping up in the back of his mind. Extra aids in the battle. From the war machines recovered from the orc homelands—currently inoperable due to engineering issues—to potential inquisitor and purifier assistance, from another undead army—the first had proved remarkably effective—to esoteric magics that he had warned Zullie against using.

Could he do it? Could he handle Evestani and the Eternal Empire while keeping an eye on the King’s army?

Not just could he do it.

Could he crush them? It wasn’t enough to limp away with uncountable losses, claiming victory by a frayed thread. He had to win, decisively and completely. Or else he might as well surrender his head to the King right now.

Arkk closed his eyes, scanning over every single employee he had, evaluating every option he had, every possibility.

When he opened his eyes again, a bright red glow suffused throughout everything he could see even despite the bright sun. He took a breath and teleported to one of the lower levels of the tower. The specialist quarters.

Kia sat in bed, eyes closed as she leaned up against one of the walls. Claire sat beside her, hand-in-hand, gently rubbing her thumb against the back of Kia’s hand. When Arkk appeared in the room, Claire stiffened. The dark elf moved to stand, only to pause as Arkk waved her down.

Kia didn’t move, keeping her head against the wall. She opened her eyes barely enough to see him before she squeezed them shut once again.

“Commander,” she murmured.

“Sorry to disturb you while you’re recovering. You can stay here as long as you need. But Claire, I have a job for you.”

The quieter of the two dark elves stared through messy brown locks of hair with her icy eyes. When he had first met her, Arkk thought she was glaring at him. But that was just how she looked at people. A curious lifting of one of her eyebrows was enough to show that she wasn’t angry with him.

“I need you at my side when I meet with the riders approaching from the King’s army. I have it on authority that someone in the King’s army might not be what they seem, so I need you to be ready to act.”

“A demon?” Claire asked, completely calm despite the implications of what she might be fighting.

“Not sure, actually. I don’t think so, but it is something. Something that your unique talents might be optimal for dealing with.”

“Understood,” she said, entirely unbothered. “Now?”

“They should be here within the hour.”

Translucent shades of herself started nodding before her head caught up. She moved to stand again.

This time, Kia moved to follow.

“Stay,” Claire said, planting her hands on Kia’s shoulders.

“Not letting you fight a demon on your own,” Kia said, shoving aside Claire’s hands.

“You can’t even stand.”

Kia didn’t respond. Like Claire, a series of ghostly afterimages both trailed after her body and moved before she moved. Some wobbled, some even fell. The latter vanished into nothingness. But Kia made it to her feet, standing beside the bed. After waiting a moment, making sure that she wasn’t going to fall over, Kia shot Claire a grin. “Not true.”

“Kia is welcome to join if she can hold herself together,” Arkk said. “Hopefully, nothing more interesting than a casual chat will happen. You two are going to be there just in case.”

Nobody handled rejection well.