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A clarion was heard in the morning throughout the walls and the misty swamp, the armies of the South, Empire, Dwarves and Marienburg had arrived. Vraneth was a recruit, barely thirty years into service and already half world away from his home. He had never tasted or smelled fear before, but as he looked out towards the tens of thousands of soldiers, he felt an almost irresistible urge to run, and the smell of fear was everywhere in the ramparts as other thousands of elves joined their brethren in looking at the oncoming foe.
The Siege of the Five Armies had begun.
"What did you say?" were Gui's words as he stood up and turned around to face a trembling soldier.
"We...d-don't know how many elves the Ark brought in sir, a-and Seargant Mongarde t-thinks-..."
"You...don't, know?" The general almost whispered, the lowered tone allowed the young scout to relax, a near fatal mistake.
"Well s-sir, we believe they are no more th-...."
"But you DON'T KNOW!" Gui yelled as he swiftly backhanded the soldier, sending him flying into a table on the opposite side of the tent. The other three generals tensed as the scout struggled to his feet.
"Leave the lad alone Grandison, it's not his fault, these elgi are too clever for any proper infiltration." Thraki Kazaktromm said as he put his ale down in the table the four generals had been sharing to the moment Gui had stood up. Several objects were spread out in the table, mugs which revealed the many hours they had been discussing for, some scrolls with numbers and reports, and in the centre two large maps, one of the former kingdom of Bretonnia and the other of Mousillon.
"It does not matter, it is his duty and I expect nothing less than its completion. How many soldiers of ours will die because we do not know any information regarding the defences in Mousillon?"
"Not much more than if we knew them." Lamorte replied with a grin to Gui's comment. Tension arose even more as this reply earned the Marienburguer a threatening glance from the Southerner. From the other corner of the table though, a soothing and calming voice was heard, this belonging to Alain, the empire general with Bretonnian ancestors. "Let us all calm down and focus on what can be salvaged from our current situation" he started saying as Gui once again sat down after dismissing the scout with a hand gesture, which he eagerly obeyed as he tripped on his way out "we do know that they have more than ten thousand elves, suggestions go up to fifty thousand. With our own force of seventy thousand I do understand that an attack towards Mousillon with a force so numerous would be nothing short of suicide. But the fact is that from what we have heard the Ark could never hold that many elf soldiers and so thirty thousand would be a sounder guess."
"Still a lot, though we could of course just bombard the city with our cannons until they are all dead." "Nay, time is of the essence, reinforcements can be on their way!" Thraki replied to Lamorte. In the middle of the discussion Gui grinned. "Say...did Sean..." his voice trailed on as in the night outside seventy thousand men awaited their general's return from the huge tent in the middle of the southern encampment.
Nera frowned as she reluctantly rose from bed and made her way through the hall to the war chamber, one of the uppermost chambers in the Black Ark possessing a balcony with a current view of the most southern Mousillon. A noise could be heard from the outside, wondering how this was possible until goosebumps appeared throughout her naked body she made her way to the open balcony doors and noticed several of her commanders standing outside the balcony eagerly discussing something as they looked out to the foggy morning. She stepped outside and stood there until one of them turned around and smiled, signalling the others she had arrived. "Lady Nera, the men are celebrating our victory! This morning the pitiful humans made an attempt to open the gates, but our soldiers discovered them and we managed to slay hundreds of them before they-..." he was cut short as a blast passed through his abdomen. The other commanders tensed as they saw their comrade's body fall lifeless to the ground. "You woke me up, next time make sure you have something important to say." Nera said as she turned around and returned to her bed chamber.
Gui cleaned the sweat from his brow while holding his breath. The sentries were only a hundred feet away and while the swamp smelled badly enough to disguise the stench of what they were carrying it did not make thing easier in any manner. Finally, after several minutes his men signalled to him that their own charges were ready and backed away, some more minutes later, all hell broke loose.
The explosives they had got from NUTTER were exceedingly successful as a huge part of the wall blew into the air, temporarily illuminating a wide area around the explosion and revealing thousands of Southern and dwarf soldiers which had used night as their cover. A few moments passed as the blocks of stones fell back down, and then a huge roar arose from the thousands of men and dwarves as they charged towards the breach.
Thraki puffed as he climbed up the stairs to the tallest tower in Mousillon's keep. He was told there he would find a chamber the Dark Elf commander passed the time in, and there he was headed to execute his revenge. After several minutes of climbing the long stairs which seemed to never change except for the occasional window slit trough which he could see Mousillon burning outside, he finally arrived to the end of the stairs. A normal sized wooden door was before him, and after a moment to ponder and catch his breath he put his ear next to the door in an attempt to hear any inside, but was disappointed as the only sound was that of the wind, which flowed through the cracks in the stone carrying the sounds of battle from outside. He backed up and paused as his mind conjured the worst possibilities, beyond the door could be dozens of guards ready to fire their crossbows at him, or horrible creatures ready to tear him apart, maybe even traps waiting for him to make his last mistake. A second passed, another passed, and he kicked the door open and charged inside roaring.
"Send a message to Alain in the eastern part informing him of our success in bombarding the northern wall." Lamorte said obviously full of himself as he made his way to the tent and dismissed the messenger before entering. He made his way to his desk, and only once he was but ten feet away did he notice a shadow already sitting down and turned away from him. "Who are you?" Lamorte asked as he drew his pistol and pointed it at the chair.
Alain entered the tent, his men outside were eager to enter the battle, and every moment that sounds of battle from Mousillon arrived in their camp and bodies floated down the river the eagerness grew. He made his way to his cabinet and quickly grabbed a glass and a bottle of wine close by. Just as he started filling the glass he froze on his tracks. He had not left his cabinet open nor the bottle of wine outside, and just as the thought slipped through his mind he heard a distinct swallowing sound and turned to see someone sitting on a chair in the shadowy corner of the tent and drinking some wine. Alain could not help but drop his glass as he saw the face of the person sitting.
Thraki quickly took the surroundings in before focusing on the only person present, Lady Nera Moriketh sitting in an intricate and detailed luxurious throne surpassed only by Nera herself in beauty.
At the same time Lamorte gasped as Avaris stood up and turned around.
And from Alain's lips only one word was whispered "Jean..."
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