CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"This might not be the time, love," Ban said, "but... are you alright?"

Kimpo didn't seem to hear at first. She stood beside him in the crowded war room like a bump on a log. Kimpo tapped a forefinger to her lips in deep thought. Her green stare was fixed on a point a thousand leagues away. By degrees, she became aware of her Ruby's scrutiny. "Hmm? What are you looking at? Did you say something?"

Ban gave her a suffering look. "Waves... Are you here right now, or is this just a simulacrum or something?"

Kimpo sighed and looked away. "It's nothing pressing, love. There's more important things to worry about right now."

Ban didn't buy it, but he held back from putting hydromancy on the case. "I get the feeling you're not being honest with me."

"It will likely prove to be nothing." She noted the way he glared and thought better of it. "It's the clutch."

"Waves," Ban murmured, now on full alert. "Why didn't you say anything before? What's wrong with the eggs?"

"For the most part, all is well."

"And the less part?" Ban asked. "Don't make me drag it out of you."

"The girls are fine," Kimpo said, dropping her tone so it wouldn't be overheard. "It's Shaia. The others are close to hatching— you can already hear them clawing at the shells— but Deebee's egg, we haven't heard anything out of him in days."

"Is he..."

"He lives," Kimpo said. "Only, he's growing weaker when he should be getting stronger. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, a hatchling bounces back from things like this and breaks out just as they're supposed to. It's just you can't stop thinking of that final one in the hundred. Imperials like Deebee have ill fortune with their eggs. Even when one's viable, it doesn't always..." She went quiet and bowed her head.

"Does Enfri know?" Ban asked.

"No," Kimpo said. She gave him a sharp look. "And neither do you, little warrior, and don't forget it. Dragons don't blab this sort of thing until it's certain, one way or another, and I don't need my Storyteller cross with me on top of everything else."

"Understood, love. Won't say a word, but can anything be done to help our Gambler along?"

Kimpo sighed. "Keep the flames going. Regulate temperature and protect him from too much jostling. The dice were cast when he was laid. There's little else to do but wait and hope it doesn't come up seven."

Ban held on to her wrist. "Good thing you named him what you did. He's got a sacred duty to hit the roll he's aiming for."

Kimpo eyed him sidelong. "I won't stand for you cheering me up. I'm a warrior of the mighty, not some mopey-faced village boy."

"No, you're a ma. That's tougher and ten times more deserving."

"Bah."

"Come off it, love. If Pacifica hears, she'll break out the polymorphy."

"I can't imagine anything that would concern a dragon less." She smiled despite herself and turned her head to face him. "Thank you, Ban. I'm glad you're my Ruby. I would have no other."

Ban was about to reciprocate when Kimpo knocked her forehead against his. It nearly dropped him, and stars danced in his vision. Putting a hand to his forehead, he groaned as he took healing to avoid the big knot he could already feel forming. "The floundering hell was that for?"

Kimpo chuckled. "Is that not how it's done?"

"It really isn't."

She puckered her lips at him, the floundering beast.

Ban looked around the war room to count how many of the others saw any of that. He didn't know how to feel about no one giving it a second thought. Much as Ban hated to admit it, everyone was more or less used to how the Huntress was with her Ruby.

"I'll get you back for this one day," he muttered.

"By all means. My head's harder."

Ban smirked. "True, but my lips are softer."

"Oh, that's foul. Don't you dare."

Ban let it rest at that. Kimpo could just be on her toes for a spell, and maybe Ban could have a respite from mighty affection. He went to the enormous table with maps of Sandharbor and the surrounding areas. Now that most everyone he needed for the next round of briefings was here, he had to see to the matter of defending the empire.

Since its construction, the Imperial Palace hadn't seen this much activity, and it was most hectic about the war room. Knights and aviators ran through the corridors, both out and back into the palace, in a constant stream. Elsewhere, the palace staff called out in desperate bids to prepare for the imminent arrival of King Cathis the Algara.

Either of these two crises, be it invasion from the Jade Empire or a royal delegation, would have pushed Shan Alee to its limits to deal with. Together at the same time, it was chaos. If there was to be a choice of which to deal with, Ban believed he would've gone with the option Fate provided him. Battle and warfare possessed an essential order, one to which all armed conflicts adhered to in varying degrees. Diplomacy, now there was something truly unpredictable. Ban washed his hands of that nonsense and kept in his wheelhouse, because even when the odds were against him on the battlefield, the outcome wasn't entirely up to the whims of individual personalities.

It also helped that he was allowed, even expected, to punch his opponent.

Likely because of the small comfort he took from the order of war, he was put off by diplomacy invading his war room.

Gathered around the map table in the main chamber of the war room, Ban and the present Dragon Lords from the military knighthoods placed arjapieces to represent the position of the approaching armada. They'd run out of room if they accounted for individual airships, so they kept it simple. A pawn represented ten airships, anything else was twenty-five. They still needed to cannibalize two sets to have enough arjapieces to account for the full armada.

Ban watched the Dragon Lords place white pieces to represent Aleesh forces when a small group of black-clad warriors escorted themselves into the midst of everything. Those present stopped what they were doing to face the newcomers.

"Well," Kimpo murmured in his ear, "that's one way to call the room to order."

Ban tapped the back of his fist against her shoulder before addressing their visitors. "Your Highness. We did not expect your arrival until tomorrow."

Prince Gain Algara offered a grim nod. "The situation has changed, if I'm not mistaken."

Ban straightened his back. "As you say."

"My brother asked we come ahead via teleportation and render what assistance we can." What left his mouth next likely caused a blizzard in Hell. "Althandor pledges support to Shan Alee to counter this invasion."

Cathis' elder brother would have been the Highest King had he wished it. Instead, he abdicated in favor of Old King Haelin's second son. Prince Gain was a tough and muscular man, though half a hand shorter than most other men in the room, and he didn't seem to have an ounce of body fat on him. His advancing years were apparent in his short graying hair and the salt and pepper beard on his grizzled jawline. Gain's face was festooned with pockmarks and scars that gave him the appearance of a worn sheet of leather. The eldest prince of Althandor was undoubtedly a hardened fighter, and a single glance was enough to know it and never forget it.

Ban didn't recognize the two assassins with Gain, nor did they even appear to be Althandi. The eyes were unmistakable, but they could each be easily mistaken as northerners from their dark skin and curly hair. One was little more than a boy, thirteen or so. He was a gangly youth, if one with a face that would assuredly grow into one of the more handsome men on the Continent.

The other was a striking woman with almost entirely black skin. Her natural hair framed her head like a halo, and her tilted and narrow eyes lent an almost ethereal quality to her face. Excessively attractive, to be honest, with full lips that could turn easily to a sultry smile. At the moment, she wore a cautious frown.

"Duchess Devara Algara," Gain said, indicating the woman, "second cousin to the Highest King and field specialist of the intelligence coterie." He gestured towards the boy. "Prince Kiir Algara, my grandson, and protégé to the queen."

Ban gestured around the table to introduce the lords and partnered dragons of the Sapphires, Garnets, Lapis Lazulis, Obsidians, Quartzes, and Beryls, as well as the interim commanders for the Jaspers and Moonstones whose Dragon Lords were presently deployed in Gaulatia.

Once the necessary pleasantries were done with, Gain looked around the room. His beast-like eyes took in the mighty and their bound knights before coming back to Ban. "With your permission, Knight-Marshal?"

Ban gestured to an empty place across from him at the map. "Of course, Highness. We welcome Althandor's input."

Gain, Devara, and Kiir came forward, and the crowd about the table made way for them. After another round of eyeing everyone, Gain gestured to the maps. "As you were saying?"

Ban looked around the table. "First, the immediate threat. Over the last three hours, scouts from the Quartzes and Knights of Alinwé have sent in word of an armada of airships closing on New Sandharbor from the west. Half an hour ago, I received a sending from Grimdar the Gladiator with a detailed account of their numbers."

Almo the Rampart grunted. Even after getting brow-beaten by his daughter to finally accept his place in Shan Alee, he'd never quite let go of his surliness over it. "The Gladiator finally returned from his sojourn in the north, did he? He could not have come at a more convenient time."

Ban tossed Kimpo a veiled look. She pointedly ignored it.

"So it appears, and I'll take good luck where I can find it. He's presently on course for home to gather his crew, and we'll need him." Ban pulled a thin baton out from under the table and tapped it against the cluster of black arjapieces. "Fourteen dreadnoughts, forty-two cruiser-weights, more than a hundred and fifty frigate-weights, and as much as an equal number of unarmed support vessels."

Gain let out a soft hiss through his teeth. "That is over ten times the strength of the Sky Corps. Your first minister's reports claimed the Jade Empire sent you overtures with the goal of acquiring airship-grade steam engines. If not from you, where did they get enough to field an armada of this size?"

Ban looked to Dragon Lord Shiev Arturus. The Lapis Lazuli Knights and their iris dragons had been performing raids on the Jade Empire's anchorages outside their borders for the last two months. What intelligence Shan Alee had on the Jade Empire came from what they brought back with them.

Shiev was a smallish man and compact with a shaved head. He was arguably the most effective strike force commander in the Arcane Knights. A bit of a madman, really, but a madman devoted to his empress and her ideals. One hell of a card player, too.

"They built the engines themselves," Shiev said. "Even that is generous. From what we could tell on our raids, their airships are substandard belowdecks compared to Five Kingdoms technology. They use locomotive-grade or even carriage-grade engines, and what they have is cobbled together. Half the parts from salvage, the rest machined by engineers with only the barest sense of what they're building. Jade boats are slow, they can't maneuver well, and the only thing keeping them in the air are overworked wrench-boys barely come of age."

Gain frowned. "That makes them sound less a threat than their numbers would suggest."

"Then I've done them a disservice, Highness," Shiev continued. "What they lack in the boilers, they make up for a hundred fold on the gun decks. The smallest frigate carries enough firepower to tear apart unison linked barrier wards. If a cruiser lands a full salvo, it's over for who they hit. Should you get in close and inside the range of the cannons, you have the crew's flintlocks to deal with."

"That's also where they're most vulnerable," Vraxa, Shiev's iris, interjected. "Bloody combat at close-quarters with heavy losses to both crews, but a solid hit to the engines or taking out just half the lift gyros will bring the beast down."

"The Lapis Lazulis' raids on the Jade mooring towers have had success," Ban added, "but we've lost two irises with all hands to counterattacks. Surprise, speed, and agility are our primary advantages in aerial combat."

Gain leaned his hands on the tables and directed a scowl at the incoming armada. "Understood. Continue, Marshal."

Ban nodded to Shiev before tapping the baton to the western districts of New Sandharbor. "Next, our home ground. An hour ago, I briefed the civic knighthoods. Peridots are imposing curfew starting tonight. Ambers and Emeralds are scrambling to shore up the western defenses, what good it'll do us against airships, but we'll likely see ground assault before the end. The Onyxes, Amethysts, and Tourmalines have all entry and exit from New Sandharbor under heavy guard. Citrines have had triage centers prepped since the construction began and are only waiting on casualties. Smokestones, Chalcedonies, Marbles, Rutiles, and Alexandrites have deployed within their spheres. Finally, the Lady of Pearls has recalled every indigo from here to Ecclesia. Few will reach us before the armada does, but we'll need every crew we can muster when this kicks off."

Grellin, Lord of Quartzes, broke in during Ban's pause for breath. "Ain't much sure iffen you're gettin' to it, Marshal, but there's a knighthood or three I didn't here ya mention."

Ban nodded in confirmation. "As you say. The Diamonds and Opals will take posts and holding patterns around the palace." He tapped the baton to where that lay on the map. "The Imperials are the last line of defense should the Jade Empire's objective be to take our center of government. As for the Spinels, Dragon Lord Thaan and the Archivist are coordinating any and all available arcanists to erect a city-wide interdiction. Even with a best case scenario, that won't hold the cannons off for more than a couple hours."

Gain raised a palm, though he continued to study the map's layout. "Marshal, if I may?"

"Of course, Highness."

"It appears the heavy majority of the forces you mentioned are not deployed for military action."

"Yes, Highness. Fifteen of the twenty-five orders are assigned to civic or academic duties. They'll keep the city from burning out from underneath us."

Gain furrowed his brow and looked up from the map. "More than half your dragons don't fight?"

"They can and will," Ban clarified. "Should it be necessary, every dragon, knight, and crew is trained for combat. However, each knighthood has its sphere of responsibility. Rutiles look over agriculture, Tourmalines over trade, Peridots the civic guard. These Dragon Lords-" He indicated himself and the nine others. "-are the fangs and swords of Shan Alee."

Gain looked them all over. As did Kiir, and the boy showed a touch more anxiety than his grandfather. But Ban's intent wasn't to intimidate young princes. He struck the baton to the fields separating Sandharbor from the armada.

"If the Jade Empire wants to play at war, we'll give them one they'll never forget. I want any demons skulking about that fleet traumatized by what we do to them. Their doom may succeed, but they won't get to see their Paradise without scars."

Dragons and Dragon Lords thumped their fists against the table. Murmurs of agreement filled the room.

Ban raised his voice. "I want them to remember your names for all eternity. I want baby demons from now until the end of time to shiver in their beds at the ghost stories their mothers tell them of what we did today. Every bump in the night will be the Huntress coming to take them away. Grellin will lurk in every shadowed closet."

"He does that already," the Wanderer quipped to a chorus of hearty cheers.

"Make them pay for every inch of this world they take from us," Ban shouted. "It's ours, and they can't have it just for the asking."

Everyone raised their voices to cheer. Even Gain, and Kiir seemed to be caught up in it more than anyone.

But, no cries came from their mouths. For a brief moment, it was as if all sound in the world was swallowed. Swallowed by a blackened pit of cold damnation, the dark eternity of Death.

WE DO NOT ASK

Ban, Kimpo, the assassins, and the assembled knighthoods were staggered by the power. It was absolute and undeniable. No words, only will. They were not heard, they were felt. Understood at the deepest core of one's soul as being the unchallenged will of a power beyond mortal understanding.

The unfettered voice of a god.

THIS WORLD

Ban heard shouting. He grit his teeth as those around him clamped hands over their ears. He heard screams echo throughout the Imperial Palace. It swelled, rising from the city beyond the palace grounds. All of Shan Alee felt it and understood. The voice of Death itself spoke, and it must be heeded. The Lord of Bones descended on Shan Alee.

HAS ALWAYS BEEN OURS

The ground itself quaked as if the Lord of Bones' voice was torture. He dropped to one knee, and he knew he'd been the last to fall.

WE DO NOT ASK

WE DEMAND

WE ARE OBEYED

OBEY YOUR TRUE GODS

OBEY OUR CHOSEN

OBEY AND YOU MAY LIVE

FOR A TIME

OUR CHOSEN COMES

It continued. The voice kept coming. It pressed and it pressed, until Ban felt it would reduce him to cinders. He screamed in agony, but his throat was silent.

As abruptly as it appeared, the demon withdrew. In his wake, he left a room filled with the most powerful warriors of the empire shaken and on their knees.

"Waves," Ban whispered. He pushed himself back to his feet as the others picked themselves up. "Waves and tides..."

"That's what we're fighting?" someone asked. Ban didn't see who said it, and he had even less of an idea of how to answer them.

Ban realized he'd drawn his sword. As if he could fight something like that with a bit of sharpened steel. The screams continuing outside the war room spoke to how insignificant humanity was when compared to a demon. With just a few words, Shan Alee was thrown to the brink of shattering.

"I gather I am expected?" asked a quiet voice from the doorway. It spoke in a whisper, but a pin dropping would have felt like a cannon in that room. "One can hardly ask for a more dramatic announcement, and my greatest lord has long desired the chance to walk free of the shadows."

Swords were bared. Flames were called to hand. All eyes turned towards the speaker.

A black figure, hooded and armored in dark leather. His skin was pale, deathly so. Dark veins stood out beneath translucent flesh. He stepped forward, and everyone before him stepped back. Reaching up with gnarled fingers, he pulled the hood back to reveal his face.

A sharp jawline and high cheekbones. A long and elegant aquiline nose. His white hair was shaved to the stubble down both sides of his head, the rest pulled back into a tail. Tilted and narrow eyes were like black pits. No sclera or iris, only darkness.

Those dreadful, deathly eyes were fixed upon Prince Gain.

"Hello, Brother."

Gain brandished his sword, and he used his free hand to push Kiir behind him. "Vintus?" he hissed. "You're supposed to be dead. Maya killed you."

"Have you forgotten whom I serve?" Vintus asked, still in a whisper. "I am the saint of Death. I cannot die."

He waved his hand in a casual gesture. Sparks erupted around the ward Gain hastily erected around himself, but it was summarily broken by the overwhelming force. Gain was thrown bodily onto the map table, and Vintus continued to take slow and languid steps into the war room.

Kimpo took hold of Gain and assisted him, groaning in pain, to her side. Kiir and Devara backed up until they pressed to the walls, beast-like eyes staring at this fiend appearing before them. Ten Dragon Lords and their ten dragons stood firm while knowing that much was the extent of their strength against a demonic saint.

"I bring a message from your gods," Vintus said softly, looking straight into Ban's eyes. "You need not fear them. They wish to raise you above all others." He held forth an upraised palm. "Yours is the empire to which all others that follow shall emulate. Safety, security, order, and equality for all their scattered children across the face of this world."

The room stood still, unable to move. Vintus' words filled the air, enthralling.

"For the mighty," he said, "long forsaken as the progenitor race of all that followed. For the mortals, whose faith gave form and purpose to the Ethereum. For the fey, a perfect melding of what is physical and spiritual. For the shifters, our loyal children who serve so that others may succeed. All are precious to the old masters. All are needed to bring Paradise to this world."

Ban wanted to shout. He wanted to roar and strike at this deathless abomination. But he couldn't. His limbs wouldn't obey him. He couldn't speak a word.

Vintus bowed to him. "Thank you, for seeing to their beloved children. With the old masters' aid and guidance, you will allow your people to see Paradise. Your children will walk without fear in endless fields. By the infallible word of my lords, all peoples who serve them will earn a place beside the firstborn. Shan Alee will endure throughout this era and into the next, and then into the final era, that which will last for as the long as this world turns. Perhaps even longer."

Ban fought to keep his breathing under control. No longer from fear, but from rage. Pure rage and unbridled hatred. He saw evil standing before him, and every fibre of his tempered soul demanded he give his all to eradicate it.

"The Aleesh will no longer fear anything," Vintus said. "Await the messenger sent by my greatest lord's brother. Antares bids me to beg you consider Carinae's proposal. Join your empire to his, and you shall create the foundation all people's will stand upon as they reach Paradise."

Of everyone who listened, Gain was the first to find his voice. "You've gone mad, Brother. Althandor will never obey your demon masters!"

Vintus turned his eyes to Gain. "They do not demand for you to obey them. They demand for Althandor to die. Your kingdom must fall to make way for theirs." He gestured in indication towards Ban. "I will mourn you, Brother, as you failed to mourn me. House Algara shall be a necessary sacrifice for a better world."

Ban had enough. The steel bracers beneath his uniform flared with red etherlight. "Arcane Knights! Kill that undead bastard!"

The order snapped them into action. Spellfire and thunder blasted towards Vintus. Before it could reach him, a deafening crack of light blasted through the war room and tossed loose maps and papers all about. The white arjapieces scattered all over. The black remained undisturbed. Vintus teleported away in an instant.

"Every available sword to the metavatarium!" Ban roared. "If he tried to go close by, he'll get pulled into our kill box. Go!"

They ran from the war room. They grabbed any officers and armsmen they found and dragged them along. Ban stood panting in the war room, Kimpo at his side.

"What do we do, little warrior?"

Ban couldn't answer that. All he could do for now was focus on the next step. If he survived to the end of it, take the next one. He reached out to grip Prince Gain by the arm.

"Whatever happens, I will never stop fighting them."

Gain stared at the spot his dead brother had stood a moment before. He tore his eyes away to look at Ban. "Is that really your decision to make?"

"I don't have to make it," Ban said, "because I know what hers will be. The day our beloved turns her back on the world is the day she's no longer Enfri."

Ban walked out of the room, and he didn't much care if anyone came with him. He needn't have, though. Kimpo was always at his side.

"Where to?" she asked.

"Enfri," he said. "The end of the world just kicked off, and our place is with her."

"As you say, little warrior," Kimpo agreed. "Again and forever."