|
|
Post by Mirielle Merlon on May 20, 2017 22:24:56 GMT
Prince Ineirin SolaielAERLIONESE BEACHHEAD MALZENTINE EMPIRE Green hills rolled out from the natural harbour as far as Mirielle could see. Thin white spires broke the horizon: the Elven cities. Closer at hand, thousands of tents ringed the ships' moorings. Brilliant banners fluttered on the breeze. You could almost have been forgiven for thinking this war, liberation or not, was going to be glorious. At the heart of the Aerlioner camp, a sort of public square had grown up. Smiths shoes horses and honed blades. Camp-follower merchants hawked luxuries to officers and lucky troopers. The better grade of prostitutes did a roaring business. Mercenaries flaunted themselves to win contracts with Aerlioner knights. Gallant sundries toasted Prince Inierin, slayer of the vampire Empress Eleonore Rousseau in faraway Vaundsburg. Inierin's fiancee, Mirielle, generally sat by a fire and thought about blood.
|
|
|
|
Post by Prince Ineirin on Oct 1, 2017 3:28:12 GMT
Ineirin rolled his shoulders under the armor and took a deep breath. They had landed the fleet and disembarked the armies. They had met some initial resistance, but nothing substantial. And it bothered him. He could not trust such a response. Malzentine was no petty state. They had a history as long and as storied as Aerlion. Their armies were large and well-equipped.
It would not be an easy campaign. While it may have looked it, with the orderly Aerlion camp and the soldiers in gleaming armor and bright pennants, he suspected it wouldn't look long. It was the largest army assembled in generations of history among Aerlion. Perhaps ever since they were conquered by the empire. The prince shook the thoughts away from his mind and put on his best smile, swirling the cloak around his shoulders before walking out of his tent.
His fiancee sat by the fire, with thoughts engraved on her face. He considered for a moment, hand resting on his sword, and then moved towards her. His guard followed at a distance, splitting off to surround the general area. Inerin ran a hand through his air and took a seat next to her. His armor shifted with a metallic music as he sat and rolled his shoulders.
"You seem to be deep in thought," his voice rumbled softly. Horns sounded on the outskirts of camp and he tilted his head to count their echoes. Satisfied, he nodded.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mirielle Merlon on Oct 1, 2017 17:19:11 GMT
Mirielle looked up and blinked her way back to the here and now. She mustered a smile. “I was thinking about the Elves,” she said. “There's always something under the surface with them. I heard once that if humans are mostly sanity and a little magic, Elves are the opposite.” Despite the smoky warmth of the fire, she pulled her cloak tighter around herself.
“If we face that kind of thing, what are our options? I know Aerlion has its ways of standing up against mages, but I don't know much about that.”
She thought of the secrets in her trunks - the sketchbook, the obsidian knife, the blood magic she'd learned from the lizardmen and Vaundsburg's royal library. Would she need to use it if Aerlion proved unable to match the Elvish sorcerers? Would Aerlion kill her if they found it?
|
|
|
|
Post by Prince Ineirin on Oct 5, 2017 2:07:08 GMT
Ineirin considered as she spoke, watching the crackle of the fire as it snapped at the air above it. Those were good questions. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a long breath.
"I suppose that such an explanation suits them," he said after a moment. "Certainly the case, and indeed, they do have powerful mages."
The thought had been haunting him for some time now, but it was not something that he could ever share with his forces. For them to think that he wasn't confident in them could be disastrous.
"But a crossbow bolt kills a mage as surely as a soldier," he said at last, "and the same goes for swords. It will fall to the Knights of the Gull to handle the mages." He shrugged, his armor shifting on his shoulders as he did so. "We must trust in the Sea-King's blood, the strength of our arm, the strength of our hearts, and the width of our shields."
He tilted his head to consider for a moment.
"Although we have also discovered a new way of forging steel, so we shall see what effect magic has upon that."
|
|
|
|
Post by Mirielle Merlon on Oct 6, 2017 11:26:32 GMT
"Let's hope, privately, that it's enough. Back home we take a similar approach: there's not much an elf-witch can do with an arrow through the neck." She chuckled but wrapped herself a little tighter in her cloak, and hunched closer to the blaze. "But that said, between the Vaundsburg war and the vampire threats to the north, we've found it necessary to branch out. My father and the council of guilds sent explorers, messengers, researchers, trying to find ways to keep the vampires out. We dug too deep, but we found the weapons we needed. My homeland doesn't have much of a tradition of magic, apart from the guilds' secrets in metalworking and woodcarving and so forth. My father's no mage, but he's been trying to coordinate our...expansion into all things magic."
Had she revealed too much? Maybe. But if Aerlion really did have so few options against Elven magic...
She poked at an ember that popped from the fire, and ground it into the dirt with the ball of her foot. "I'm no master mage, but some of my tutors covered magic, and I've found some..." Screw it. "What I mean to say is, my father's explorers found some options that might be useful here. If worse comes to worst, I might be able to contribute. It's private things, nothing battlefield-worthy."
|
|
|
|
Post by Prince Ineirin on Oct 8, 2017 22:59:01 GMT
Ineirin's mouth twitched into what could have been a smile at the comment. "Indeed, there is little that anyone can do with an arrow in their throat." Her words intrigued him. There was a hint of mystery as she tried to say things and resay them in a different way, all without saying the specifics of what she had learned. It made him a little concerned, but there were larger problems at work. "I shall keep that in mind," he said after a moment, "And we shall do what we must in order to succeed." The camp still bustled with activity, but there was a change in the atmosphere. Marching orders had been dispatched through the commanders and officers. Soldiers were packing up their tents and equipment, while the followers and others hurried to prepare to follow them. A contingent of cavalry had already been sent ahead to scout and find the next camp. Another had been sent ahead to find the Malzentine armies. There had been no sign of them after the initial landing and it made Ineirin uneasy. No general liked it when he didn't know where the enemy armies were. Fleets scoured the coasts for a sign of them and the days were filled with rumors of naval skirmishes. Nothing major or serious, however. In fact, this war was hardly looking like it was a war at all. The prince pushed that thought aside for the moment and turned back to Mirielle Merlon. "How have you been adjusting to our culture and people?"
|
|
