Castera, Kingdom of Ilsylvania. Day -21.

  An aide was waiting for Tyree, Caleb, and Shai at the army’s command hall. The aide led them to a small office space where Kronos sat looking over notes in a binder.

  The desk in the room had been pushed against the wall and Kronos sat at the chair, using the edge of the desk as both an armrest and storage for other documents and a bag.

  “The House leaders are having their pre-meeting discussions. I’ll be along to fetch you when the meeting starts.” The aide took a bow and left the room.

  There were three other empty chairs in the room. Tyree took the closest one to Kronos, Koda led Shai to the one nearest her before lying down at her feet, and Caleb opted to lean against the wall by the door.

  He looked around in the hallway before turning back to Kronos and whispered, “Captain.”

  Kronos set down his binder and looked up at Caleb. “Yes, Sergeant?”

  Caleb pointed to his pin. “The 9th? Why the 9th? It feels almost like a desecration!”

  “For the first time in well over a hundred years, the Guardians aren’t here to protect us. The real desecration against the 9th was committed in how horribly we failed to heed the message their deaths left for us: we did nothing to strengthen ourselves against another threat like Azeban. In fact, we have regressed so much since those volunteers went knowingly to their deaths to open the way for the Guardians to seal that monster back in his tomb.” Kronos shook his head. “No, you wearing their pin is not a desecration. Not unless you and those you will commit to lead under Lieutenant, sorry, Captain Pearce will make the same mistake our grandfathers and fathers made in allowing Ilsylvania to go so unprotected for so long.”

  Tyree sat silently listening to their back and forth. Kronos had confirmed the scuttlebutt: the Guardians were gone. If that really was true, then the halt of their reserve rotation made sense. Kronos was definitely right about the fact that Castera, and Ilsylvania as a whole, was woefully unprepared to protect herself from even the mildest of monster attacks without the well over hundred years of heavy reliance on the Guardians.

  Immediately Tyree’s thoughts went to Aliyah and their daughters. The route north was one of the most heavily traveled. Araedi was Castera’s largest trading partner as the main headquarters of adventurers the continent over, but even that route still relied heavily on Guardians for protection. And her family would be traveling that route without the knowledge that they were basically on their own.

  Aliyah and Rhoda are competent mages, Tyree reminded herself, they can protect themselves and Alyx and Lynn.

  Caleb’s face paled. “I’m sorry, Captain, I didn’t mean it like that. I—”

  “Relax, son. I know what you meant. Commander Leon used a similar argument on me when I requested specifically for the 9th Forward Strike to be reactivated under my control. Given the circumstances, I believed it most appropriate. King Hael agreed.”

  The aide returned and led the group into a large room where seven other people, each engaged in their own conversations, sat around a large table which formed a C around a podium in the middle of the gap.

  Though Tyree didn’t keep up with Ilsylvania’s politics, she knew the seven people in the room were the heads of the six Great houses: Commander Leon Maraketh and his wife, Lianna; Tomas Drakhan; Elias Ilvari; and Valeria Areth were the only ones she recognized among them. The Great Houses were powerful families that served as direct advisors to the king and were established leaders within their own sectors of the kingdom’s economy.

  The conversations died down and everyone stood as King Isaias Hael entered the room. He was a handsome man with a slim, yet muscular build and dark sepia skin with a short, neatly trimmed dark red beard.

  “Please sit! I’ve dragged you from your busy lives and I’m late. The least I can do is have you be comfortable after what I’m sure has been a long day of travel for many of you.” His words held the genuine warmth of friendliness. That warmth shifted to a cold seriousness as everyone returned to their seats. “We all know the truth by now: The Guardians are gone and have been for nearly three full days now. And not just in Castera and her surrounding lands, but reports have trickled in as far away as the eastern ports. What are we doing about it?”

  Lianna was the first to answer. “Castera’s military will begin posting more guards along key routes and general patrols are being increased. The current three-month schedule has been suspended as we work to meet this need for increased manpower. Additionally, recruitment efforts have been increased to train new guards.”

  A man whose placard read Laurence Trellianora raised a hand. “And I assume these increased patrols will include the trade routes? My caravans are already stretched thin trying to battle this damned plague, we cannot risk losing them to goblin attacks if their numbers get out of control!”

  “Fret not, Laurence, we’re increasing arms production across the board for Lianna’s soldiers. Your merchants will be as safe as they’ve always been,” Tomas Drakhan added. The man portrayed a smooth confidence that just barely kissed the line between arrogance.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  As Tyree listened to their back and forth, she couldn’t help but wonder what her role in all this was. She, and even Kronos, Major or not, must have been significantly underneath the discussions going on here.

  “Those are good places to start with, but ultimately it won’t matter.” A gravelly voice said. A tall, thin man with pointed elven ears stood in the doorway. His Serethi agelessness was beginning to show signs of cracking, his hair was wiry and thinning and he stood with a slightly hunched back.

  “And who are you to make that claim?” Tomas Drakhan scoffed.

  “Perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken so bluntly. I apologize, there are many new faces here. New House leaders, I presume.” The man’s eyes swept across the room without lingering on anyone in particular. “I wish we could have met under better circumstances. My name is Treyvon, and it was I who petitioned for this meeting.”

  King Hael stood. “Treyvon has served as advisor to four generations of kings before I and is the only person here old enough to remember a time before the Guardians. I believe he is the best expert on this unprecedented issue before us.”

  “The issue is that the monsters today are a lot stronger than they were in the past. The enhanced strength of night spawns wasn’t a thing hundreds of years ago. If the Guardians don’t return, it won’t be as simple as increasing patrols. You’d be lucky if the army could hold any territory beyond Castera’s walls for any length of time if the monster population grows unchecked.”

  Tyree felt a cold chill that was shared by everyone in the room. She had fought night spawns before. They were monsters that had been enhanced by the ambient mana in an area. They were always one rank higher than the highest ranked combatant in the area, which made fighting them even harder in a group whose ranks varied as much as the army’s did.

  There were four ranks of mage; D, C, B, and A. Most soldiers in the army were between C and B rank. There were very few A rank, or master, mages outside of adventuring guilds because of the sheer amount of training it took. Training that was often only available in the magic dungeons that required a Guardian to enter.

  Even within the ranks themselves, there was a difference between a top rank A and a bottom rank A. Tyree was an A-ranked mage, but even she wasn’t a peak like Aliyah or Rhoda. Even then, A-ranked mages couldn’t be everywhere. And just one Master among a group of B or C ranked soldiers could generate an S-ranked night spawn. There were no S-ranked mages, though it was believed the strongest Guardians were S or S+ rank as no Master mage could accurately pin down their power level by observing them, in much the same way a C rank couldn’t tell an A rank’s power.

  Lianna finished writing something in a notebook and looked up. “Then what do you propose we do?”

  “I propose Ilsylvania acquire the same defensive barriers that protect Araedi and the other Serethi city-states,” Treyvon answered as though that were a trivial thing to do.

  Lianna’s short laugh held very little mirth. “The Serethi Queen, as well as her predecessor, and her predecessor, have all made it clear they will not share that with us.”

  “The treaty of peace between the Serethi, Ilsylvania, and Rielle was built upon an imbalance of power, the gulf of which has only grown in the centuries since it was adopted. That is the chief reason why I left my people behind over three hundred years ago. I disagreed with the original treaty because I believe Ilsylvania and Rielle entered into it under duress.” Treyvon stood straighter and continued with passion in his words. “But that changed with this epidemic. It was only a few days ago that I returned from Delphianna and I can tell you the city-state has been hit hard by this disease. House Ilvari’s proposal to increase spending on medical care within the kingdom proved well timed. And I believe that foresight has not only put us in a position to weather it, but has also given us significant leverage to discuss a new treaty between the three parties…”

  Whatever else Treyvon had been about to say, Tyree hadn’t heard it. She’d begun seething the moment he implied his intentions to use the deaths of thousands for political gain.

  A strong tap on her leg made Tyree turn to Kronos. He leaned over and whispered, “You should leave the room.”

  A firm, but whispered “now!” headed off Tyree’s response. Nodding, she stood and excused herself, saying she was beginning to feel unwell.

  “Best wishes to your health, Captain,” Treyvon said after eying Tyree’s new rank insignia. “You come highly recommended. I sincerely hope you won’t be indisposed long before your assignment. Which I think actually makes a good segue into the next thing I wanted to discuss…”

  ***

  Kronos stopped Tyree on the stairway outside the command hall. “If I hadn’t told you to leave, would you have spoken up and ruined your career?”

  “I wasn’t—”

  “You were scowling from the moment Treyvon started speaking. I understand your sympathies with the Serethi and Treyvon may have his own demons, but when Commander Leon came to me personally with this assignment, there was no question in my mind that you three were the best for this job. You in particular have a well known history with the Guardians. Which is why you are our subject matter expert.”

  Tyree suddenly wished she’d stayed in the room to find out what this mission was.

  Kronos gave her that knowledge as he continued. “I was going to leave this as a surprise for you, but you will be stationed in Pella as an advisor to General Neemo. I know your connection to the area and while this is a temporary assignment, when you return is entirely up to you. But while you are there, you will share your knowledge in dealing with the monsters you’ve faced during your time as an adventurer. With the Guardians always around, Ilsylvania’s soldiers haven’t exactly been tried under the same fires as previous generations. You will be the next best thing. And when you're done training them, you'll be picking two of them to be your third and fourth companies’ leaders.”

  “I… I don’t know what to say…” Tyree’s anger had cooled the moment he said she’d be going to Pella. While he hadn’t explicitly said it, stationing her in Pella would give her time to spend with her family and friends.

  “You will have to clear your quarters by the end of day tomorrow as we leave the next day. Now go home, they expect you to be sick.” Kronos turned to go back inside but stopped and turned, a half smile on his face. “Enjoy your evening, Captain.”

  With a full smile on her face, Tyree fast-walked, then ran back to her quarters.