The Face of the Enemy: Ravaged Plains

[The Conservatory]

Simon and Virgil waited patiently, glowint faintly golden with a silvery aura shared between the two of them. The faint outline of their canine familiars surrounded them both, appearing to strafe their opponent while the two stood battle ready. The smoke took time to clear, dancing in the passing winds rushing over the cliff's edge, but Ewan remained obscured in the soot, a headless, smoldering beast twitching periodically, only visible in shadow to the Highland Dogs.

Simon's nose twinged as the twilight winds carried a foul stench across them, subtle, but still unsettling. Virgil looked over to him immediately and Simon's pale, glowing eyes darted in the exact same direction as his brother.

"What's that?" Virgil asked, scanning their surroundings with his eyes while Simon's mirrored his eye movements, but his head stayed trained on the smoldering beast in front of them.

"More trouble," Simon said, almost mumbling, keeping his voice to a low whisper while the ground began to quake gently beneath them.

~~~

Back at the Village of Garland...

"Baby? You're referring to the child I'm holding, aren't you?" Saldi rocked back and forth in her chair gently, shoulders covered in a feathery shawl and a plush, fur blanket draping over her lap. She had her head craned toward the child in her arms, nursing beneath the shawl quietly as the rest of the room moved around them. Zero approaching with his bandaged hands and bouquet of flowers only brought her eyes from the babe in her lap for just a moment, but in that moment she gathered everything she needed to know about his visit.

"I don't remember getting an invitation from you, just some whispers through the grapevine. You never struck me as someone so inconsiderate."

Lady Saldi rocked gently, smiling at the soft coos of the child in her arms as she gave Zero the reading he needed after not visiting for the better part of two years and showing up unceremoniously and with little to no good news. He hadn't said anything of material significance to her yet, but with the Urigi Bandages encasing his arms and the current state of the highlands, intermittently sieged by the unrested dead, he looked like the man she remembered from their first encounter days before Skyblight. For better or worse, this was a warrior before her coming to relay the status of the changing battlefield: The ancestral lands of her people.

"I hope you have something better to bring me than those flowers, I could have picked a valley of them in the time it came for you to come see me again. I thought we were friends..."

She glanced at Zero through the long bang of her hair while some snickers filtered through the din of the hearth and the rhythmic creak of her chair with each lean to and fro.

[Zero Venkage]

"Oh, well, you know, everyone was invited. I thought you'd come down with the family and spend some time!"

Zero's face curled in embarrassment, walked into a corner upon entering the domain of Lady Saldi and the Gafren Tribes that hold her dear. He heard the laughter of her aides, attendants, and family while he scrawled the inside of his skull for an acceptable response.

None found him.

Lady Saldi offered him quarter when the Atlanteans were breathing down his neck out of the goodness of her heart without knowing anything about his or his associates whereabouts. In the social network of the Jaida Coast, her generosity put a target on her back for a mere outsider and he couldn't even offer her a personal invite to a party whose inception she played a pivotal part. The Conservatory wouldn't exist today without her backing.

Zero could smell the food being prepared, the scents invading his nostrils, replacing the pungent, persistent odor of doom from the world outside. It took him back to their first dinner. She hosted him in the same place with a similar fare, just without the child nursing at her. It was a simpler time and if he had more time, he'd be more invested in making pleasantries to mend their relationship. Unfortunately, the situation called for a more urgent dialogue.

"I know I dropped the ball, but I've been very busy, young lady." Zero placed the flowers in a jar provided by a very attentive person who'd been behind him ready to receive the gift that Lady Saldi rejected since he entered the room. With free hands, he approached the ornate rocking chair from the opposite side of the hearth, keeping the roaring flame between them. He faced the room while she focused on the child in her arms, a courtesy he'd offer any lady feeding a defenseless child. With his legs crossed, he sat down on the floor and took a deep breath to address the few elephants in the room. Though they traded semi-playful banter, Lady Saldi was right.

Zero hadn't seen her in two years after she showed him a great kindness. The B'halian Empire was also slated to return in the coming months after offering him control of the whole continent. The undead had continuously risen again and marauded their way through the Gafren Highlands.

Though the three events seemed disconnected, Zero felt Lady Saldi's intuition piercing him like thread and needed to salvage what he could of their relationship. He planned to approach her as if they needed one another, but her eerie calm with uncertainty on the horizon reminded him that whether he arrived here or not, whether The Conservatory landed in Toscano Bay or not, whether he would have anchored the Traversing Mirror or not, she and the Gafren Tribes would persevere.

He needed her more than she needed him.

[The Conservatory]

Lady Saldi stayed focused on the infant in arm while Zero sat opposite from her across the fireplace. She took a deep, calming breath while nursing the Gafren babe.

"You are quite the busy man. Too busy for courtesy, too busy to check in on the people who had your back. Too busy to stop by for a meal, knowing how much it meant to me when we first met. I've been treated better for less, Zero. And now you have my boys out there fighting your battle."

The ground shook from an explosion nearby. Lady Saldi's eyes head rose completely to look past the group of Gafren Tribespeople Though she couldn't see it from her seat, a crowd had gathered on the veranda stretching over the circular entrance to the village. Their collective gasps and murmurs told her everything she needed to know after understanding that the world was bringing the dead to life and they had already brought at least three villages to their knees.

"And here you are... For what?"

Lady Saldi halted her rocking back and forth to get a good look at Zero down the bridge of her nose. The glow of the fireplace warmed her face on on side, letting the far of flashes of gold and crimson illuminate the other, flickering through the shuffling bodies of people and animals through the chamber.

Another explosion shook the Village of Garland, deeper waves rumbled though the room and rustled scorched logs loose, releasing a gust of embers into the space between Zero and Lady Saldi.

"Milady! it looks like your boys are headed this way, but they're being followed!" Someone shouted from the crowd as the Veranda thinned out, spectators morphing into combatants while Simon and Virgil raced up the cliff coast .

The golden auras of the Highland Dogs moved like two shimmering comets with tails like holiday garland, chased by a fireball, scorching the verdant grassland behind them, leaving the village nothing but a smoldering crater. The fireball behind them raged, sending violent lashes of crimson-grey scorch cascading across new reaches of the Gafren Highlands with every beastly stride, pitch black eyes peering out crazed from within the infernal blaze.

The chamber came to life as the tribe burst into action, people scrambling all over, familiars of all shapes and sizes shuffling through one another. Feathers and fur danced in the air as the whole village sounded like it roused from a light slumber. As the room crossed with people and filled with mixed murmurs of family and familiar, Lady Saldi stood up from her rocking chair while the bustle of the room swirled around her.

In the light of the hearth, the warm flames bathed her in an intense orange glow, flickering between the shadows of the tribe flitting between them. Between the bustle, the child disappeared from her arms and she crossed them as she took slow deliberate steps toward Zero still sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Any answer other than 'for you, Milady' is wrong."

[Zero Venkage]

Zero sat while the whole village sortied around him, hearing callouts of his Gafren pupils retreating from the battle they promised they could handle to rendezvous with their opponent on their tail. The rumbles that shuddered through the ground would have brought him to stand, but Lady Saldi's painfully exact words left him floored.

In his mind, he didn't leave the Simon or Virgil without support, he knew he could zip back to their side in an instant and provide whatever support they needed and in the coming invasion, every man made soldier would need more than strength to survive the battle. Especially considering their plight became twofold, a two front defense from B'halia without and their own fallen comrades within, all of Madeira needed as many able bodied and willing warriors to defend it.

"I come for you, for your people, for all of Madeira."

Zero spoke looking up to the towering woman warmed by the glow of the fireplace and flashes of the clash with the undead heading their way. From the floor, he got a good look at Saldi whom he'd only met shortly before but left enough of an impression on her to put faith that he could benefit the region and her people. Zero respected her opinion of him, not because she was a perfect example of what a woman could be, strong, kind, wise, and discerning, but because she trusted that he was also a man of his word. He considered himself a changed man, but always thought of himself first and now that Simon and Virgil seemed to be put on the ropes, the Highlands were plunged into uncertainty, and she towered over him in righteous anger surrounded by people who dropped everything to give support to one another, Zero knew he hadn't changed enough.

He knew he didn't say what she wanted to hear.

Zero closed his eyes, chuckling to himself as he stood to his feet with the whole spirit of the Gafren Highlands sortieing between them. He looked confident, standing fully and only being bale to look past her bosom up the bridge of her nose. From dinner to now, he recognized she respected honesty more than ability, a sea of difference between the two of them.

"But, I'm here for you, Milady."

Zero held his hands wrapped in the Urigi bandages together, grit through the pain, and clasped them together to offer her the Gafren Ava of fealty, interlocked fingers like two fists stretched toward the recipient, both fists clasped together and offered to the other, the conjunction of man and beast pointed toward a single goal.

It hurt, moving his fingers when he walked sent a special kind of pain shooting up his arms, even while the Urigi bandages worked to restore his appendages to their former state. He couldn't stand it, but with Ewan raging outside as a behemoth of a husk of his former self and an unknown number of likened beasts waiting just beyond the threshold of this Ravager being put to rest.

[The Conservatory]

The rumbling from the ground grew louder and more sustained, an ominous hum filling the halls of the Village of Garland with dread. The smaller villages positions near the cliffside rumbled during Simon and Virgil's battle with Ewan, exploding almost in sync with one another after they blasted Ewan's face off. The crimson smoke billowing sent a chill down their spines as screams ands screeches filled the twilight air. All it took was a single look shared between them to know that their best option now would be to retreat and receive support. Their grudge with Ewan could be handled, but the rest of the thrall awakened had the advantage of numbers over the Highland Dogs.

"As it should be," Lady Saldi said, receiving Zero's Ava with one of her own before turning toward the front door of the Village. The Gafren Tribespeople and their urizen familiars crowded around the entrance as the floors and ceilings shook, all manner of creature of varying sizes primed to enter combat. Cassowaries pruned their feathers, grasswolves' and pantheras' hackles stood on end, the eerie clicking of insect mandibles chittered underneath the whispers between the Gafren, waiting for their lady to give the order.

Behind Ewan's body engulfed in flame, unable to make out any real features of him anymore, just the scorching claws, his deadly teeth, and hulking, lumbering frame. Behind the infernal beast, the bodies of other people swarmed to him, jerking in stride, falling all over one another as they poured from the three villages that were visible from the elevation of the capitol village. More Ravagers, incensed by the battle and their thirst for chaos, awakened and joined Ewan in his assault on the Highlands.

The rumbling from above stopped and a harmonious pair of howls filled the air, Virgil and Simon's rallying cry for their people. The two of them stood side by side on the grassy knoll above the engraved door into the Village of Garland, leering at the immolated sabrebear that was their rival once upon a time.

This time, the Gafren were ready.

In the wake of the Highland Dogs' battle cry, the whole room stood still except for Lady Saldi who moved through the crowd like a magnet, her people and their familiars moving aside to give her access to the front door unencumbered. She raised her right hand and two ornate katanas found their way from the crowd and onto her hip.

She held up her left and another pair appeared from the crowd and landed at her waist on that side.

Lady Saldi stood at the door, placing her hand at its opening and pausing for just a moment to take a deep breath.

"We have a date with B'halia we cannot afford to miss, so let's make quick work of these last rites and come back home."

Lady Saldi pushed the doors open and met the swath of crimson-grey adversaries climbing the hill to the Village of Gafren. Ewan, the Pyromuse Sabrebear, a shadow of his former self and ravenous threat stalked on all fours, leaving flaming tracks behind him. Lady Saldi filled her lungs with a giant breath of the stagnant air full of death and smiled, placing each of her hands at the hilt of one of the weapons at either of her hips.

"For our people! For Garland!"

[Zero Venkage]

Ewan raged, roaring into the sky as the army of thrall that awakened behind him surged past him to lay siege to the Gafren capitol. A giant pillar of flame waved from his mouth into the skies above, dispersing the spotty cloud cover with its intense heat. Zero was unsure of where he’d be most useful, but decided he’d cover Lady Saldi’s back at least. Seeing the girded armies of man and beasts spilling from the Garland’s walls assured him that his place was at her side.

Zero made a single, painful Silvaan Charm that created a blustery current around his body sliding forward, standing on a tuft of wind above the entrance to the village while Lady Saldi and her people turned up the heat on the battlefield, bringing fire to fight fire. The temperature immediately rose a hundred degrees as their forces clashed, their Breath of Fire traits all activating in harmony, various Pyromuse Familiars spilling out and clashing with the reanimated visages of their fallen brethren all around Ewan and across the highland plains.

Flaming feathers, fur, and fragments flew all over as the armies clashed. Zero turned to check on his pupils who made their battle cry and he saw bright gold beams of light falling into the crowd, painting the bodies of the thrall sent airborne by the pitch of combat. Their aim was impeccable, not missing a shot and avoiding any friendly fire from what Zero saw landing.

He was proud of them, and hoped they could keep up the good work while he skated down into the fray to take on his fair share.