Chapter 40: 36: Battle preparations

Eirlathion’s POV

It had been a little over a week since the queen’s call to arms was heard throughout the forest, and thanks to the rapid organization in response to what they had heard the preparations were really shaping up quickly. With the combined efforts of Eirlathion and his apprentices, they had managed to weave ivy vines to create a wall four adult body-heights tall that was surrounding the entirety of all the lakira trees that were either occupied or could potentially become someone’s home in the future. This was almost the height of the smallest lakira trees themselves.

They had chosen the nearby coniferous trees that grew straight and tall as the anchoring points for the vine walls. They had utilized the trees closest to the lakira grove, it was a lot of ground to cover. In addition to this, with the fey dragon Everon having taken up the job, four newly created treents had organized themselves at various points around the outside of the perimeter, blending in perfectly with the surrounding trees. Four was an inadequate number to be of real use for defensive purposes, but if they were attacked then these wooden giants would be able to come to the aid in any position to defend the wall. Despite all of these preparations though, it was still clear to see that they were woefully ill prepared.

“These mere walls do nothing to stop our hunters, you can be certain that they would be equally as useless against them.” Ceren observed.

“Yes,” Calanor responded, looking straight upward with his brows furrowed. “They merely need to climb the trees which the vines are anchored to. We must do something in order to prevent them from climbing.”

“Should we have the trees drop their limbs on the outside of the wall?” Eirlathion suggested with a thoughtful look.

“Master!?” Calanor responded in shock at the suggestion. The fact that he was the only one who had such an outburst was not because the others were not equally as shocked. Rather, it was because Calanor was the only one among them who was secure enough in their relationship to their master to actually dare to speak out. Jedon and Ceren had complicated expressions, and little Laeril didn’t seem to know what to make of what the adults were talking about.

Indeed, it would normally be unheard of for a mage of the green word to bring up the subject of harming a plant in such a manner. In fact, it was quite normal for elves in general to consider such an action taboo for the risk of offending the green word mages who the entirety of elven society depends upon. However, in this instance, there was something in Eirlathion’s intuition that just told him this was the right choice.

“Well, perhaps there is another way, but it just seemed like a good solution to the issue.” Eirlathion defended his choice half-heartedly. He was not very familiar with how to make proper battlements or fortifications. In fact, none of them were. It would be a different story if it was those battle hungry humans who lived out on the plains, but that was simply not the way things were done here in the forest by the elves. Really, all of them were more or less just making this up as they went along.

“What are you all talking about?” Laeril asks, looking innocently from one adult to the other.

“Well…” Ceren replies to her little apprentice, “we’re trying to figure out how to keep the bad elves from climbing these trees.”

“Hmm… can’t you do something to make it hurt to climb them or something?” Laeril responds with a thoughtful expression.

“That’s really not a bad idea,” Eirlathion responds. “We could have some brier vines climb the trees and cover the branches. We will just have to venture out a little way from the village, there should be a few candidates for what we can use nearby.”

They had decided on their next course of action, but before they could do anything there was a commotion near the gate they had made in their wall. The gates were the few lakira trees that were the farthest out along the boarder of the grove, they had been utilized for the fact that they could be opened by any elf recognized by the nymph living within. When the small group made up of the village’s mages looked over to see what was going on, they saw several elves they had never seen before coming out of the gate tree. Or rather, entering the village through the gate.

“What’s going on?” Laeril asked, looking over excitedly toward the source of the clamor.

“Probably arrivals from a nearby village,” Jedon said, “I think the closest village is around a…, no, that was… her village.” A dark apologetic look came over his face as he recalled the village which the three newest additions to their village had come from, which had been completely wiped out on the same night. “No.. I guess the next closest one then is about a four day’s journey from here. It probably took them a day or two to organize, and then they might have moved a little slower as well if they were in a big group. There DOES appear to be a lot of them coming in.”

“Well, we had probably best go and meet them,” Calanor said, looking up to their master for his approval, to which Eirlathion gave an immediate nod. Calanor had expected no different from the man, and after seeing it he simply continued on talking as though he had never been interrupted. “I may not be the one in charge here anymore due to the circumstances, but I am still a representative of the village. It wouldn’t do for Jedon and I to not be present.”

“The same goes for myself I suppose.” Eirlathion stated, and then looked over to Ceren and Laeril who seemed quite ready to come along themselves. “Well, let’s get going then.” They began to walk toward the gathering crowd of new arrivals.

The majority of the new arrivals were dressed in the fur armor of the elven hunters. This was the majority profession among the elves, with only a few tanners, fletchers, and mages in any given village. Most villages did not have anyone involved in any form of metal craft, there were some truly excellent swordsmiths among the elves, but mostly they only lived in the capital. The few elves who possessed any form of metal weapon would be those who had ventured to the capital at some point in their life. Although, given the long lives of the elves, there were always a fair number of those who have had such a chance.

Also, given that there were few children, elven women were expected to take some form of profession just as the men were. While women were the majority of those in tanner and fletcher jobs, there was only so much need for those roles. As such, those in the fur armor of the hunters seemed to almost be perfectly divided between the sexes. 

This is how it came that the master hunter who was chosen for their own village was a female. As the village mages approached the group, Eizeril, said master hunter, had already arrived to greet them first. It seemed the initial introductions were already out of the way, and now she was giving them an introduction and orientation to the village and what had been done to prepare for them when she spotted Eirlathion and his group approaching.

“Ah! Master!” She greeted him, and then turned back to the man who appeared to be the representative of the newly arrived hunters. “This is the master magus of our village, master Eirlathion.”

“Oh! Master magus.” The man said with a bow. “My name is Berenor. By the queen’s decree, we have come to journey to aid your village in fortifying this location.”

“YES, THIS IS WELL SAID.” The booming voice of the fey dragon Everon, the current appointed leader of this village ever since it was declared it would be turned into a defensive fortress, cut in on their introductions as the great beast flew gently into the area in a manner that was half conventional flight using his wings and also surely half magic as he seemed to have far too little forward momentum to be properly holding himself aloft by the laws of physics alone. The fact that he was already using magic in his flight was the fact that when he had arrived at the spot in the air he had decided he wanted to suspend himself, he simply stopped, turned, and allowed his tail to hang down without even beating the air with his wings once.

“WELCOME WARRIORS, YOUR NUMBERS BEING ADDED TO OURS IS GREATLY APPRECIATED. SPACE HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR YOU TO FIND A RESIDENCE HERE. THE MOST OF YOU WILL BE IN THE CARE OF THE APPOINTED MASTER HUNTER YOU HAVE ALREADY MET. HOWEVER, IF THERE ARE ANY MAGES AMONG YOUR NUMBER, I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO STEP FORWARD NOW.”

Well, no time for pleasantries with this dragon. Most of the new arrivals were in a mild state of awe and panic upon having Everon appear in front of them. After all, those who had not been to the capital had likely never even seen a fey dragon before, and those who had probably never interacted with them. The WERE the most powerful among the fey after all, as well as being the symbol of the queen’s power as well.

The crowd quickly seemed to settle down though as one elf began to push their way through the crowd. Upon arriving closer, they could make out she was a woman dressed in the green robes of a mage. Behind her trailed a young elf boy who looked to be barely into his 60th year, having just come of age. He wore brown leather robes, the common attire of a mage’s apprentice.

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“My greetings mighty servant of the queen.” The female mage said with a bowed head. “My name is Sainel, I am the magus of our village.”

“SAINEL, IS IT? I AM EVERON. WELL MET. I WOULD LIKE FOR YOU TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THE MAGUS OF THIS VILLAGE AND ENHANCE THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THIS VILLAGE. ONCE MY ADVISOR ARRIVES YOU WILL BE SERVING UNDER HIS INSTRUCTION, BUT UNTIL THEN YOU WILL WORK TOGETHER TO BEGIN THE PROCESS ON THE FORTIFICATIONS.”

What’s this about his advisor? He had not said anything about this before. Eirlathion was forced to wonder if he would have ever even heard of this before said advisor arrived had this new group not arrived.

“Of course my lord.” The mage Sainel responded and then looked over in Eirlathion’s direction for a moment before directing her eyes back to the hovering fey dragon.

“THAT WILL BE ALL.” He announced. “I LEAVE YOUR AFFAIRS NOW IN THE HANDS OF THE APPROPRIATE REPRESENTATIVES OF THIS FORT” There was a cry of shock and unease from everyone as they rose their hands to cover their faces in order to protect themselves from the massive burst of wind that was the result of Everon’s down-beat of his wings. And, with that one action, he was off. He flew up above the canopy and over the wall, off to parts of the forrest unknown to continue his work of locating spirits that could inhabit the trees.

It took a little bit of time for everyone to regain their bearings after that, but when they had Sainel and her apprentice both turned and began to approach Eirlathion. Sainel’s eyes became large in surprise as she got closer to Eirlathion, having likely sensed the extent of his cultivation into the 5th rank of spell formation. It was common for most elven magi to be considered masters upon reaching the 4th rank, a 5th rank such as Eirlathion was a true rarity. Normally, it was only the faeries who could reach such a high extent of power.

She quickly composed herself as she drew closer to Eirlathion, putting on a more respectful face. “Master.” She greeted him once she had reached a respectful distance. “As I have introduced myself before in front of the master dragon, my name is Sainel, a master of the green word who has achieved the 4th rank in my spell formations. I am surprised and honored to encounter such an advanced mage among the elves as yourself. Cultivating this close to the scar of heaven surely must have its benefits.”

A dark shadow passed over Eirlathion’s face as he heard the minor jab mixed in with her words, especially considering that he could not deny that his advancement to the 5th rank was indeed tied to his access to an unusually dense supply of spirit energy, although not from the source she had assumed.

“Certainly that is so.” He agreed with a heavy voice. “My name is Eirlathion. As you have already observed, my spell formations have reached the 5th rank, having brought me to a level capable of utilizing some of the same magic as the faeries. I imagine the journey here might have been hard on you. We were about to venture back outside the village in order to collect some briar vines in order to line the outer branches among the trees on our wall and make them unclimbable. What is it that you would like to do from here?”

“Well, I believe I am likely energetic enough to assist you with that.” Sainel responds. “I am certain we can work out our living arrangements here at a later date. Perhaps I can share a residence with the master?”

“I am afraid that will not be an option.” Eirlathion denies her request. “I have… some special circumstances. Our village took in a woman from a now destroyed village that was very close to the heaven’s fall when it happened. She was pregnant at the time, and the exposure to the energies seems to have had some effect on her children.” Both Sainel and her apprentice looked up at the plural Eirlathion had just used. “Yes,” he said, “that was one of the effects. She gave birth to twins. Both children also seem rather ill as a result. As such, my house is already quite full. I have taken in the twins along with some humans to keep them nourished and I have also taken in their mother. She is currently seeing to the children’s basic needs, but cannot give them everything considering the nature of their condition.”

“Well, that event seems to have had several strange effects.” Sainel replied thoughtfully. “I understand your conditions master Eirlathion.”

-

Eirlathion was troubled by the developments of the day as he arrived back at his home. It wasn’t like he had not thought of the trouble new arrivals in the village would cause, but he had no real way to prepare against it so he had not paid it much thought. Now, however, he was made to face the fact that there would be new people from outside the village finding out about the girls.

There were already suspicions about the condition of the girls from those in the village. However, nobody had ever really said anything out of respect and anyone in position to do anything about it had accepted any plausible deniability they could get in order to not have to think about it.

Now, however, there were several new people who had not grown up knowing and respecting him. This introduced a major unknown factor. Everon had not been an issue, he went around giving orders like absolute decrees under the presumption that his word was law here. This was somewhat frustrating for the people who had not known him growing up, but it was mostly accepted. However, he did not seem to pay a lot of attention to the minor goings on of the personal affairs of individual members of the village, even those who were in important positions such as Eirlathion.

These new arrivals though were a group of many people, all with their own opinions and motivations, and they would all be naturally curious to orient themselves to the goings on of their new living environment. Therefore, the chances they may start asking questions when they hear about the mysterious twins born to an elf was rather high. Twins among elves were absolutely unheard of to start with, and with all the other strange circumstances of their birth there was no way such a thing wouldn’t become the talk of the town among these new arrivals. And, if they started asking questions, it was only a matter of time before their suspicions were peaked.

Well, he would have to begin taking counter measures somehow. For starters, he would ask nymph to begin communicating with the other nymph of the village. Meanwhile, he would also have to tell Túeth to be on her guard. As for the girls, should he perhaps tell Aerien to forget about what he had said before about not doing whatever spirit meddling stuff she had done when he had brought her mother here for the first time? No, there was no telling what she might wind up doing to herself if he lifted the ban on that.

He did not understand what it was she was doing himself, so he did not want to risk her damaging herself. What’s more, her spirit energy level had been lowering lately. It was falling little by little, but there was no denying the fact that she had weakened by a great deal compared to only a week ago. He was already quite concerned about this. Perhaps the lie he always used about those girls had become a reality and Aerien was genuinely becoming ill. Or, maybe she had done more experimenting with her spirit and had indeed damaged herself in some way while he was out.

Eirlathion did not understand enough about Aerien’s case to start with to have even the first clue about what might be happening with her, and he no longer had the time to figure it out with all the work being demanded of him in order to fortify the village. Well, there is probably more he can do to protect the girls from outside threats at the moment. If he did not have the time or ability to figure out what was going on with Aerien then all he could do is hope for the best on that front while he does something about the things he actually does have the power to act on.

Author's Note

Before anyone says anything about their fortifications, I just want to say that I have watched Shad's videos on "Machicolations."

For those of you outside of the loop, machicolations are also known as "murder holes," and they are holes in the battlements of a castle that an arrow or rock can be shot or thrown straight down through in order to hit enemies right at the base of the wall. It's pretty much Shad's favorite word, and he has made it more or less synonymous in the medieval community with the entire list of castle wall defense fortifications due to how much he says it in any video he talks about the subject in.

In other words, any complaint you may have about the poor quality of their walled defense is likely to be one I have already thought of and will come up in one form or another.

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