I had gained a glimpse of the true forces aligned against us. I had foolishly thought the powers of the Goddesses and a strong alliance with the Aestori would be overwhelming in the fight for Axio…
But the Renaultians seemed to have their own ace up their sleeves, and were possible allied with the Ixians.
My footing was off and I stumbled out of the portal and into the streets of Umbraedomis. A sturdy pair arms rose to catch me, but I still managed to trip forward into the person just ahead.
"It's been some time since I've had the chance to hold you this close, Airis. But I'm afraid if you keep clutching onto my chest like this you'll give Hailey the wrong idea."
I loosened my grip against the muscular frame and pushed myself back. Julius' trademark smirk greeted me as I slowly turned my face up.
"Uhm, thanks for catching me, Julius. How long was I gone for?"
"Well, I'm not really sure when you disappeared exactly. Hailey called us frantically, in complete panic. Mei and I went off to search for you—oh hold on, she's calling for me."
Julius touched a finger behind his ear, "I've got her, Hailey. A portal just dumped her out by the food stands on the main plaza—No, I don't know where she was I—I just told you, she really just appeared not but five seconds ago—Listen, if I had any more information I would've given—Then come over here and ask her yourself!"
He tapped his finger twice behind his ear and gave me an exasperated look.
"Your girlfriend will be here shortly."
I started to feel a bit flush and turned away from him.
"Thanks, sorry for worrying you all."
"Honestly, I figured you'd be fine. When Hailey mentioned she saw a glimpse of that lewd goddess of yours as you faded away, I was just glad none of us got pulled in too."
"Lewd?"
"Don't tell me you forgot the copious amount of lessons she dedicated to her weirdly erotic magick?"
A haze cleared away from a portion of my memory, and images played through my mind in lightning speed sending a chill down my spine.
"Ah, yeah," I nervously laughed, "Of course. No way was I trying to repress that or anything."
The resounding of hurried footsteps approached us, and Hailey sprinted around the corner of a building followed closely by Akari.
"Youuuu dummy!" Hailey screamed and nearly knocked me over, wrapping herself around me a tight embrace.
"Sorry, Hails. I'm back now, so please don't worry."
Akari paused her approach. She slowly leaned in and sniffed at me. "You smell like momma again. Not exactly though. It's a little different."
"I was with the one who taught me how to use chaos magick—or Ki, I guess you call it. I'm sorry if I worried you at all, kiddo."
She shook her head at me, "I wasn't worried. I knew you were fine the whole time."
"So." Julius nudged my shoulder, "What sort of weirdness did you get caught up in this time?"
"I'm not even sure I believe it all. I'll explain it in detail when we're back at the inn with everyone, but… We should probably call the Tribunal members and Aisling to hear it as well. We're gonna need to deal with Renault sooner than we planned."
"Oh, great. Time for another crazy suicide plan then?" Julius snickered.
-✵-
Assembled just beyond the gates of Umbraedomis were a mass of Aestori forces.
Four columns of armed elves stretched deep out of sight beyond the golden leaved silver aspens
Enormous wagons packed with supplies were positioned within the formations, and were levitating a few feet above the ground. At the rear, tightly packed carts held bound bundles of strange looking contraptions.
Within the Astral Knights was a core of artificers who specialized in the operation and engineering of the Aestori's most devastating war power—ballistae. Consisting of a three-man crew from the Knight core and skilled spell-caster from the Mages, the team could hurl bolts of pure magicka through the battlefield at terrifying rates of speed.
Warder Lira had been all too happy to give me an extensive run down about every aspect of the ballistae. Though I knew they existed from historical records none of the weapons had made it to Axio four decades ago, and skill required to recreate them was too great for the artificers that survived.
The Divisionals had weapons designed in similar theory, but these massive bolt throwers were on a different level entirely.
"Knights! Arms to stars!"
The sound of metal shifting and the unified thump of soldiers moving to attention pulled my attention away.
The dozen or so armored knights nearby had snapped to position and presented their weapons high in the air.
A female knight was walking down the pathway towards me, clad in a crimson red breastplate and matching pauldrons. At her side hung an unsheathed long-blade of glistening silver metal.
"At ease. Don't you knights see the Empress is just ahead on that balcony? It's improper to call attention when someone of higher rank is already present."
The knight who had called attention tensed up.
"It doesn't bother me in the slightest, Lady Aisling. Actually, I find it quite wonderful to see how much respect your knights give you."
I tried to minimize the stress as much as I could for the poor guy. Adjusting to having your highest ranking military figure being one step down because a new leader shows up without advance notice isn't typically how rank structure works. And beyond cutting them some slack, I didn't quite care for standing on ceremony such as that anyway.
"Empress, I hope this morning has been good. Before you is the newly formed First Aestori Divisional Core, a combination of Astral Knights and Astral Mages."
"You went with Julius' suggestion, I see."
Aisling let her guarded stature drop and smiled.
"Yes, it would seem my submission was in close second."
"The, uh… First Unified Core of Knights wasn't it?"
The Matriarch sighed and hung her head down, "That is correct, Empress. It seems that most the knights and mages had preferred my submission until Sir Julius had it translated into imperial common… Suffice to say, once the majority saw the way the name would be displayed on record as an acronym, the vote swung in his favor against me."
"Oh… Oh! Hah! Ahaha!"
I let out an ugly laugh and doubled over with my arm over my side.
"Oh my. By the Goddesses, Aisling that's too funny—I'm sorry! Sorry! I'm not laughing at you. Phew!"
"It's nothing to worry about, Your Majesty. Everyone had a good laugh about it at the time as well. It is just a temporary name for the group until we fully integrate with the rest of the imperial divisions anyway."
"That's true. Once we have secure Axio and confirm our numbers then we can worry about restructuring the military."
The sound of feet shifting in metal plate sounded down the corridor again and we turned to see a familiar face walking towards us.
"Empress, Matriarch, all forces are ready to mobilize."
"Thank you, Varla." Aisling placed her hand on my shoulder, "On your command, Empress. Let's head down there and get this army moving."
We walked through the main gate's barracks compound, heading down to the ground floor. I pestered Aisling with some last minute questions about the city and the troops who'd remain in garrison.
"You don't need to worry so much about us, Empress. My sister will be here with plenty of talented retainers and politicians. That imbecile, Dailyn, won't do anything that would hurt the people as a whole. The worst you can expect is some political turbulence."
"That does put my heart at ease a little." I sighed in relief. "To be completely honest I'm unsure if I'll be much help with the situation, even though I'm supposed to be in a position with a responsibility to resolve it."
"We may have gotten ourselves into this mess in four decades, but we'll get it handled. The world was a smaller place to us when we began these squabbles."
Walking down the rows of readied soldiers, a constant noise of metallic armor shifting trailed just ahead of us as people clambered from a resting position to attention. The buzz of nondescript chatter died down and a weighty aura fell over the area.
Aisling, Varla, and I walked the remainder of the way to the head of the formation in silence.
Waiting at the front were my companions and the other two Aestori leaders traveling on with us, Lord Adellin and Lady Sara.
"This marks quite the turning point in our modern history, Your Majesty." Adellin remarked.
"Reunification of the Aestori and the Vanixians is but one step to restoring the Empire. A minor one at that. You scholars are always hyping the most trite things beyond their station. The true momentous occasion is not a mixing of forces, but the return of a Archmagus to the imperial court."
Lady Sara's sharp-tongued and egocentric response wounded the nobleman, who began to argue with his counterpart.
I stifled a laugh and made my way to the others.
Julius approached we, pulling a horse behind him.
"Didn't forget anything in town, did you? Might be awhile before we're back here again."
I checked my pocket, feeling a familiar weight, and shook my head.
"Got everything I need. Anything left behind is something that didn't matter."
I gave the signal to Champion Varla, and a horn sounded the start of our march to Tolin.
About four hours into our ride Akari started to fidget uncomfortably on her horse next to me.
"Momma Airis, I can't get comfortable on these riding beasts. Don't your legs and behind hurt?"
"I'm sorry, kiddo, you kinda get used to it over time but that's over a few months and not a single trip."
The pained look on the little girl's face gripped at my heart. She barely fit in the saddle and was clutching her tail along her lap. There was no way riding a horse the same way as the rest of us was going to work for her.
"Akari, how about you ride along with me?"
My saddle was quite a bit larger than a typical military-style one, and seemed to be designed for comfort over function. The rise in the cantle was less prominent and wouldn't bother her so much.
A pained nodded and a little squeak was all I got as response, so I turned to Julius and asked him to ride between us and help her over.
He lifted her off one horse and placed her behind me.
Tiny hands gripped my sides and her head came to rest on my back.
"Is this a little better?"
"Mhmm."
I turned my head back and caught sight of her tail resting comfortably around the back of the leather.
"I'm glad. I don't mind riding with you for the rest of the trip, so if you're happier like this then let's plan on this, okay?"
"'kay."
I reached a hand back a squeezed her leg softly.
Only four days of riding. We'll be okay, I hope.