Elysael was…not pleased to learn about the existence of the Confederation of Lasgach.

  Not at all.

  And who could blame her? The city of Rhoscara, especially House Florens, had been tangling with the Elves of the Barren Forest for the entire length of time they had existed. Of all the great Houses of Velancia, they were by far the ones who had to deal with their raids. The Rangers had been formed in the first place to better keep them in check.

  Only for their once nation to outright help them form into a new nation. One that was now being aimed at them.

  On multiple fronts.

  From what Elysael and her advisors told us in that meeting, they agreed with us that the saboteurs currently operating in their city were likely a band of Elven raiders. Only…far more capable ones than they had likely ever encountered before.

  It’s not like most of the feral Elves of the Barren Forest were used to operating within a city. At least, not one that was likely half a ruin like Smaragd was. Nearly all Elven raiders were used to stalking and lurking within the brush of the forest, and there was nowhere upon the continent other than Sancthaven they were ever likely to find themselves welcome. No Human or Dwarven settlement would ever let a common, murderous Elf into their home.

  Which was a bit of a problem. The Herztalian expedition was currently sheltering the sum total of all Elves upon Vereden who were free from the influence of the Mad God.

  That knowledge caused a bit of a stir in the meeting room when Alveron’s presence was explained to the Prince. Her advisors immediately exploded at the knowledge that there were currently hundreds and hundreds of Elves within their walls, probably stealing all of their forks and rugs or some such nonsense.

  That was unfair of me. I, of all people, could understand being wary of Elves. But it was hard to remember that when a four-foot-three Dwarf in silken robes literally got in your face and started screaming in your face about untrustworthy knife ears. All the while, the Prince sat back and watched with sharp eyes as they demanded I immediately remove all of them from the city.

  I refused, of course. The people of Sancthaven were now under the protection of both the Order of the Polaris Reach and Herztal as well, as far as I was concerned. Certainly, none of the other more Herztalian inclined Captains had ever spoken up against the idea. Hell, Gustave was more inclined to listen to Alveron these days over me, and he was a literal Herztalian officer.

  That only made them angrier until Alveron stood from his chair, and with a wave of his hand, silenced the screaming Dwarves.

  Literally. They weren’t able to make a single sound for the next thirty minutes.

  Then he properly introduced himself, as both the last Paragon of Vereden and the last living heir of the Elven royal family, and they ceased their attempts to browbeat me. Even Elysael took notice, then.

  The discussion became far more composed, past that point. But, to be fair, there wasn’t a whole lot more that needed to be said in that initial meeting. We’d simply needed to confirm a few things with the governance of the city, as we were settling in. By our calculations, backed by Olag’s own strategists who were more familiar with Principality doctrine, we likely had another week before the Velancian/Savoy forces reached the city down the Fiume d’Oro. Preparations for the coming battle could start on the morrow, as well as the integration of our forces.

  Such as they are.

  For now, Elysael had told me that there was plenty of space for the expedition in the western half of the city, where the former tanners' district had been. It was fairly close to the river, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Even if that put my people closer to where the action would end up being.

  We’d make do.

  But…there was something else that we could be doing to help before the battle began. Something I was inclined not to personally intervene in, but I was willing to pitch to the rest of the expedition.

  I was surprised when Maria had presented the idea before the Rhoscarans, but really, I shouldn’t have been.

  She hadn’t been burned quite as hard as I had been, in the old days.

  ……………………………………

  Hours later, Maria’s proposal to the rest of the expedition’s leadership and officers council was met with…mixed reactions. I was a bit surprised by that, honestly.

  You’d think an officer’s corps that was mostly made of former spies and assassins would have been more willing to resume the work.

  But upon reflection, I completely understood being wary of returning to that life, if only briefly.

  Bella broke the contemplative silence in our meeting room aboard the Ashen Bride. She took a long draw from her pipe and bluntly spoke the words I could see on many of the faces around us. “Not sure how wilin’ I am ta help these stunties with their murderous knife-ear problem.” She paused for a moment before turning to Alveron and dipping her head. “No offense, old ‘un.”

  Alveron didn’t even twitch from his standing position next to the central table, looming like an ancient sentinel tree. “Some taken.” Kierla, to his back, directed an extremely rude gesture towards the pirate Captain.

  Oh, I see Elves did that too. The wonders of what you could express with just your fingers.

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  It didn’t faze Bella, though. I knew for a fact she’d gotten worse on her time sailing the seas. “The whole matter with these raiders seems like a personal failin’ on their part,” She said, to a number of agreeing nods from around the room. “Now, I understand that we’re here to help the Florens drive away the Velancians. But there’s gotta be a limit ta what we do fer them, ye understand? If we need ta hold their hand fer this, are they even gonna be worthy allies when it comes ta take on the Mad God?”

  To my shock, Sylvia, sitting to my left, actually turned to me with a single, silverly raised eyebrow. “She has a point…but perhaps not for the reasons she means.”

  I sighed and shook my head before raising my voice. “Maybe,” I said, cutting through the chatter. “But the fact remains that we have a unique opportunity here. I have never made a secret of where many of our members within the Polaris Reach came from. We have among us likely the most experienced force in this arena still living upon Vereden. I am…extremely reluctant to revive that force,” I looked around at many of the people in the room. Some of them, even beyond a still contemplative Maria, were numbered among those former organizations. “But it’s a different matter altogether when it comes to a rapid counter-insurgency.”

  “There’s a reason,” Maria spoke up herself, drumming her fingers on the table. “That the Rangers have been unable to track these Elven raiders. For one, the Rangers are a wilderness force. Yes, they may have extraordinary Illusionary capabilities, but that’s just it. It’s an ability of theirs. It’s not the specialized experience and training in urban guerrilla warfare and espionage that I and many others among us were given. And…I shall be honest. I sincerely doubt that these Elves, raiders or not, were given the quality of training we were. Broken as they are, the Elves simply do not have the training infrastructure to produce agents of our quality. I, too, mean no offense by that, Elder Alveron.” She dipped her head towards him.

  Said Elder finally stirred from his own reverie to wave her words off. “That, I do not take offense to. You are correct, Madam. Urban warfare such as what you speak of was never a specialty of my people, even at our peak. Once upon a time, the closest force we possessed that worked in a manner such as this was akin to the Rangers. I can only assume that whatever training was given to these raiders, it must have come from the Savoy.”

  That…made sense to me. I had no trouble believing that the Savoy would train up a form of Elves and set them loose on their enemies. After all, it’s not like they had ever been shy of working with raiders before.

  They bought a lot of slaves from them.

  “Are they even in the city, though?” One of my officers mused, drawing eyes from the rest of the room. “If they’re being supported by the Savoy, then assumably, they also possess one of those strange crystals that function like the APD’s. They could very well be hiding out in the surrounding countryside, only returning to the city to carry out their raids. It would be…much harder to root them out, if we had to scour the forests to find them. I’m not sure we would be able to do it before the bulk of the Principality army arrives.”

  Agreeing murmurs from those who were reluctant rose, but died when I spoke up. “That’s unlikely,” I said, shaking my head. “Remember, this is the Rangers’ home turf. It doesn’t matter how skilled these raiders are; if they were hiding out in their own backyard, then the Rangers would have found them. No, they have to be hiding somewhere within the city itself. It’s the only way they would have managed up to this point. And, listen,” I stood up from my chair, making an understanding gesture with my hands as I did. “I get it. We’re all a very long way from home. We’ve come so far, and for so long, and this particular fight…it’s not exactly what we all signed up for, is it?”

  Nods abound from around the room, a low murmur of agreement from even those who wanted to help.

  “We left home hoping to end the calamity knocking on the door of Vereden. We came here to Dwarven lands purely as a detour, because our original goal was blocked from us. There’s a massive goddamned shield covering the entirety of Smaragd, after all.” My ‘joke’, such as it was, did its job of eliciting some brief gallows chuckles. The slight smile on my lips died in the aftermath, though. “But came here we did, and it’s because we need help. If we’re going to save Vereden from whatever the Hell the Mad God is being puppeted into doing, we need the Rhoscarans. I have…ideas on how we’re going to get through that shield-”

  (Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.)

  “-but once we’re in, then comes the long, hard march. We originally intended to take the short route from the coasts, but we can't do that anymore. We’ll have to take the overland route to Smaragd, fighting along the way. And believe me, there’s going to be a lot of fighting to reach the seat of Fynneas’s power. Between the Elves and probably the Principality forces likely supporting them, we don’t have the numbers to fight through them all. Not by ourselves.”

  Maria smoothly picked up where I left off, standing from her own chair. “And so I propose that we help them with their little saboteur problem. The Rangers will be essential when it comes to fighting through the forests around Smaragd. There’s nobody on Vereden who has more experience waging campaigns through those woods. I doubt even Elder Alveron knows more about them these days.”

  Said Elder inclined his head. “Perhaps not. It has been centuries since last I fought through them, aiming to slay my maddened grandsire. The forest is not a static existence. You would be…surprised to learn just how much can change, in so small an amount of time.”

  ‘Small amount of time’. What a strange way to refer to the passing of literal centuries.

  Maria took it in stride, however. “We can’t afford for the Rangers to waste resources trying to catch these saboteurs, before that time comes. This time, I’m not asking for us to help them out of a sense of idealism. I know that sometimes…it can get a bit grating how we Polaris Reach argue from that position.”

  We typically did. Our entire Order had been founded from a position of idealism, after all. We were an organization of dreamers and hopefuls, people who wanted to help others. I was proud of it, of course, but I was aware it sometimes caused friction among the expedition. Sometimes, even irritation.

  “But not this time,” Maria said passionately, somewhat undermining her point. “This is a matter of practicality. We can deal with this, and I think we can deal with it quickly. With the Marshall’s permission, I’m confident I can put together a task force in the next few hours that can get to work and have these raiders dealt with, with days to spare before the Principality arrives.”

  “Without my assistance,” I continued smoothly. That certainly raised a few eyebrows, I could tell. And I understood why. I had a tendency to directly involve myself in issues like this. But not this time. “I’m needed here to help prepare our portion of the defense against the Principality. There’s simply too much work I have to do here. I have confidence that Captain Maria can handle this by herself.”

  I wasn’t even lying. I could send a clone along with her to assist in rooting them out, but I wasn’t intending to. I was going to need all of my clones here, just to help set up our defenses.

  “But this is not a dictatorship,” I swept a hand around the room. “I will only approve this force if the leadership of the expedition approves as well. So…what say you, my warriors?”

  In the end, it was…close. Closer than I would have liked. But with a vote of four to two from the Captains…

  We were going to deal with Rhoscara’s spy problem.