Aramora

Chapter 31: Teeth and Blood

They look towards it to see an older man in green robes enter with a soldier leaned against him with blood and char staining his silver and gold armor.

Athemar fully faces him and crosses his hands behind his back as he stands tall. "Magister Holloway. What is the meaning of this? Why weren't you in the Inquiry Hall?" he demands.

Holloway leads the soldier over to sit him in an open seat at the far back end of the table. He holds his hands over the man and a green glow radiates off his palms as he works on healing him.

"We've got a problem. A big one," the Magister says and nods to the wounded soldier. "Tell him what you saw."

The soldier needs to take a few deep breaths first to compose himself against the pain and he nods shakily. "...I was stationed in the town of New Cresthill... the villagers and other soldiers could tell that something seemed off... When... we saw the fires..." he looks down and stares blankly at the table.

"Drynthar?" Athemar asks. The soldier shakes his head.

"No... War gallies. There must've been over a dozen in their fleet..." he chokes over his tears and blood building in his throat.

Nesosa stares firmly at the soldier. "Where were they comin' from?" she asks.

"Southeast... and their flags... They had the symbols of Druunsignak and Valregar..." the soldier shudders as he says those names.

Nisha and Malachi gasp, while Naomi looks at them quizzically. "What are those?" she asks.

Nisha tries to speak, but she finds that she is unable to force any words out, so Malachi answers for her with a forlorn gaze.

"The two strongholds of Varagores... That means..." he shivers as the reality sets in.

Nesosa lowers her head. "...Th' Orcs are invading Aramora, aren't they?"

Athemar takes a deep breath and closes his eyes for a moment to compose himself. Something about his demeanor is different, and they can all see it. What they can't tell, however, is what that something is. He just seems so... tired.

The Grand Master opens his eyes and stares across the hall at the soldier. "What is the current status of the invading fleet?" he asks.

"New Cresthill has already been taken, and from what we could tell, it looks like the Orcs are on their way to Arkala next. From there, we can imagine the pattern pretty clearly," the wounded soldier explains and swallows back the tears as his pain begins to lessen thanks to Holloway's Life magic.

Nisha keeps her head down and tries to breathe steadily. "But... I thought the Orcs would have waited for the Dev'al Ordon to be destroyed before they would attempt to invade Aramora. Why are they attacking now?" she questions in a small voice.

Sara steps forward. "They must believe the 'end' is getting closer, but little do they know that we have enough fragments to open the rift. We just need to make sure we do it before the invaders are able to storm Ecrin," she states. "After Arkala, they will likely strike at Balmoral, then Kilead and eventually, Ecrin. We must act swiftly," she says and turns towards Athemar. "What are your orders?"

The Grand Master faces the map and stares at it vacantly. "Magister Holloway, go find Magister Yearyn and bring him here right away," he orders.

Holloway nods and looks over at Nisha. "Nish, do you think you can take over helping this guy?" he asks and motions his glowing hands to the wounded soldier.

Nisha's mind races to catch up and she suddenly jumps and nods as she snaps back into the moment. She gets up from her seat beside Malachi and rushes over to replace his hands with her own and takes over healing the man's injuries. Luckily they seem mostly superficial.