In the few seconds, it took for her to process what she just heard, she failed to notice the stench of death that clung to those that dwell in places where many have died or those that have killed many themselves.
She heard the whispering of spirits of those that have long since gone granting their protection to the living.
Besides the armored footsteps that could only come from a man, she heard the faint steps of a woman, one young and inexperienced, yet she could feel the sensation of order in the girl's footsteps as she walked.
Her escorts stopped and her walking and allowed the pair to walk past them and they were cough by a sight that looked like night and day a young Priestess with long blond hair, and white clots walked past them accompanying a man who wore gray armor that covered him from head to toe.
Where the girl's clothes were kept clean and free of any wrinkles, the man's gray almost black armor was covered in scratches and dents, where he had received attacks from his foes and where it had been reforged after it had been broken.
The man's every step spoke of experience, while the girls spoke of youth and her inexperience was in full display with the way her body moved as she walked.
They watched as the pair walked away towards an unknown destination, this place was indeed different from their old home, to such a point where one that doesn't serve the Gods of Order can stand next to the servant of one.
They started to walk again and they slowly began to quicken their pace until they began to move faster than any human ever could, they knew where the knight's fortress was located after all they had passed it before arriving at the town it was after a few minutes that they stopped once again.
Severa knights walked past them each one moved in such a way that it demanded obedience, yet it was their very presence that forced the forest around them to become quiet.
The beasts and monsters could sense the danger of these creatures that could no longer be called Humans as they moved, the forest became quiet, but as they left an area the forest slowly regarding the sounds it normally had.
It was as if she was watching a group of sharks moving past entire schools of fish that instinctively gave wide breaths to them.
"What lands are these that they make Humans like them," one of her guards said as he watched the knights walk away
When the knights were gone and they felt it was safe to move again they began to move towards the fortress, this time, however, they did so with more caution, lest they be mistaken for invaders.
They soon began to hear the sounds of beasts grazing in the open fields nearby, but the sounds they made were unnatural, Humans didn't keep creatures so large because they were always a threat to both them and the environment, yet as they began to get closer to the fortress they noticed some off.
In all of her years she had ever seen such a sight, Human children wearing allsorts of armors sat quietly as their instructor lectured them about something called astrology.
Yet it was the creatures next to the children that caught most of her attention, there was Pegasus grazing nearby, while a young blue dragon slept near one of the human girls.
Massive beasts carried stone and creatures she had never seen before labored as they repaired the fortress.
She watched as knights and Forge Born alike woked together as they dug the surroundings and exposed more and more of the fortress that hat had been buried over the years.
One of her escorts gasped as the trees themselves had faces on them and seemed to be having conversations with one or several of the knights, but that was impossible such beings were born to protect the forest and protect nature.
They are sacred beings that would rarely speak to any being not native to the forest they protected and yet here they are speaking to Humans that were cutting down trees.
She turned to look at one of her guards who always stayed alert and she noticed that the man was keeping his eyes on the entrance to the fortress, when she turned to look at it, she noticed the heavy stream of magick that flowed in it.
The Humans had taken something that had a connection to magic and made it their own.
This only increased the ganger of them being here and yet she couldn't help but wish to be a part of it.
She took yet again a leap of faith and walked past her escorts, the knights turned to look at her and then returned to whatever they were currently doing, they had completely dismissed her existence.
In the past this would have been a major insult, now however she had to accept that she was, is nothing, and shouldn't expect any special treatment.
She stood before the entrance to the fortress and waited, her escorts quickly took their places around her and a knight stepped out to greet them and beckoned them forward.
][][]
They sat down at the table to eat and despite the mood, he tried to appear in high spirits for both his family and the servants.
He had been given control over all of the nearby lords, despite whatever power one might assume he had gained, the truth is completely different.
Unlike the lands near the capital, the frontier had no guarantee that any help would ever arrive, and if it did it would certainly be too late.
The lords under his command didn't have much wealth and whatever wealth they did have, it was spent, either replenishing the surrounding villages, potion supplies as well as trading what few goods the farmers- smiths and whatever else existed here.
It wasn't that there weren't any merchants in the frontier, far from it, but each lord kept a close eye on them because if just one village spent too much or sold too much, it meant the difference between life and death.
Even the adventurers guild, in these savage lands, remained a separate power because it had to be to function properly.
This alone highlighted the danger of this place, more than half of the settlers had died or disappeared, while those that survived did so out of sheer luck and avoided the attention of the monster.
The other half found one of the knights stationed nearby and were guided to their destination by them.
The knights are another issue, despite having his knights sworn to him, the ones stationed in the frontier served no lord and didn't even swear loyalty to the crown.
These are men and women whose experience far exceeded his men's and he had to somehow get them to corporate with him.
Long gone are the elegant balls filled with nobility whose with a single word sentenced entire populations fates or the plots of those that thought too highly of themselves.
His family would never again smell the delicious odor of warm bread and cooking meat in the mornings, nor the pleasant fragrance of the various perfumes and scented oils commo amongst the nobility.
His connections had kept him and his family alive but they are now meant to live their lives in a position that placed them barely above commoners.
Whatever paries he would make or attend to, now had to be things even commoners could attend, and his daughter if she was lucky might find a husband amongst them.
If she wasn't then perhaps she might find one amongst his subordinates, one of the adventurers, or maybe amongst the knights that had no loyalty to him.
Their new home was a home of the previous Highlord and the fact that it survive the last monster wave is proof of how strong it is, not that it helped his predecessor.
From now on, every waking moment will be dedicated to retaking the surrounding lands that have fallen under the control of the forest and the monsters.
In the past, it was ridiculous for a servant to even consider eating at the same table as their betters, and now here they are eating alongside him and his family.
The surrounding lords had already come and gone, the fact that they knew how these lands functioned helped them arrive at his home even before he and his family.
It was them and their servants that cleaned his new home and left whatever they could spare to help his men and his servants recover.
They just said their greetings, presented themselves, and left in the capital none of this would have ever happened but here it had witnessed it with his very eyes.
He had sent one of his most trusted knights to deliver a message to the knights stationed nearby, but the man returned saying that the knights said that they are currently too busy to greet him but would come when they had the chance.
The level of insubordination spoke more about what the knights thought of him and the crown than words ever could.
No, he had to stop himself, perhaps this was normal here and the knights were dealing with something and simply couldn't spare a single man at the moment.
This meant that he would have to go and meet with them himself a dangerous thing to do, because if the monsters didn't kill him, then bandits would.
This raised another issue could he leave his wife and daughter behind or would he risk taking them with him.
"Sir forgive me for interrupting your meal, but it seems that a number of the Knights have left their stations in the forest and are heading somewhere unknown" one of the scouts informed him
"Deserts?' he asked the scout
"No sir, just by looking at the men they appear to be fairly powerful, but they are going in what looks like random directions" the scout answered him
At first, it seemed as if the man hadn't answered his question, but that was just the man's experience showing itself.
He had said that the men appeared to be powerful, meaning that they possessed a great deal of experience and strength, perhaps magical or simply physical or perhaps both.
The fact that no one was trying to stop them meant that they had a reason for leaving their posts, even though the knights couldn't spare people at the moment and that was something troubling.
"Anything else?" he asked the scout
"Yes, several Elves have moved into the area, and" the man paused
"It seems a goddess has descended and one of the knight houses is protecting her at the moment"
The room fell silent a goddess had descended, to lie about such a thing meant that one's soul could never enter heaven, and yet the man had said such a thing.
"What else" he ordered
"The goddess is currently watching over the majority of the elves and an umber of the settlers who were attacked during the storm"
"The knights, are building homes for them at an impressive speed," the man said to him
Yet again another difference from things he had seen before, why would knights help peasants build homes for themselves? or for that matter help elves?
He understood what he had to do he had to meet with the knights and hear from them everything that was being kept from him, and there is no safer place for his family to be, than close to one of the gods.