Chapter 3

Imperial city of Sadera, Continent of Falmart, two days after the battle of Ykalon

The sun was shining upon the capital of the Saderan Empire. Imperial Flags (a four winged golden cross put on a purple eagle himself on a violet background) were floating on buildings of white marbles. The city had been built on several levels on a large Hill.

At the top was the Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor, wife (and multiple consorts) and minor children. The Second level was housing the palaces and mansions of the Emperor's older children but also the Imperial Senate, the legislative body of the Empire, and the main Temple of the falmartian gods. The lowest level were the commercial and residential areas where the nobles and commoners wealthy enough lived, protected by the city walls. Outside were lying the poor and crime-ridden slums, where a huge majority of humanoids of all kind resided, being forbidden to enter the city.

Sadera streets were currently full of inhabitants and travelers of various origin going about their daily business. Since only the highest echelons of the Saderan nobility had been aware about the Gate, the majority of the Empire subjects were unaware of the large invading force sent there, let alone its subsequent defeat. The obliviousness was however not shared by everyone.

"This is an unprecedented disaster!"

The Imperial Senate was currently having a "crisis" session. Senators in togas and breastplates were discussing the whereabouts of the failed expedition. The Emperor Molt Sol Augustus was facing them.

"The equivalent of a sixth of our total fighting force simply vanished!" One of the toga wearing nobles said, addressing the Emperor directly. Worried glances were exchanged between the assembly.

Another Senator, a member of the army as indicated by his breastplate, countered. "There is no actual proof Legatus Antonius army was actually defeated! For all we know they just kept advancing on the other side, bringing with them the glory of the Empire!"

Cries of approval were heard.

"That doesn't make any sense," another Senator-officer started, "Antonius is not at his first campaign, he knows the rules well. Whether he would have been victorious or keep pushing to find anything, he would have sent messages. At the very least he would have left one Legion behind. In fact the mages who were there confirmed he did so. Then there's the matter his entire camp of followers seem to have gone with him."

The previous man snorted. "So what? It was an unusual situation and his moment of glory. Maybe he got carried away?"

"His wife and two youngest children were there. I sincerely doubt he would have exposed them to any sort of harm."

"...Maybe he's establishing a base on the other side and needed the help of the followers? It kept him busy enough so he didn't think of informing us."

"This is getting ridiculous," the first man said. He turned back to the Emperor. "Your Majesty! How do you intend to lead this country? By sending another army which will vanish too? And then another?"

"Marquis Garcel, I too share your concerns," Molt answered. "This unexpected development is concerning, yet in each time of crisis have not pulled together and struggled through? Do you not all remember the Arctic War 250 years ago? It was the most bloodiest conflict of our history and yet we prevailed! As we shall prevail today!"

The Emperor speech was saluted by a majority of Senators.

"Still your Majesty," it was the second officer who had spoken, "we should sent a small scouting force to learn what transpired. Maybe the mages of Rondel will have an explanation? We should send word to them."

"Their reports mentioned the Gate didn't react as it usually did in the past. Maybe something happened? We should fully study it before we are to act. As a mage myself, I will go to Rondel to meet with them," a small Senator said.

"Then it is settled. Senator Godasen will lead the scouting force to the Gate. Meanwhile we will sent word for our vassal states to assemble their armies. If Antonius army was indeed wiped out by an enemy force from the other side they shall avenge him!" The Emperor declared.

The Vassals? thought Garcel, but why call for them? Unless… Does the Emperor intend to weaken them?

Imperial City, Province of Cyrodiil, continent of Tamriel, a day before

"There is but one city in the Imperial Province, but one city in Tamriel, but one city in the World; that, my brothers, is the city of the Cyrodiils."

-The scrib Reyfayj, circa late First Era

Although not the oldest city on the continent (this honor went to Alinor of the Summerset Isles), the Imperial City was definitely the biggest. It had been built on the central island of lake Rumare (said lake could have passed as a small sea). The nearby islands were mostly farmlands, used to sustain the City enormous population (even at his lowest it numbered one million).

The White Gold Tower, the seat of the Imperial Throne, was dominating the landscape, reaching the clouds. The ancient structure had been established by the Aldmer (also called the "Ancients") during the middle of the Merethic Era. The city had then developed around. Its rise to prominence was explained mainly by the central position it occupied on the continent. It made it the commercial hub of Tamriel and the key to its political control.

It's by capitalizing on this trump card the Mede Empire was able to recover the devastation of the Great War, rebuild the Imperial warmachine and finally triumph during the Second War with the Dominion.

Today for most residents was a day like any other.

It wasn't the case at the current Elder Council session.

Originally an assembly constituted by the various Ayleid Sorcerer-Kings to rule ancient Cyrodiil, it had been adopted and repurposed by their former human slaves as a legislative body for their new Empire. The Councilors were to be either appointed by the head of a Province or elected by citizens and represented each side of the Imperial society, Provinces or Kingdoms, mages, aristocracy, merchants, guilds, clans and peasants.

The Councilors were wearing the unisex white toga, symbol of their profession. All of Tamriel was represented with the only exception of Argonia and the Summerset Isles.

Facing them was Iszara, being the acting ruler in the absence of her husband. She had opted to wear the heartlander regalia. It consisted of a ensemble of garish silk clothing, a purple cloak with the Imperial sigil worn over a red embroidered dress, a large jeweled collar and of course the imperial golden crown.

At her side was a young dark haired female elf of ashy skin and red eyes, a Dunmer. She was dressed in very much the same attire as the Empress, thus indicating her appartenance to the imperial family, but with a few differences. She lacked the imperial crown, replacing it with a much smaller replica and her cloak had the Redoran scarab embroidered upon it. This was Princess-consort Liliah Mede, formerly Releth, of House Redoran, the wife of Basil Mede, the Crown Prince.

"Empress Iszara, it's been two days since the Emperor and the High Chancellor have gone to Daggerfall with a good chunk of the Shadow Legion. What is the current situation? Should we prepare for imminent invasion?" one of Colovia councilors asked.

"I haven't received any news coming into that sense. Last I heard my son, Prince Basil, who was still stationed in the South of the Kingdom, was going to move his troops to reinforce the Emperor forces."

"Orsinium and the orcish enclaves will stand with the Empire no matter what happens!" The Orc councilors said. It surprised nobody as the Orcs had always been supportive of Cyrodiil and the Legion, more than half of their people making career in the army.

A councilor of Pellitine, a lynx faced Khajiit, indicating she was either a Dagi or a Dagi-Raht, spoke. "This one would like to know if these events will perturb the trade routes. This could become problematic for the citizens."

"Unbelievable!" another Khajiit, but from Anequina this time, interrupted. His tiger appearance designed him as a Pahmar. "These ones are talking about war and all Pellitine is worried is their trade!" He turned towards the Empress. "Just as the Orcish councilors said, Anequina stand with you!" The others Anequinians nodded.

The Pellitine councilor frowned. "This one was merely pointing if the trade was disrupted some of our citizens would starve. Besides Anequina cannot declare go to war without Pellitine as the two are now part of the Confederacy."

"And with what army do Pellitine one propose to assist us? Your mercenaries? Anequina soldiers are the best from Elsweyr!"

"Please! Councilors, now is not the time to fight among ourselves! More than ever we need to stand united." Iszara ordered the quarreling Khajiits.

"The "situation" seems to be confined to Daggerfall so far, no?" an Easterner woman asked. "There is no reason to be worried about chains of supply so far."

"Speaking of it," a male Bosmer began, " do we know what started the anomaly?"

Whispers run across the assembly.

The councilor of Daggerfall, who was starting the weight of inquisitive looks, got up. "Daggerfall citizens are in no way responsible for this anomaly!"

"Are you sure? You Bretons are known for trafficking with magic of all kinds. Who doesn't say it was the result of some spell gone awry?" A male Redguard councilor said in accusatory tone.

All the Breton councilors became infuriated.

The Easterner woman from previously went to their help. "Now, now. I understand you less than trusting nature towards your neighbors Councilor Favis and it's true High Rock is a place teeming with spellcasters of all kind. But as a Nibenese sorceress myself I can assure you no spell "gone awry" as you say would open an interdimensional portal of that kind."

Her intervention was saluted by the Bretons and the mage councilors. Iszara silently thanked her with a nod.

"According to the conclusions of the Shadow Legion, it was opened from the other side. By whom and how is unknown," the Empress stated.

"So it is an invasion then. How are we prepared to deal with it?" Favis asked.

"Following the Oblivion Crisis a number of safeties were established by the High Chancellor Ocato to ensure the Empire would never be caught unaware by another "extra-Nirnian" invasion. This include stockpiles of food supply magically preserved to ensure cities will have enough to feed themselves should they receive large waves of refugees and cut from trade. Others include usage of portals and teleportations devices by our battlemages to evacuate the civilians from the fighting zones. Those stationed on the Battlespire will also search the continent for any trace of suspect dimensional activity then inform the Imperial Battlemage. The response will then be to assemble Legion and local troops and reinforce them with Shadow Legion members to deal with the anomaly while evacuating the nearby towns to safer places, such as fortified cities. Does this answer your question Councilor?"

"Yes your Highness. I will also add it reassures me and this incident has been dealt with an appropriate response. I think all my fellow councilors will agree with me when I say that."

The assembly nodded, visibly satisfied.

A buzzing sound was suddenly heard while one the Empress's collar jewel glowed.

Iszara reacted first. "It's the Emperor and the High Chancellor sending a signal to meet!"

The councilors immediately shut themselves up.

Iszara touched the jewel. The familiar purple light appeared before materializing the figures of the Emperor and the Imperial Battlemage at the center of the room. The assembly bowed to them.

"My Empress, Princess, councilors, we have… news," Ivan simply stated. He turned towards Hector to let him continue.

"Yesterday, as we had established ourselves to watch the anomaly, something or rather someone came through it."

The news were met with total silence.

"Now to reassure you it wasn't anything like daedra. No they were mortals. A very large army in fact, around hundred of thousand."

"Hundred of thousand in a single army? I doubt they wanted to seek peace," a councilor said.

"And you'll be right," Ivan answered. "The Imperial Battlemage and I tried to approach them diplomatically only to be made quite clear they would only settle for a tribute of gold and slaves."

An uproar erupted.

"This is unacceptable! We didn't end the Thalmor madness to be replaced by another tyranny!" someone managed to say over the cries of indignation.

"Friends!" Ivan shouted.

The assembly became silent once again.

"As you can imagine I wasn't very happy with this turn of events. We hereby engaged them. Fortunately the fortifications we had set up ultimately negated the numerical advantage they had, allowing us to defeat them without any casualty. They hadn't thought of scouting beforehand."

"They still threw an impressively large army at the Gate. They did expect to meet someone on the other side. Perhaps they didn't think our mages could have detected them?" Princess Liliah theorized, speaking for the first time since the beginning of the meeting.

"Actually," Hector began, "from what we've pierced from some prisoners, their commander was a capable general and coupled with their Empire reputation of invincibility… they just thought they would have defeated whatever was on the other side."

"Hold on. "whatever was on the other side", they opened the portal, no? Did they not have knowledge about what was on the other side?"

"We're still investigating it," the Chancellor answered. "But while they did indeed build the Gate, the dimensional rift itself wasn't theirs. They claimed it was one of their god. They had actually no idea what would have been on the other side."

"Let me get this straight, they took advantage of a rift leading to another world they had no knowledge about it and committed a great army to invade it on the basis they thought themselves invincible?

"Yes"

For a moment the silence once again dominated the Council.

"... That's… stupid. I don't even know a thing about military strategy and even I know it's dumb. What would they have done had they ended up in the middle of Argonia?" Favis asked.

"At a guess? Die horribly from sickness, killed by the locals, eaten by the fauna or all of them at the same time," the princess answered.

"So can this one concludes the "situation" is resolved?" the Pahmar councilor asked.

"The plan for now is to turn the area into a deathtrap for any new invading army. I sent orders for Prince Basil to rejoin us with his men," Ivan said. "The army had left our equivalent of ten cohorts on the other side alongside a camp of followers. They surrendered once it was made clear we defeated their invading force. They should provide us with intel on our new foe."

"Meanwhile the battlemages and I will continue to study the Gate to see if there is a way to close the dimensional rift permanently or at the very least control it," Hector continued.

The Easterner woman got up. "I think I can speak for all of us when I find the situation much better than I thought."

The others councilors nodded in approval.

"Indeed, the situation is pretty much contained so far and no Gate has formed somewhere else," Hector assured her.

"We need to go back, we'll have to attend to a "meeting" with high ranked prisoners for information. We'll inform the Council of any further development," the Emperor signaled.

The two projections vanished.

"This settles it. The citizens will need to be informed soon. I'll contact the Black Horse courier and other newspaper for an interview. There's no need to tell you all what your duties as representatives for the citizens mean." Iszara ordered. "The meeting is now adjourned!"

"As your command Empress!"

The councilors began to left, leaving the Empress and the Princess alone. Iszara silently extended her hand to her daughter in law who grabbed it. One of the Empress' ring glowed and the two were teleported to a large room. It possessed a balcony who was giving view on the City with a table and several chairs next to it.

The two women sat down, relaxing themselves.

Iszara grabbed a juice bottle and filled two glasses. She handed one to Liliah. "That went better than I expected. Much better."

"The situation is indeed interesting. Another Empire invading from another world and the Emperor took part personally into defeating them. With that and the Second War it's another huge gain in popularity," the princess said as she sipped from her drink.

"Exactly my dear. But don't sell the bearskin before killing it. Who knows what surprises there are still to discover. I doubt Ivan would have summoned Basil and some of our cyrodilic forces."

At these words Liliah sighed.

The Empress smiled. "Missing him? Don't you worry, there is still plenty of time for you two to make us Ivan and I grandchildren."

The Dunmer ashy skin darkened out of embarrassment. "Very funny "mother"*. What I meant is, as a proud Redoran, I wish I could be on the battlefield too leading the troops, rather than dealing with boring politics."

"I understand you very well. Sadly as you can see your role as Empress will be to be the acting ruler whenever your husband and the High Chancellor are on the field. Now if it can reassure you I'm still the Empress for a long time and you may have some occasions of leading."

Liliah took another sip. "One can hope."

Nirnian side of the Gate, several hours before the Elder Council session

Night had begun to fall. Several figures were now roaming the former battlefield, Saderan soldiers and demi-humans. Only their glowing pale blue eyes were betraying their true nature, undead puppets reanimated by necromancy. They were moving across the field, displacing and making piles with the torn bodies of their now defunct comrades. Golems made of body's parts stitched together, the infamous Flesh Atronachs, were helping them. A few battlemages were watching their endeavour.

"I can't believe we were reduced to use our knowledge of necromancy for cleaning duty! Couldn't have the Legionnaires taken care of it?" A male Redguard spoke in indignation. His lessened Yoku features and lighter skin tone indicated he was partially of mixed heritage, thus explaining his willingness to use an art generally forbidden for his traditional home culture.

"They are too green. Most of the High Rock Legions never saw warfare like in Cyrodiil. Some got sick during the fights or right after it ended. Among those who were asked to recover survivors or finish the heavily wounded, a number are currently being cared for. Add to that the rest are building the prisoners camp… necromancers were the only logical choice Azad," Cyrus stated in his usual cold tone.

The now named battlemage muttered under his breath. "I had forgotten about those new mouths to feed. I'm wondering how the rest of High Rock is going to take it." He turned toward another of their comrade, a petite pale skinned Breton. "What do you think about it Elizabeth? You're a native from Daggerfall, no?"

She nodded. "Indeed, from the town of Eastwick. As for your other question… the Empire pretty much saved the Province from a surprise invasion. So at this point we're grateful, sure feeding the survivors who would have killed their way through the countryside does left a sour taste but I can see past that. And I think others might."

"If you say so." He looked at the various body piles. "So what are we gonna do with those? I mean we're already stripped them of their armors." A predatory smile formed on his face. "Maybe they're here for us to use them? Our little undead army…"

An Orc whose face had a white skull paint on it shook his head. "You really are a jackass Azad. And I'm the one with the scary warpaint."

The Redguard raised his hands to protest. "I'm just saying! Most of them are torn apart, we could make many flesh atronachs with them. Not to mention the other uses dead bodies can have… After all I'm pretty sure they aren't protected by any treaties."

"He's right though, Nag. They do offer some potential resources for our experiments," Elizabeth interjected.

"Or course you'd be on his side by Mauloch!" He turned towards the Heartlander who had remained silent throughout the exchange. "Hey Cyrus! What do you think about all of this, you?"

His comrade didn't answer him, visibly trying to concentrate himself by putting two fingers on his right temple.

"Cyrus? You okay?"

This attired the attention of the other necromancers.

Elizabeth approached him. "Hey, what's happening? Are you feeling well?"

"They found something."

"What do you mean "they found something?" Who is "they"? Your minions?" Azad asked.

"Precisely. I'm gonna see what's this about. They wouldn't have reacted if this wasn't important." He started to walk towards where his servants had telepathically called him.

"Hey! Wait up! If it's something important I'm coming too because right now I'm bored to death," Nag said while catching up.

"Sure"

They passed several reanimated corpses who didn't react to them, busying themselves with their tasks. Only a few corpses now remained on the field.

"Seems like we're almost done. At least for our area. Maybe we can go back to camp once we're done with whatever this is," the Orc said.

Cyrus remained silent, only nodding.

"Here"

Nag was tore apart from his reverie when he heard his comrade's voice. He turned his head to see Cyrus had stopped and was now pointing at two bodies, one of a horse and the other probably of his horseman. An atronach and an undead were standing near.

"That looks like two corpses." Nag casted a night vision spell to get a better view. "Interesting, the man appears to have a fancy armor. An officer perhaps."

"Probably. He was found under his horse. His body found itself protected by it. Not only that but…" Cyrus approached the fallen soldier while using a detect life spell. His minions were identified by a violet aura, indicating their undead nature, while the nearby alive Nag was red. The horse was orange, confirming his death, while the man was red, confirming Cyrus' suspicions. "he's still alive."

"Truly?"

"Yes. The minions had sensed it. He was originally under the horse corpse when they found him. It probably fell on him during the battle, thus protecting him. He's still badly wounded. Probably a concussion and some internal bleedings. Not enough to kill him fortunately. I'll heal him and we will bring him to camp." The Nibenese extended his hand towards the unknown man. An ethereal white light emerged, enveloping his body. "He should be fine."

"You think he might be their leader? I can't recall if we found his body."

"Impossible to tell. From how far we were we couldn't have a good look. The Emperor and the Imperial Battlemage will know, they saw him face to face."

Nag nodded as he loaded the man on his shoulder.

"Let's go then."

An hour had passed. Most of battlemages had regained their tents. Each legion had their own separate quarters. Caranya was currently wandering among those of the Shadow Legion. She had changed her armor for a casual clothing set consisting of a tunic and pants. She stopped next to a tent.

"It's Cara. Can I enter?"

"Of course."

Cyrus was sitting inside on his sleeping bag, a book in his hand. He had also changed himself in more casual clothes. Caranya sat next to him.

"Rough day, huh?" She asked.

"I had worse," he answered while reading.

The Altmer looked at the book's cover. "Isn't that one of the books Jing lent you? "Secrets and lost arts of the Dragonguard : the Dragonknights", guess some things never change and for you it's your Dragon obsession."

He rose his head from the book. "You know me. In fact probably better than anyone else."

Not as well as I used too lately, she thought.

"You're here to ask me about this morning?" the young man asked.

"This morning…" recognition suddenly flashed on her face. "Oh! You mean the summoning by the Imperial Battlemage! Yes actually. What was that about?"

He turned a page. "I'm sure you know why."

She frowned. "Are you implying something here?"

He closed his book. "I was put under your command the same day the Imperial Battlemage summoned me to talk about my well-being. And this despite our closeness. I know the Shadow Legion has different regulations than the rest of the army but still…" his outburst suddenly stopped and he regained his cold and calm demeanor. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. You are worried about me despite your own problems and I was ungrateful. I apologize."

Caranya didn't move for a moment, unsure about how to react. "I…" she took a deep breath, "I'm sorry too. You saw right. I was told from above Jing and you were now placed under my command. Unofficially to keep an eye on the both you."

"You're not at fault. You had orders," he protested.

"Yes, true. But I know how for you two, especially you, it's still raw to talk about what happened. I knew why you were summoned. I was hoping we could talk about it… but that was idiotic." She put her hand on his shoulder. "You two performed well today. So I think for what it's worth, you are welcome back on the field."

He paused, looking at her. "Thanks Cara."

She smiled. "Always"

His expression softened for a moment. "You weren't spared either, so… do take care of yourself?"

"I will." She got up. "We should go eat."

Cyrus followed her outside. They soon found themselves in a queue before being distributing their rations. Black-Scales, who was sat with several comrades, waved at them. The pair joined them. Nag and Jing were also there.

"So," the Argonian begins, "what do you all think is going to happen now? We launch a counter-attack?"

"I'm not sure," Caranya answered. "We've been developing a new translation spell. Unlike the universal one, it translates only Tamrielic into their Common. That way we can still communicate between us in other dialects."

"Interesting," Jing commented. "I was assigned to studying the Gate on the other side, trying to manipulate it and the dimensional rift it was made of. I'm not sure… but it seems one way or another we're going to end up on the other side."

Nag took a sip from his mug. "Well, that should be easy for the intel. We have enough prisoners for that."

"Didn't Cyrus and you find an interesting one by the way? Was it their leader?" one of the other soldiers asked.

"Negative. He was just a high ranked officer," Cyrus informed.

"So the guy was never found then?"

Caranya paused. "Hard to tell. The soldier prisoners we got are for the most part shell shocked. Some even had their hair become white or lost them. Trying to obtain something from them in these conditions is near impossible. There is still the civilians however."

"I heard the Crown Prince was gonna arrive tomorrow. Not only that but apparently he's bringing equipment from Cyrodiil," another soldier unexpectedly announced.

The entire table stared at him.

"Well then, it seems I have my answer," Black-Scales mused.

The next morning Jing was assigned to continue the Gate's study. Her group has so far made some progress.

"So to resume what we've discovered, the dimensional rift was created through unknown means and connect both Nirn and this world… Falmart I think it is. The local mages located the focal point of the rift here and then successfully stabilized and expanded it by building the Gate," the leader of the group said.

"Obviously, as we suspected it, destroying the Gate won't remove the rift," Jing stated. "We can however manipulate it and create our own portals to move between the worlds as we learnt yesterday. Why not destroying this Gate and replace it by our own?"

"That's an interesting reasonment. Do continue."

"Simple, destroying the Gate won't solve the problem but building another from which we have control over might allow us to decide who come from the other side."

"Excellent soldier! Let us not waste time then. We will destroy it from the other side." His hands glowed as a smaller portal formed. "Activate your chameleon spells! We don't want the locals to see us."

The entire group vanished. Minutes later the Gate exploded.

The dead Saderans recuperated by the necromancers had been moved to another camp built in a hurry. The stench and their decomposition had been stopped thanks to enchantment and spells.

"Are you sure?" someone asked.

"Affirmative," Cyrus stated. He was standing with other mages inside a tent. An opened body was laying down on a table not far. "The tests we carried out on several specimen came to the same conclusion : these "Saderans", although looking mainly like Heartlanders are not Mannish. In fact we have more in common with Argonians and Khajiits than them."

"That's something the Emperor and the Imperial Battlemage will want to know immediately. I'll bring them the reports myself."

Ivan and Hector had barely finished their communication session with the Elder Council when the battlemage informed them of the results.

The Imperial Battlemage stroke his grey beard. "Interesting but I'm not overly surprised. They did came from another plane of Mundus after all."

"No matter," Ivan said, "it won't change anything in the end. We need to attend the matter about the wounded officer brought yesterday. We're gonna seek Lady Livia for that."

The Saderans had been divided into two at their arrival. A camp for the prisoners, fortified with wood walls and another made only of tents for the followers. Since they consisted of the spouses (whom a lot of them were now widows), their children and a few unrelated civilians, it hadn't been judged necessary to built fortifications. A single Legion was assigned to their guard, mostly to ensure their state of health.

Livia was resting inside her own tent. Her two youngest children, Flavia and Julius, respectively thirteen and ten, were with her, playing games. Her warrior bunny bodyguard, Violet, was watching over them.

Ivan and Hector entrance put an end to it. The children immediately returned at their mother side. Livia bowed, imitated by the tent's other occupants. Violet then took the children outside.

"Your Highness, High Chancellor, this is unexpected… did something happen?"

"We could say something of the sort my lady," Ivan answered. "Is the camp at your convenience?"

"I admit, I was surprised. As far as prisoners go, we've been well treated so far. Far better than what the Empire would have done, that's for sure. I thank you from the bottom of a mother's heart."

"This is what we do here. But let's go right to the point. Yesterday evening, some of my men discovered an officer miraculously still alive from under his horse."

Livia's face lighted up. "Could it be my husband?" she asked in a hopeful tone.

The Emperor shook his head. "Having seen him face to face, I can assure he isn't. In fact we're still searching for him."

Her joyous attitude immediately shut down. "I see. Is there any chance he is alive?"

"We still haven't identified all the survivors. It's possible your husband is among them," Hector informed.

"Very well," she resigned herself. "Then about that officer?"

"As the wife of the acting commander of the army, you would know every single one of them, correct?" Ivan asked.

She nodded.

"Then we'd like you to identify him and inform him of what is currently going on. When it's done, we'll have several questions for the both of you."

She draped herself with a mantle. "Before we go, may I ask you a question? What do you intend to do with us?"

"Once this war is over, you and the others will be sent on your way on the other side of the Gate."

She looked surprised. "Lead on then your Imperial Majesty."

They crossed over to a walled camp not far from there before entering a large tent. Inside Healers were checking prisoners. Most of them seemed fine physically but some stared blankly at… nothing in particular while others seemed extremely distressed. The place was frightening Livia. These men had been soldiers under the command of Antonius. They arrived before a bed where a man was sleeping. He was watched by two Legionnaires who bowed upon seeing Hector and Ivan.

Livia recognized him instantly. "It's Count Colt Formal of Italica, the ruler of the second wealthiest city of the Empire."

"Truly? Hector remind me of the soldiers who found him. They deserve a proper reward," the Emperor said.

"Battlemages Cyrus of Argos and Nag gro-Dragol your Highness."

"I don't recognize the Orc but the other, Cyrus was it? Sounds familiar. Though I can't tell if it's because of Iszara claiming every time her namesake was the sister of Cyrus the Restless…"

"No your Majesty. You actually met him once after the end of the War. He was one of the soldiers you decorated."

"I see."

Colt finally woke up. "Wh… where am I?"

I was under my horse and then… did I die? Am I in the Underworld? he questioned himself. His gaze circled the people around him until it landed on Livia.

"Lady Sartorius! What happened? Did we won?"

She calmly shook her head. "We didn't. Antonius was soundly defeated and Regulus and I surrendered. By the way let me introduce you our captors and hosts, Emperor Ivan Mede the First and the High Chancellor and Imperial Battlemage Hector Tharn."

"Pleased to meet you Count," Ivan said with his biggest smile.

"What… what do you want?" Colt asked in agitated state.

"Quite simple. We want to learn everything about your country, try to see if peace is possible so we can end this little misunderstanding as fast as possible. And then you can all go home. Sounds fair?"

"Molt Sol Augustus, our Emperor, will never allow that! He will just pushes on till you are defeated!"

"So I'm wasting my time and I should send him your head instead?"

The two Saderans winced.

"No matter. My life was forfeit the moment we lost. Whether I survive or not is of no consequence for the Empire," the Count finally sighed.

Hector advanced himself. "I am sure we can find an agreement of some sort, Count. Don't you have someone you want to go back in your city?"

Myui

"My youngest child… if I won't make it back her sisters will squabble over her heritage as the city's ruler. With how the Empire politics work it's going to be ugly unless the Emperor intervene and appoint directly a ruler of his choosing over my daughter."

He suddenly paused. Could he have… I never understood why I was to join but now... A win-win situation…

"For her sake I will help you. I have… informations and connections you might find useful."

Livia stayed silent, trying to understand what the Count was doing.

"You sound suddenly very eager to help. Is this revirement only due to your daughter's situation?" Ivan asked.

"Perhaps… you see Emperor Augustus still won in a way. He may have lost his army but he can also use this as an excuse to reinforce his power. Appropriate dead nobles properties and/or replace them by fanatics loyal to him. All in the name of standing united against you."

"Brilliant. Always seeing the glass half-filled," Hector commented.

Livia chose this moment to intervene. "I am very much in the same situation as Count Formal your Highness. My husband defeated, dead or not, and me surrendering, I will found myself and my family in disgrace."

"And so helping us and turning traitor is the best option?" Ivan asked his brows twitched.

The Count stepped in. "As I said the Empire will never stop. They will continue to send more and more soldiers through the Gate, perhaps opening new ones. The only way to end this is by fully defeating it."

"And forcing a treaty that would be favorable to you two. I see," Ivan continued. He flashed a grin. He grabbed something from one of his pocket, an amulet with a sword depicted. "This an amulet of Talos, our God of War, among other things. If I am to trust you you'll have to swear upon it."

"And be cursed by your God if we were to perjure ourselves. Understandable."

The two Saderans nodded before putting their hand on the amulet and swearing fealty.

Horn sound were suddenly heard.

"Looks like Basil finally made it," Ivan said with a smile.

*mother : in some cultures, in law call their relatives without said suffix

link for the inspiration of Iszara regalia : i. pinimg. "c" "o" "m"/ originals/ e0/ 45/ f3/ e045f3bc044954aabc606c51e773cb14. jpg

Remove the spaces and " "

Thanks for all the readers and reviews, this chapter is a bit heavy handed with politics but I hope you'll like it!