Katolis,

Rayla was standing in front of the airship door to open so that she could see the capital. While in the air had noticed the capital city was massive and the skies were filled with dozens of airships patrolling the area, in the distance, she could make out the silhouette of warships moored in the ports with many merchant ships coming and going. There were large aqueducts throughout the city

As the door opened, Callum was the first to exist.

"Callum!" was all she heard as she saw him get tackled back into the airship and to the floor by a small boy with poofy hair holding a toad in his arms followed by a baby dragon. She wondered if Katolis had some dragon's residing within its borders.

"I missed you to." Callum gave the boy a big hug. "So did you manage to hold the fort for me while I was away?"

"Yep," Ezran finally letting go of his brother.

"This is Rayla, I met her over a week ago. Rayla this is my brother Ezran" He introduced them to each other.

"It's a pleasure to meet you your highness." She bowed to him

"just Ezran is fine... jelly tart?" the young boy said as he then produced a jelly tart from somewhere, she wondered if the entire royal family wasn't big on formalities. She accepted it and took a bite out of it, it was sweet and devoured it with a fervor and noticed he, the toad, and the dragon were eating one themselves.

Callum smiled wryly and thought "Well looks like our little group just grew by one."

"Bait, Zym say hi to Rayla." Ezran patted his four legged his companions. Zym looked at her with curiosity before jumping at her and licking her face as she caught him while Bait just looked at her with a grumpy expression and grunted.

"Dad told me Preston and Aanya will be here this evening, so can we?" he looked at Callum expectantly

"Yeah we can do it tomorrow and I got a new toy we can use." Callum rolled his eyes as he answered which caused Ezran's face to light up.

"Will Ellis be joining us?" Callum asked

"Yeah, she got back a few days ago." Ezran replied.

Rayla had no idea what they were talking about, but she hoped he didn't mean her when he said he had a new toy.

As soon as she exited she saw there were two lines of soldiers gesticulating outside, forming a path for them in the middle. The left side was comprised entirely of the crown guard whose members were all humans, they wore grey armor comprising of a cuirass, vambraces, greaves, faulds, pouldrons, and a helmet. Underneath that armor, they wore a dark tabard with a grey undershirt and black pants. Their heraldry was a per-pale black and white divided shield with a golden bordure that also depicted the symbol of Katolis at the top displayed on their pouldrons and black capes. They held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other.

The other line was a group comprised of both humans and elves. Their armor consisted of an almost similar armor set as the crown guard. For clothing, they wore a dark blue surcoat over a purple undershirt tucked under a belt and black pants and wore a one-sided cape over their left shoulder. Their designs showed that they belonged to a different order with deviations to their clothes to accommodate the physiologyof each elven race. Their heraldry was a winged shield depicting the sword in the middle with two dragon heads emerging from crossed guns and two olive branches at the bottom. She realized their color scheme was the same as Callum's clothes

They had guns strapped to their armor within easy reach in case the situation called for it. The armor appeared to be ceremonial as it didn't seem to have any of the weight one would expect from using heavy plate armor.

The knights rose, they sheathed their swords and began to walk in lockstep as both the Prince's and Vaeril walked past them. Rayla decided to stay in the far back because she wasn't sure what to make of this or how to act. She wondered if this was how nobles and royalty were greeted when they returned home.

As they made their way to the castle flanked by their armed escort, she noticed that the area gave off a similar vibe to the garden back in the mansion except it was all on a grander scale. The castle walls were made of pure marble but underneath that layer of opulence was an excessive amount of stone, permacrete, and armor along with hidden weapon emplacements. At first glance, the place looked like paradise but for any intruders, it was a death trap.

Ezran had returned to his tutoring, Vaeril went to the library, and Callum, well he didn't say where he was going. He had asked a Moonshadow elf named Saphielle to show Rayla her way around the castle.

"So does everyone in the legion stay in the castle?" Rayla asked while looking around.

"Only a few dozen, the rest are back in Anterim." Saphielle answered.

"Say is there a way I can become a knight quickly? I hear the pay is better."

"After three years in the militia you can apply and the trials are brutal."

Feeling dejected Rayla decided to change the conversation. "So how'd you come to be in Katolis?"

"I was rescued by the legion, same as everyone else. In fact, you're the only exception to this" Saphielle said nonchalantly. "So what about you? why'd you come to Katolis?"

"It's complicated," Rayla's expression showed she didn't want to discuss it.

"Well don't worry about it, We all have things we'd rather not talk about so we won't pry."she gave the new blood a reassuring smile. "

"Ah here we are," pointing to the building in front of them, "this is my armory, if need to repair your weapons and armor, or to requisition any new equipment then you come to me." her voice was full of pride.

There were armor pieces and weapons on full display in front, the sound of hammering could be heard coming from the other end of the armory along with the light smell of burning metals.

"So do I have to wear those ceremonial armor all the time?" Rayla asked

Saphielle looked at her in confusion "Those aren't ceremonial, they are all mean't for battle."

"But they looked weightless,"

"Oh that, they use runes to make it lighter. It's something I only learned after I was assigned to the armory here. If you're curious about this stuff then ask Vaeril, he usually spends his time in the library studying human history and science." She said smiling. "Ah, I should explain it to you, there are limited openings to be a knight every year the other recruits will try to compete for ir if you try to get involved."

"No one stands between me and my money!" her eyes were burning with determination as she clenched her fist. Saphielle wasn't sure if she should be amused or worried or both at Rayla's reaction.

They eventually reached Rayla's room, Saphielle went back leaving her alone. She closed the door and jumped onto the fluffy bed and rolled around like a child. Suddenly she heard the crunching of paper from under the pillow, there was a letter under it. She opened it and found that it was from Callum.

"Dear Rayla,

the chest in the corner contains your stuff from your apartment, there's also a small amount of gold I've added to make up for the three months you've suffered here. Your uniforms and casual clothes are in the closets

Also, meet me and Ezran at the inner courtyard tomorrow at 9:00 AM

PS: Make sure to burn this letter after reading it. I'm serious about burning this letter."

Sher rushed over to the chest and opened it up, it was filled with her old stuff and she quickly found the gold coins, twenty of them, and started wondering what she could spend it on.
"I'm not giving up my spot on the first company, especially since he's paying me so much." she said as she went over to check her wardrobe.

Belmont Manor, Frenoria, Erdus Dukedom

Richard and Ernest were discussing matters while drinking wine, Richard had acquired a taste for wine made from moon berries, while Ernest had no real preference for one type over another. Suddenly Eliot asked for an audience, Richard allowed it before the Archduke could even interject

"My lords, I wish to inform you that the agents we sent to Rimemere have returned." Eliot said

"Good, tell me everything." a thin smile formed on Richard's face,

Ernest suddenly leaned forwards with interest as he placed his wine glass on the table.

Eliot bowed before he began his report.
"The caravan met with an accident as we had arranged. Soldiers serving the king had already arrived first and discovered the etherium they was transporting."

"Did Hasting's men arrive soon after?" Ernest asked. While Richard was the mastermind behind this scheme, that didn't mean he didn't have a stake in its success.

Eliot smiled "As we had predicted, the viscount waited for our storm to abate. The message he received from the soldiers was that they had located the lost caravan and managed to rescue the lone survivor but they encountered an infestation before they could investigate the wreckage. Hasting told them that he would personally ensure that he would investigate it and send them a report."

The archduke snorted. "I'm sure he will send an honest report to the king, speaking of whom."

"we've already confirmed that the king received the full details," Eliot confirmed.

"And the survivor?" Ernest knew people would die because of this plan, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"An elven girl, possibly 15 to 17, we suspect a refugee from the war. The Prince seemed to have recruited her though we have no realiable information on this matter." Eliot said.

"Well hopefully she can regain some semblance of a normal life." A small smile formed on Ernest's face, he may have ordered the invasion of Xadia for the benefit of his nation, but that didn't mean he was ignorant of the pain he was causing.

"We have confirmed that the Prince will be returning to the capital for some time. He's already looking into the matter of Hasting but we don't know anything beyond that."

"Was there any loose ends that might cause them to suspect us pulling the strings?" Richard finally spoke, until now he had been quietly processing and compartmentalizing the information trying to find any details that might cause a problem later on.

"None, the mental suggestions we placed on the merchants were sufficient to achieve our goals and the paper trail will lead them to a dead end on the black market." Eliot answered.

Richard had concluded that the mission could be considered a success. "and whats the status of the recording device?"

"Recording? whats this about?" Ernest didn't try to hide his confusion.

"The prince and his knights would be dealing with the forsaken at the caldera in a few days. I had my men place a recording device and etherium infusion devices in the area with enough primal energy to create a large swarm." Richard stated nonchalantly as if it was something trivial.

Ernest's jaw dropped and his face turned pale at what he just heard. "Just what else have you been up to?" though in all honesty, he didn't want an answer, he'd learned that nothing good ever comes from peering into his friend's shadow but this felt like this was going too far, and thought worryingly "If something happens to the prince then all our efforts would be wasted, and it would result in unnecessary civilian casualties"

Polmauren territory, Erdus Dukedom

Duke Talmin Vanderbilt was in his lab filled with equipment for brewing potions. His brow furrowed with concentration as he was carefully adding ingredients to a container that was already boiling with a concoction. He had used etherium to infuse energy into the vapors before it was distilled into another bottle, this process continued several times as he kept adding different ingredients ranging from finished exotic potions to material brought from Xadia.

After several hours, He was left with a blood-red potion that appeared jet black while it sat in its container. He then moved on to making the next potion.

Frenoria, an hour after the Archduke had left,

"Have you determined the location of all resistance bases?" Richard stopped being coy

"We have but we still haven't confirmed which cell each belongs to or their size just yet." Eliot explained,

"I see, has there been any progress on Vanderbilt's new communication channel?" Richard asked

"Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find any evidence that such a thing exists." Eliot and his men looked everywhere but found nothing, it felt like chasing an illusion.

"I don't like this, something is going on here." Richard wad trying to think of what his political enemy was scheming, all he knew was that Vanderbilt sought war
"For a while now it feels like there is another shadow lurking within the darkness of this nation." He said, Eliot understood his meaning and considered what resources they could and couldn't utilize.

Katolis

In the southernmost area of the Castle grounds

"Again!" Callum said, wiping the blood off his face while struggling to hold on to his sword, his armor was cracked in several areas. He looked at the four remaining golem's standing in front of him, they were readying for their next attack, then a small bell rang.

"thirty minutes." Viren said then he ordered his golems to stand down, he on the other hand was visibly fine. The Medics quickly ran towards the prince and began treating his injuries.

The high mage turned towards the scientists nearby "Did you collect enough data"

"Yes sir, but this data still doesn't make sense." One of them said as she looked at the readout in front of him. "if only we could continue this a bit longer" he added

"Would you like me to make that suggestion to the king?" Viren asked dryly, the man quickly shook his head in panic.

After thirty minutes had passed, the price had recovered as much as physically possible. After the field was clear the prince prepared for another round.

"Corpus. Alas. Volantus" he chanted, wings started to emerge as his body was enveloped by electricity. Viren's men were busily measuring the energy the prince's energy readings from safe distance or they risk getting caught in the cross fire.

"Attack," Viren said, the titanic golems charged towards the prince, the ground shaking with their every step.

"quattuor fulminis tempestas" the prince chanted, the golems thunderous advance was brought to a halt by an unending wave of lightning, they struggled to break free from its grip. A distinct smell started to become noticeable as the lightning started to split the bonds between oxygen atoms and started fusing them to create ozone.

This battle would continue for a full thirty minutes before it all ended.