Janai looked out over the battlefield. They had not moved from their stand on the Xadian side. They didn't have to.
The gestalt dragon had dissipated. Whether that was because their magic had finally destroyed it or the spell had run out of power, she did not know. Morning was breaking now and the tired rays of the sun revealed the full extent of their losses. The sheer number of dead soldiers shocked her. A stifling quiet of voices ruled. There were almost no wounded.
There was no doubting Amaya's warning words now. Dark Magic was a weapon of mass destruction.
On the human side, fires burned brightly, their light tearing through the lifting night. She could hear the roars of dying dragons. This was a nightmare. She still could not fathom what had happened here tonight.
Below in the breach lay the bodies of Legate Yatende Tani and a few of Astilliar's troop, the latter slain by Helmond and his human platoon in what she hoped was self-defense. The ex-legate had not continued up the cliff after being challenged so brutally on the ground. Maybe he himself was wounded.
The Sunfire elf felt it was strange how few of Astilliar's people were in sight. It seemed to her as though there had been more soldiers with him as he'd descended. Maybe she had miscounted in the heat of the moment.
Janai sighed, deeply. "Temek", she said to her lieutenant, "You are in command here."
He nodded. "Going to see the pinkos?"
"Indeed. My gut still tells me Amaya would not order… this. I would task someone else to go, but...", she waved at her surroundings, "... right now I'm the only one who has nothing of great value to do. I am no healer."
Temek scoffed. The fact that the usually verbose, chipper earthblood was so terse ironically spoke volumes.
The sunfire elf descended the cliff face, careful to not step on any bodies.
She sheepishly lifted her banner high, a procession of one. It felt silly.
Slowly, she made her way across the breach.
Nothing seemed to be alive in the human lands. Here, too, were bodies, a lot of them still burning. Sol Regem's wrath had consumed both them and their dragon attackers. Without the Auxilia to take part of the brunt, the dragons had been easy pickings. Well, as easy pickings as mad, fully grown sun dragons could be.
Janai walked solemnly, again avoiding to step on anyone. The same dead silence of voices hung over this side of the Breach.
The crossing had become a graveyard.
"General Amaya?", Janai called out, standing in front of the destroyed gate on the human side.
There was no answer.
The Prime Legate peered inside and saw nothing but more destruction.
Slowly, she edged forward.
"Hello?", she called again, not wanting to make it appear as though she was sneaking around.
There were fast footsteps on her right as she rounded a corner, looking elsewhere. She turned to see a human, dark-skinned like her. He was in the process of throwing his chained weapon at her. Janai sidestepped the attack, drawing her own sword. "Stay your hand, human! I am not here to fight."
"Then state your business!", he challenged, swinging his weapon. A few soldiers were milling about behind him, tending to bodies on the ground. They were now watching their exchange attentively.
"My name is Janai. I am looking for General Amaya. Again, I do not wish to fight you."
His mien softened a little as he realized that she was not about to tackle him. Suspiciously, he asked, "We had a truce. What happened?"
"That is what I am here to find out. Who might you be?"
"My name is Corvus."
"Do you know if…", she gestured at the ruins and her voice shook a little, "General Amaya has survived this and is able to receive me?"
"She has, and she wants to hear an explanation", came another voice from the entrance of a mostly intact building. It was a freckled, red haired human. Amaya appeared next to him.
"General! It is so good to see you are alive", Janai started, "This is… a horrifying situation!"
As though to underline this, a tower collapsed behind her in the distance, the din of breaking wood and crushing brick carrying as a reverberating mess of white noise.
Amaya nodded, then signed, "Likewise. Why did the dragons attack us? We made no moves against them."
"That is not what it looked like from our side, Amaya. It very much looked like an attack on Xadia. There was… a monstrosity. An evil shadow of Thunder, as you knew him. Dark magic.", looking around, she shook her head, "At first glance, it caused as much death on our side as the sun king's underlings have on yours."
Amaya frowned. "We saw. I sent Helmond to let you know that we were not behind the specter. Nobody here has that kind of dark power. The dragons didn't wait for any action on our part."
"Sol Regem has been provoking you for months. He was itching for this. The gestalt was the only reason he needed. It seems as though he may have a human counterpart."
"I have a strong suspicion that person's Name is Viren. He's the only human I can think of who would have had access to the Dragon King's remains and enough know-how to create a gestalt so powerful. He has spoken for war before King Harrow's assassination and with even more conviction since."
Janai shook her head with disbelief.
"Hello?", a young voice said, unexpectedly. There was a boy, hiding behind Amaya. He stepped around her to face Janai. Wearing the circlet of two towers, he waved at her, tepidly, "I am so happy to see you here! When the dragons came, my first thought was how everyone was going to die. My second was how annoying it is that all our work was for nothing."
"King Ezran, I presume?", Janai knelt to be on a level with his eyes. He frowned at this.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself. I came here for our meeting tomorrow."
Janai looked around, then addressed Amaya. "This is a lot of death and destruction for a person so young. Are you sure it is wise to let him stay?"
"I will ask you to speak to me, Legate.", Ezran said, firmly, "I know how strange it must be to speak to a child and expect an adult answer. To your point, yes.", he welled up but held her gaze, "Yes, it is a l-lot of death. These a-are my people, m-mostly. I owe them the p-pain of looking, at the very l-least."
Janai smiled sadly. This child had grown into a better man than most, and far too quickly. "Excellency, I am sorry about this. We were powerless to prevent it."
"So were we", signed Amaya and her translator spoke, "Our force is routed at the moment. If you wanted to, you could walk straight into our country."
The Prime Legate eyed her suspiciously. She was no politician, but she knew how to ask a veilled question.
"Possible, yes. Desirable, no. We've sustained heavy casualties ourselves. There's no war to be had here today. Obviously though, the voices calling for it to begin in earnest will now be even louder."
"How do we proceed from here?", the red-headed human asked, seemingly without Amaya's input.
"Who are you?", Janai inquired, annoyed that he had not offered his name.
"I am... Commander Gren and sorry... for not introducing myself earlier. Uh, Just ignore me, I'm supposed to be a background character in this conversation."
Amaya boxed at his shoulder, a small grin on her face. She then signed something at him and he shrugged. She boxed him again.
"General, have you seen Helmond?", Janai asked, skipping Gren's inquiry.
"I have not, though I am glad to hear that you don't know either. I thought he might have died during his envoyer."
"He did fight poor, dumb Astilliar. The man never had a chance. Some of Helmond's feats are known outside the Lucid. That speaks lengths about his impact."
"Wait, if he's so s-strong, how did Rayla b-beat him t-then?", Ezran inquired, weeping still, only very recently having heard the story from Helmond himself.
Nobody had a good answer for him, so he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and said, "Whew, she is scary!", turning to Janai, he said, "Do you think we should still try to meet, Prime Legate? My offer still stands. I'm sure Duren's does, too. We're going to send some letters to the other kings to let them know what happened."
Janai nodded. "We must try. Today has shown both our sides how badly this will go - and we didn't even really clash!"
Amaya puzzled, "That's just it - I don't understand the motivations behind the attacks. They were so extreme! I could've understood them trying to get us to kill each other, but they almost wiped us off the map! There are few left in the border regions to fight, now."
The Prime Legate nodded. "Maybe they underestimated the strength of the spell and Sol Regem's force? I would assume they weren't collaborating as much as working off each other's cues? One side trying to annihilate the other?"
"Unless we find whoever cast the spell", Corvus piped up, "we'll have nothing but guesses. I for one would rather not assume anything at this point."
Amaya threw him a weary look. "It was Viren. No assumptions required."
Corvus shrugged. "I've learned not everything is as it seems, no matter how logical the explanation may be."
"Prime Legate, what are your people's burial rites like?", Ezran asked while Corvus and Amaya argued for a moment.
She frowned. "Excellency, the tribes are outwardly united, but each has their own rituals. Regardless of those traditions… we have so many dead that… we must be pragmatic."
"It is the same here", Amaya signed, "It will be a challenge to even just collect the identities of the fallen."
"We should hold a joint ceremony", Ezran suggested, "Maybe we can't do it with every, uh... body, but, a few. Of both sides."
Janai was unsure. "I… am not sure this would have your desired effect, Excellency. I will think it over and ask my surviving comrades."
Amaya left Gren's side to approach Janai and the Prime Legate noted that she was hobbling, her left leg was unarmored and wrapped in bandages. Gren awkwardly shuffled after her, himself sporting several treated wounds. He stood by their side where he could see her hands.
"Who has passed?", he translated her gestures.
"Legates Yatende Tani and Astilliar were both killed in action. I've worked with them for octades. Astilliar had his benefits, naturally, but he did not like this truce, nor me, and I despised his sneaky, secretive attitude. ", she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "Tani's loss will leave a gaping hole in our ranks. She was a skilled and compassionate commander. To make matters worse, her summand is supposed to reinforce us soon. That conversation will not be pleasant."
Janai frowned slightly. Had she really just revealed the fact that they had reinforcements on the way to this human general? How was it that she felt so talkative around her?
Amaya extended her hand. Familiar with the human gesture from their past meetings, the Prime Legate shook it.
"You have my sympathies. Thank you, Janai. It is so very good to know that we did not do this to each other."
There was an odd gleam in her eyes. Relief, certainly, but also something deeper.
It made Janai's heart beat faster.