This chapter…

I don't know what to even say. I am very spaced out today due to medication, so it'll be a miracle if this reads like it's from a coherent person. There was no update yesterday due to me being in the hospital for an appointment which is the case for me being a bit screwed up today. Yay.

I probably should just be resting but just laying around makes it hurt so distracting myself is good.


Cover: GWBrex

Chapter


Salem knew her vanguard had been wiped out.

Information travel wasn't instantaneous, and the Chosen had likely planned some method of it, be that by carrier pigeons or a ship, and, when the Church received no word in one week's time, they were probably suspecting the worst. The faunus from Menagerie had already stripped their forward camp bare, then burnt more crops up and down the west coast.

Tellingly, some reported having seen Grimm in the area. Not many, certainly not enough to constitute an attack, but always one on its own, singular scouts roaming and searching. Salem had grown suspicious and decided to check up on her Chosen, and one of the scouting teams reported seeing a single Beowolf stood in the centre of the former forward base. That was how they knew Salem had found out about it, and Jaune liked to think the odd reactions from the Grimm was a sign of her shock.

Either way, no more ships filled with Chosen came to Mistral.

The faunus of their own force were in full celebration mode. Many had died, and there was grieving among those who had lost friends or family, but the overall sentiment was that they'd struck a devastating blow on the enemy. It felt so strange, and even wrong, to see people cheering and drinking while others wept or attended pyres. A part of him wanted to tell those celebrating to have some concern for the grieving, but he knew that was a bad idea. They needed all the good morale they could get.

Their own ships hadn't been idle in that time, however. Sienna had them ranging closer and closer to Vale and had even managed to infiltrate spies into the capital. In all fairness, that wasn't difficult. All she had to do was have a ship drop one or two people off down the coast, then let them muddy themselves up and approach the city from another direction, claiming to be from any village or town in Vale, or even from Vacuo. It wasn't like faunus only existed on Menagerie, and the city was distracted enough already mustering an army.

They were in communication by sending messages out to another group, who would ferry them to the shore, to a ship, and then back to Mistral. It wasn't fast by any means. In fact, it was pretty slow. Getting a message back to Sienna could take two whole days. But it was information, and it was at least somewhat timely. About as good as they could hope for. And the latest was enough to have Jaune summoned along with numerous other important commanders in her army. Sienna waved it before her, one hand on a table set up on the grass.

"News from our spies," she said. "Supplies are being loaded onto ships and marching orders are for levies to meet in two days. This took two days to reach us." Sienna tapped the letter. "That means, today, the church will be loading their people onto their fleet and setting sail."

Jaune must have been the only one who didn't start talking. He didn't see the need to. They all knew what this meant, and it was something they'd been planning for. The only real concern was one that a faunus to the left raised. "Is there any chance they bypass us to make a play on Menagerie?"

"There's a chance," admitted Sienna. "But they'd be foolish to do that. We'd harry them on the open water and sink half their fleet, and that's if we didn't just take advantage of their absence to storm Vale and raise the kingdom to the ground." They wouldn't, but the church didn't know that. "They have the advantage, so they should be looking to challenge us head on and take the decisive victory. End this war in one go."

"They'll come for us here on Mistral, then. That's good. We should let them land on the west, starve them, sink their supply lines, and see if they can sustain their army on nothing more than faith and dogma."


Why is this so hard? It took me 4 hours to write 800 words. Argh, my brain feels like it's wrapped up in thick cotton wool. I think maybe trying to write today was a mistake lol. Lessons have been learned. I'm going to go lay down.


Next Chapter: 30th July

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