High King Magnus Cariolus sighed and leaned back in his chair: "Decisions... It always comes down to decisions." His hand touched the crown that rested on his head as always. A golden band with rounded tips. Thumbnail-sized oval soul crystal under each tip. Dark blue with lighter streaks that seemed to move if you didn't observe them closely. Many a nobleman had reported recognizing hints of faces in the depths of the stones after an audience.

The king lowered his hand and continued quietly: "The Crown of the Kings of the Realm. The most powerful artifact of all time. Insignia of power over the United Kingdom. Countless aspirants wanted to wear it, but I emerged victorious from the political contest. If I had known what I was getting myself into...

To always be under the critical eye of the founders of the empire. It’s impossible to please all of them. Every deed, every decision, every decree is followed by a feeling of disapproval..."

The servant, who had been listening silently with a lowered gaze, waited a while longer. Then he raised his voice hesitantly: "Your Majesty? Shall I give you another cup of wine for dessert or not?"

The High King snapped out of his thoughts: "What? Of course. Bring me some wine."

"White wine or red wine?"

"Decisions... decisions..."

The members of the royal council knew his moods and respected them. They had long since finished eating and waited in silence until he returned his attention to them. After the High King had emptied his cup, his mood visibly brightened. He dabbed his mouth with a napkin, placed it on the plate and signaled the servants to clear up with a slight twitch of his hand. A short time later, the table was empty, wiped clean, and the servants disappeared.

The High King turned his gaze to his chief advisor: "Master Belmart, I hope you enjoyed the meal?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Praise for your chef. The steak from the giant bull was particularly delicately seasoned."

"I'll pass it on. Now, to the agenda. What is the situation in the kingdom?"

"Seriously, Your Highness. New monster spawners and nests are discovered every day. The supplies of ingredients for elixirs and healing potions have been used up almost everywhere. Prices have risen tenfold. Many other products are also no longer affordable for ordinary citizens."

The High King nodded gravely and turned to the next person at the table. A paladin who somehow looked too small without his heavy plate armor despite his formidable muscles. His hand wandered to his empty belt, lost in thought.

The High King smirked: "Knight Gregor, I can no longer stand by and watch this. From now on, you are allowed to carry a sword in my presence. Seeing you without is like seeing you without pants. Not a pleasant sight for you or anyone else."

The paladin pulled his hand away guiltily and placed it demonstratively on the table: "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I will..."

The High King wiped away his reply with an energetic wave of his hand: "Don't question my decision. Now, your report on the military situation?"

The paladin quickly pulled himself together: "Our scouts have returned." He lowered his eyes: "Though not all of them."

The High King and the council members were silent for a while in memory of the fallen. Then the paladin continued: "The Krigesti have driven the last defenders from the border forest. All the villages on the plain are surrounded by troops but neither conquered nor sacked. The behavior of the Krigesti is unusual. They make no contact with other people. Neither trade nor diplomacy. Their movement patterns are also bizarre. They only move in large groups. No individual scouts or small groups."

The High King tilted his head. The soul crystals in his crown sparkled faster. Then he straightened up again: "Are you sure the Krigesti scouts aren't just better than yours?"

"Completely sure. We have rangers with master-level skills and years of experience. Each group of three has a field mage with clairvoyance and illusion spells. It's possible that occasionally enemy scouts could have escaped our observation, but never all of them. There are also no small outposts anywhere. They set up a Cathurian-style camp with trenches and palisades, and then they only move in groups of at least three dozen and only in the immediate vicinity of the camp. Most of the plain is theoretically free, but the entrances are now blocked by camps."

"What about the mountain pass at Mulnirsheim?"

"A ditch, rampart and palisade completely block the entrance to the pass. Behind it is a camp with at least five hundred Krigesti. We have not yet been able to place a scout to watch them from above. So far, every attempt has been thwarted by trained birds of prey. On the ground, the line of sight is interrupted by the palisade."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The king turned and glanced at the large map of the realm, which took up an entire wall of the consultation and dining room. "The valley makes a bend there, so the siege is not visible from the city wall."

"The ground deeper in the valley is too hard for such excavations. They would have to come with stonemasons and dwarves. Or with really powerful archmages."

High King Cariolus nodded and turned to a man in white robes and long white hair and beard: "Archmagus Nilrem, how are the magical investigations progressing?"

The man nodded silently to himself for a while, then jerked up and looked around searchingly. The council member opposite him at the long table gestured with his head towards the king. The Archmagus began to sputter: "Of course. Excellent. Quite excellent. Praise to the cook."

The High King nodded patiently: "I'm glad you enjoyed it. Can you tell me about the current status of the magical investigations into the Krigesti invasion?"

"What? Oh… I'm afraid the tribes of the desert dwellers have come together and formed a common new nation and identity. Very fascinating. My nephew studies state and ethnic theory and is convinced that this came about much more quickly than would be expected. Unnaturally quickly. There were no reports of protests, uprisings, no warlords or tribal leaders who refused to join or proclaimed their own territories. As one would expect. A complete contradiction to Sartre's treatise on..."

The High King remained calm and interrupted him in a friendly manner: "I am familiar with the developments in this regard. But what have the mages of the realm found out about our new enemies with their clairvoyance magic?"

"Magic? Why does everyone always want to talk to me about magic? The socio-economic causes of this development..."

The paladin lost his patience: "Because you are the chief archmage of the realm!"

"What? Ah… yes. That's right. Well, clairvoyance only works to a very limited extent near the enemy camps. In fact, communication magic from within the camps is completely ineffective. Master Radek has written an interesting study on this."

The High King nodded to him kindly: "Would you have the courtesy to summarize the study?"

"Well... Every cluster of Krigesti warriors is surrounded by or generates... that's still debatable... some sort of magical field. Ambient mana changes its affinity to the communication affinity. This transformation interferes with all subtle spells. In particular, clairvoyance and analysis spells become virtually impossible. It seems that the Krigesti cast and keep active countless spells of communication."

The paladin intervened: "That could explain why the Krigesti communicate on the battlefield without any horn signals or shouts. Some soldiers even claim that they are completely mute, but I assume that is an exaggeration."

"Rather an understatement. Master Gumba tried to analyze the enemy's communication spell during the battle at the border forest. He concluded that it was a spell of at least level 5. However, he does not rule out the possibility that it could be countless simpler spells cast by the individual participants. But I think that's out of the question. The desert peoples can't have that many mages. Even if we assume that they have new skills or special abilities. Nothing makes it possible to cast complex magic as a non-mage. No. This is a highly complex spell that binds the individual warriors of the Krigesti together."

The High King remained silent and stroked his chin thoughtfully. He tilted his head, then shook it: "That doesn't make sense to me. Such an amount of magic just for seamless communication. It might make sense, but with the same amount of effort, you could cast battle magic that would have wiped our army off the field completely."

The archmage nodded: "That is correct."

The guild master of the merchant guild, who had been listening quietly until now, raised his hand cautiously: "Could it be some kind of mind-control spell? That would also explain how the individual tribes were united so quickly."

The other council members looked from him expectantly to the archmage. He immediately shook his head so vigorously that his beard flew wildly back and forth: "Impossible. All analyses so far show pure communication. Not the slightest components of mind-control, domination or influence magic have been found. We have, of course, explicitly looked for that."

The High King asked a few more questions. He then summarized the outcome of the meeting: "So the situation regarding the Krigesti is stable. We are reinforcing Mulnirsheim with one full legion. Otherwise, we are relying on the heroes from the other world. The remaining legions will be spread across the empire to protect the strategically most important positions."

The paladin intervened as his military advisor: "Forgive Your Majesty, but that won't work."

"Why not?"

"Monsters are threatening all our cities. Five new dungeons have appeared on the quest maps this week alone. Many of the existing ones have been visited by revenants. Some have been weakened, but most have risen one or more levels. The monsters are getting more dangerous. Two, according to our experts in the Adventurers Guild, are about to send their monsters out into the surrounding area if they are not successfully decimated. Pirates have been spotted on the Western Sea. Hundreds of lizardmen raiders have left the suddenly monster-riddled swamp on the southeastern border. Monster spawners appear all over the realm. We need our soldiers at every turn."

The High King shook his head and ignored the voices of the past kings, who were talking to him in a wild tangle about these many dangers: "Dungeons. Monsters. These are not tasks for the soldiers of the realm. These are tasks for heroes. Let the revenants take care of them. They were summoned by Pallandur for this purpose. We must have faith in the gods. When I said strategically important positions, I meant the harbors, trade routes and the posts on the southeastern border. That alone will tie up all the resources we command. We can only afford to raise more troops if we increase taxes. But that would further inflame the mood of the people in this situation. The plague is already wearing on their nerves. It is eating through the patience of the most patient, and it has only just begun. Let's spare the people as long as we can."

His gaze returned to the map and seemed to wander into the distance: "It will get much worse before it gets better. So far, the gods have not seen fit to release the Blades of Destiny. There may still be hope yet for the revenants to prevent the necessity for a world-quest."