Next morning Flavia’s knocking woke me up. When I opened the door she laughed at my scruffiness.

“You look terrible! Did you get any sleep last night at all?” she berated me worse than my mother.

“Not much, apparently!” I yelled, throwing my arms in the air, which made her laugh.

“They’re waiting. Tiberius’s room, let’s go.”

I fell asleep in my clothes, so I didn’t have to get dressed. I put my shoes on and off we were.

“You do look tired,” she said once more while I closed the door behind me.

“I’ll be fine.”

We entered Tiberius’s room without knocking. All were already there, including the ambassador Cornelius.

“Good morning, Antonius! I see you’re not an early riser!” Tiberius mocked me for the bags under my eyes. The whole room giggled and I blushed.

“Now that we’re all here, let’s begin. We’ll head for Alena City States today, at noon. I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Our legionaries already resupplied yesterday, so no need to delay our departure. We’ll be joined by Cornelius’s niece, Atia. You pledges make her feel welcomed… Does anyone have anything to say?”

I raised my hand.

“This isn’t Academy, Antonius, no need for raising your hand.”

I blushed yet again.

“I urge you to dispatch a pack of Wolves to save Calista form her captivity, or at least check on her well being.”

Wolves were the elite legionaries, members of the spy division, trained for secret missions. Nobody said anything, so I continued:

“The people of Lord’s Cronos’s province adored him, hence they will feel some form of loyalty towards Calista. If we secure her, she could prove useful to us in the future. It would also be an honorable thing to do.”

“Julia and I have already thought of that, but good thinking on your part though. Anything else?”

Everyone kept quiet.

“Dismissed then. Go back to your rooms. I urge you not to eat breakfast brought by the palace servants. No need in swallowing their spit. Legionaries will bring you some food in a little bit.”

At noon I was waiting in the main hall with my traveler’s bag hanging over my shoulders. Legionaries assembled and we exited the building, descending down the pyramid. We caught an occasional glimpse from curious officials that lingered about. But for the most part they were indifferent towards our departure. It felt good to be outside of that blue cage. At the bottom of the steps we encountered Alec and Damalis, both grinning. They chatted with Tiberius and Julia for a bit. Both of the men tried to appear pleasant and apathetic at the same time. Next to our legionaries stood a beautiful girl with brown hair and blue eyes. She appeared to be a couple of years younger than me. Next to her stood the ambassador, so I presumed she must be his niece that was supposed to leave Abydos with us. And I was right. Stable boys brought her a beautiful brown horse she mounted with ease. She appeared confident, but sad because of her departure.

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“See you around, Vetulonians!” yelled Alec, raising his arm, as our line started moving. Once again our escort was the captain of the guard from the day before. We left the city as we had entered it, through the south-city gates. The south avenue was again – in our honor – cleared of any sort of traffic.

The voyage from Abydos to the City States of Alena was a pleasant one. We traveled on well built roads, through ancient forests. Our only encounters were lonely merchants on their donkey carts. At first they were afraid of us, but Tiberius eased their concerns with idle chats and small gifts. Usually a fruit from our donkey carts or some sweets for their children. I found this gesture of his quite pleasant. Kindness, diplomacy at its best.

The nights grew colder and each day the sun set earlier. In the evenings we rounded up around the fire, Marius, Flavia, Cecilia, Otho, myself and the niece. She was pleasant and fit in with our group without difficulties. All of us ate dinners together, then joked around, telling each other funny stories of our past. Tiberius and Julia either played cards with the legionaries or walked around lost in deep conversations.

It took us ten days to reach the river Ligris, a border between the League and the Kingdom of Alena. The City States of Alena was an alliance of five cities, ruled by elected queens. The elections were held every ten years with no male candidates allowed. In Alena, women ruled, men soldiered. I fancied that. Politics are more vicious than soldiering. The name of the kingdom was derived from the mythical founder Alena Teranos. She was depicted as a woman with dark skin, mesmerizing green eyes and brown hair. Some stories said she was half-elf.

Alena's people were very practical in their day to day dealings. Thus they weren't as burdened with the past as the League or Porosia. They did well for themselves, exporting mammoth furs to all the realms of Helena and even beyond.

Their standing army was small though, counting only five thousand men. But that meant they only picked the best. They were also the only realm that used mammoths as battle units, a quite powerful weapon indeed.

We crossed an unguarded stone bridge and thus entered their realm. The blue flag on a high pole near the end of the bridge displayed a silver, menacing looking mammoth. After a couple of days of walking we finally encountered these majestic creatures. They were larger than I imagined and their furs of silver and brass were beautiful. At first they observed us with curiosity, but then went their way.

"They used to live on the other side of the Atlas Mountains as well. But excessive hunting made them go extinct," explained Tiberius. "Nowadays they only reside in Alena and in the Great Eastern Plain. Beautiful creatures, very stubborn! When Alena's hunters go hunt, they make sure they kill only the eldest animals in the herd. Keeping the population thriving.”

“Which ones do you like better, the silver ones or the brass ones?” Otho asked as if we were children.

“I don’t know. Silver ones, I guess?” I answered, not interested.

He then nodded which made me chuckle.

We continued our journey. We encountered a few villages along the way, where we distributed sweets to children. On the fifth day of our travels, we reached the capitol of Alena, the city of Elis. It had a population of fifty thousand. It was located next to a wide river, surrounded by lush forests. The great mountain chain was not far and dominated the landscape.

The legionaries again camped in proximity to the city walls. The seven of us entered through unguarded city gates without any pomp. The city was lively and loud. Merchants ran about and there were small theaters on every street. Street performers juggled knives or axes. Nobody paid us much attention, although we did manage to catch a glimpse or two. We headed straight to the queen’s villa, which was on a small hill near the city center. When we arrived Tiberius knocked on the large wooden door three times. Moments later the door opened. In front of us stood a middle-aged woman with long brown hair, big nose, dark eyes and full lips. She was short, dressed in a toga-like garment.

“You took your time,” she smiled, “come on in.”