"Would you care to expand on that?" Panta said into the silence that crashed over the Command Room at the report of a second potentially hostile army outside their walls.

"I suppose I'm supposed to…" The Kin messenger flippantly said, either utterly ignorant or not caring about the guards' hands dropping to their hilts and the sudden hostility flooding the room, "You — the Olimpians — are nearly utterly ignorant of artifacts. A moment ago, I wouldn't have included the qualifier, but that table proves it is needed. However, given the scarcity of these items within your society, I would guess an explanation would be in order, as I doubt many of you even know how they are made, let alone function. Simply put, to create an artifact, you imbue your will and mana into an object to give it abilities and properties it wouldn't otherwise have. There are many steps in the process to anchor and work the spellcraft into the medium, but that isn't important. A fairly standard feature within artifacts is that they can pull in the ambient energy to use as—

"What is the point of all this!" Snapped Shree Ponpti, full of pompous fury, "A question was asked of you, and you're over there blathering about inconsequential things while insulting the Glorious Republic! You should be beaten for your insolence!"

Speaking up before the woman could do anything else to make a fool of herself and undermine their united facade before a potential enemy, Panta spoke up, "I believe he is ensuring we have the basic understanding of the method the dark elves are using to evade us. I believe he was just about to get to the point?" Quirking an eyebrow at the end, he looked at the Kin, who was looking at the woman with sharp eyes, his face ever so slightly twisted by disdain.

Before anyone else could look at the Kin and see his expression, his face shifted, becoming a subservient, yet somehow mocking, mask again. "You are correct Legatus Valde. The dark elves use multiple artifacts, as I described, which work in conjunction with one another to conceal their camp. If I had to guess — which I don't — they are using artifacts that suppress sound, create a compulsion to avoid the area, and manipulate light to warp around them. As for how we know, well, if you know what to look for, you can see the signs of their presence when you look at the camp. It's really just a matter of knowing what to look for. But we didn't need that, as the camp is so large and has been in place for a long enough time for it to create an eddy in the ambient mana. Anyone eight miles around the camp can feel something is over there. Excluding your people, of course."

"Can you estimate the size of the encampment?" Numok Hellieous asked, surprising everyone with his question and completely ignoring the jabs at Olimpians, much to Shree's obvious annoyance.

"Twenty thousand." The Kin said with an indifferent shrug that could not hide the knowing twinkle in his eyes. "Give or take ten thousand. It's hard to tell their numbers without being able to see the layout of their camp. Depending on what casts within the Letairry society are present, the numbers within a camp will vary greatly. The goblins, little black-skinned fang creatures they use as fodder, will be crammed into a camp without consideration for comfort. However, the creatures are erratic and prone to fleeing at the first sign of defeat. So, if they value the battle at all, only a small portion of their number will be made up of them instead of consisting of mostly dark elves. They will be fewer but far harder to break."

As the messenger finished his explanation and came to a stop, the room was silent, and everyone contemplated what it meant to have an army of thirty thousand outside their southern walls. "Are there any other revelations you can enlighten us about tonight?" Panta asked.

"Yes, there are plenty," The Kin said with a wide smile, showing off his canines, "But not ones that I have been tasked with providing you."

"You are bold for a mere beast messenger." Shree hissed through her gritted teeth. She stalked forward in an attempt — which everyone could see was failing — to intimidate the messenger, who was looking down at her with a condescending level of attention and a placating smile on his lips, which caused the woman's cheeks to blossom with rosy indignation. "We could have you thrown in the dungeon for execution for how you have spoken to us."

"Ahh, yes." The Kin said, not even attempting to hide his condescending tone anymore. "Well, there are two things— Oh, my bad, three things about that." He held up three fingers and ticked one down as he spoke. "One, I am far from a mere beast messenger, as you say. Two, you would have to find and catch me first."

The fox's eyes widened in feigned shock as he looked down at his hand, as if surprised to find his middle finger was up, and pointed at Shree Ponpti's face, "Oh, you have my deepest apologies for the accident, My Lady. Ahem, three. If you are unable to hold back the Letairry, we will step in to prevent them from gaining a foothold here. Ahh, looks like I was wrong again… Four," He lifted back up his middle finger, an absurdly broad smile stretching from ear to ear on his face now, "Feel free to request our support in this matter; just have Tribune Latic Ponpti come over whenever she wishes to offer us an apology for her rude behavior."

With that, the fox disappeared in a puff of black wisps a moment before there was a clatter of stone against the floor. Leaning to the side, Panta glanced at the ground, mildly surprised to find a small figure of a stone fox on the ground in the place where the messenger Kin was.

“Wha— Ho— Wh— The nerve!" Shree finally spluttered, her face flushed, and fists clenched at her side as she stomped her foot on the ground.

"Franko!" Panta snapped.

"Sir!" Snapped the optio of his guards as he stepped forward and saluted in response.

"Take that figurine and put it somewhere secure. And escort these gentlemen somewhere comfortable and isolated. Bring them some refreshments, but do not let them leave until I send word. That goes for everyone in this room; no one is to leave until I say."

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"Gunther, Maison, with me." The legionary said before he walked across the room to the door, where he was joined by two more of Panta's guards. As they stood before the senatorial guards who were still looking blankly at the space in their midst where the messenger stood a moment before, Franko spoke up, catching the attention of the other four men, "Gentlemen, if you will follow me." Before he strode through their formation and quickly exited the room.

"What do you think you are doing, Panta," Hellieous said, his voice cold.

"Calm down," Panta said, waving the man off as he moved to expand the map on the table to show the Triad and its surroundings. "We can not have the information leak until we confirm its veracity and how we will respond." Hellieous still didn't look pleased about Panta commanding and containing men under his command without his input, but he also let the topic drop, which was practically the same as agreeing.

"Are you just going to let this slight go unanswered!" Shrieked Shree Ponpti. "Did you not see how he demeaned and insulted us! And you are really just going to let it pass!"

"Be quiet, Tribune Latic," Panta said levelly, "Now is not the time for your postur—

"What are you saying to me?" She shrieked, causing the room to fall silent and the attention of every single person to focus on the pare.

Sighing, Panta retracted his psy from the table before slowly coming to his full height to face the woman. From old habits, Panta adjusted his bracers before moving his hands behind his back and clasping one in the other. The woman stood there, her chin stuck out in defiance as she looked up at him. As the seconds passed, and he said nothing, the anger flushing her face bled away, and her childish defiance began to crumble as she realized she had gone too far.

"I am not your father, and you are not a child," Panta said, his voice cold, "So I do not enjoy being the one to teach you the lesson of consequences for one's actions, but it appears I have no choice. You went to the Kin and insulted them, called them liars, and demanded concessions without even letting them speak before you left. They are not us; some would say they are more animal than anything else, and yet you openly challenged them within their home, an action every hunter could tell you never to do to a predator. Your decision could have easily caused a war and probably would have if they hadn't been actively seeking to be our allies. Because of that, they came here and treated us with the same respect you showed them. More to the point, if what their messenger told us is accurate, and I am inclined to believe that is the case, as it fits with the protracted battle taking place within our walls, then it is time for military action, not egos and politicking. A rule — really the only one you and those of your ilk need to learn — is that a Tribune Latic must shut up when anything related to legion deployment and operations for battle is happening because your martial incompetence can only lead to disaster, both for the battle and your political career. Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do."

As he turned back to the table, it was like a silent single was sent out, and everyone else in the room could breathe again as they returned to their work. "Quineeta," Panta called out as he settled on the perspective of the map, "Is it possible our scouts missed an invisible camp."

The woman sighed from where she was hunched over a side table, flipping through a stack of papers. "It's possible. But expecting them to—

Panta held up his hand, stopping her from speaking as he said, "I am not blaming anyone. This is uncharted ground, and I suspect mistakes will be made by all of us before it ends. I just need to know if such a thing is possible and the camp's general location."

"I understand," Quineeta said, letting out her frustration in a short huff before straightening and regaining her composure. "It simply comes down to how no one was looking for signs of an army. We have patrols up and down the Twins and Rush, going hours in each direction. To the east, we were focused on anything coming across the Twins and all but ignored the Steps. If they really were invisible, then they could have easily slipped along the Cleft without being noticed, as none of our patrols move that far south. Currently, most of our scouts are on patrols less than three miles from the walls supporting the 3rd Cohort tasked with taking and containing the small forts popping up. If the concealing abilities were accurate, then the scouts would have to stumble over the signs of their passage or notice the mental pressure of these artifacts, which was impossible."

Sucking in a breath, Quineeta's brow wrinkled in thought as she looked down at the Command Table, eyes searching. "As for where the dark elves could be, they could be anywhere south of Southtown's wall past four miles, though I would guess they are to the southeast on the far side of the Merchant's Road. There's a series of rises and small hills seven miles from here that are perfect for an army camp, and the fish keep the area clear as they are often made to march out to it and set up a camp there for training. From that position, it would be hard for us to accidentally discover them, and we wouldn't be able to effectively cut off their supplies from Basetown without mobilizing the entire fort."

Panta nodded in agreement as she spoke, then said after a second, "I've been meaning to ask, what's the latest update outside the walls?"

"About the same as inside. The situation hasn't changed much since we got the 3rd Cohort moved by barge to the southeastern banks of the Rush. Our boys assault the forts; the defenders put up a token fight, then retreat into the tunnels and collapse them. If our legionaries don't attack, the traitors put up siege equipment and cause havoc to anything in range. Every night, any forts destroyed are rebuilt, and the process starts over again. Though, I guess we can put a name to the small humans who are harassing the 3rd at night."

"Goblins, huh…" Panta muttered, "Never thought they were real."

"Neither did I, well, not since I was a child and searched for them under my bed." Qunitee reminisced for a moment, then returned to the main topic. "Taking everything into consideration, I would be amazed if the scouts found the Letairry camp. It was an oversight on my part."

"Then learn from it and move on," Panta waved off Qunitee's claim to the failure, as it wasn't solely hers, regardless of how she felt. Looking at the map, he started speaking to himself, "If they took Basetown, they must take the Triad or their supply lines will never be secure. They have infiltrated the city and found a way to simultaneously weaken our forces and erect earthworks outside the walls without us suspecting anything. If we deviate from our current actions to start fortifying the city, they will launch their assault early, as it will still be better than us fortifying the city's streets. And I have no doubt they have other tricks we have yet to see… We can not hold Southtown."

As Panta made the statement, the room fell silent, and Hellieous decided to speak up, "Are you going to abandon the city? Thousands of civilians will die before they can be evacuated."

"No, of course not." Panta snorted in annoyance. "If you find yourself in a situation where everything is stacked against you, and anything you can think of will be a loss to one degree or another, what do you do?" When no one answered, he broke his composure with a small smile, saying, "You flip the board and start a new game." Then, turning to where Hellieous and Shree stood off to the side, he asked, "Now, I must know to what extent you two are willing to follow my orders?"

Raising an eyebrow in question, his eyes boring into them, the Legatus of the 15th Legion silently waited as the duo turned to look at each other.