The Custodian sat on a rock on a lake shore, her head tilted towards the night sky. Usually, Agnu’s blue glow and size made seeing anything else quite difficult, but the gas giant was especially dim tonight, letting even ordinary people see the stars.

However, the stars were not her focus. A few hours ago, some of the Terran starships left Agnu’s shadow, approaching Eigos once again. Serana had been waiting.

‘What will you teach me now?’

A muffled yawn interrupted her from her idle thoughts. She turned her head towards the tired-looking, grey-robed handmaiden. Sylviane.

The black-haired girl’s eyes widened, “I apolog-”

Serana waved her off, “You have been awake for quite some time, have you not? I would not expect the impossible from you. Perhaps you should go and rest.”

“I, uh, thank you, Lady Custodian, but I can hardly go to sleep before you, it would be improper.”

Serana struggled not to roll her eyes. She had not slept for the past few weeks, though she had spent the nights in the privacy of her tower.

She settled for a raised eyebrow, “I do believe you would not survive that, child. It will be some months yet before I need to rest.”

Sylviane opened and closed her mouth, “Ah.”

The Custodian looked on with some amusement as the handmaiden tried to think of something to say. The girl really was quite squirrel-like.

Eventually, she squeaked out, “I’m not that tired?”

Serana hummed in acknowledgement, then returned her attention to the sky. If the girl did not want to rest, then she would hardly force her. Hopefully, she would not keel over in exhaustion. That would be annoying.

The Custodian stayed like that for a few more hours, completely still except for her eyes. Long enough to see the starships disgorge their shuttles. As the first rays of dawn appeared, the last of the things disappeared from her view, landing far to the south.

‘Disappointing, but expected,’ Serana thought.

She turned around to go back to the Temple, but paused upon spotting her handmaiden. The girl was staring at a tree with a vacant gaze, barely standing.

Serana shook her head, muttering, “Children…”

She walked over and then poked Sylviane in the cheek.

The girl’s head immediately snapped towards her, then she tried to step back and tripped.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Before she could fall, Serana caught her by the shoulders and steadied her, “Go rest.”

Sylviane nodded, her eyes on the ground, before scampering away down the forest path.

The Custodian shook her head again, before following at a more sedate pace. Hopefully, the girl would rest properly. She really should recruit another servant, but with the situation as it was, doing so would require more thought than usual. It would not do to carelessly upset the political situation now that such things had the potential to matter.

Well, she wasn’t completely decrepit yet, despite her age. She could manage on her own easily enough.

Before she knew it, Serana arrived back in the newly christened war room, a repurposed conference room on the first floor of the Temple. While the summoned Order Masters had departed for their countries a day ago, the place was still far from empty. A large map of the continent sat on the marble table in the middle of the room, surrounded by stacks of documents. Knight Commander Aisac stood in the corner of the room, talking with two other knights.

Their eyes met, and the Knight Commander quickly excused himself, striding towards Serana.

“Good morning, Lady Custodian. The Order Master of the Kerania Order departed for the harbour yesterday night along with the two Chosen assigned to him,” Aisac reported.

She nodded, “He will need them. The Terrans are sending troops to the southern kingdoms, as predicted.”

“Then I will relay your previous orders,” He paused, “Or are there to be changes?”

She shook her head, “No, half to reinforce the passes, half deployed around the rest of the continent. Not counting the two that went with the Order Master, of course.”

Aisac nodded and made to leave, but hesitated.

Noticing, the Custodian prompted, “What is it?”

“Will the Order Master be alright? Were it just Kerania, but…”

Serana contemplated his question for a few seconds, before answering, “Their fate is in their own hands now. I do not expect them to fall easily.”

The Knight Commander didn’t appear to be terribly satisfied with her answer, but left nonetheless.

She had selected the oldest of the chosen knights to go, hoping that age would make them more cautious, even with divine power at their disposal. Still, they were bait and Aisac was smart enough to see it.

Whether they lived or died truly was in their hands, but Serana did not rate their chances of success too high. Unless the Terrans were utterly incompetent there was not much of a chance for her to keep control of the south. In the best-case scenario, they’d inconvenience the enemy greatly while gathering valuable information. However, she did hope that the Terrans would get their hands on one of the pendants. In a non-suspicious way, preferably. She would very much like to have a closer look at one of the spaceships.

The Custodian sighed inaudibly. Time passed so slowly now that she had things to look forward to.

Serana’s gaze moved to the map, examining the kingdoms south of the Teilen mountains. Someone had painstakingly placed knight figurines over the places her Chosen knights were sent to, along with little flags to denote territory controlled by her forces.

The port Kerania’s Order Master sailed to was situated in the kingdom of Accad and still under the control of the local Church Knights, at least according to the latest reports. It would serve as an excellent base of operations for the local forces that could be supplied by the sea. The ocean was very treacherous, as such most kingdoms only possessed middling navies, if they had any at all. The southern kingdoms were no exception. A ship could travel from the Sarak Archduchy to Accad with good time, but the land route was much safer and only slightly slower.

With the mountain passes carefully guarded, the sea was the only option for supplying her remaining forces in the south. A logistical nightmare, happily delegated out of her hands.

She doubted it’d stay that way for long. With Terran help, any remaining ports were going to be quickly seized.

Serana was going to be very busy in the next few months.