The carriage was made beyond the limits Nemo had come to assume were in place for human craftsmanship. Its substance consisted largely of materials he’d not even seen before, outside of Shaiagrazni’s other creations. Curious, almost bony stuff that flexed and quivered, but never demonstrated even the slightest surrender to its strain. Deforming wheels and flexing axles made for a remarkably smooth journey, and the sheer physical might of propulsion behind it was more impressive still.

A normal horse might, barely, have matched the carriage’s speed. Briefly. Provided it was well fed, well trained, and unladen by rider or harness. But no beast mundane beast in all the world could have sustained such a pace for long. At least none that Nemo had ever read about.

“Excuse me.” He tried, again, as he gazed down at the creature. “Do you happen to know when we might be arriving?”

The carriage shivered, but gave him no response which might have found use. Nemo had suspected for a while that it was fully incapable of speech- though also that it could at least understand it enough to receive verbal instruction. Still, he’d asked his question a half dozen times already because there was simply nothing else to do. He hadn’t brought more than the one book, and had finished that off within an hour.

Fortunately, his wait was not extended far past that moment.

Nemo felt the vehicle start to slow, then stop. He stepped out without needing to be told, finding hard ground unyielding and firm beneath his boots as he took to it and stepped away from the carriage-thing. The air was cold, very cold, and he hugged his coat tighter against himself at its touch. Ahead he saw figures centring a great, sprawling mass of life and construction.

Tents were nine tenths of everything within his sight, sprawling out in all directions like some great forest. Between them men moved every which way they could; carrying messages, supplies, or just forced to run laps as serjeants barked commands to do so.

All, though, were orbiting the same handful of people. Some he’d seen more than once, one was entirely new to him. Collin Baird, the Kaltan. King Galukar, a man whose legend was one to permeate even Nemo’s cold library, Princess Ado and…The Vampire.

Nemo swallowed, having heard no small number of foul things about the undead called Lilia, and made his way to the group. He’d have given anything to be headed somewhere else, even to be back in his library. Anything at all.

And everything more just to speak with his brother one last time before throwing himself back into this new world.

“Ah, speak of the devil.” King Galukar roared, looking down at Nemo and eying him curiously.

He really was tall. Taller than Silenos Shaiagrazni, for sure, and far, far broader. Like some great statue of a man, exaggerated to proportions moving beyond heroic and into the realm of ridiculousness, had been magically cast from stone to living flesh. Nemo found himself half-expecting the ground to shake each time he shifted his footing.

“Hello, sir.” Nemo replied, nodding and smiling as he knew was polite. The King took a moment before replying.

“Sir, how quaint.” He murmured. “You have manners, at least, for a dark caster.”

A dark caster, of course. Nemo didn’t meet his eye. Fortunately, the conversation was not left there for long, because Collin Baird spoke up next.

“Oh come off it Galukar.” He sighed. “He’s a teenager, you’re just embarrassing yourself by hurling all this his way. If you care so much about principles then why not vent some of them out in front of Shaiagrazni? At least then they’d be heard by someone with the ability to do something regarding them.”

Kind Galukar’s face twisted with annoyance, but he did not contradict the younger man. Nemo found himself suddenly disquieted again by the tension at play. The Vampire spoke up next, breaking the silence.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, King Nemo.” She smiled, holding out a hand. Nemo eyed it, trying to remember the appropriate turn of address in such a situation, and found himself entirely at a loss. Fortunately the woman did not appear bothered, merely withdrawing her hand with a knowing smile. “I welcome you to our war camps.” She beamed, gesturing around them. “You’ll not be seeing any of my people for the time being, but King Galukar’s, the Kaltans and of course Princess Ado’s own are all gathered.”

For a moment Nemo was confused at the Vampires’ absence, then he stumbled onto the obvious. Even Lilia, apparently the strongest of them by an indescribably vast margin, was shielding herself from the overcast sky with a parasol. He could only imagine the impediment her weaker descendents would face from it.

“My men are here, too.” Nemo whispered, finding the thought upon him suddenly. It struck like an unexpected fall, jarring his wits.

He was not the King of Staliga, would never be, but…He had not done anything to impede Shaiagrazni in letting the world think otherwise. All the Staligans present at the warcamps- and Nemo thought he could spot at least one for every score of other soldiers- were here because of him one way or the other.

“Don’t worry Nemo, they’d all have died soon anyway. Human lives are hilariously short”!

Xekanis’ efforts to comfort him were as counterproductive as usual, and Nemo was glad to find his friend’s voice isolated within his own mind. He imagined few among his present company would have responded well to his words.

“They are.” Galukar replied. “And they’ll be put to good use against the Dark Lord, all of our warriors will. Have you ever seen an army like this?”

As a fact, Nemo had never seen an army at all, but he didn’t imagine that explaining as much would make for any great contribution to the conversation. He bit his tongue while the group split off to go their separate ways, soon receiving a guide in the form of a short, scruffy man who seemed vaguely cold and spoke with the very same sort of accent as Collin Baird.

“Lots of Kings round these parts lately.” Nemo’s guide muttered, heading through the camp and weaving between tentlines as if it were second nature. Nemo, for his part, tripped rather more than that. It was like a jungle’s canopy, so thickly did the bindings knot the ground.

Or rather, it was like what he’d read about a jungle’s canopy. Nemo had never seen one of those for himself either. Jungles didn’t grow in mountain ranges, and they certainly didn’t grow in libraries.

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“This is the Staligan’s section.” His guide said at last, gesturing outwards as they reached a relatively small, but still considerably large in gross terms, section of the camps. Nemo recognised much of the fabric and craftsmanship at work in the thousands of tents strewn about the place, finding himself awed by the sheer scale of it all. How could there even be so many people in all the world as he now saw sleeping rough or sheltered by hides?

“Thank you.” Nemo breathed. “Uh, where will I be expected to…Sleep?”

He didn’t like the thoughts of trying out any of those tents at all, and was even less eager to sleep beneath the open skies as he now saw so many of his countrymen were. Fortunately, the Kaltan’s snorting response did not inflict either fate upon him.

“Oh, you’ll be staying in the command centre. Our next stop. Follow me, if you’d please, your majesty.”

There was once more a whisper of contempt to the man’s voice which rather unnerved Nemo, but he found himself no more eager to make something of it than he had before. He followed him.

Nemo did not need it pointed out to him, when they reached the Command Centre. He wasn’t sure anyone would have. As far as buildings went it was not remarkably large, certainly the castle in which he had grown up was several times its volume, but framed by a surrounding area of tents and bedrolls its gigantism was exaggerated in every way.

The outside shared its bony composition with Shaiagrazni’s other creations, and the entire shape was oddly…Organic. Curved and smooth, almost like a thing which had been birthed and grown rather than built. That, too, was common to Shaiagrazni’s work.

“The others should be inside already, I’d guess.” The Kaltan grunted, taking his leave without any more to say on the matter. Nemo headed into the structure. He didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go.

Outside, the air was cool and uncomfortable, almost shiveringly so. Nemo was astonished at the warmth he felt the moment he stepped in, almost as much so as he was by the door. It seemed to be some giant…Mechanism, like the hinges on a more standard piece of architecture. Yet working by itself. The moment he closed in to it, he saw the walls shifting with muscular contraction, then the entrance parted for him.

The Kaltan had been telling the truth, because Nemo wasn’t venturing long before he stumbled upon a meeting of Shaiagrazni’s commanders. Baird, the Princess and King. The Vampire, too, of course. But now she was smiling rather more openly than before, while King Galukar’s quiet discontent seemed to have turned into outright fury.

“I do think I recall you, actually.” The undead was saying. “Your family, rather, sorry. Your kind live such brief, flickering lives I tend to get you mixed up these days. It was one of your ancestors I encountered a few centuries ago. He took it upon himself to try and end me and…Well, he was not fortunate enough to be a wielder of the Godblade.”

“Fucking parasitic whore.” Galukar snarled. Nemo found himself two steps back just at the expression on his face alone, for he had never seen such a fearsome sight as the Godblade’s wielder enraged.

Lilia, though, merely smiled. She looked more amused, than anything, as if it were some infant scowling at her.

“Whore is it? Two thousand years, and men are just as uncreative as they were when I still drew breath. How you ever came to dominate human society, I will never know. Size and violence, I suppose.”

One giant, plate-wide hand snaked towards the King’s sword, then faltered. He hesitated, jaw tightening, and lowered his arm.

“It is fun watching you speak with someone whose head you can’t twist off.” Baird grinned, and before King Galukar could retort, the Princess Ado addressed him.

“I suppose the idea of caution or self restraint would be novel to you, wouldn’t it?” She spat.

“Oh, careful sweetheart, you’ll hurt my feelings.” The Kaltan smiled, with a sneering, jagged edge to his mouth that made the expression seem altogether more fitting for the face of a wolf than that of a man. Nemo quickly looked away, wanting no part in it, or the attention of its wearer.

Princess Ado seemed to have no such compunctions, and yet her voice dropped down into silence as one of the doors slid open to reveal a new figure. Tall, lithe, seeming to slither across the ground rather than walk. Silenos Shaiagrazni was unmistakeable, and his very presence silenced the entire room in an instant.

“You are all here.” He said. “Good. Be silent so that you can better hear my glorious vocalisations.”

The room fell silent, and he vocalised.

“The Dark Lord’s forces are mere days away from us, and growing in strength as they travel. I suspect, however, that they will be taking longer routes than is strictly necessary. No doubt they intend to absorb the forces of settlements they march through by forcing allegiance. Their end goal, however, is most likely Kaltan. This is where we shall move to impede them.”

“Damn fucking right.” Collin Baird added, looking personally affronted at the very idea of the Dark Lord’s forces coming within a hundred miles of his home city.

Shaiagrazni did not appear pleased by the interruption, however strong its agreement, but he did not voice his dislike. Merely continued.

“Given your eagerness, you will no doubt be pleased to find yourself with a part in our efforts.” He replied to Baird. “You are to deploy with the Vampire Hexeri and slow the Dark Lord’s Forces' advance across his other destinations, buying time for us to better prepare ourselves.”

“So sneak around, kill the enemy, and fuck off before they can concentrate their forces enough to actually fight back.” Baird smiled. “Just keep doing what I’ve been doing, then. Sounds fair enough, no point in fixing something if it’s not broken.”

Nemo found it surprising how little the man seemed to care about working with Vampires, but then he recalled the expression on his face when they’d first met. Collin Baird was not a person with many scruples.

“It is entirely irrelevant how pleased you are with your assignment.” Shaiagrazni told him. “Just make sure it is done.”

Baird’s smile turned strange, then, like milk just barely soured.

“So where am I heading first?” He asked the caster, giving no outward hint that anything had changed at all in his mind. Shaiagrazni, for his part, gave no hint at having seen even as much off about him as Nemo.

“You will be heading to the lands between here and the Whispering Hills, I have been informed that the region is home to a nation called Wudra. Your priority, if you have not yet guessed, is to keep the Dark Lord’s Forces’ from reaching it.”

“Wudra.” The Princess Ado echoed. “I know that nation. It’s old, powerful. Not loyal to him.”

“Indeed.” Shaiagrazni concurred. “Nor is it loyal to me, or fond of “dark casters” as a general rule. Which is what you shall be attempting to overturn, Princess.”

The Princess blinked, but her surprise lasted only an instant.

“Right, of course my Lord.”

Nemo was surprised at the stark contrast in demeanour between her and Baird.

“You will be going with your brother.” Shaiagrazni added. “So that his presence might soften the effects of your peoples’ idiotic misogyny.”

She did not seem to know how best to answer that, and remained silent.

“And what of me?” King Galukar asked, evenly. Shaiagrazni turned to the man- it still felt strange seeing his head slightly craned to gaze upon anyone- and replied just as coolly as ever.

“Your task is a more purely martial one.” He told the monarch. “I require you and Sphera to command King Nemo’s forces, among others, and wage a direct assault upon the major bulk of Dark Lord’s forces with a considerable fraction of ours, striking whatever of their armies are forced to disperse across the countryside for faster travelling and, if possible, luring them into fighting an offensive battle against you while you hold a practical position.”

The King nodded with surprising eagerness. It seemed he could find common ground with dark casters, after all.

“Bleed them.” He noted. “Sacrifice some of our forces to take away a great deal more of theirs.”

“And give the rest of us time to consolidate a position here.” Shaiagrazni finished, with a nod. His lip curled. “The local terrain is not ideal, but it is a considerable step towards being so. While the rest of you work, I will focus on further terraforming it.”

“Terraforming?” Collin Baird frowned. Shaiagrazni sighed.

“-Further altering it to our advantage. I intend, by the time the Dark Lord arrives, to fight him with such a wealth of natural advantage as to crush three of his soldiers for each one we sacrifice. That is how House Shaiagrazni does war.”