Sorel City, Ruled by the Sorel family, capital of humanity. Meeting room for the council.

“So we are gathered here to discuss the current events befalling our lands and to figure out what to do about them.” Stated Adrius Sorel, the current head of the most powerful of the nine great families that ruled over humanity. It also helped that the Sorel controlled space magic and had gates for travel leading out from their city to every other major city which made Sorel city both the capital of humanity as well as a hub of trade and crafting. Adrius is a man in his forties who still looks to be in his thirties. He has a strong face, hair cropped to end above his ears, and perfect unblemished skin. Most of the nobles have skin paler than the general public as they spend much more of their time indoors, however the ruler of the Sorel had the palest white skin most had ever seen. Several earrings were visible on both of his ears made of gold and gemstones, and he wore a finely tailored set of black pants and shirt. Gold thread inland all of the stitching, as was common among the nobility, and his clothes were dotted with small white specs throughout to symbolize his mastery of space magic. Adrius continued “Its common knowledge that we all have our own personal information networks but just to be sure we are all on the same page, let’s have a recap. Please wait until all reports are given before opening the floor to discussion.” He paused for a moment to make sure everyone was clear that he did not want interruptions during the proceedings. “The biggest and most important matter is of course the breach to the wall. This is the first time the wall has been fully breached since its construction thousands of years ago and it is a disaster we were not prepared for. Especially not with the warm season approaching and many of our soldiers on leave, since the Araxin are traditionally the least active during this time in preparation for their usual invasion at the end of the warm season. The most worrying piece of news is that an actual Araxi participated this time, and our information on them is of course limited to what the surviving soldiers brought us. The abomination was as large as a small mountain and it seems the Araxi can use magic despite the rest of their race being unable and it was quite large scale magic as well. Our only saving grace here is that it retreated immediately after casting its spell, so for some reason it does not want to or cannot participate in the war at large - at least not yet.” Adrius took a moment to let the information sink in, although nearly everyone here had heard the information already.

Shock was clear on the faces of the Isai, Wenzel and Warford heads - Hadrius, Aurelio and Martinus respectively. This made sense though as the Isai, ruled over by Hadrius Isai, was the weakest of the nine families and likely did not employ a very extensive spy network. They specialized in illusion magic which had very few practical uses within their society apart from entertainment. Aurelio Wenzel and Martinus Warford however both ruled over powerful and important families, but had their entire information network working on the disasters that had befallen their own borders and did not expect tragedy to strike elsewhere at the same time. The heads of the Lafayette, Ebenhard and Fontayne - Syri Lafayette, Astoria Ebenhard and Artamo Fontayne in order, were of course quite familiar with the events of the wall given that their cities, towns and villages are the ones being directly affected by the breach.

“The wall was breached between Fort Ebengarde and Fontayne City, so unfortunately we quickly lost the town of Bellden along with the villages of Oldrun and Silkguard. The army of Axi and Xi that has been continuously flooding through the wall is currently sieging Fontayne City and Fort Ebengarde. There is no expectation of either to fall anytime soon given their reputations and defenses. We have reports of the defenses near Lafayette City being broken as well however, although thankfully not by another Araxi. This time it was an unexpectedly overwhelming force of Araxin troops that managed to flood over the walls with little to stop them given that most active soldiers were redirected toward the breach. This lost us the village of Coldford and leaves the town of Dawnsmouth under a small siege, although it is quickly growing in size. Currently Lafayette city is providing them with support and the villages of Lakegrove and Dirt Hill are being evacuated to the nearest town or city to lessen the future losses.” Adrius took another break from his report, as he knew the details of the wall the best and would leave the reports on the other distastes to the respective heads who are responsible for the lands affected. “Aurelio Wenzel, if you would please care to take the floor and explain the situation in the West. I have my reports, however they are sorely lacking and I hope that you can fill in the blanks for the rest of us.” Stated Adrius before taking his seat around the table.

“With pleasure, Adrius” responded Aurelio as she stood up to address the council. Aurelio was a beautiful women in her thirties that gave off a very motherly feeling to most. She was a bit plump in body but not unhealthy and her hair fell freely to her mid back. She was adorned in robes dyed an odd mix of blues and blacks meant to give it the look of the ocean. As she flashed her brilliant smile to the gathered council many gave her a wry smile back, unable to be somber under her gaze. “At the same time as the assault and successful breach of the wall, a hurricane of previously unseen proportions ravaged our Western coast. Many fishing vessels never made it back to their ports and we lost the village of Mythwater in its entirely. The survivors that experienced the storm first hand all report seeing a massive leviathan inside the largest of the waves as they crested however the descriptions all vary and match different myths and legends of the sea that are popular in the area, so we are chalking that up to mass hysteria at such an unfortunate and stressful event unless we find some evidence suggesting otherwise.” Aurelio paused for a moment and looked around the room to make sure that all of the council members were still paying attention before continuing. “The storm did not seem natural however, as it seemed to vanish all at once after a time rather than slowly dissipating or passing as storms usually do. One minute our coast was being ravaged by the largest catastrophe in living memory and the next it was back to sunshine and clear skies. Combined with the attack on the wall, I believe the Araxi somehow had something to do with the storm.” As soon as Aurelio mentioned the Araxi being responsible, the room erupted in a cacophony of noise. “But the Araxin have never shown any aptitude for magic before now!” “We know nothing of the Araxi, nor the limits of their magic.” Preposterous!” “How could any mage hope to control the forces of nature to such a degree!?” Suddenly Astoria Ebenhard conjured a small gavel made of stone and smashed it onto the iron table that they sat around, denting it badly with her strength. Everyone present shut up and looked in her direction, as she reminded them “Adrius asked for no interruptions until the end of the reports. The floor is not yet open and you are embarrassing your families in front of everyone else who is following the rules.” Everyone who had taken part in the outburst looked around, ashamed, and settled back into their seats properly. “Now, Aurelio, was your report concluded?” Asked Astoria. Aurelio responded with a bright smile “Yes Astoria, thank you for calming things back down. I believe there was an incident of some kind in the Warford territory as well?” She asked, while looking towards Martinus Warford. Martinus simply nodded and stood up, prompting Aurelio to sit back down in her wooden chair.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As Martinus Warford took the floor everyone adjusted slightly to face his direction. Everyone was wondering how much worse things could get, this was already shaping up to be the worst disaster in history and it was not even complete. Martinus is a very old man and definitely looks it. He struggles slightly to stand and leans on his thick ornately carved oak cane heavily as he does so. His skin is wrinkly, his hair beginning to whiten and several of his teeth missing. Despite all of this however he remains unmatched in his control over wind magic and his mind remains sharp and youthful even as his old body fails him and so he is thought by many to retain his position as head of the Warford family until death. He wore the standard clothes of someone ready to go out and fight against a storm at any given time - form fitting linen pants and shirt with a cowl fitted to cover his nose and mouth if clasped shut properly. The only addition was a large leather coat with an insane assorted of pockets and pouches. “As you all know” he slowly and quietly croaked out causing everyone to lean forward in their chairs and listen intently “the Warford family and most of humanities wind mages reside along our southern border with the great desert.” Martinus paused a moment to catch his breath before continuing. “Our mages keep the sandstorms back and the desert from encroaching on our lands more than it already has over the millennia. We are very good at what we do, and very good at judging what is necessary to force a brewing storm back and dealing with unexpected situations. A magically fueled storm controlled by an outside source, however, is not something that we were prepared for.” He paused again as he had a small coughing fit, his body not used to speaking so much at one time anymore. While he composed himself the others quietly whispered between themselves. A magically fueled storm? What is he talking about? “Two members of the branch family were dispatched along with an entire guilds worth of standard wind mages, however they were forced to retreat and reported that an enormous amount of magical power was pushed into the storm from the North and caused it to strengthen massively and form tornados which for you unaware is not something often seen along the Southern border. We do not get cold air down there very often like they do along the wall, where tornados are a fairly common occurrence.” Pausing yet again, Martinus reached into his coat and withdrew a silver flask from one of the many pockets which he took a very generous swig of before continuing. “Most of the guild members and one of the two branch family members sent out made it back to give reliable first hand reports, although several members of the guild perished as did one of the branch family members. The storm pushed into our territory quite a bit and managed to devastate the village of Stormgulch and damage the outlying fields for Warford City. This ends my report.” As he finished he quickly sat back down looked relieved to no longer be standing and took another generous swig from his flask before returning it to the confines of his leather coat.

Adrius Sorel once again took the floor and addressed the assembled council as a whole. “So now that we have all heard the reports from the Wenzel and Warford and are all caught up on the current situation with the wall we must deliberate on what to do next to ensure the survival of humanity as we are assaulted from all sides by forces both known and unknown. Many farms in the South were destroyed by the sandstorm, most fishers refuse to sail with the fear of the leviathan and we are quickly losing land in the North. The floor is now open.” Adrius sat back down as another council member quickly took the floor before someone else could. The council deliberated for many hours on what to do, each vote slowly shaping how they would proceed for the near future.