A Return to 'Forest Surma' (Ch.96)

~It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope~

-Niccolo Machiavelli

Andronika stared up at the forest of death, a few months back she had led her generals into this very forest to rescue their brothers in arm, being prepared to not return alive if it came to it. It was funny how the very people that had raised hell at her unannounced entry into their territory and labelled it trespassing were the very same people who now eagerly invited her into their territory.

This however was not the same path they had entered through previously, the last time Andronika was here, they had cut directly into the thick forest as they did not have sufficient knowledge of the terrain and hence were not aware there was a path if you went around the forest.