Movements

"Oh? And is that information that you should be sharing?" Gaol folded his arms, unsure where this was going.

King Edward shrugged, "Why not? It's not like you stiff twigs will do anything, and even if you do join the other side, we could handle you," he laughed. The gnome Doffl nodded vigorously, "Our golems would make short work of your treants."

Gaol rubbed his clean-shaven chin, "Hmm, well, maybe. Though according to the info we have, your chances of winning the war are actually fairly low, at least not without massive casualties," he smiled, and Gloria giggled.

This only made King Edward's smile get wider, "Oh yeah? and I take it you won't freely share that kind of intelligence?"

"I apologize, we were going to bring it up, but unfortunately, we're feeling a bit 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘧 today. Perhaps if some unruly children knew their place, we'd be more amiable," Gaol explained with a smile.

King Edward's smile turned into a grin, "Is that a threat?"

Gloria openly scoffed, "As if you bugs are worthy of threats, go die, please."

King Edward laughed and clapped, "Wonderful, now if there is nothing else to discuss, get out of my castle," and the four royal guards moved to 'escort' the pair of elves. Both Gaol and Gloria got up and left without a fuss; neither wanted to stay any longer than they needed to. Once they were out of the room, Doffl frowned.

"Do you think they were bluffing?" He asked as a maid brought tea in for the both of them.

"Does it matter? Even if the other continent outnumbers us, we're obviously the stronger side, plus we've got our own trump cards to play if things somehow turn out bad," King Edward reassured him. Still, Doffl couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, and the musclehead king wasn't exactly the brightest when it came to anything outside of fighting.

The two discussed politics over tea before moving to the war room, a huge circular room with a sizeable holographic world map made of magic floating over a complex magic circle called a "Magic Tabula," a nifty innovation that let even someone without any magical capability operate it through the use of handheld devices. The map had arrows and many dots of various colours, showing the movement of resources and soldiers.

King Edward had to use a handheld device while Doffl could apply a small amount of energy to 'draw' in the space above the magic circle. Energy used within the area of effect of the Magic Tabula would remain in the air and be used as the equivalent of a 3d blackboard by professors, business owners, and of course, military officers.

Doffl moved through the floating light over to the north-western portion of Grimora where a small camp marked with two rings was, "According to the reports the forward base has been completed, our golems were praised for the speed that they cleared the surrounding land for resources," the gnome stated with a tinge of pride.

King Edward stood between the continents on the map and folded his arms, "They better perform well for how much we're investing into your efforts. Have you guys made any progress on those stealth units you keep bragging about?"

The gnomes smile dropped, "Ahh, no, unfortunately, but we do have a clue. Do you remember the phenomenon from a little while ago, when golems all over ceased movement for one minute?"

"Hah, when they decided to sing for a bit, right? That was quite novel," King Edward laughed.

Doffl gave an award smile, "It's a bit more serious than that, but yes, it was a bit novel, I suppose. Anyways, another symptom was our mages and magic devices were no longer able to sense the energy radiating from the golem cores during the one-minute period. There was still the residual energy permeating the rest of the golem, but if we could replicate the phenomenon, it would provide great insight towards making a full and proper stealth unit."

King Edward, who seemed to be listening, nodded, "Mhm, yes, of course, so basically no stealth golems, right?"

The gnome sighed, "No, no stealth golems," he shook his head. '𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘣 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥?' He thought and slightly regretted giving his vote to join the war to the rest of the Gnomish Council. The only redeeming part of the king was his ingenuity in unit formations and strategy in battle.

As the two discussed the upcoming war, Gaol and Gloria finally left the castle walls.

"𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒈𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈," Gaol let out a breath as they walked.

Gloria just giggled, "𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆'𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑫𝒊𝒆𝒍'𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒓𝒂𝒛𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒔."

Gaol let out a laugh, "𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆, 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒔𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒑 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒔, 𝑫𝒊𝒆𝒍'𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏," he shakes his head and they get in their waiting carriage, a rather rustic carriage made of solid wood led by a pair of large horse-like living plants. The plant-horses whinnied, and they set off back to their home.

-⚪-

Grimora Continent, Beastfolk Capital Labyrinthine City

A summit took place in the much more modestly sized castle of the Beastfolk capital than the Human Kingdom.

In the main hall of the castle, three large chairs were placed side-by-side with three royalties sitting in them, the Beastfolk Queen, the Demon King, and the Dwarven King. Several long tables were provided, and a fair feast was being held. Unlike the Asdea continent, the kingdoms of the Grimora all liked each other, on the surface at least. It had become a yearly tradition for the kings and queens to gather and hold a feast and festival. While the festival was on hold due to the rumours of war, the feast was still held as it was an important event to hold discussions and grease each other's palms so trade and other diplomatic events could proceed smoothly.

The noble Lords and Ladies sat at the tables and engaged in merry co-operation, negotiating better deals with each other or apologizing with a smile for deals they no longer wanted to uphold. Of course, only a few of the smiles held genuine emotion, cutthroat politics never changed no matter where you went, but under the eyes of the three royalties, they had to play nice.

The Beastfolk Queen, a tall and muscular woman with glittering silver tiger ears and tail, tapped her silver fork to her wine glass, and the din of the hall soon quieted; she cleared her throat and began addressing everyone, "I thank you all for coming, I'll get straight to the point this year, war is on the horizon."

Most of the nobles gasped; very few aside from the royalty had heard about the brewing storm. Since the words had come from the Queen herself, none hesitated to believe it and quickly began discussing amongst themselves before the Queen called for silence again.

The Demon King spoke up; the demon royalty belonged to a line of very tall but thin black-skinned demons with silver horns that curved around their head like a crown, and they had high prowess in spatial magic. "Our agents have discovered that the other continent has already made their first move, far to the north of my city of Shreev is what we assume to be a forward base, they've set up a teleporter circle and defences. We have held off on making contact, and they have shown no movements as of yet. This, along with the degrading relations with the humans and gnomes as well as inside information from our spies has confirmed their intentions to launch a campaign in the near future," he conveyed with a deep scratchy voice.