Having spent a somewhat restless night inside of a dragon’s den, Jadis was happy to get back in the air and on track to reach Volto’s capital again. While their initial encounter had been a rough one, she was glad to have met the two dragons, if for no other reason than that the gift Korsregon had given her had inspired quite a large number of possibilities for the future. With a promise to announce themselves the next time they approached the mountains, Fortune’s Favored left the scaly couple in peace and continued on their way.
After all, they had a schedule to keep.
The draconic detour had cost the Leviathan a day of travel, which wasn’t too bad, but required that a herald be sent ahead to let the Voltonian senate know about the delay. They were expected at a specific time, and the last thing they wanted was for the local government to freak out thinking that something had happened to the Hero and everyone else who was traveling by air to reach Thracina. Fortunately, Tacitus and Noct were with them to act as messengers, so they used their superior speed to fly on ahead of the Leviathan to deliver word of the delayed arrival time.
The rest of the trip went by without a hitch. While they did end up spending another day and a night flying over a second mountain range to reach the capital of Volto, there were no dragons in those much smaller mountains. As such, no angry flying lizards challenged their forward progress. There were no attacks by Demons, either, which was something of a surprise considering how much of the country had been overrun. The parts of Volto that they passed over on that second day looked largely uncorrupted, though, and Jadis guessed there weren’t enough flying Demons to make regular attacks so far into enemy territory.
Sabina spent hours studying the ancient Nephilim helmet that Korsregon had gifted Jadis. The enchantments on the item were mostly unknown to her, particularly the one that allowed a person to see some kind of illusion of the world from inside the helmet. Considering how well read the smith was on subjects of enchanting and crafting magical items, the fact that Sabina had never heard of such a thing was saying something. She was determined to figure out how to replicate the effect, which Jadis actively encouraged. However, when she suggested that maybe Sabina might find it easier to examine the internal runes if she took the helm apart, Sabina nearly cried at the thought. They would just have to find a different way to examine and replicate the enchantments.
The conversations between Kerr and her family seemed to have improved, though Jadis wasn’t sure if that was because her lover was chilling out or if her siblings were just shell-shocked by eating a meal with dragons. Again, most of the conversations were held in the Verdant Sea Language that Jadis couldn’t understand, but there were more smiles and laughter on Kerr’s part than the day before, so that was a good sign. Jadis still wasn’t sure how the situation was going to resolve, but she was happy that her favorite therion was reconciling with her estranged clan, if only a little.
Speaking of favorite therions, Jadis was able to spend a lot of time discussing future battle plans with Noll. The veteran mercenary had been to Volto a few times and thus knew the terrain in the areas that they were likely to visit on a more personal level than maps could convey. Severina had also spent some time in Volto relatively recently, so the two of them were able to confer and build plans together once the Seraphim had joined the conversation. Jadis tried her best not to tease Sev during their interactions, but there was only so much restraint inside her.
It was a few hours after dawn of the third day of their trip that the Leviathan made first contact with the people of Volto in the form of an honor guard.
“I see… Seraphim…” Alex stated as she held Hope up to a portside window. “They are not… Familiar…”
“Yeah, those aren’t Noct or Tacitus,” Dys frowned as she looked past the Demon’s shoulder to see the three winged figures gliding next to the ship. On the other side of the cabin, her Syd self saw two more Seraphim flying in formation. “Looking at their armor, I don’t think they’re from the empire.”
“They are not,” Severina stated as she walked over to one of the cabin doors that led to the balcony. “Those are members of House Ferrum. Their home is in Thracina, so they have likely been sent as an honor guard to guide us to the capital. I will go and speak with them.”
“Want me to come?” Dys asked.
“No need,” the justicar shook her head. “You will get a proper introduction soon enough. We are not far from Thracina now.”
Based on the maps they had available, Jadis agreed that they weren’t far at all. Perhaps an hour away, at most. With that knowledge, she made sure everyone was aware and prepared for the greeting they were sure to receive. Jadis couldn’t imagine that the airship’s arrival would go without notice in the capital city of Volto, so there were bound to be large crowds. Additionally, once people realized that the Hero and his companions had also come to Thracina, a big commotion was inevitable. In fact, the locals might have already been given word of Wilhelm’s arrival; Jadis knew that the emperor had informed the Voltonian senate, but she didn’t know if the senate had made any announcements to their people. If they did already know, the welcoming party promised to be a memorable experience.
Jadis knew what kind of response she tended to generate when going to new places. She couldn’t imagine the Hero’s entrances being any quieter.
“The land here is not healthy,” Meli murmured, eyes wandering across the landscape visible out of her window. “It has been fouled.”
“Demon attacks will do that,” Tiernan said from his seat behind the Dryad. “Even far from the front lines, this place has suffered.”
“It is not only the poison the Demons exude,” Lucia added, her expression as calm as ever. “It is the refugees. Volto was not prepared for invasion.”
Jadis wasn’t sure what Lucia meant by the comment until she got a better look at the landscape around Thracina. Then she understood.
The lands they were passing over had once been beautiful, she could tell that much, but not in recent days. Rolling hills and wide, low valleys stretched out around small rivers. Most of the trees were more bushy than tall, and the meadowlands were dotted with flowering shrubs of gold and lavender. Small villages were spread out across the area, with red tile roofs and walls painted in a myriad of colors. Cobblestone roads connected all of the homesteads, and arched stone bridges crossed the streams and rivers. There were large stretches of cultivated farms, huge fields that were terraced and divided by low stone walls. Irrigation streams had been cut through the terraced farmlands, ensuring the crops received all the water they needed, and the pastures had carefully constructed ponds and wells for the livestock. Three years ago, Jadis was sure the scene would have been idyllic. The view from above on that day was far less pleasant.
The crops in the fields were sparse. Jadis could see large stretches that had been burned to ash, and those areas that hadn’t been burned did not look like they were flourishing. Even from high above, the tell-tale signs of demonic rot were evident. As they passed by, Jadis watched as workers chopped down orchard trees that had lost their leaves. Unwholesome blisters of green fungal growths covered the citrus trees, and Jadis could practically see the spores in the air.
The foulness of the blight that had spread from demonically corrupted lands was bad, but the shanty town surrounding Thracina was worse.
The capital city of Volto was nothing like the imperial capital, Eldingholt, except for one point of commonality. Both cities had been built with a river running through it. Thracina was, by and large, a smaller affair. Not that it was by any means unimpressive, just that it felt far more like a historical location that Jadis might have been able to visit on Earth, if she had been a more well-traveled sort in her old life. Eldingholt felt like a place out of a fantastical painting to her. Thracina seemed more like a history nerd’s wet dream.
The city was surrounded by three layers of walls, each one around thirty feet in height. The outermost walls were the thickest and also looked to be the newest, while the middle and inner walls were thinner and had the grime of age to them. The land between the outer and middle walls was largely fields with only a few larger homes, while the space between the middle and inner walls had far more structures, though most of them were on the small side. The area inside the inner walls was packed densely with two and three-story buildings of numerous shapes, sizes, and colors. The river that ran through roughly the middle of the city came from the northwest, curved around to the east, before exiting on the southwest side again. A tall bluff stood along the concave side of the river, with many large and stately buildings climbing the hill. At the top was a terraced structure with a large dome and more pillars than Jadis could easily count. At a guess, the building had to be the seat of the Voltonian senate.
While Thracina had old world charm, much of its beauty had been marred by the ravages of war. The land between the outer and inner walls was filled with tens of thousands of hastily constructed temporary structures, most of which looked like they were made from nothing more than dirt piled into walls with a tarp or sheet for a roof. The smoke of thousands of campfires clouded the sky above the hovels, and the signs of an overwhelmed drainage system were evident. Countless refugees wandered the cramped paths between the squat dirt buildings, many of whom had the slow gait of sickness as a part of their walk.
“They were hit really hard, weren’t they,” Jay murmured as she scanned the city. “There have to be thousands of people without homes down there.”
“Kastoria wasn’t the only city to fall to the Demons,” Aila replied as she kept her attention on the airship control panel. “Many towns and villages were overrun. I don’t know how many people died, but everyone who could has fled as far from the war as they were able to. It’s no surprise that so many went to Thracina for safety.”
“It doesn’t look like there’s much safety to be found,” Jay pointed out. “Those walls wouldn’t have withstood an attack by Vinea. I don’t know why she didn’t overrun this place when she had the chance, honestly.”
“There are likely more defenses in place than we are seeing,” the mage replied. “Not all of them are necessarily here, either. I imagine the bulk of Volto’s armies are further south, where they have stopped the demonic encroachment.”
“Well, just by the look of things, I think we’re going to have a lot of work cut out for ourselves. Eir, Alex, and Severina will be needed for healing. Meli and Sorcha might be able to help with those crop issues I’m seeing around the city, too. And we’ll need to get Maeve searching for any signs of cultists.”
“She has some plans on that end of things, if you haven’t spoken to her about them yet,” Aila advised.
“She’s being cagey about the details, but yeah, she told me the gist of her plan,” Jay nodded. “That aside, I think the rest of us are going to be on Demon hunting duty. I don’t trust that there aren’t lone wolves pecking off the stragglers around here.”
“Perhaps,” Aila said. “However, you will be needed for the planning of the assault on Kastoria. We will have much to discuss with the senate.”
“No reason I can’t do both at the same time,” Jay grinned.
“True,” Aila smiled back at her. “In any case, you are correct. We will have a lot of work to do. And it looks like it will start with greeting that delegation.”
Jay followed the line of Aila’s pointed finger to where a gathered crowd was visible on the hill a bit further down the slope from the senate building. Jadis could make out a distinct collection of official-looking men and women who were wearing the kind of robes that spoke of wealth. A ring of soldiers wielding huge tower shields were sectioning off the upper-class types from a growing crowd of more common-looking people. Even from a distance, she could tell that the people were excited, with flags waving and a murmur of cheering voices making it through the glass of the airship.
“I hope you are ready for a public appearance,” Aila told Jay as she guided the Leviathan down towards the hill.
“Eh,” she shrugged in response. “It’ll be fine. I’m going to shove Wilhelm out the door first and let him take the brunt of the attention. That’s what Heroes are for, right?”
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