TheLordTaxus

Soinee stood in the darkened meeting room of the Western Kingdom’s Army High Command compound on the outskirts of Kortiki facing a life sized projected image of a hooded fairy. “Minutes ago,” Soinee said, “I was informed that at least ten thousand Royal Guards have been sent to take over from army troops the defense of the Great Chasm Bridge to free them for the frontlines. Is that true? “Yes it is. Just as you planned. The less in Kortiki the better. I have also made sure that the Queen’s Hands are out of the capital as well, though all but two are not really loyal. With them and most of the Royal Guards out of the way things should go rather smoothly. A street fight in Kortiki wouldn’t be pleasant and you having to deal with the more loyal Hands personally would be bothersome.” The hooded figured said. Soinee shook her head in agreement. “No it wouldn’t. But that still leaves the 3rd Guards Brigade under Fellen, who is a fanatical supporter of the

Temi Iron Spear, commanding general of the Western Front armies, which was now more of a static force desperately trying to hold back the now resurgent and massive Imperial Army, stood behind the queen of all fairies awaiting for her to acknowledge her presence. She was exhausted almost to the point of collapse. The Queen, Melany, who had summoned Temi, stood looking out the grand window of her public suite out over Kortiki. At a thousand feet high it was the tallest tower in the city and afforded a grand view. A storm front was approaching, a dark wall of clouds with embedded lightning was starting to cover the sky, blotting out the stars. Far below fairies took note and hurried up and finished their evening errands such as closing mark stalls and bringing merchandise into their stores while inns, pubs and theaters began to fill. Oil lamps and magi lights flickered to life across the sprawling fairy metropolis. Most were glad for the storm because it meant that there would

Curses flew from the young soldier’s lips as the snow fell heavily upon him as he trudged through the snow. Once again, he scanned the darkness that stretched between the densely packed tree trunks all around him with his night vison. There was no sign of the patrol from which he’d become separated from while searching for escapees---not a shout, nor a rifle report, nor the roar of an APC engine. Even his com was dead. Not so much as a twig snapped anywhere near him. Now, with night fully fallen, and the snow and wind biting at him, he had to admit that he was lost and completely alone. Nevertheless, he struggled on. He moved through the forest on foot, having no ATV of his own to share his burden. Heavier and heavier the snow fell as he traveled. Looking down, he could see a light coating of it on his sleeves. The sight of it amplified the chill that had already seeped to his bones. He would need to find shelter, he knew, and soon, or there would be no surviving the night. Who knows

Cold Vengeance The campfire danced in the snow-dusted night air as First Lieutenant Flavius Glacus, wide-awake for the wee-morning hour, gazed into the flames, entranced. Fidgeting with the saddle ring of his crossbow as it rested, loaded and ready against his chest, he replayed the events of the past week in his mind, biting a sore into his bottom lip as he mulled, searching for something he’d missed, some aspect of things that could clear away the sense of doom in his heart, more fierce with every minute in pace with the worsening storm. Though the wind was mild, he was becoming quite cold—frozen to the bone, to be sure—and he worried that he may have strayed off course in the white-out, now in the wee hours of its third uninterrupted day and growing more severe by the hour; this was all less than ideal, no doubt, but the young cavalry officer had concerns of a far more troubling nature than of storm or of step, as he puzzled into the campfire’s prancing glow… for he knew with a