Preface

A Chapter by Kaden Frontae

The sun had just kissed the horizon when they began. The sky tinted a orange blue and offered only little light for any of the workers to see what was in front of their own faces. The only useful light cam from the torches that hung and rattled above the work carts. The winter morning was frigid and unrelenting, making every gust of ind feel like a current of clod steel slicing across your body. The convoy didn't prepare for the mountain climate in their rush to get to the pass so they felt the full front of the cap's icy fury. workers not on duty swarmed and huddled around heat lamps like lost nats, trying desperately to keep warm. Yllithians blood chilled quick and to be in such a unforgiving wasteland of snow was almost fatal for in experienced workers.

But the time for luxuries was long gone. every Yllithian had to play their part, even if it took them to the very edge of hypothermia.

Legion Master Ygbalther shouted commands to the soldiers and workers setting the stone blocks of the blockade into place. Most of the blocks required ten men to even budge but with all the jobs needing to be done to complete the fortress by the evening, they had to make due with six. Soldiers and workers rushed around the encampment, carrying and dropping off supplies and materials, stocking completed structures up with arms and armor, pushing out cannons and transportable mortars from carts, and setting up more heat lamps for light and heat. a few workers strung barb wire across the area as a makeshift fence and timber cranes were wheeled out to aid with the main fortress. The rate of construction was steady, but everything would be done in time.
It has to be done in time, Ygbalther thought to himself. This pass, if discovered, would be a wide back door for the enemy to sneak past with little warning. If they take this path without any sort of resistance, it'll be the beginning of the end.

Ygbalther caught a group of workers huddling desperately around a small fire with blankets around them. they were mostly men, but there was at least two women, wives by the look of it. Ygbalther got a sense of how desperate the country was in need of a work force: even common house wives were being sent to labor. the draft was usually unopposed, but for a woman to be taken out of her warm home into the harsh ice winds of the snow caps was still an adjustment that many could not make. The war effort is never easy on even the smallest of doves, Ygbalther had to remind himself before he walked over to the group.

The largest man of the group, bald with a bit of red shadow growing up his cheek, noticed the Legion master and stood at attention. "L-L-Legion Master Ygbalther, sir!" he said, and Ygbalther couldn't tell if he was stuttering from nervousness of cold.

"Gentleman," he said in a controlled and calm manner. he looked over to the two wives. "And ladies. Taking a break I see."

"W-we were just trying to warm up a bit before going back to work, sir." another man said, who didn't look an age over fifteen. Dear Méga, even children.

"Is that so?" he said, his voice still collected and emotionless. "I suppose I can understand that. I just pray to the high table that we aren't attacked before the fortress is finished. my soldiers are all over the place and aren't coordinated for battle, so it would only take one properly placed assault to wipe them out. We may have a chance if a few works who knew how to fight could take up arms, but if some are--or I don't know--huddling around a fire, they'll probably be slaughtered before they even know it. Then the fortress would fall, the rest of the enemy forces would have a clear path to the Fatherland, and we will surly fall with our army still preparing to even defend the capital. So Please, by all means, continue to warm yourselves. Just try to keep in mind how cold your and everybody else's corpses will be when we're attacked."

Even around the fire, the men and women around the fire seemed frozen. one wife looked like she was about to cry and the red bearded man was wiping his sweat-less brow. without even a word, the group got up and searched for a job that needed to be done.

Ygbalther huffed and continued to check the rest of the encampment. He found his battle minor supervising a collection of workers pulling up a wall and he called him. he gave the group a few more orders before running over to his superior.

"Legion Master, sir!" he said, folding his left arm across his chest in a salute.

    "Yntyr," he said, walking along as the his officer walked with him. "How is our schedule?"
    "The best we can do sir," Yntyr said, uneasy. "The main fortress is only halfway done, the battlements were missed so part of the exterior has to be built again, the scout towers haven't even been started, we barley have enough supplies for a month or so, and our troops and workers are starting to freeze."
    "And this is the best we can do?"
    "It's not like anything else was expected, sir," Yntyr said, "We didn't travel for a--"
    "Nothing was expected, Yntyr?" Ygbalther said, a voiceless agitation in his tone. "I am not sure what you and the battle major expected, but i expected to escort a convoy to this site and build a checkpoint to prevent the enemy from passing through to our fatherland, and I expected it to be done by evening. If you are telling me we will not be ready by evening, then you are saying your expectations far exceed mine, which is were conflict will erupt.
    Yntyr was stunned for a moment, trying to find words after the vague accusation of treason. The legion master could have passed him off as a frozen sculpture. "N-No, I wasn't trying to--"
    "If you were not trying to imply that, then what are you implying?"
    "I was simply saying--"
    "That was not a call for more excuses."
    Yntyr opened his mouth for another protest, but shut it as he caught on. "I will make sure this fortress is constructed by evening sir."
    "Good answer," Ygbalther said while looking off into the distance.
    Yntyr saluted and went back to supervising the workers.
    "You really don't give anyone a break, do you?" said someone behind the legion master. he turned and saw his battle major, Ygvölund, supporting himself on a pikestaff.
    "Méga does not give breaks to those who shall fight for his name," Ygbalther said, still looking off into the distance.
    "He's barley been in the part for half a year," the battle major said, looking over and Yntyr shouting orders. "The only reason he was qualified because the last battle minor who got killed was his brother and they had similar abilities. Still, he is a child on the battlefield."
    "And that's precisely why he needs to be on the front lines," Ygbalther said, walking towards the forward entrance of the stockade. "He needs to learn what he has been called for."
    Ygvölund followed the legion master as they came to the the non-existent gate. The sun was halfway above the horizon now and more filtered light shined across the land below them. Among the high rising trees and the low mountains lied the country of Nion, their enemy's homeland. With the orange and red that mixed with the sky, it seemed as if the land was burning.
    "It's hard to believe," Ygvölund said, "That a country so bent of destroying us once was our closest ally."
    Ygbalther gave a grunt and kicked a bit of snow off of his foot. "That was when we valued reason and the lives of others," he said. "This is war."