The Plan

It was one of those long nights where you can't spare the time to sleep and once you can you can't go to sleep. Nissa slowly raked her fingers through her hastily brushed blonde hair trying to both bring herself to her full alertness, and to push back the drowsiness due to little sleep. She had spent the rest of yesterday afternoon, evening, and early morning in a frenzied pace to iron out the details of the impending meeting. It wasn't until the early morning when her Mother stepped in and "put her foot down"... via knocking her out, that she was able to sleep.

A smile graced her face as Nissa looked at her mother who stood beside her. Orla noticed her daughter's directed smile and squeezed Nissa's hand in silent response. Nissa's smile, however, slowly withdrew as she studied the remaining occupants of the coming council meeting.

In every face, she recognized their masks of bravery that were habitually put up to cope with that creeping emotion that drew Nissa back to the time before Halvor appeared... Fear.

Nissa could understand it, both by her Magical Binding, and by her own understanding. To them, the past two months were like a fevered dream of peace and safety from the hellish conflict, and it was now seemingly shattered with a cold dose of reality. Every one of her commanders at the table now knew that the war did not end those months ago, and they were still very much apart of it.

Seeing their faces gave Nissa the courage to follow through with her hidden plan.

There was a knock on the door that stopped the quiet conversations around the room and the entirety of the groups attention was focused on the entrance. The guarded door of the council room was opened as Halvor stepped in with the same uninterested look that adorned his face. Silence reigned as he took up the vacant position next to Nissa and that is when he finally broke it by speaking.

"It is time to move forward with the plan."

Without waiting for their, or her, response, Halvor gathered three of the small figurines adjacent to the map and then began to position them onto the canvas. Each one was placed where their previous borders were located. One on the northern, one on the western, and the last one on the south-western border. Then he spoke again. "I have cleared out the Emer forces inside of your borders."

'That IS good news!' Nissa thought and she felt similar emotions from the council until Halvor erased that facade.

"However, your people will remain behind my wall."

Not caring about their puzzled looks, he explained. "My wall is preventing the Emer from finding you. Suffice it to say that they have capabilities to scry large groups. Individuals such as spies and scouts are fine to go beyond it, but any group larger than twenty will be found."

He did pause then, letting the information settle.

Nissa finally understood why he didn't permit them to go beyond his Granite Wall, but it was her cousin that pushed past the revelation to ask his question. "So unless you want them to find us, you must have a plan of what we can do now. Else this meeting is rendered moot." Slowly, heads around the table bobbed in agreement; and internally readying themselves for his coming response.

Halvor seemed to appreciate Wynfir's perception as he hummed in answer before replying. "The plan is to have your army slowly transferred to this location..." Gesturing with his hand he motioned towards the lone horse figurine located at the northern border. Continuing on with his words, Halvor said "In groups of twenty, you will be led there by one of my wolves, and each group will be separated by at least a full day of travel. Once there, you will have similar protections to prevent the enemy's scrying. The result will be that your entire army is transferred there undetected by their seeking."

Nissa looked at the thin line that portrayed their northern limit and asked herself 'Why the Northern border? They first began their attacks from our Western Border...'

It was then that Halvor finally looked at Nissa and dragged her out of her thoughts. "Alert Fenrir when you are ready to begin those movements and then we can start this plan." Giving her assent with a quick nod, she then questioned him in turn.

"Why the Northern Border?"

Halvor grunted in response as he returned to the map and landed his index finger onto their northern neighbor Athana. "Because that is where the Emer are coming from... Their movements have patterns and so do their seemingly chaotic war strategy." Nissa's eyes widened as he continued to enlighten her.

"Misdirection, they swarmed your exits first: your western and southwestern flank. Once that was done they had you encircled and... and they prefer their 'prey' cornered..." Halvor looked like he was going to elaborate further, but Fenrir in a surprising move cut him off by saying. "I think they get the picture, Boss."

While he spoke, a memory leaked from the dark recesses of her mind... the very last one she had in her first life, and its mocking words echoed throughout her head "You think you stopped anything? Foolish dog, you can't stop a river with a twig."

'It all makes sense now... the Emer didn't even need Dawns Hope to continue their invasion. This wasn't even the center of their operations.' Nissa steeled herself as she shook off the haunting echoes of that demons taunt and with fire in her eyes she locked her gaze onto Halvor before speaking with authority. "We. will. be. ready."

It seemed her emotional magic was leaking, for her commanders rallied under her presence and began to send out their assistants to commence their specific operations. The machine of war began to move once more as Nissa ordered her commanders to various tasks to ensure they were able to commence Halvor's plan as soon as possible.

The meeting was broken up as her people moved to fulfill their tasks soon leaving behind a small group: Halvor, Orla, Wynfir, Fenrir, her two guards and Nissa herself. It seemed Halvor had more to add to the plan as he began to question her directly.

"Have you found any information on the Khazji or Phelori?"