Sword and Snow

Emery

Things started to move quickly after the raid on the mountain side. Emery and Avuri returned to the Basin only after making sure that they had left everyone alive. They had let one person escape, but almost everyone in the camp should have been able to return home and tell the story.

Eiry decided they should take advantage of that. Flowing Dragon City didn't have a huge amount of infiltrators in Bouquet, but they had enough to spread some rumors. So, Eiry took the opportunity to contact several of them with a communication Array and have them spread the story of Nyr, Emery's previous heroine persona from the faceoff with the Deposits.

The story ended up spreading faster than any of them had anticipated. Word had returned all the way back to Flowing Dragon City within the week, telling of the 'Draconic Warrior Nyr' and her terrifying, yet unnamed, similarly draconic companion that had dismantled an entire enemy contingent without sustaining any injuries while leaving all of their enemies alive to carry the warning home with them.

Emery wasn't exactly thrilled that it was being linked back to the show she put on as Nyr, but she had to admit it wasn't an awful idea. Anyone important knew what was actually going on behind the scenes, but it kept her and her family somewhat anonymous from the general public. At least for the time being.

But the speed at which the story of absolute humiliation spread did damage to Bouquet's reputation, even among its supposed allies. They had been touting the entirety of Flowing Dragon City as bloodthirsty monsters and greedy merchants - yet here were two fighters from the City dealing with a threat outright while not killing a single person. And the disconnect quickly became a thorn in Bouquet's metaphorical side.

They didn't actually lose any of their support in the end, but their allies at least seemed less enthusiastic about supporting their supposed 'war', saying they only supported Bouquet in their intent to force Flowing Dragon into more open terms when it came to trade and access to the Peaks' treasures.

At least, that was the case until Bouquet started actually making moves. They began to publicly prepare their soldiers and Cultivators for a march on Flowing Dragon and the Blooming Wilds.

All at once, their allies ended up back on board. The Elders suspected that there was something else going on behind the scenes, but didn't really have any way to intervene as the other cities that Bouquet had duped into supporting them similarly prepared to go to war.

It seemed like, no matter which avenue the Elders and Emery's family took, they would shortly be at war. It would all come down to exactly how much weight the other side was throwing behind Bouquet's big moves. And, perhaps, what sort of influence the Mephras and Aysol truly had.

Emery truly was not happy when they ended up essentially turning the main house's basement into a functional war room. All of the training and meditation equipment had been shuffled away into storage Arrays in favor of a large table for a map in the middle of the room and chairs set up around the whole room in a rough circle, enough to include their entire 'inner circle'.

Still, as the Elders were receiving intelligence from their various agents, she couldn't deny how useful having it all set up was. The map displayed a fairly detailed version of most of the surrounding lands. The Elders had made a point to picture all of the involved cities and lands on it, which reinforced for Emery and her family just how widespread this fight was turning out to be.

Bouquet had essentially mobilized the entirety of the Floral Hills and a solid portion of the nearby lands. The Riotlands to the Hills' south, which were famously an absolute mess of disparate cities and small communities, could apparently come together for this purpose alone.

North of the Floral Hills were the Moonlit Wetlands, which were one of the more concerning potential opponents. The Wetlands were known as such because of an ancient technique that had quite literally permanently dimmed the sunlight in the area, making the soggy place appear to be in an eternal night. But the area was also rife with ambient Qi which tended to create powerful Cultivators.

Why they would bow down to Bouquet was beyond Emery, but it wouldn't matter why they appeared on the battlefield, only that they did.

The Emerald Expanse, at least, seemed to be trying to stay out of the mess despite being located between the Blooming Wilds and the Floral Hills. They had agreed to help Bouquet in the end, but were clearly reluctant to do so, given they were also on the weaker side as a whole. The Elders had also received requests for aid and more than a few secret missives from the cities there with information.

Looking at the map, complete with fighter deployments and expected future movements, made Emery - and the whole family, really - appreciate exactly how widely what had potentially begun as a familial spat had spread.

Of course, the Mephras moving against their own daughter that had slighted them was never made known to anyone. If anything, that tidbit of information remained a potential card for their side to play if they felt embarrassing the Bouquet leaders would actually have an appreciable effect.

"We need to decide how to move." Vyne said, maneuvering a few of the wooden pieces on the map with his Qi.

"I think we have a pretty obvious battlefield, to be honest." Emery said, pointing at the Dying Lands on the map. "There's a literal deadzone of empty land between us and the enemy. Containing the fighting there as much as possible would limit collateral damage quite a bit. And the Emerald Expanse is ostensibly on our side, so meeting the enemy there would likely just alienate them instead."

Eiry nodded in agreement. "We should certainly avoid fighting in the Expanse. They've been quite useful in reporting the enemy movements. If anything, I'm worried that allowing Bouquet and their other allies to march through the Expanse will backfire if they have any idea they've been in contact with us."

"If that happens, we'll lend them some support." Ray said.

"And we can absolutely help with recovery afterward." Vyne said.

"It's not ideal, but fighting them in the Blooming Wilds themselves would likely be to our advantage as well." Stena piped up. "Scattered engagements using the terrain to our advantage would help even the numbers. Especially when we're likely to be individually stronger than most of our enemies."

"That's true, but we don't want to begin by fighting them at our doorstep. The Wilds would be a fantastic place to retreat to if we need it." Vale said.

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"Good point." Stena agreed.

"Ultimately, I don't think we have a lot of options, either." Cyril said, staring at the map. "We're not exactly surrounded by enemies. Almost the entire enemy force would be marching on us directly from the west," he continued, tracing a line on the map with his finger. "Assuming they use the Emerald Expanse as a staging ground, we only have two options. And one of them is the Wilds."

Avuri agreed. "They honestly don't have that many routes of attack. North of the Peaks is just more mountains. They could try to follow the Onyx Palisades all the way around and try to find a route through the Dragon's Tail, but it'd almost certainly be too much for them. And we're defended from the West by the Amber Valley, at least somewhat. If they chose to come from that direction, they would be forced to essentially funnel themselves to cross the bridges toward us."

"And the Dying Lands cover the entirety of the east and south." Kord said.

"There is a chance they will try to gather by Meteor Lake again, and perhaps even use the Deposits' people a second time. The Deposits did make a proclamation that they support Bouquet in this endeavor -"

"Shocker."

"- but they wouldn't be providing anything beyond monetary support." Eiry finished, aiming a quick glare at Vale for his interruption.

He just shrugged. "We knew the Deposits would be on their side. They already cooperated with Aysol and likely still do."

"He's not wrong, Eiry. We should probably also expect whatever army materializes against us to be well equipped with high-quality equipment and gear from the Deposits' craftsmen." Cyril said.

"Given the relative strength of Bouquet's Cultivators, I'm not sure that's a concern." Emery said. "The real issue is whether they give that equipment to their hired hands as well."

"I would expect them to." Avuri said. "The Mephras aren't going to worry about equipping their people for safety. They'll equip their most dangerous people to cause more damage."

"I figured as much." Emery nodded along.

Mica sighed, turning the eyes in the room toward her. "We all have this awful tendency to talk too much about this stuff. We're not getting anywhere; it sounds like we should just be deploying whatever defenders we have around the Dying Lands to form a blockade. At least until we have some idea where they will be primarily approaching from."

"I'm in agreement." Cierra said, which drew attention to her next. The eyes of all her elders in the room caused her to shrink back a bit under their combined gaze, but she continued. "Given that we're on the defensive here, we simply don't have many options. Keeping scouts and spies out there is an obvious choice for information, but setting ourselves up to make the Dying Lands the battlefield feels like an equally obvious decision."

"Isn't making the obvious decision usually bad in a war?" Stena asked, then turned to Cierra to add, "Sorry, I'm not trying to be mean - I'm asking a genuine question."

"Surprise can make a big difference, but no. Doing the obvious thing isn't wrong by default." Eiry said.

Stena nodded seriously and said, "Then I agree with them. Trying to force the fight onto the Dying Lands feels like the right move here, and keeps most of the fighting away from the majority of the population."

"And the Dying Lands' people are mostly nomadic in nature anyway," Kord added, "so I doubt they would fight against relocating for safety."

None of the older adults in the room spoke aloud, but they traded glances, looking for any objections. None were raised.

"We're agreed then. We'll prepare to use the Dying Lands as our first line of defense." Eiry said definitively.

"Then the question becomes…how do we deploy ourselves?" Avuri asked. When no one answered, she chuckled.

"Do we just stay behind and coordinate with communication Arrays? And then rush to where we're needed?" Emery offered.

"I don't know." Eiry muttered. "Emery, your specific presence on the frontlines as Nyr could have a noticeable impact on morale."

"Sure, but I think that effect is significantly lessened when I'm not accompanied by six dragons like I was for our last show." Emery joked. "More than that, if we spread out across the Dying Lands, it's such a vast area that my presence in one spot could become a detriment."

"If we're creating a blockade roughly the same distance from the city in every direction, then staying central and prepared seems like the best way to keep response times fast." Lyn agreed.

Eiry turned her eyes on Emery and Avuri, looking between them. "If we received word right now about a fight approaching in the Dying Lands, how quickly could you make it out there? Be honest with me."

Emery and Avuri looked at each other, not entirely sure of their answer. When Avuri had made the trip as part of caravans, it had taken her more than a month. Admittedly, that was not moving at her full speed, even then, and also included several breaks and such throughout each day.

Similarly, they had never tested how well they could maintain their full speed for extended travel. The dash down the Peak to Flowing Dragon City had become such a rote trip that at their current speed, they could make it in just a few minutes, instead of the hours it used to take.

"Let's be conservative with this estimate." Avuri said, seeing the look on Emery's face.

"I can't imagine it taking more than twenty four hours. And even that is probably a high estimate." Emery answered.

"I was thinking eighteen, actually, so I'm comfortable with that." Avuri agreed. "If we were to push ourselves? Or use our draconic forms? We could probably cut that down a bit further."

"Eiry, any of us," Vale said, indicating the actual dragons, "could make that flight in a few hours if we needed to. Even with riders."

"I know that. But we don't know where the six of us might be at any given time. They may need to make the trip themselves." Eiry said.

"And what about us?" Mica asked, pointing to herself, Cove, and Glenn. "We could make the trip quickly, too. Maybe not as fast as those two monsters, but still fast."

"You three will be on back-up duty, I think." Eiry said. "If something goes wrong, or we send Emery and Avuri off to deal with a decoy, we'll need to keep some of us in reserve."

"I'm on board with that." Avuri said.

"Cierra, Stena, and Kord stay in or near the Basin." Emery said flatly, turning to her kids. "Is that understood?"

"Uh…yeah?" Stena said hesitantly.

There was a beat of silence before Cierra laughed. "You thought we were going to argue with you and demand we get to fight, too, didn't you?" Emery and Avuri shared a quick glance before Cierra continued. "I think the three of us are more than happy with staying home and defending it if the worst happens."

Stena and Kord nodded their agreement.

"I've never felt the need to prove myself out in the world." Kord said. "If I can defend our family, that's good enough for me."

"What he said." Stena echoed, pointing at Kord. "You better believe that I'll fight tooth and nail if anyone comes near us. But I'm alright with staying home and defending it."

Emery smiled at her kids while a quiet chuckle of amusement spread through the room.

"You raised some good ones, girls." Vale said.