With the Borealis done, Kael left their territory.
Now, with another tribe under him, he would have more ’weight’ in his words, making it easier for him to recruit them.
But at the sa ti—
That weight didn’t just add to his words, it also added to his shoulders, now, there were about four hundred more lives that were dependent on him.
Lives that had chosen walls over the storm and had put their trust in him.
This was also the reason Kael did not trust the recruitnt. Others had sensed his mood as well, and they didn’t bla him, they too, could feel the weight of this responsibility.
After all, this wasn’t just recruitnt, this wasn’t them visiting old friends, telling them to co live with them—
It was dragging frightened people out of their old lives and forcing them to gamble their lives on Kael’s na.
And that, unless one was completely heartless, ca with a huge ntal toll.
As such thoughts continued to fill his mind, Kael moved faster, trying to clear his head. Lavinia and others had made a list of six tribes they could visit, tribes that had a higher chance to accept their offer.
Borealis Herd was one of them.
As for the rest?
They were—
The Shardpeak Tinkerband.
The Riwood Kin.
The Frostvein Tribe.
The Cinderstep Nomads.
And the Emberfolk.
And the first settlent Kael and his party visited after the Borealis Herd was the Shardpeak Tinkerband’s settlent and this ti, along with their initial party minus the two Velmourns left behind, they had brought one of the Borealis Elders with them to represent that the Borealis were indeed part of the Alliance.
The Shardpeaks lived in an... ugly place, broken slopes where old avalanches had buried half the land and exposed veins of black stone and rusted tal. Their hos looked like patched nests made from scrap—bent sheets, old wagon boards, cracked stone, and hide stretched tight to stop the wind.
And unlike the Borealis, whom Kael and the alliance only needed for numbers, the Shardpeaks were different.
They had sothing... most tribes in the Heights did not.
A sort of an air defense system.
And Kael needed that.
After the bombing, he realized that the Wall was not enough. He was dependent on ants, yes, but they couldn’t watch the sky and the Velmourns had no understanding of air raids.
But the Shardpeaks... they were different.
They lived by studying things that... exploded. They had a keen interest in foreign artifacts, and they collected every single scrap they could find and made sothing out of it.
This was also the reason that the mont Kael arrived, they didn’t greet him with the hostility that the Borealis did, they greeted him with... curiosity.
A man who was flying without a beast.
What artifact was he using?
What could they possibly learn from him?
Their curiosity and hunger for knowledge were apparent, it easily overpowered their caution, despite them knowing full well, that the tis were tough and a war was coming.
Their leader, a thin man with burnt fingers and an eye that twitched whenever he saw tal, invited them inside a half-cave workshop.
*Picture*
The air inside slled like oil, hot stone, and old smoke.
Just like the Borealis, the ants had also covered the Shardpeaks’ settlent, so he knew quite a bit about them. This was also the reason he had brought a gift for them.
The shards of the bomb the Stormcallers threw at them.
And he offered them first, together with the right to study every captured artifact the alliance could take from the enemy. He offered them a protected workshop inside Velmourn, near the forge, good security and guaranteed food.
The Leader raised his eyes at those last words, guaranteed food?
Those weren’t words that could be carelessly thrown around in the Heights, but Kael did exactly that, then, he used the sa trick he had been using all this while.
He pulled out the Gel Rations, ntioned how many more they could get if they joined them, the leader’s mouth practically drooled at his words, especially after he tasted the ration.
And that was when Kael kept his own demands.
In return to everything Kael gave them, he needed three things.
A sort of anti-air alarm—wind-lines, chis, pressure ropes, anything that scread when sothing moved above.
Anti-air nets—rope nets and weighted lines that could catch low flyers or force them to rise back in the air so they could explode in the air instead of on the ground.
And decoy roofs—fake targets, false quarters, basically bait to make the enemy waste their bombs.
And because he understood the Shardpeaks so well, he knew none of his demands were too out of bounds, the Shardpeaks were very much capable of giving him that and while the leader did seem a little on edge at how clearly this man knew the boundaries of his people’s ability—
In the end, he couldn’t say no when the Gel Rations were kept right in front of him and he gave in.
There was no long conversation, just basic questions that made sure the two sides understood each other well.
Kael knowing their language helped quite a bit as well.
And with that, it ended.
Kael and the party managed to recruit the second tribe without any trouble. Kael left one of the Stonefang Warriors who knew their tongue to help them with the moving process.
In return, he took one of the Shardpeak Elders with him, increasing the ’weight’ of his words even further.
Yes, the Alliance was growing, and it was growing at a scary pace.
After the Shardpeak Tinkerband, the next were the Riwood Kin. Unlike the Shardpeak territory, the Riwood territory was... quieter.
It was at the edge of the treeline, the winters here were harsh too, every branch of the tree looked like a dying bone. Snow sat heavy on black trunks.
The Riwood people weren’t warriors, they were... survivors.
They made ropes, they salvaged wood, they knew where frozen roots still held heat, they knew which trees could be cut without killing the grove for ten years.
They were... skillful.
And this was the reason the Alliance wanted them.
Especially when the Stormcallers had already burnt trees around them before to choke the Wall’s supply.
The Riwood greeted the group with suspicion.
The hatred between the Riwood and the Velmourns was clear, actually, the Riwoods hated almost every single tribe there was simply because the ropes they built were so essential that almost every party attacked them.
Velmourns did try to make a trade, anything in exchange for ropes, without bloodshed, but the Riwood never agreed so... the Velmourns’ hands were forced.
Kael understood that, he also understood the Riwood side, so while he did think that all of it was going to make everything a bit more complicated—
He had one way to make it all move in their favor—
"The Stormcallers burned our trees to force us out.
If they aren’t stopped, then next ti, they will burn yours."
Kael spoke, and the instant he did, the room... changed.
The Riwood Leader now listened carefully.
She was a hard woman with rough hands and a scar on her chin, she had the look of soone who had buried too many people.
*Picture*
Kael made it simple.
He wanted these people to leave their ancestral lands and join them, and while this went against everything they stood for, especially since they valued their groves too much—
They didn’t exactly have another choice.
Kael couldn’t protect them there, they needed to be inside the Wall to be protected, or they could join the tree burners if they wanted.
The choice was obvious.
The Leader did montarily think about not joining any side, but Kael quickly shoved that idea aside.
The Riwood Territory was near one of the very few open spaces between the Stormcallers and the Velmourns, if the war began, it was highly likely that their territory would beco a war zone.
They would need to move.
It was only a matter of where they would go.
So, Kael made his offer.
He offered them protection and food, in exchange, he needed ropes and other essentials that could help him win the war.
The Riwood Leader thought about it for a mont, the Riwood Elders, on the other hand, were already sold.
The ration gels had done their magic, plus, the Riwood people already hated the Stormcallers for what they did to the trees near the Velmourn territory.
They honestly had no choice but to join the Velmourns.
With them joining, Kael now had the Velmourns, the Stonefangs, the Borealis, the Shardpeaks and the Riwood under him.
Out of thirteen tribes in the Heights, Kael had now successfully recruited four.
And his search for more still hadn’t stopped.
After all, this wasn’t enough, sure, four out of thirteen did sound good, especially when he had only begun and there were still places he was going to visit, but out of all the tribes he had, other than the Stonefangs, the others were... comparatively weaker and while they all were useful in their own ways.
Kael needed warriors.
And he needed them fast.
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