Dawn arrived with chaos.
Brak supervised fifteen warriors loading supplies onto two wagons.
They were staying in Sylvandar to hold the manor and keep Caelindra, Firlia, and Thessaly secure.
Standing by the iron gate, Brak crossed his arms, wearing the expression of a boy severely insulted by his babysitting assignnt.
"I was born to break skulls, Chief," Brak complained, kicking a stray pebble across the courtyard.
"Not guarding parchnt and cooking pots."
"You’re securing my base," Kane corrected, strapping his axe to his back.
"If soone burns my house down while I am gone, I’m holding you responsible."
Brak sighed dramatically but nodded, puffing his chest out just a fraction.
Stepping into the air, Caelindra handed Kane a folded parchnt.
"nual’s official response to your legal challenge at the border marker arrived this morning. My contact inside the royal war room intercepted a copy."
Cracking the wax seal, Kane scanned the text.
It contained three long paragraphs of flowery diplomatic nonsense that said exactly nothing while implying everything.
They officially sidestepped the northwestern corridor question.
The thirty-day window remained exactly the sa.
’They are proceeding anyway. My little legal challenge only bought us two days of bureaucratic confusion. That is all it was ever going to buy.’
"Are they slowing down?" Firlia asked, stepping up beside the secretary.
"No," Kane answered, swinging onto his horse.
"Move out."
Separating at the city limits, the army fractured into specialized units.
Rutheus took his forty tribal fighters north toward the forest camp.
Shifting his reins into his remaining hand, the veteran moved with a natural grace that usually took amputees months to learn.
Neither man said a word at the crossroads.
They just shared a single nod.
Words were useless between n who spoke in actions.
Seraphine led her sixty Milfheim soldiers toward the eastern ridge.
Her divine-designated fighters moved with efficiency, maintaining perfect silence.
Sira rode beside them, perfectly flanked by the two Knights of Elfheim.
Taking the narrow road between the two ridges, Kessa claid the mobile route.
This path allowed her to reach either position in under an hour.
Reining her mount around, she shot Kane a pointed look.
"Don’t plant that seed in the wrong spot," Kessa warned, flicking her tail.
"I won’t," Kane promised.
"And don’t die before the Empress gets her fancy eting," she added, showing her fangs in a teasing grin.
"I really want to see what that looks like."
Before he could even reply, she spurred her horse into a sprint.
Taking the direct road toward the central channel choke point, Kane rode alongside Thora and Grieselda.
Six Bloodfang fighters trailed behind them, brought along for physical labor rather than combat.
Planting a World Tree seed required site preparation, and Kane refused to dig holes by himself while nursing broken ribs.
Reaching the destination by midday, they stopped in the narrowest section of the pass.
Ridge walls closed to within fifty ters of each other here. It ford a perfect natural funnel.
Steeper gradients and tight stone walls ant enemy cavalry could never deploy laterally.
Pulling the tournant prize from his pack, Kane studied it.
The cutting from a five-hundred-year-old tree was surprisingly small, no larger than his fist.
It pulsed faintly, radiating the sa patient warmth as the queen’s palace towers.
Turning around, he found Grieselda standing in the center of the channel.
She stared intensely at the cobblestones, reading sothing invisible to everyone else.
[Here.]
Grieselda pointed at a specific spot.
It was slightly off-center, right where a natural fissure split the rock.
[That fissure connects directly to the mountain’s root structure. Plant it there, and the growth will follow the stone’s natural channels. It will not just establish a surface node. It goes deep.]
"How deep are we talking?" Kane asked, stepping closer.
[Through the entire mountain.]
Thora blinked, clearly startled.
"The whole mountain?"
[This seed cos from a tree that spent five centuries growing into an empire’s foundation.]
The system explained it in a loud voice for everyone to hear.
’Whatever grows from this cannot be unplanted,’ Kane thought, recalling the system’s earlier warning.
Crouching down, he wedged the seed firmly into the fissure.
Nothing happened for three long seconds.
Suddenly, the crack began to glow.
A faint, gold-green light spilled out, perfectly matching the ancient forest quality hidden in the elven queen’s eyes.
Spreading rapidly along the fault line, the light disappeared into the ridge walls on both sides.
[System Notification!]
[World Tree Seed successfully planted]
[Environntal Modification: Divine Energy Node established]
[Effect: Permanent magical enhancent granted to all bonded mbers within 500 ters.]
[Hostile forces will experience severe environntal pressure.]
Every single horse held by the Bloodfang fighters began shifting its weight nervously.
Thora’s ankle jewelry chid once, a single, clear tone, as the invisible wave passed through the ground beneath her boots.
Standing right in the center of the phenonon, Grieselda closed her eyes.
The intricate mark on her chest pulsed in synchronization with the fading light.
Standing back up, Kane dusted off his knees.
The light vanished, leaving the channel looking exactly as boring as it did before. Yet the air felt undeniably different.
A subtle pressure settled over the pass, carrying the specific quality of ancient energy deciding to claim a space permanently.
"When nual’s warhorses reach this point," Kane started, looking at the seemingly normal road.
"They’ll stop wanting to move forward," Grieselda finished for him.
"It will not be impossible for them to push through. But every single rider will have to fight their own animal to do it. In a tight column under pressure, that montary hesitation..."
"Is our chance." Kane grinned.
Looking up at the ridge walls, he pictured Seraphine’s sixty soldiers moving into position above them.
Eight hundred cavalry riders would march blindly down this lane in approximately thirty-six hours.
Turning his head, he caught Thora watching him.
The intimate warmth from the previous night lingered in her expression, visible beneath her sharp tactical focus.
"Good spot," Thora noted, gesturing to the pass.
"Good seed," Kane replied.
Gesturing for his fighters to follow, they climbed toward their designated ridge position to wait.
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