When the troops marched into Amesbury, they were welcomed by yet another parade. Two hundreds knights have already assembled there, mostly coming from the neighboring regions. They had to rush as fast as possible. Each and every one of them wanted to get the prestige that came from the upcoming events and ceremonies.

  Over the next two days, mounted nobles continued to gather in the city. All were slightly disappointed at missing the grand entrance, but tried to hide it as best they could. They could still earn the consolation prize of being among the first forces that would ride out to meet the enemy.

  Amesbury was a sizeable town by Logres standards, though far smaller than Westbridge itself. Ten thousand people called it home. Many of them merchants and craftsmen.

  The city lay along the Wester river that flowed all the way to the capital. It served as the main stop for all business between the wild North and the more civilized center and South of the nation.

  Rare herbs, animal ingredients, as well as more mundane goods like timber, honey, and furs passed through the town on the way to their customers. The Grey Mountains were still largely empty, though a few entrepreneurial types set up small mines in their vicinity, looking for iron and copper.

  In exchange, the rest of Logres sent up food and other supplies. The dense forests made growing food difficult and all the laborers and woodcutters still needed to eat. Barges filled with grain stopped in Amesbury before being repackaged into smaller boats that better fit on the upriver streams. Others sent metal tools, fabrics, ropes, and anything else that could be needed by the settlers.

  By now the city was even inhabited by a few of the Elves. There was only a handful of them, but as their population grew within the kingdom they became more important. Most of the refugees did not speak the same language as the locals, so the ones who did were much desired as translators.

  The city’s herbalists and alchemists conducted a lot of business with the newly founded settlements and needed to communicate with their suppliers somehow. Curious Elves now had the opportunity to learn more about Logresian culture in exchange.

  The arrival of the army would bring many changes to Amesbury. The already sizeable river port was now swelling with the influx of barges. New docks were hastily being assembled. Peasants from neighboring villages also flowed into the city, looking for work with processing the shipments.

  While the king settled in the mayor’s mansion, most of the nobility had to make do. The highest ranking ones found lodging with the upper echelons of the city, as every fledgling merchant or local aristocrat hoped to build lasting connections. Whatever support they provided now would be remembered. Lower ranking knights and minor nobles filled the inns, pushing traveling peddlers into the cheapest and poorest locales.

  The Royal Army was settled amongst the populace. There were only two thousand of them, so each family would simply be assigned a soldier or two to take care of. The troops were encouraged to spend some of their salaries on their hosts, paying for better meals or the fixing of clothes.

  The peasant levies meanwhile were still under their lieges’ control. Some managed to find individual lodging for them, but the others had to crowd around the city in tents. There were limits to how many could fit inside. Varre made sure to release his grain supplies towards these men and many of the camp followers settled among them too.

  Everyone was waiting and preparing themselves for war. Still, while the army grew in power, there were tasks that could be done. After deliberations with Duke Jan, a host of scouts were dispatched throughout the Duchy of Wantage. They were to search the forests, update the outdated, shoddy maps that existed, and learn more about the enemy. There was no reason to march blindly into unknown danger.

  Rumors continued to flow into the city, though they were growing sparser by the day. A few people reported seeing groups of goblins sneaking through the woods, but strangely, there have been no news of any attacks yet.

  Some of the front line settlements were abandoned in advance, but not all of them. It was unclear whether the enemies held back for some reason, or worse, whether their attacks didn’t leave any survivors who could tell the tale. One of the scouts’ main duties would be to learn the truth.

  The riders were told to report back at specific intervals. If they failed to do so, at least that would prove the goblins presence in the area.

  Amesbury meanwhile prepared for celebrations. The monarch’s arrival was the biggest event of the decade, even if the reason for it was quite bleak. The mayor wanted to cheer his populace up and decided to organize a grand ceremony to commemorate Varre’s victory over Count Clement’s rebellion.

  The streets were freshly swept, and the locals busied themselves with decorating their buildings. Barrels of beer, ale, and wine were drawn up from the deepest basements. This was no time to try and save any coin. Everyone wanted to show off from their best perspectives and the tavern owners were already counting the profits they’d make.

  Much of this was funded by the city’s elite. Some of the nobles joining the army also decided to show off. A couple dozen golden thalars wisely spent could earn them the cheering of thousands of men as the innkeepers would loudly announce whose generosity is paying for the booze. A worthwhile investment for some.

  As the troops spent their time readying for the grand celebrations, the king decided to meet with the rest of his Council. A chamber inside of the town hall was cleared and he sat inside together with Benjamin, Elvira and a young communication mage.

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  This was the big moment. The months spent on educating the students, the money spent on their tools, the negotiations with the guild, all of the wizards’ efforts were about to show their results.

  All the cards were flipped in the student’s favor. Their expert teachers, who were to act as a conduit, were sitting inside of the academy. Inside of the same room in the manor as all of the previous attempts practiced. The young wizard out on campaign would only need to search out the exact same signal as always and he even had the Court Mage alongside him if anything went wrong.

  The students were still too weak and inexperienced to maintain a visual connection, so it was decided to stick to voiced messages only. The advisors back in the capital sat around in the prepared chamber, crowding around their expert and ready to converse with their monarch.

  Varre put his arm on the young student’s shoulder, hoping to encourage him and the wizard took a deep breath. Then he closed his eyes and sent out a magical signal, praying that he wouldn’t embarrass himself in such a critical moment. Suddenly, he gasped.

  “Master Derrick!” the student called out, “is that you?”

  Varre exchanged glances with Elvira and continued watching the teenager closely.

  After a moment, he pumped his fist in the air. “I got it! I can hear him, your majesty!” the wizard cheered.

  “Good job,” the king complimented him, “are they ready?”

  The student repeated the question and waited for the answer. “Yes,” he said, “and they say your Chancellor, Lady Anastasia, has returned from her travels. Y-your majesty!” he quickly added.

  “Excellent,” Varre sat back in his seat, “tell her to give her report.”

  The wizard started anxiously reciting everything he received in response. During her months away from the capital, Anastasia traveled to the various kingdoms that fought back against the goblins during the previous invasions.

  The maps had changed since then. A couple of the kingdoms had been conquered and another had declared its independence. She also took the liberty of contacting any other state she could easily access and reasonably hope for their aid.

  She was happy with the results. Most openly pledged their support, unwilling to appear weak in the face of the coming threat. The last war was one of the biggest events on the continent in living memory and everyone hoped to repeat the victories of their ancestors. Some of the rulers she visited were too old to participate directly, but their sons and heirs often offered support instead. Of course, many of their nobility would jump at the prospect of independently bringing back honor and glory as well.

  The young wizard did not have enough aura to last the entire conversation. After a while he dropped his head and Elvira had to catch him. Luckily she hovered around the teenager the entire time.

  The boy was replaced by another girl and the meeting continued. This time, the Court Mage made sure to warn her not to overextend herself. Still, the chancellor’s report was long and convoluted and by the time she finished, the king was forced to bring in a third mage.

  “Before we begin,” he stopped Elvira, “I have some doubts about this. I don’t want to exhaust all of my communicators.”

  “Don’t worry your majesty,” the Court Mage assured him, “it doesn’t hurt. It’s the same as having you exhaust your own energy. Or like getting tired after a run. You’ll recover the next day, or even after just a few hours.”

  “Still, how can we expect people to send their reports in these conditions?” Varre asked, “we might have access to tens of these wizards right now, but scouting parties in the field will have to make do with just one.”

  “They’ll need more practice,” Elvira said, trying to encourage him, “they’ll get better with time!”

  “That’s not the point. We’re being inefficient and wasting their aura. They keep having to repeat everyone’s titles and carefully describe every word they heard,” the king explained, “I imagine they’re keeping the connection open the entire time too, right?”

  He looked on the third mage, but the teenager meekly stared back, keeping silent.

  “It’s alright, you can tell me,” Varre smiled encouragingly.

  “Y-yes, your majesty. Umm, Master Derrick taught us this way. We’re supposed to maintain the connection to make sure the messages flow clearly,” the student explained.

  “If they cut it, we’d also need to spend aura searching for the signal again,” Elvira added, “it’s the only way.”

  The king took a moment to think it over. The current method was simply too inefficient for distant units to deliver their reports. Already they had to make sacrifices. Since the communication mages were unable to contact each other directly, each message from the scouts would have to be sent to the headquarters in Westbridge first. Then, the expert sitting there would record in on a piece of parchment, before reading it off again to the horde of students traveling with the main army. Or at least whichever one of them was on duty at the time.

  Varre tried to think about ways to keep the conversations brief and concise. Back on Earth, he heard about the Morse Code, but it would take weeks, if not months to learn the patterns. Perhaps even longer, since he didn’t know it. He’d basically have to invent it from scratch all over again. Besides, he wasn’t sure if it would really be that much faster than just saying the words out loud. The issue was time, not the amount of data.

  Ideally, each wizard would have the aura for several connections a day if needed. Then he recalled learning about telegraphs back on Earth.

  Each of those messages were carefully designed to strip away any unnecessary fluff. They were split into several sentences, each as short as humanly possible. It would take some time to learn how to maximize the results, but the sheer idea of keeping it as short as possible would be a huge boon to efficiency already.

  “Alright,” Varre finally said and picked up some parchment from the table, “try reading this when you relay the message.”

  It took a bit of explaining before both Elvira and the communication expert back in Westbridge understood the idea, but they were willing to try it. It was considered unnecessary before, as keeping conversation polite and according to protocol was very important for most people wealthy enough to make use of the service.

  However, if the king was willing to ignore that, especially under wartime conditions, the nation would make do. The communicator promised to spread the word to all of his students that were sent to other locations throughout Logres and the meeting resumed as normal.

  The new technology would certainly improve the benefits that came from these new students, but it had limits. The letters would have to be prepared in advance and each wizard would need an assistant to write down whatever was recited. It was too difficult to do both things at once for the inexperienced students.

  The system was great for receiving concise, detailed reports of the situation in distant lands, but it couldn’t be used for negotiations or conversations back and forth. Too much time would be needed to properly design each ‘telegraph’. Especially since the Council needed time to deliberate over the orders given by the monarch and he in turn needed time to think over their information.

  Meetings such as this one would need to be kept concise in more natural ways. At least until the students improved their capacity for aura. Still, Varre was satisfied. He had yet another tool in his arsenal to help against the goblins.

  Have a nice weekend!