Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene XIV

The thousands of slave soldiers marching through the Eastern Kingdom gave the place a very different feel. Like a cloud of gloom casting over the entire land, swarming in from across the black mountains. King Kaspria had little say in the decisions being made now. War required strength and vigilance, and his weakness had left King Mizmeam with no option but to dictate.

As his men marched through the muddy kingdom, the torrential rain doing little to halt their onward progress, efforts on the eastern coast were being made to rebuild the navy that had been so recently vanquished. King Kaspria had promised that things were advancing with speed, but with black powder soon to be in tow Mizmeam needed to be doubly sure.

Across the sea in the Maiden Lands war efforts were being readied with equal vigour. The ships were rigged and the men were steeled. Queen Aglaia's spies and senses making her only too aware of the martial horde that was building on the mainland. As she hardened her nation for the coming storm she gripped her levers of power with a zeal matching that of Mizmeam. The ruthlessness she had shown in torching her enemy's ships not relenting within her own domain. The sea, which for now she was lord of, a timid moat against the expanding multitude.