“May I at least call you Prince Sarvaak?” Malik asked, earning him a sidelong stare from Vir. The demon cleared his throat. “Just Sarvaak, then.”
“I’m afraid it’ll have to be Akh Nara for me,” Balagra said. “At least for now. As I said before, this is your fight. Not mine.”
“You say that, but I question whether you truly mean it,” Vir said, looking the Naga in the eye. Balagra glanced down immediately, perhaps thinking it improper to make eye contact with one such as him.
“I am Panav. Your fight is for the liberation of your people,” Balagra said, though there was no confidence behind his words.
“Yes, as my first task,” Vir replied. “Once Garga has been restored, I plan to turn my eyes to the rest of the Demon Realm. Surely you don’t need me to tell you the benefits of aiding me?”
Balagra smirked. “Aiding the Akh Nara? Herald of change? Why, I couldn’t fathom how that might be in my best interests.”
Vir smiled back. “Good. So you do still remember how to tell jokes.”
Balagra’s eyes went wide as he realized what he’d done. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came.
Vir burst out laughing, which made the Naga huff with embarrassment.
“If you’ve had quite enough of that, how about we discuss the plans for this base you’re planning on constructing,” Balagra said, desperately hoping to change topics.
“Yes, lets,” Vir said. “Between our powers and the tools I brought from Praya Parul, I think we’ll have ourselves a little home in this blighted landscape before very long.”
After consulting with Balagra and Malik, Vir had the troops stop a few hundred paces outside the forest. Close enough to allow easy access to the work site, yet far enough that they retained enough buffer against threats emerging from the trees.
While there were a few extra tents carried on the backs of the Chitrans’ Ash’va, most had to do without.
At least it would be a temporary affair.
By the end of the first day, they’d selected a site and cut down all the trees surrounding the camp—a job easily accomplished with abilities such as Blade Launch and certain Aspect tattoos.
Food and water were procured by demons running supply missions twice a day to the springs and vegetation within the forest, and security was provided by those demons who possessed combat tattoos, of which there were a decent number. The going was difficult at first, slowed by thick vines and shrubs, but as more and more demons trod the same path day after day, a trail formed, making the journey less arduous.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Vir regularly ranged a mile into the forest, taking out any Ash Beasts who dared venture too close. Despite their addled minds, they began to understand that this territory was taken.
As the days passed, fewer and fewer beasts attacked their camp, and by the third day, Vir felt comfortable relocating the demons to the work zone within the forest. With nearly a half-mile of trees cleared, they’d have ample warning, and with the new Garrison being constructed over a surging spring, only food had to be gathered.
Morale remained high, and grew even higher as demons applied themselves to their work. As Balagra had said, there was something immensely satisfying about building something from nothing.
Despite that, the inevitable tussle finally arrived one day. Led by Lagen, a zealous faction had formed, intent on stamping out any skepticism or disagreement with the Akh Nara.
Vir clamped down on them with an iron fist, though he feared this was only the beginning. For better or worse, the reputation of the Akh Nara was deeply steeped in demon history. Overcoming it would be no simple feat.
Flattening and preparing the grounds, digging the deep holes required to hold the walls, and preparing the land for an eventual moat had taken the longest.
When the first enormous palisade went up, the demons all gathered and cheered. It didn’t take long after for the outer wall to be erected.
A mere week after entering the Ash, Vir and his two hundred demons slept within the sturdy protection of their own base. A base with palisade walls twenty paces high with trunks five across, as well as the beginnings of a solid rampart.
It’d take more than Ash Wolves and Shredders to break down something this sturdy, and for the first time in a while, Vir breathed easily, knowing he was no longer the only line of defense for these demons.
When the barracks and a few other basic structures had been built, the demons’ training would begin.
Vir couldn’t wait. After years of worry and anticipation, it was finally happening.
Though it’d occurred in a way he could never have expected, the seeds of rebellion were now sown. All that remained was to water them.
62TO BUILD AN ARMY
“The work progresses,” Balagra said, standing beside Vir. “But I have to ask—at what cost?”
Vir pursed his lips as he cast his gaze over the budding base from the ramparts of its tall walls.
A week had passed, since Vir led his demons to the forest, and the camp was finally beginning to feel like a home. It wasn’t just the many wooden structures that had stood proudly where there had previously been only dirt, or even the routine the demons had fallen into. It was the small things—sleeping under a roof, the pounding of the blacksmiths’ hammers, the idle chatter.
There was an atmosphere of hope here that simply couldn’t have ever existed at Garrison Atnu. Thanks, in part, to the relative peace they’d won. The local Ash Beasts had mostly kept to themselves, and the opportunistic among them either fell into the moat, where they’d been picked off by defenders, or had turned tail and run when they’d been blasted with magic.
It hardly felt like the Ashen Realm at all.
And with Malik overseeing logistics, concerns such as sanitation, orderly distribution of food, ash sweep duties, guard duty, and a myriad of other affairs had been taken care of with little issue.
Of course, Malik certainly didn’t feel that way, but the demon proved exceedingly capable of handling problems on his own without Vir’s aid.
As for himself, Vir continued his regular scouting patrols outside the Garrison, but he’d been doing fewer and fewer of those as his attention shifted from construction to instruction.
That was both good and bad—it allowed him to concentrate on the real reason they were here. It also deprived him of the opportunity to search for nearby Ash Gates. There were practical reasons for those outings, beyond just Vir’s desire to report to Cirayus.
While the camp had a handful of blacksmiths among their number, they’d need access to new metal to repair armament when they inevitably wore down. Not to mention, blacksmiths could only do so much without anvils.
They also needed a Thaumaturge—both for Vir to try and learn the arcane art—and to inscribe tattoos on the demons who currently lacked them.
The sooner every fighter in their army possessed an Aspect or Bloodline tattoo, the sooner they could begin mastering it. Vir was under no delusions that they’d learn quickly, but some tattoos were easier to wield than others. They might not turn the force into an Ash Beast slaying machine overnight, but they’d at least help even the odds.
On the whole, their situation would be almost idyllic, were it not for the unusual characteristics of their current location within the Ash.
“The time flow might not favor us here,” Vir said, “but we do have time. We have no other pressing engagements. No reason why we couldn’t spend another month in this place.”
“A month that may be close to a year outside,” Balagra said. “I suppose the world had written us off, anyway. What’s another year?”
While that might’ve been true for the troops, it certainly wasn’t for Vir, personally.