Morganna first led the two visiting dignitaries to her office and offered refreshments. At some point during their journey, the two healers returned to their place of employment and the mysterious guard that had been hovering around Morganna disappeared. The only people to notice didn't comment on it. Being a sensitive Silver Dragon, Chrystianna noticed but didn't harbor any curiosity about it. Zane noticed, but since he knew Dahlia was here on an assignment, never brought it up. Morganna assumed that her hired mercenary was starting to do her job.

The old mage Eldrin Whimblethorne stayed behind in the plaza to study the Bridging Array. It wasn't necessarily polite, but no one could stop his thirst for magical knowledge.

They made polite small talk until Marius came to his mother's office. He left the bulk of cataloging and redistributing supplies to his younger brother. He knew why Zane had come and he was itching to start the process of liberating Thale.

The foursome made their way to the military department. There was a war room with a sand table set up showing many points of data. On a three dimensional map of Thale and the surrounding waters, were many points of data. There were points showing each hostile race involved in the Siege, where they've attacked before, how recently, and where they've been spotted, and other such details.

Less than five years ago, monstrous shark-like creatures called the Bloodfin began attacking fishing villages on the outskirts of Thale, but began to continuously push inward. Morganna's husband, Terrance Stormbringer, was the High General of Thale at the time. He led people to push back against the Bloodfin. He succeeded, but at the cost of his own life, leaving her widowed and her sons without a father.

However, the Bloodfin were becoming bold again. In the past few weeks, raids on fishing villages started anew. This time, the Bloodfin teamed up with Wyrms as air support. They've had to evacuate villages around the periphery of Thale into Domes. So far Bloodfins and Wyrms have not been able to break into those.

Zane studied the sand table and listened to Marius' report of recent activity. It was strange. Well, it's always been strange. Bloodfin were savage creatures. They were intelligent but they didn't have the kind of intelligence where they could plan a Siege and keep it going for over a century.

"The Bloodfin and the Wyrms are the main attack force on land and air. What about the sea? There are always reports of any vessel getting close to Thale from sea routes disappearing," he said finally.

Marius used a hand to slightly shrink the image of Thale in the sand table, showing more of the surrounding waters. "Part of the problem is the Wyrms. They have nests in a triangular formation around Thale," he explained. 

The Eternal Mountains were a massive range that completely encircled the planet in an elliptical. The mountains were large enough to have several peaks even coming out of oceans. The Eternal mountains passed through a small edge of Thale. They had been affected by the catastrophe that split Thale into islands, but the places where they were in the water near Thale had several peaks on either side visible. 

It seems Wyrms had taken them as their nests. On the other side of Thale, a smaller mountain range had also broken apart, leaving a deserted island with a pile of rubble and one remaining peak that Wyrms had taken over.

"The biggest problem is the Nixies," Marius explained. 

Emphyralis had many underwater races. The most prominent are mermaids. They were allies of Dragons, often intermarrying with Aquamarine Dragons. They lived around the Naias Reef near the southern coast of Varmur. They preferred warm waters. They had water related abilities.

Nixies were similar in their power sets, appearance, and anatomy. They appeared as the half-human half-fish category and could be eerily beautiful. But unlike merfolk, they couldn't exist on land, they had mouths full of sharp teeth. They were savage, bloodthirsty, often hunting and feeding on mermaids and other seabound races. They were once driven to the Isolated Expanse, the large, almost empty ocean between the easternmost Vedanta and easternmost Myrkir. It was unknown when they moved to the surrounds of Thale, but they had been involved in the Siege since the beginning.

Again, they were intelligent creatures, but not the extent of planning and maintaining a Siege.

"Whenever a sea vessel gets close, the Nixies use their powers to control the water and sink them and feed on the crew," Marius explained. Showing several red marks where they've been able to discern or even observe the occurrences. It hasn't happened in awhile because no one's been foolish enough to send anyone to Thale. But sometimes vessels can get lost. Nixies can create a confusing mist to also confuse sailors into coming closer.

Zane was frowning fiercely. Aside from Bloodfin, Nixies, and Wyrms, other hostile races without much power mixed into the chaos to pick up scraps, but those three were the strongest, most troubling. Yet none of them had the intelligence to plan this. Something or someone was behind this.

The immediate thought was that there were Dragon Hunters left behind. They had the technology to remain hidden. It wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that they could live in a stealthed spaceship near Thale.

However, Zane knew that Dragon Hunters prided themselves on openly hunting and killing Dragons. From the intelligence they'd been able to gather, the Dragon Hunters themselves didn't release the Plague. It was their scientists. It didn't stop them from taking advantage of their weakness. He couldn't completely rule it out. It just didn't seem likely.

A Dragon? Not impossible. There were always traitors. First, isolate Thale. Weaken its military. Kill the leader and take over. With the Siege, it would be almost impossible for the other nations to intercede. 

Yet, the time to act would have been before the Bridging Array was in place. Now, Thale could get reinforcements at any time. He couldn't make sense of it.

Finally, he spoke. "Your Grace, please have mages secretly brought to Thale and build Bridging arrays to the other capitals. Secretly send them to the capitals as well," he spoke to Chrystianna with his request.

Chrystianna frowned thoughtfully. "Will it be possible to keep it secret? Carving the array causes a bit of commotion," she said.

It was Marius who answered. "Now that we know what to expect, it's possible to hide the activities. However, there is still the problem of Draconite," he added hesitantly.

"Myrkir will provide the Draconite for our array," Zane stated.

Chrystianna nodded. "The others will do the same," she assured. They'd already discussed it before. However, it seemed like the timeline was accelerating beyond what they expected. "How will you hide the activity?" she asked.

Marius smiled slightly. "Every Tower has their secrets," he said.

Chrystianna accepted that as truth. "I'll make sure public attention is on Britiana and Darius's intentions to go to Cruinog. As far as the general public knows, Britiana, ZsaZsa, Raven, and Delaney Crowley are the ones who know how to lay the array. With them gone to Cruinog, no one should suspect other mages are secretly installing Arrays in the meanwhile," she mused.

Zane nodded. "That was my thoughts as well," he said.

Morganna was listening quietly without interrupting. "You suspect someone in Thale is behind the Siege," she said quietly.

Zane shook his head. "Not necessarily Thale. The person or persons could be anywhere," he said. This left the room in thoughtful contemplation. Truthfully, he was correct. They had no idea who could be behind the Siege. Zane broke the silence once more and began to make solid plans.

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