The treaty between Laurelorn and Nordland seems simple enough. The humans are allowed to settle between river Demst and river Salz in limited numbers and that Laurelorn must approve the creation of the settlement first. Seems simple enough. But waiting for approval in the timeline of elves is almost always too long and there are quite a few “illegal” settlements. The Eonir have removed plenty of them either by talks or force but judging from the Nordland’s stance with Laurelorn, the former happened more than the latter. Which surprises me that Nordland also pretty much kept their side of the deal, as currently there is only one of those illegal settlements currently present that Eonir still tolerated for now. I only know that the current Elector Count of Nordland was an ambitious one but it seems like he is also either honorable in keeping to his word, or cautious enough to not add more enemies. Could be both which suits me just fine. It means he can be predictable enough to keep his word as long as there’s no overwhelming incentives provided to make him renege their end of the deal. Allright, making a good first impression and making him extend some deal to me is one of my goals now. Having no beastmen plague Nordland’s lands might be a good starting point. The rest, I will think as I go as for now there are more pressing matters to attend to.

Firstly, the impending arrival of the Norscan Vanguard fleet. Judging from Kal’s scout, they would arrive somewhere after midnight. Second, Laurelorn technically has no obligation to help defend the human lands. In fact, Laurelorn has explicitly allowed human settlements to form a line between themselves and any upcoming chaos or orc incursion. This is why practically half of Laurelorn north on the east side of river Demst are settled by the humans. While the west side of river Demst can also be sacrificed when it is needed or when Nordland tries to renegotiate for so many times. The west side of Laurelorn, part of the Wasteland, also has a similar line of settlement. In fact, I think I destroyed two of those settlements during my early days when I was running away from being chased from the detachment from Middenheim.

So now, we have no further obligation than to take care of the Norscan that will come to our side of the land. Marissith also seems to prefer it this way during our call. At least in regards to the Eonirs. She offers no further comment if it was my beastmen that comes out to deal with other Norscan in Nordland territories and has agreed to at least dispatch some of her usual envoys to Laurelorn as our mediator. I’m sure I can push her further to lend some of the Kithband Warriors to help my beastmen in Nordland but let’s keep it simple for now. Maybe after the Norscan raiders in Laurelorn were resolved I will ask her to ask for some of the Kithband Warriors. After all, we have practically become one faction and it will be much better if the Eonir and my beastmen have more experience fighting together and preferably more outside of our home advantage. With that being said, I call Kal again.

“Kal, I have spoken with Marissith, there should be few hundreds of the Eonir’s Kithband Warriors departing from Tor Lithanel to help defend the forest. Take them under your command and repel the Norscan. Make sure to properly adapt the warherd to fight effectively alongside the Eonirs.” I relay my command. “Also make sure to kill any follower of Nurgle as soon as possible.” I added. Remembering how Nurgle is a bad match up with the nature of Laurelorn. Corruption from Khrone, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch can be resolved much easier than Nurgle that actively took advantage of Laurelorn’s own vitality and they cannot be allowed to settle again. Fortunately Laurelorn have pretty much recovered from the last invasion and now the forest itself should help somewhat in dealing with the Norscan.

“Will you be joining, mother?” He asks. I looked down at my heavy pregnancy. It won’t be long until I give birth to the dragon. Or maybe lay an egg. I won’t know until then. Fortunately the Norscan attack will provide us with plenty of meat to help my dragon grow up. I will send some of the mammoths to the north to help carry the spoils.

“Not in the next two days at most.” I give some estimations. “Just do like what we always have. Report to me in case of something unusual. Also, it is much preferable if you sacrifice their souls to me.” I then give my last command. It would be preferable if the Norscan is directly sacrificed on my Herdstone in Drakwald. But seeing that I can get souls from Stirland via the effigy, it should be possible to sacrifice them near the coast of Laurelorn and I still get their souls. With that, I ended the call and returned to my current focus.

In front of me is a small piece of Waystone, a piece of flat glass I bought from the Cathayan caravan, and the barrel containing the soul water. I am planning to make some sort of scrying tool. Preferably making some kind of mirror where I can oversee distant battles from above. Like in Total War games. It came up after Lak questions me on how she would be responsible for the Shadow Divers and dealing with the Skaven below if she cannot oversee it properly. At first I was planning to just give her the artifact to contact the Shadow Divers as the artifact set to contact them and the artifact set we use to communicate with each other are of a separate set. But then we start reading the chapter regarding magical artifacts in the Book of Hoeth, in which I get the idea on making the magic mirror. It never came up to me before because I did not have that many souls before and it is not exactly relevant until now as I usually can oversee plenty of things myself. Apparently the scrying artifact is considered a very powerful artifact and I’m sure I will bleed plenty of souls to make even one of such mirrors. Then there’s also the fact that apparently it is part of the basics of all apprentice artifact makers to make sure the magical items they made are somewhat warded to prevent outside tampering. Even if it would cost some performance of the artifact itself. Something which I never do. Magical artifacts once finished do already have resistance against outside tampering depending on the complexity of the magic woven into it and usually it is enough for simple enough artifacts as no one would bother tampering with simple ones and the complex ones would take quite some time to tamper. But the book also details that you can put traps woven into the artifact, to strike on other wizards trying to tamper with said artifacts. This is pretty much quite a big deal as there is pretty much no security woven into the communication artifacts I have made. Considering that the artifacts will be more used from now on because my herd has expanded to our current state, I would need to replace the communication artifacts I have made with more regards for operational security. It would probably lessen the effective range or make some delays, but it might be worth it. It's better to be prepared than to be surprised by this kind of case. With a new goal set, I focus and summons my soul forge.

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“I still can’t get used to this.” Valariel then said, moving away from reading the book to my side.

“Might be better that way.” I said as I placed the piece of waystone and the glass on the forge. “At least that way, you might know when to stop.” Then I pour the soul water on the forge and start forging. Focusing on my Space concept to empower the scrying range and power against magical countermeasures to block the scrying. Of course warding it too just in case that the mirror might be stolen.

“When this is done, will you stop then?” She asks. When this is done huh? The End Times? Or conflict in general? Either way, there will be a very long time before any of them come. I think as I continue forging.

“Maybe not.” I answered truthfully. “It is hard to move from familiar and easy things.” I don’t even know if there is a want in me to even do so. The Book of Hoeth details how to make magical artifacts without using souls. But the real process is just so tedious. Preparing the materials, then the reagents or catalysts in which the magic will be woven into and finally making the artifact. A sufficiently magical material might skip the part in preparing the reagents or catalysts. But souls, they are like ready made things. Can be used as materials and catalysts both, much easier too without worrying about the compatibility between the material and the catalyst. Unsustainable in the long run yes but i did not exactly have the luxury of an option or time. Valariel doesn’t speak much after that. Watching me as I work on making the mirror. It took almost the entire barrel worth of soul water. Which means just making this one mirror cost me a hundred souls to maybe two. Making it one of my most expensive creations.

The mirror finished somewhere after midnight. A good time to measure its performance even. I sat down and set the mirror on my lap. Then I pushed my magic into the mirror and I immediately felt a noticeable absorption from me and from the surrounding magic. Hmm. Might have made this with too high of magical consumption. I can handle it, but for others, it might need some warp stones or preparation ritual to gather enough magic to make the mirror work. So I guess that’s one more point in making this mirror much more difficult to be used by anyone else.

The image within the mirror is dark. With only faint glowing of torches that are barely visible. Alright. I might have forgotten to make this with adjustable brightness. But at the very least, it works. This must be directly above my herdstone base as I can identify the magical glow of my Herdstone. Valariel, Lak, and Mal gather to see how the magic mirror works. Zooming in and out also works. Then I pushed the scrying north. And I see that the image is moving northward. I zoomed out to the max to make it scroll northward faster. It was fast but not fast enough. This will take a while as I scroll the image north to the coast. I shut down the mirror and try to activate it again, focusing on much further north. Again I get a dark image, though a bit brighter as it would seem the moon is not as covered by clouds there. I do the same again and I don’t even know how much further north I am seeing. 

“Okay, this artifact might be a dud.” I concluded. Fuck. The surrounding magic settles back to normal as the mirror. “I need something to accurately pinpoint the location I want to oversee.” Think I got too hasty on making this mirror.

“Wait, wait.” Lak then said before I set the mirror aside. She thinks before pointing at the earring on her ears. “Can this work?”

“Hmmm. Maybe.” I call Kal and he answers. The sound of roaring gunfire and his barking commands stream through.

“What is it!?” He speaks quickly.

“Continue on, I am testing something.” I traced the connection between my earring to his. Grasping on what looks like the magical line of the connection, I pushed it towards the mirror as I activated it again. The image shows its previous location. I take note of that, then try to push the scrying along the connection between our two earrings.

“It works! Haha!” I let out a genuine laugh as the image shows the coastline between the almost sheer cliffs and the gap between the cliffs that lead to the beach. “Good Idea Lak.” Then we focus on the image shown in the mirror.