Leaving the tent Chronos and Lyla went to wait with Vaelith for the others to arrive.
"How long before they arrive?" Chronos asked.
"Not long. We should be able to see them as soon as my pet reaches them." Vaelith replied.
They watched the river as time passed, then a guttural roar echoed from the swamps.
The guards nearby were surprised at the noise and even more surprised when nearly every island in sight suddenly had parts of the land break away and move towards the fort.
"Guards on high alert." Called out the guard captain.
"Please calm yourselves. Those ships are allies here to rebuild your fort and set traps for the coming battle." Vaelith called out.
"Ships?"
The guard captain was concerned as several of those "ships" had been close enough to attack the fort, and nobody had noticed them before today.
The ships looked similar to the one they had been on yesterday, but each ship was tailored to blend in with the island it had been attached to.
"Indeed, our tribes are very effective at hiding in plain sight." Vaelith smugly replied.
Under the shocked gazes of the merfolk soldiers 20 ships appeared from an area where they hadn't thought anything could hide. Each ship had 100 warriors, at least one matriarch, and a few young naga training to be matriarchs on them.
Once they were close to the fort several of them went to the northwestern corner that had collapsed early that morning.
A voice behind them suddenly asked, "What are your people going to do?"
Turning around there was an older merfolk standing there. He was wearing gear for carpentry and had a logistics badge on his chest.
"And you are?"
"I'm the head craftsman of the Marshward Host. The design for this fortress was my work, and I want to know what your people are doing with my fort." He grumpily replied.
"Well, there are several major flaws with this floating fort that will cause it to collapse no matter how much effort is put into repairing it. For starters your wooden piles are driven into liquified peat and layers of rot that cannot provide a stable base. You don't have any revetment screens in place, and the river flows right into the northwestern corner badly undercutting it.
Right now, my people are going to cut out the wall sections that are closest to the break and brace the nearest stable posts. Then they are going to set down fascine mattresses and revetment screens before they create a crib foundation for the wall.
Finally, they will set a current breaker upstream and place sacrificial edges along the wall that can be easily replaced. You will need to keep a stockpile of brush bundles and stones to replace the sacrificial edges whenever the river undercuts the wall."
From Vaelith's explanation it was clear that the tribes at least understood what they were doing and wouldn't cause major problems for the fort. But the head craftsmen wanted to be involved just to be certain.
"Can your people teach me how to create a swamp fort too?"
"Of course, we have no reason to keep these methods secret."
"Hmph, in other words you can easily destroy anything you teach me how to build?"
Vaelith just chuckled as she led him towards the lizardfolk who were already beginning to set down a fascine mattress.
While they left Chronos watched several of the other ships turn to the western side of the fort and begin work on traps. One ship came close to them and Gregory and Sariah jumped off to join them.
"Good to see you." Chronos said.
"Talks must have gone well, at least you didn't start a fight." Gregory shook Chronos' hand.
Lyla laughed as she spoke, "He did start a fight with the captain of the elite Orca Guard, they're the personal guard for the admiral."
Gregory sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Did you at least win?" Sariah asked.
A big smile spread across Chronos' face.
"That's a yes." Gregory said. "Is he still in one piece or was he seriously injured?"
"Knocked unconscious. A deep priest treated him with a really interesting healing spell. Order type healing is stable and precise but deep healing is fast and forceful; it even grants some additional effects, but it looks like it exhausts the patient and could have long term side effects if overused." Lyla said.
"That's a good breakdown but you still can't heal others yet, right?" Chronos said.
"Ugh, I'm working on it. I really am close to understanding the spell properly, just give me a bit more time." She sheepishly responded.
As they walked through the fort Chronos informed them of what was going on and what part they were playing in the next battle.
"...So, we're going back into the tear? I'm glad I brought water breathing potions, if it's anything like the previous tear there'll be a lot of water to move through. What can we expect to face inside?" Gregory asked.
"Probably the usual assortment of goblins but with a twist for water and more than likely fishmen, maybe some deep-sea monsters, oh and there will be a devil at some point but I'm not sure if it will be inside the tear or leading the army. The admiral thinks there might be two devils."
Gregory just stared at him for a few seconds before saying, "I don't think I'm prepared enough for this."
"Not to worry Captain Varkesh is leading an elite unit into the tear with us."
"That isn't really comforting when we might face a devil. You know the stories; it's said that a devil could wipe out whole armies and control monsters." Gregory retorted.
"King's can wipe out whole armies and lead them too."
"They are at the fifth rank, anybody that strong can do that. Devils can wipe out armies before the fifth rank and maybe even control minds! Are we really going into a place that might be their territory?"
"We don't have much choice. Someone has to enter the tear, and our group has already proven that we have some level of natural resistance to its effects. We're the best ones to enter the tear." Lyla concluded.
"I bet you just want to try bashing a devil in the face."
"Shh, he doesn't need to know that Sariah. Besides, aren't you just as eager to go back inside?"
"Well, yes, but only because I want to see the singing magic of the merfolk."
Gregory looked at all of them in exasperation.
"I'm not going to stop any of you from going inside, am I?"
""Nope.""
"Hah, right, how did the devil even get here? The more I know the better prepared I'll be."
Chronos considered what he knew about the tears, "If the devils are using them to get around then they must form a network between each section, but it can't be everywhere or we would see devils in the middle of the kingdom."
"The common factors for areas where tears form is that they have a certain level of world energy and lack the protection of the gods. They haven't formed east of the Dragon church yet, but we have seen them in the swamp, and we've seen sections of mountains inside the tears. So, we can assume that they are forming in the mountains as well." Sariah spoke as she brought up everything she knew.
"A tear also formed in a place called the deep chasm in the central ocean and from what Naerith said there aren't any temples near the deep chasm either. The devil entered the deep chasms tear and Chronos secretly told me that he could sense it inside of this tear, meaning you can move pretty swiftly between tears. Almost like teleportation." Lyla said.
"But it can't be the same as teleportation, in order to teleport you need a platform set on a ley line or a place of power, like a temple. Without those there just isn't enough power or direction to teleport. I think that distances inside the void are smaller or sections are compressed together making travel between them faster."
Chronos knew this because his father, Lord Mathew, had wanted to set up a teleportation platform in the Ulv territory but had run into several issues that prevented him from doing so.
Namely the nearest ley line that was strong enough to support a platform was within the Tharugor mountains beyond the Zharghûl cliffs. It was well outside of the kingdom's border and would be attacked by numerous beasts if they tried to set it up.
"Riiight, I don't know of any methods to stop teleportation or the shrinking of distance but at the very least I can arrange for something to protect our minds. Perhaps a mental blessing or an item from the merfolk, I'll go make some preparations before we leave." With that Gregory left to get a mental blessing from a strong priest.