Chapter 165:

Ghenadie ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to calm his nerves. Red crosses completely covered the map before him. Not a single point remained under their control. Not a single Island. Things had gone poorly in The Shadow Isles, no way around that, but it shouldn’t have collapsed so spectacularly.

“Is there a problem?” A sweet voice called from across the table.

Eluria, the self-proclaimed Strega Witch smiled unnervingly sweetly at him. She glanced at the map, seemingly without a care in the world.

“I think it ended quite well, all things considered.”

“All things considered…” Ghenadie closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He couldn’t afford to look weak or vulnerable in any sense in front of this witch, especially one that could control the mind so easily. “Can you explain to me what you mean by that?”

“You have lots of Ancient Essence, far more than you would have without attacking The Shadow Isles.” Eluria glanced to the far side of the room. “And you managed to rescue something rather valuable.”

Behind Ghenadie stood the deformed Red and the gargantuan Black Goblin. They were the only thing worth taking from their failed defence in The Shadow Isle, apart from the Ancient Essence, obviously. Both stood perfectly still, the Black had a tiny line of drool running down the corner of its mouth while the Red’s eyes glanced to it. The Red wanted to remove it but Ghenadie hadn’t permitted them to move. There was something about this Red, a Red that had survived being born deformed, that intrigued him; it had tried its best to defeat the Dark Elves but there were just too many threats to fight, especially when the Dark Elves united and those strange mages arrived.

Eluria shrugged. “And now you know the effectiveness of my drug.”

Ghenadie glanced at the large leather bag resting on her hip. Despite his best effort, she took the thing with her everywhere, literally everywhere.

“Any chance of giving us the recipe? We could make an even larger army with that.”

Eluria chuckled, a mockery of a sweet and innocent woman. “No. If I didn’t what use would you have of me? No, I’m going to stay around a lot longer. Besides, you now know how many you can create with this. At least now some of their wretches have an actual purpose.”

“I…” Ghenadie shook his head. “Fifty Goblins is certainly an efficient trade for two.”

The room fell silent. From the open, shattered, glass window Ghenadie could hear the construction and training efforts continue without end. He gently thumped the table with his fist and walked to the edge. Below him, Surdon writhed with activity. The city, once nothing more than a dilapidated rotting husk after the fall of the Kar Kingdom, was growing into something infinitely more magnificent. Every building, except those in the innermost wall, had been torn down to create housing more befitting the lesser needs of the Goblins. In the distance, a new forest, cutting through abandoned plantations and crops turned wild, disintegrated before their eyes, raw fuel and material for their war machine. Everything was running smoothly but Eluria’s words were grating against his every thought.

Has she corrupted me? I cannot let our grand mission be foiled because some stupid witch interferes with us, with her own stupid desires for revenge.

Ghenadie touched his charm and searched within himself for the Strega’s tell-tale green smoke. Finding nothing he was confident Eluria had not tried anything, today at least. During their first meeting, she tried no less than four times. He checked everyone else present, even the Graterian girl. None held any corruption. For a witch she was being very amicable.

“Your little city is grand.” Eluria leant against the opposite wall. “For Goblins…You should really try something better. Something a little stronger.”

Ghenadie sighed, running his fingers lightly over the shattered edges of the window. “The Ghlotsm are too far gone to control right now. Like a mind turned soft. But once the pantheon returns, then it will be a different story.”

Ghenadie turned to the red. “For all of them.”

“If they do you will die.” Eluria flicked her hair. “The Ancient Gods don’t exactly like civilised creatures.”

“Exactly why I am confused you’re helping us.”

“I told you, plain and simple revenge.”

“It’s still a very overly complicated method to enact some petty revenge.” Ghenadie glanced at Eluria, she wasn’t angry though she could be hiding it. Women could always do that well.

“You should have moved against Atros.” Eluria glanced to the north. “I told you to attack immediately.”

“If you’d told us that he was operating in The Shadow Isles, and could somehow return to Atros with but a snap of his fingers-”

“He’s using Tethra’s magic to create a crude Jump Gate. He’s circumventing a lot of work, but there are consequences.”

“Losing magic?” Ghenadie raised a brow. “Bodily corruption or degradation?”

Eluria chuckled. “No. Just distortion and dizziness. But since they’ve cast very little in the way of protection it shouldn’t take me long to break them.”

“Then-”

“If I were to do that I’d alert Ferula. And then I’d be killed. I might wound her but she’d slaughter all of you, especially if she brought her followers too. So I must leave it alone, for now at least. So long as I stay away so will she.”

Ghenadie looked out the window again. His eyes caught something as it trailed down, something white buffeted against the wind. A snowflake, the first of the coming winter.

“The moment the snows have receded we will launch our assault on Atros.”

“It may be too late by then,” Eluria spoke softly.

Ghenadie shrugged. “We can’t stop the snows, not even you can. We’ll continue to build and march the moment the snows melt. By then we could have hundreds of thousands of Goblins, all armed with metal weapons. Imagine the Kingdom’s and Empires quivering in their cities.”

Eluria looked out the window in silence. The snowflakes began to fall in greater numbers now, almost able to build up a complete layer before melting away.

“What about that mine you were talking about?” Eluria asked, tapping a finger against the wall. “Bale Fire Mine, or whatever it’s called. Isn’t that important? Surely you want that under control before the snows really start to fall.”

She held her hand out to catch a single snowflake. It melted upon contact, forming a small droplet.

“Not anymore. We’ve finally broken into the vaults.” Ghenadie smiled. “Damned thing. The Kar Kingdom built them well, even had some nasty Dwarven locks. Adamantium! Completely made out of that metal. How much did that cost? If they’d spent that money on their army…But now we have all the money we could possibly need. No tool or piece of equipment is out of our reach. And it won’t attract attention, unlike stealing thousands of hammers-”

“Can Goblins even use human tools?” Eluria chuckled. “They can barely use wooden spears.”

“Though it won’t be as good as a human’s it’ll be more than enough. More than enough to overwhelm this little Atros.” Ghenadie couldn’t help but smile. “Who knows where we’ll go next? It may have taken a hundred generations but perhaps I will finally be the Great Seer to see Trellos reborn. The entire Pantheon reborn."

Ghenadie gripped hard onto the shattered glass window. Eluria frowned in worry as blood leaked from his hand, running down the window. But Ghenadie didn’t care. The mere thought of their success dispelled all pain. He looked at Eluria, a wild smile on his face. “And. It. Will. Be. Glorious!”