i am the violence in the pouring rain
i am a hurricaneShe isn’t worried about the strength of the Gates. It’s the allies that she might pull with them. The Deserts, certainly. Their damn goodie two-shoes magician wouldn’t stay out of that fight. There’s simply no way. Camrynn was gone, and so no one would be reigning in Yael anytime soon. And Vanquish would certainly like a fight, and he’s never much liked the Valley. She can’t see how the Deserts would end up on any side other than the Gates. They didn’t have much man power, but they had a few useful souls. The Amazons, if they went to the Gates, would bring the Dale with them. Assuming the Dale agreed to fight. Straia didn’t care much about the Dale – the Amazons were the real fight.
A fun one, certainly. But one they couldn’t pretend wasn’t a real threat. It would be a greater win, to defeat nearly half of Beqanna with just the Chamber and the Valley, and Straia wouldn’t pretend she didn’t relish that idea. But still, she didn’t want to leave her kingdom in ruins because of it either.
“The Gates will bring allies though.” she says, pointing out that the Gates isn’t the strength to be worried about. Not that Gallows wasn’t smart enough to figure this out. She rolls her shoulders slightly though. They may not have numbers on their side, but they had a myriad of skills, between the Valley and the Chamber.
“I’d attack. The Gates is mostly open, just some trees and brush. We can burn anything in our way there.” The Gates was not the Jungle or the Desert or the Tundra. They were far more vulnerable, and their advantage of knowing the land didn’t help them that much there. They didn’t even have a pine forest like the Chamber. Certainly not impenetrable, but at least it slowed an advancing army down. The Gates, with their open border policy anyway, made it pretty damn easy to waltz right in. “I’d rather lead the fight, set them into an panic. It’ll take their allies some time to arrive, and we can have started already. Besides, we get to set the terms. Granted, I don’t honestly want anything from them except for them to shut up about this revenge nonsense.”
Because it was nonsense. If they had quietly rebuilt themselves, Straia might have been more inclined to let it go. The tree would grow back, after all. This time, she didn’t really care if they destroyed every ounce of the entity.
straia
the raven queen of the chamber
