"Slow down. First, I want to know why that razorjaw was chasing you?" Chronos said.
Her face rapidly shifted through several emotions before settling on resignation. Realizing that she would not get to see Lord Kaelvar until they were satisfied, she chose to tell them everything.
"We were fighting against the tear's dark beasts in an undersea chasm just offshore and had nearly succeeded in pushing them back to the tear when a devil appeared and assisted the dark beasts. If he hadn't shown up, we could have closed the tear by now and moved to assist Lord Kaelvar.
When I was sent to warn Lord Kaelvar about the possibility of a devil it entered the tear and disappeared. After that the monsters chased me down despite how many were lost or blocked by our army, on my way here the oracles sent me a message saying the devil might reappear here while Lord Kaelvar is trying to close the tear." Naerith confessed.
Vaelith and Chronos looked at each other with concern, monsters they could handle but a devil was a completely different story.
Even a weak devil had a strange power called miasma that was known to destroy aura and magic. When combined with their horrible nature it could become a very powerful enemy.
Hearing all of this Vaelith decided to share the swamps current situation as well.
"Right now, there is only one tear within the swamp, and it is being guarded by your army. The trolls have also assembled an army from the wasteland and are making their way towards the merfolk military outpost. We expect them to arrive sometime this afternoon."
Chronos noticed that she didn't say anything about the northern swamps but chose not to speak up.
"Then there is no time to waste. If there are more devils guiding the monster army like in the past, they'll undoubtedly try to secure the tear for themselves. How long will it take us to reach my people?" Naerith asked.
"About an hour. Our camp is within sight of the dam they are constructing."
"We're that close and they haven't chased you away yet?"
"The lizardfolk are exceptional at hiding within the swamp or the merfolk have noticed us and chosen not to do anything, but my money is on the former." Chronos stated.
If they could hide from his and Gregory's senses, then he doubted that the merfolk soldiers had brought anybody that could find the lizardfolk with them.
"Then we should go imm...ugh." Overcome with pain, she sank back onto her bed.
"You shouldn't move around so much, we don't have any priests here that are capable of healing your injuries. You'll have to wait for the potions to heal you." Vaelith informed her.
"But the devil."
"Instead of the devil, tell me about this Lord Kaelvar, how likely is he to listen to you?"
Chronos didn't want her to hurt herself again, so he kept her occupied with more questions.
She grimaced when she thought about this. "He might not listen, especially since I was injured by a razorjaw."
"Why is that?"
"Lord Kaelvar is very military minded. He won't listen to anybody he thinks isn't worth listening to and this injury would just be proof that I'm not worthy." She said in frustration.
"He's that stubborn huh. Is there anyone else in the military that could speak for you?"
She bit her lip as a woman's image floated through her mind.
"Maybe, my songstress teacher is a captain within the Marshward host. If I can get a message to her then she will probably support us, but we would have to be careful. Lord Kaelvar has an elite unit that protects him at all times, the Orca Guard won't allow me to get near him without a great reason.
If I hadn't been injured, I could have outswam them and reached him before they could react but like this, it's impossible." She gestured at her bandaged tail fin with her working arm.
"Then how do we contact your teacher?" Chrono asked.
"I don't know. I could try singing to her, but the orca guard will definitely hear me."
"Hmm, perhaps I can help. The Marshward host, as you call them, is not familiar with naga magic, so I can have one of my pet snakes deliver a short message and location for a meeting to her." Vaelith spoke up.
"Really? It won't be caught at all?" Naerith cocked her head to the side not quite believing that something as simple as a snake could slip past the guards.
"We use them for reconnaissance all the time. Your soldiers think they are common animals and since we feed them a potion to transmit sight and sound back to us your mages aren't able to detect much magic from them. We do have to avoid the core areas of the Marshward host, but regular magic users can't tell the difference between my pets and normal snakes." Vaelith said with a shrug.
"Then if it can sneak into teacher Lysira's tent we can send her a message. Bring me a paper and pencil, I will draw the usual camp set up of the Marshward host for you."
They brought out a pencil, but paper would just fall apart in the swamp's humidity. Instead, they handed her a wooden board, the naga normally use enchanted wooden boards for recording important information.
Secretly recording their common camp set up seemed like a good use for it.
Naerith drew the camp on the board as she explained the most likely positions for guards and alarm spells.
"The camp will be separated into two or three sections with an outer wall surrounding all of it. The dam will be built into the northern wall and can be collapsed to flood the camp in case enemy troops get inside. It will have a reservoir built just north of it to contain the water that the camp needs for daily operations.
The Orca guard will be placed just behind the dam, inside the commander's section. This is the most dangerous area as the elites there may have unknown abilities. Warden-singer Lysira is my teacher and will most likely be inside the commander's section but on the far southern side of it.
The central section is called the seal theater. On one side they should be building an organ to support the seal song that the warden-singer's will sing to close the tear. It will also be covered with harpoon teams, rope lanes, and eel basins to block and kill any dark beasts that come out of the tear. It's the most dangerous place in the camp but also where warden-singer Lysira will be spending most of her time in preparation of sealing the tear.
Then there is the outer section where most of the regular troops will be resting or training, it will be the first hurdle to cross. It has guards every thirty paces and harpoon teams with mounted harpoons every 100 paces. They will also be spreading brine outside of the wall to sterilize the work area making it easier for them to set up kelp bladders to support the outer wall."
Naerith had explained all of this with pride but in the eyes of the naga Matriarch it just looked like a bunch of posturing fools who didn't know much about how to build inside of a swamp.
But the organ's construction did explain the strange reed tubes that had been in a previous report.
"Getting past the outer wall will be easy, the brine softens the mud and kills the plants in the area allowing smaller creatures, like leeches, mud fish, and snakes, to get close to the wall without being detected. Those kelp bladders are also very weak; one or two blow darts would cause them to deflate and throw off the balance of the entire wall. Not to mention that the mud will only hold onto certain sections of the structure and pull it apart at the seams.
The inner sections will be more difficult but if they build their pathways the same way they have the wall it will leave open channels under the paths when the mud shifts. As long as there is an opening it won't be hard for my snake to enter the central area." Vaelith said.
"Then the real danger will be an expert magic caster finding your snake before the warden-singer and how we are going to convince the warden-singer that Naerith is here." Chronos said.
"That shouldn't be much of a problem, I can tell you the words to the first song I wrote. Other than my parents the warden-singer is the only other person who has heard it. Where will we meet her?" She asked as she wrote the song on a small piece of leather.
"Have her meet us at the scalebreak bastion east of here. It's all that is left of an ancient fort and is open to the river making escape easy if there's a trap on either side." Vaelith said.