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Calisto spent the day picking and hammering at rocks in the mine. She wasn't even sure if there was a point to this labor. Were they looking for something or just putting the prisoners to work? By the end of the day, her hands were blistered and bleeding. She got them bandaged up quickly and was sent on her way, back to her cell.

The quirky thing was not that Ephlas did not know how to drive a sand beetle - indeed, he did not - but was that Clem was explaining how to drive anyway, as if you would simply explain to a modern thirteen-year-old what the different functions of a car were and then expect that child to drive--even to the point of risking your own life attending such a driving session.

To make a hypothetical reference, of course.

Ephlas waited for Clem to lead the beetle away, and into the desert--this they needed to do, before anything else could be accomplished. Ephlas was still in a hurry.

~

Dakon shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. I went to fight the Horde, and defend your walls. They should have stayed here, but where they are I know not."

Dakon seemed to ignore the elves, for the time being, because their fate was not his business nor his affair.

~

Bael nodded in reply. "Unfortunately," he commented, however, "the facilities in this city are nowhere near the size nor complexity required for facilitating the construction of a cannon. Nor do the people possess the materials necessary - we might, possibly, scrap together one cannon with the remains of the metal from our casualty of the last battle."

Cannons were also huge, awkward, and slow--making their fire easy to maneuver around by cavalry and even infantry, after a few chance encounters to allow the enemy strategists and tacticians to figure out how to avoid and counter such weapons.

Catapults were slightly more maneuverable, but trebuchet--able to launch a rain of deadly sharp stone hail--was the best defensive preparation they could possibly make, in that regard.

There was another problem.

"My lord, something else." Bael declared. "We have another precarious position, one which the severity of you quite likely do not yet understand or comprehend. The 'populace' of this city are not likely to render their aid unto us under any circumstance, and giving them the ability to hinder us with our own minds is not wise. Of our own citizenship, we could possibly lower the criteria for selecting new Mindbreakers, and turn up a few results, but the total effect would be... worth less than the time rendered to recruit the new ones.

"Furthermore," Bael continued, "we will be constantly subject to magical assault. Even when no army threatens, a magical spy could attempt to enter our walls--and only Mindbreakers would be able to prevent or even warn ourselves against such attack with absolutely any effectiveness. I am afraid that we would not be able to spare the men to even attempt to select new Mindbreakers--which would end unsuccessfully--but our own populace of Mindbreakers is extremely, dangerously small. They would have to be on constant, unceasing alert and vigil, and this means more than a few so that some can rest while others keep up their mental 'watch.' Adding besides to this, that our assaults on other cities will prove most likely to fail without Mindbreaking aid, and it becomes very difficult to decide how to split our Mindbreaking forces--we have fourteen, including myself, if I recall correctly. Though I could be wrong, we cannot have a very few more than that, and possibly even less as well."

This was indeed a serious situation.

"And I do not know much about Eopian magicians--and they are magicians; the scientists would hardly function without--but it would seem painfully clear to me that they would not aid a country invading another, for any reason. But if these are still your orders, I will see to it."

"The Academy is loyal to coin... that is all." Malakai said, pouring over the map. "Well... with what we have, I'll do my best to think up a plan... in the meantime, keep the army busy building trenches and flooding them. the harder it is for them to get this city, the better we've secured it..."

---

Clem let the reigns slacken. his beetle moved onto the large disc. When the magi got on, Clem nodded to an operator on a podium of sorts. The disc silently slid off at an incredible speed, until letting them crawl off a good distance from Outreach. It was there a Horde Myrmidon attempted to rob them.

"Water! Give uss water and meat before I sslit your throatss!" Ne'galash threatened, waving his carapace blade in the air. It actually looked kind of funny to have a lone Horde creature in the middle of nowhere... but it was strange that it was talking.

---

Valthere shook his head, "Typical... leave it to sandgliders to jump into trouble... I bet they flew right out there to help..."

Clem just stared, "It's talking..."

Ne'galash seemed to be irritated now, "We ssaid 'meat and water!' Thiss iss a robbery! What are you sstanding for? Give it to uss!"

Clem looked at the mage, "Have you ever heard of a talking Horde creature?"

---

Vathere looked back at the elves, "They crawled in through the window..."

"a** long ahss we get to eat..." Ne'galash replied, "what do you wissh to sspeak about, human?"

((Bump.))

Farfarello scuttled to the top of the rock, clinging to the back side so he couldn't be attacked, but sticking his head over the top to see. He laughed out loud, "She called us sand-sweltering bastards." For some reason this greatly amused the demon. His mouth was shut in a tight, gleeful smile.

((Hey--you can get some pretty awesome things from the aquarium. Mines at 67% health, and they usually give between 100-500 gold - but sometimes you get treasure chests. One gave me 2000 and one gave me an item worth 12k.

And I saw the potential of what Kaye can do with his video games. Much better than my own skill with Game Maker. It was... sweet. cool ))

Helena drew herself up, stopped short in what she was about to say. "Why, as a matter of fact, they did. As well as two other races, the Draon and the Magruev. ...Why?"

~

Ephlas watched and listened to Ne'galash with amusement. "You speak to us. In our language. I'm simply curious as to why."

Suddenly, all manner of haste was now forgotten. Ephlas soon had a basket full of bread, jerky, and dried fish in his hand; he had procured it from an unknown source, as it had simply been in his hand, suddenly.

"For one thing," Ephlas continued, as he handed the basket over, "isn't your species Horde?"

A certain sand dweller that Ephlas knew would have loved this opportunity; the Magus wasn't going to waste it, either.