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(13) After hearing of the successes of Armadyl and Ikov, many woodsmen had hoped that the two would come to help them in the forest, but against their government they could not resist. They had no guarantee that merely discarding the lanterns would render them visible again, and they feared how the government might respond. So they obeyed and hid themselves. In fact, most woodsmen had been prepared to do battle against Armadyl and Ikov and their company on behalf of the government if Armadyl and Ikov could not break the spell. But from that day things had changed.

(14) After his account ended, Armadyl said, "We will protect you. Are there any agents of your government here?" The village leader responded, "No, no one from the upper woodland has arrived, as far as we know." "Good, I sense no duplicity here," said Armadyl, "Will you fight with us?" All the villagers agreed with joy. Armadyl then commanded the stone which broke the spell to be touched by all the troops, and then for the stone to be sent with the villagers to every village from the south to the north, to break any lasting effects of the lanterns.

(15) Soon the lower woodland was freed. Agents of the government were overthrown and banished. Over the next weeks, Armadyl and Ikov journeyed through the villages from south to north, and the number of their troops grew tremendously. All rose up against the tyranny of the upper woodland. With an army of several thousand, Armadyl and Ikov moved into the great clearing before the ice-capped mountain and the cities upon its slopes. The cities were an intimidating sight: three rings of high, thick walls surrounded the capital, fully garrisoned with archers, and three moats about them; high walls and still higher towers rose up from the impregnable outcrop of rock upon which the second city was built; and above it all, high and dark in the mists, watched the ominous fortress of Kathekontos.

(16) Armadyl and Ikov ordered camp to be pitched near the edge of the forest and then the construction of many machines of war: towers, ladders, catapults, and rams. Once the work was underway, Armadyl took Ikov aside. He said, "Ikov, I sense many spirits at work here, and they are not spirits for you to face. The rulers in the capital are from a world called Vampyrium; they are powerful and would decimate our forces should we meet them in battle. Therefore, we should strike the capital first, and I will fight in the battle for it. But the Vampyres are not alone. There is another spirit here which gives them strength. It has settled into the land, and it will not give way until we have conquered the whole woodland." Pointing to the summit of the ice-capped mountain, he said, "That means that I cannot overcome the Vyre until you take Kathekontos." Ikov looked up to the fortress; a shudder ran down his spine.

(17) "Therefore, I propose this. We will divide our troops beforehand. With the main bulk, I will attack the capital: at its main gate facing east, and at its southwestern wall where the roots of the mountain makes its defenses thin. You will gather those loyal soliders who wish to remain with us in our journey to the northern steppes at the end of this campaign, and you will wait apart with them. Once the city is taken, and I have cornered the Vyre, I will send half of the army of my soldiers back to you. You with your fresh troops will attack the second city. While it appears impregnable, its towers are few, and no match for our machines of war; it will fall quickly. Leaving behind only enough to secure the city, you will march up the mountain and take Kathekontos."

(18) Ikov agreed. But Armadyl continued, "That is not it, Ikov. There is one more spirit here, a spirit native to this land, but it has been twisted and tortured by what has happened here. It is too great for you to face, and will be a challenge for me. It will rise in the middle of the plain as a great earthen giant. I don't know when it will rise, but you should not be here when it does - it would sense your sorcery and crush you. After you take Kathekontos, I want you to continue on to the moors in the north, along with your chosen soldiers. Do the same as we have done thus far: listen to the people, whomever you find there, and seek out whatever evils the sun-god sent us to quell. Send the rest of the troops back to me, so that I may face the giant here. I will join you in the north when I have won." With fear in his heart, Ikov agreed again. "Do not fear, Ikov," said Armadyl, "but stand firm as you did among the sea-folk and the Asgarnians."

(19) The preparations continued for a few weeks more, while the people of the upper woodland waited behind their walls. At times the troops trembled with fear at the sight of the cities; and at other times, they boasted confidently of the coming victory. All the while, Armadyl and Ikov encouraged them in their discipline and their preparations. Then the day came to attack. Armadyl commanded two battalions. One equipped with many large shields, towers, and rams attacked the front gate of the capital. The other attacked quickly and unexpectedly from higher, rocky terrain which abutted the southwestern wall. The second battalion took the first ring of the city and procured safer passage for the first. Over the course of days, one by one the walls of the city fell, until Armadyl forced the Vyre to remain locked in their palace. Once the city was secured, he sent most of the army east, out of the city to Ikov.

(20) Ikov moved to meet the battle-weary soldiers in the middle of the plain, along with his chosen troops and several machines of war, and then to march on the second city. He ordered the fresh troops to lead the way, and to encourage those who were tired. The second city lacked archers, so the walls were quickly scaled; prisoners were released; and its enormous gate was battered down. The city was taken in only a few more days.

(21) Leaving behind the soldiers too exhausted to continue, Ikov gathered those he could, as well as one great seige engine, and began the march up the mountain. It was a long and narrow path, along a ridge rising gently from the base of the second city to the summit. Through the whole march, the fortress loomed above, shrouded in the shadow of clouds. For two days they climbed. At midday on the third day of the march they approached within five hundreds paces of the defensive wall, stretching between two sheer walls of rock. All of a sudden, the clouds broke, and the sun shined upon Kathekontos - and the shadow that lay upon it, in an unnatural flutter, fled away. The troops cheered, for whatever dark spirit haunted the peaks of the mountain had gone. They advanced quickly. Under heavy shields they brought forward the machine, and with one heavy swing of its arm they breached the defensive wall. With great enthusiasm they swarmed over the crumbled barrier, and swiftly subdued the small garrison there, many of whom did not resist but welcomed their kinsmen as soon as the wall was breached.

(22) For a few days, Ikov and his troops rested. The people of Kathekontos voted for the execution of those who had cooperated with the Vyre against their countrymen and restored as much as they could their old ways of life. So as not to draw too heavily from the limited supplies of the mountain community, Ikov dismissed about half his troops to return Armadyl on the plain below. Having confirmed that those remaining - about five hundred sea-folk, Asgarnians, and woodsmen - truly desired to continue on to the northern steppes, he procured what supplies the people of Kathekontos could afford to give them and led the march down the northern side of the mountain, into the moors.

(23) There Ikov and his army camped, and waited for Armadyl. For weeks, Ikov sent out scouts to reconnoiter the land. It was barren for many miles in every direction: continuous swamp and fog and rain. There was little food to come by, so food was strictly rationed. There was also little dry wood for fire. Many became ill after the days and nights of freezing rain. They encountered few people: a couple wandering witches and some banished officials of the Vyre regime. One witch sold a potion to a sick soldier claiming that it would cure him, but it turned out to be poison. The soldiers invited a banished woodsman to sit with them around a fire, but he attempted to stab one of them and was killed on the spot. It was debated among the soldiers whether they should kill anyone they met in those barren lands. But Ikov dismissed the idea. He encouraged the soldiers as often as he could; they maintained their daily drills to keep warm and to keep their minds occupied while they waited for their god.

(24) Despite the difficulty of the life in the moors, Ikov kept watch over his heart and the spirits working there. He could feel some of what was happening in the woodland to the south. He felt the spirits of three Vyre, not destroyed but subdued and then banished from the world; he felt the freedom of the woodland from the shadow that had departed from the summit of the mountain; and he felt the stirring of the great earthen giant of which Armadyl had spoken. At times he caught glimpses of his god: standing upon something - a hill or a platform - in the center of the plain, his army arrayed behind him, before the edge of the forest, waiting. He saw the rising of the earth, swirling rock and dust, gathering and clumping, a massive figure forming. He saw Armadyl standing calmly before it, unflinching and relaxed. He saw terror in the eyes of the troops beyond as they watched a god meet the disturbed spirit of their land. He did not see the battle, but he felt a pain in his soul, a pain so deep that it would remain with him forever. He understood that Armadyl had spared him and that he could not imagine what Armadyl endured. He knew the battle for the woodland was won.

(25) A few days later, after four weeks in the moors, Armadyl arrived. The troops were encouraged, and even more encouraged when he told them of his battle with the earthen giant, but Ikov knew a little piece of the pain of which Armadyl did not tell. Armadyl and Ikov did not need to discuss it, for they understood one another. They prepared to move deeper into the moors. The war in the woodland had lasted about five months.

Part 4: Moors

(1) Armadyl and Ikov and their company set about a more systematic exploration of the moors. The moors extended east from the troll-mountains and north from the snow-capped mountain and ridge of hills, covering a small corner of the vast northern steppes. Few lived there: some lonely exiles, mostly witches. The witches lived in thatched huts hidden among tepid pools and large, twisted roots of plants which grew upon the ground; they ate the same strange mosses and herbs growing there that they gathered for their potions. For outsiders, there was little food to be found. Occasionally the troops spotted a bird hopping amidst the foliage, having lost its way in flight through the fog - a welcome addition to their sparse rations of dried meat and bread for at least a couple soldiers. The occasional ray of sunshine also lifted their mood; otherwise it remained dampened by the frequent, freezing rain.

(2) After a few weeks the company of about five hundred sea-folk, Asgarnians, and woodsmen had surveyed all of the moors and had discovered little of interest. The troops longed to leave the inhospitable wetlands: open plains lay to the north and the east. But Armadyl and Ikov counseled patience, for they knew that something waited for them there. Ikov and the company had left Kathekontos with plentiful rations that they could make last for another three months - which Ikov planned to do.

(3) From what wood could be gathered, the soldiers built a small wall around their camp, as well as shelters in which wood for fire could be kept to dry. Armadyl and Ikov dispatched scouts continuously to monitor the land. On a few occasions Armadyl and Ikov attempted to speak to the local witches, but each time the witch would respond in riddles or crazed laughter. They were not surprised, for the witches lived wretched lives attempting to manipulate and in turn manipulated by the spirits who lived in the barren land.

(4) In the months that followed, strange things occured among the troops. One would dream of sumptuous feasts each night, and during the day he would behave irritably or despondently among the others. Some reported inexplicable temptations to steal from the rations of others, even though they had become used to their disciplined diets and were not much burdened with hunger. Still others engaged in an incessant, idle gossip, and became aggressive or defensive among their friends. Factions formed among the troops, and plots - real or imagined - to embarrass or to outperform in drills other groups. Ikov addressed the problems continuously, and after he would call them to their senses the troops would return to their normal, honorable ways.

(5) Once a scout caught a witch hidden in the fens performing an enchantment just outside the camp. He brought her to Armadyl and Ikov. Armadyl immediately recognized that she had been directing her malicious magic toward the camp, and he slew her on the spot. On the next day, a soldier reported that his troubling dreams and the anxiety daily induced by them had ceased. The troops again raised the question a second time of whether they ought to slaughter every resident they encounterd in the barren land, but Armadyl spoke against it strongly, and it was not suggested again.

(6) To have discovered and addressed one source of the disturbances among his troops encouraged Ikov, but many more disturbances continued, and they weighed on him. The weather discouraged him too. Despite improvements to the camp - shelters for fires and drying wood, fresh dirt packed atop the soft ground, and tents reinforced to endure the rain - Ikov missed the dry, warm winds of the Kharidian, as well as the sunlight - which remained forever blocked by the thick, gray fog.

(7) Day after day, Ikov spoke with the soldiers, watched their drills, listened to the reports of scouts, and consulted with Armadyl. Each day neither could report that he had discerned their purpose there; they simply knew that there must be a spirit in the moors for them to quell. A strangeness dwelt there, but not one that would reveal itself. Again and again Ikov walked through the fog, attempting to feel the spirits at work in the land. But nothing came to him, only fog, fog and more fog, fog which weighed upon him and pressed him to the edge of despair. And then Ikov understood: it was the fog; the fog was an evil fog which had been at work against him and his troops from the moment they entered the moors. Despite their courage and their confidence, it had continuously brought them low; it tempted them with strange thoughts and desires; it invited them again and again to manipulation, to plotting, to conspiracy and paranoia. It had brought the rain and the witches and was attempting to drive them out of the land or to drive them mad.