It took me a moment to realize myself, but it wasn’t until heading downstairs and catching Mr. Wright by surprise that I realized the state that me and the boys were in.

  “Oh! Don’t come anywhere near my kitchen while smelling like that!”

  That’s when it hit me that I hadn’t showered for months. I have no idea how Elder Zal put up with that, but me and the boys likely smelled filthy. No, not likely…we definitely smelled filthy. I guess living in the stench, and rarely having to use the restroom gave me nose blindness.

  I had gotten way too used to the smell.

  But I turned a questioning gaze towards the man that met us in the office.

  “Ah, I just didn’t want to be rude City Lord.”

  Oh, I see.

  Anyway, after apologizing to Mr. Wright, the boys and I went to go freshen up and it was only after we were sufficiently clean did we finally exit the City Lord Mansion.

  Man. It was truly nice to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin again.

  Yet the feeling was short lived as I took in the sight as the rest of the City. From where I stood I can sense a flurry of activity all over the place. People were yelling, things were being built, good were being moved. There was a lot going on.

  And as we walked, the biggest thing I noticed was the distinct lack of joy or happiness in the air. I couldn’t hear or see any laughter. No one I saw looked particularly happy.

  And while I don’t consider myself someone that people should stop and say hi to, before I left that was a common occurrence. Now everyone seemed far too busy to worry about the tall Infernal dressed in pristine black fabrics walking around their City with a fancy looking spear.

  Needless to say, the mood in the City had taken on a serious note.

  I suppose that means everyone found out about the war.

  I guess with the flurry of activity I noticed it was likely hard to hide it for too long, and it would probably be even harder to hide when a force of Infernals showed up out of the blue.

  Infernals that were now camped outside of the City.

  Infernals that I could hear from where I stood.

  I heard two distinct sounds that caused me to pause my steps a bit.

  “FORM UP!”

  “OOOH!!”

  Someone yelled loud enough that I could hear their command to form up all the way from here, and it only took a few moments for a resounding and collective grunt of understanding to be sounded from the forces I assumed were ordered to form up.

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  The sound they made could likely be heard by the entire City. That was proven by the fact that various people around me stopped to stare towards the gate.

  Even my guide stopped to stare.

  “Is this something that happens often?”

  He took a moment to register I was talking to him before he turned towards me.

  “Ah, no City Lord. Since they’ve been here this is the first time they’ve done this.”

  “I see. Thank you.”

  If this is the first time they’ve done this, then I think I know what happened.

  This really is going to be an interesting interaction.

  “Lirian and Frian.”

  They both looked towards me.

  “From this moment forward I recognize you as members of my Clan. Act accordingly.”

  They didn’t respond right away, but I could tell they were more than a bit shocked. It took them a few moments, but I didn’t feel like rushing them. Especially since something like this, would usually be accompanied by some type of ceremony, but I didn’t care for something like that.

  Plus, we could always schedule one at a later date.

  Anyway, I’ve spent enough time with them since Elder Zal introduced them to me, and particularly over the last 8 months. I trust them and this is their reward.

  I don’t want them to feel like they needed to compete with the Infernals standing outside my City walls for a place in my Clan. They were beyond that point. The bestowal of the Eternal Flame will come later.

  After they finally collected themselves, they looked toward each other with barely concealable grins before snapping back to me and then immediately dropping to one knee.

  And then almost as if it was practiced, both of them spoke the exact same words.

  “My Spear is your Spear, and your Will is my Will. So as long as I breathe, I vow to deliver death and destruction to your enemies. May your Flames burn Eternally and your Spear ever swift!”

  Honestly. I am 100% certain they likely practiced that hundreds of times. It was so refined and in synch that I almost wouldn’t believe them if they told me they hadn’t practiced it hundreds of times.

  But I definitely didn’t expect them to do that. At least not right here and right now. I figured something like that might happen if we had an official ceremony, but I guess they didn’t care one bit about the eyes that shifted towards them during their speech.

  Well, if they didn’t care then I didn’t either.

  “Good. Now stand tall and never forget your vows, because I will never forget, forsake, or abandon you. Wrong or right, I will always be by your side. Understand?”

  “Yes Patriarch!”

  “Yes Patriarch!”

  “Good.”

  We only began moving again after our little public ceremony was over. I didn’t plan on turning it into that and was only expecting some ‘Yes, Patriarchs!’ but whatever, the boys were clearly into it, so I wasn’t going to leave their determination hanging like that.

  It only took a few minutes for us to finally reach the West Gate and upon walking out what I saw shocked me.

  Is this what Elder Zal considered a few?

  There were quite literally thousands of them out here. To the left and right of the gate were thousands of tents, but I’m pretty sure every single one of them was empty at the moment.

  I said so because I could see a very large…what’s the word…battalion? Yeah let’s go with that. I could see a very large battalion standing in very neat ranks past the array of tents.

  Thousands of them. Thousands of Infernals were gathered before my City.

  I continued walking towards them and waved towards Richard who I saw standing not too far away.

  My walk towards them didn’t stop for a moment until I was only a few feet away from the front of the group.

  Richard made his way over towards me but before either of us could say anything, the gathered Infernals acted first.

  “We greet the Eternal Flame!”

  I’m certain their greeting reached the City.

  Now, I honestly didn’t know how to respond to this greeting of theirs, so I kept it simple.

  “Good. Who is in charge here?”

  At that question, one of the women who was standing in front walked out from the group.

  “I greet the Eternal Flame. My name is Scalera, and I serve Matriarch Arainian. It is by her will that I am in charge of this contingent. I apologize for wielding our spears in your presence, but these are times of war.”

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  P.S Book One of Infernal Apocalypse will be Stubbing this year as well!!!