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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 1810371" data-attributes="member: 99">Thanks for all the feedback on the "views issue".  I appreciate it.  And nice to see you again, Tony Vargas!  Glad you're still reading.  I may have to adopt the habit of posting a "last updated" date in the Title.  Anyway, here's the update I promised and I expect to be able to put up at least one more this week.  Probably on Friday.Across the city, somewhere in the labyrinthine depths of the Imperial War College, Lazarius was admitted to see his one-time mentor, Chancellor Felix.  She wore a few more wrinkles than when he was a student but was still hale and carried an aura of authority with her.“Greetings, Lazarius!  It has been too long since you have visited our halls!  Come and sit.   I am interested to hear of your travels in the Northlands!”Lazarius bowed at the waist but not so deeply as he might have once.  He was no longer her student and had served his time in the Legions.  And he was rapidly becoming her equal in power if not status.  But she still had his respect and he needed her help.“I’m afraid that the tales of my adventures in the north will have to wait for a time at least.  There are grave matters at hand and I must speak to the entire Chancellery.”She frowned for she was an excellent reader of people and she read the seriousness in Lazarius now.  “I’m afraid that many of them have been deployed with the Legions for now.  As you probably know, Flavius has sent several Legions north to capture the western Northlands and expand the Empire.  Most of the Chancellors who did not go with them were sent to the eastern border to guard against Sythian treachery.  What is so dire that it requires all of our attentions?”“The Empire is about to come under attack by a large army of Orcs from a direction that is almost entirely undefended.  I don’t know how soon they’ll be here but I expect it will be within two weeks.”“What?!”  She was incredulous.  “An army of Orcs?!”“A navy actually.  Hundreds of ships are sailing down the Tractless Sea coast.  I don’t know their destination but their generals are not stupid and I would guess that they’ll strike at the western coast.”Felix paled.  “But the western coast is almost entirely undefended…the Legions who aren’t in the Northlands have been shifted to bolster the border with Sythia.  There are only a few guardsmen and levies to the west!  How big did you say this army is?”“Somewhere upwards of ten thousand.  And they also have wizards of their own, mounted on small dragons, as well as the magic of their giant-snake leaders, the Banelar.  And these Orcs do not match those of legend.  They are well organized and well led.  I don’t know how much damage they are capable of doing but they are able to strike where we are weakest.”Felix shook her head.  “I’ll call for the other Chancellors but I believe that only Scapula and Evilada are in the city.  They will want further confirmation of this you understand.”“Of course.  You will want to Scry upon a man, well…once he was a man, named Titus Pontius Macer.”“Very well,” she said and stood to leave her office.“I’m afraid there is something else, Chancellor.”“What?” Felix asked with trepidation.“This army is comprised of the followers of Bane.  And the Dead God is about to return.  Even as we speak a horde of devils are smashing open his tomb in Hell and we do not know what will happen when he is freed.”“Bane?!  How can this be?!  Are you certain?!”“I am.  But I also have a witness.  Once you’ve sent for the other Chancellors you are free to question him.  There is just the small matter of returning him to flesh…”An hour later they stood in a laboratory near Chancellor Felix’s office.  She held in her hand a well worn tome and scanned down the page.  “It has been many years since I had occasion to cast this spell.  I hope it works.”Lazarius stood silently against the wall and waited for her to go over the rotes that she required to cast her magic.  His eyes rested upon the statue of his friend, still frozen in that surprised stance where he had been caught by the Watcher.  He said a silent prayer but wondered if Marius were not in a better situation now than before.Lazarius was no fool and he knew plenty about dealings with infernal beings.  The way Marius had acted after his night with the she-devil spoke volumes about the trouble he was in.  Yet while he was in this stone prison he was held in a sort of stasis.  His soul was not yet spoken for and he knew nothing of the world around him.  Perhaps this way was better.  Marius’ dalliance with the hellish beauty may well have been something he would regret.  And they had both stood on the Bridge…“I think I’ve got it,” Felix said, interrupting his thoughts.  “Stand back.”  She began her incantations and the subtle movements of her hands and body that would call forth the magic.  Finally she rubbed a pinch of blood-soaked earth across the eyes of the statue.  It all took only a few seconds during which Lazarius held his breath.  Felix had showed him the details of the spell and he knew that not everyone returned to flesh withstood the shock of the event.  The stony hue evaporated from Marius’s skin and the Imperial Explorer stood in the flesh once again.  If his soul was damned…Marius’ knees trembled and he fell to them, his eyes darting around the room.  Where was the passageway into the City?  Where were his other companions?  Who was this woman who stood before him?  WHERE was that floating eye-thing?!He caught himself before he fainted and, finally, breathed.  He put that breath to good use.  “Lazarius, where in the hell are we?!”</blockquote>

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