Vifapa Pasha gazed heavily at the Great Wall rising from the ground, his heart full of hatred for Amaunator's followers. If they hadn't taken control of the grand pasha's descendants, refused to send them to the safer Almraiven Fortress, and left those young princes in dangerous Manshaka as symbols of resistance, he would never have been in such a hurry to invite the Terrasil Elves to Suldolphor!
Manshaka was the God-Monsters' first target. Any resistance left elsewhere in Calimshan was holed up in small fortresses housing ten or twenty thousand people at most.
But Manshaka probably held hundreds of thousands by now. Vifapa Pasha doubted Amaunator's followers could stand against God-Monsters that were at least level twenty. It wasn't like the old days, when Mages could unleash their strongest spells at any moment and Gods could descend in an instant.
For now, Vifapa Pasha could only hope these followers of the Fairies truly had no interest in Calimshan. Elves usually kept their word, though. It should be fine.
No matter how often he reassured himself, Vifapa Pasha remained anxious. The Mages and scholars in his fortress did not see eye to eye with him. He had chosen to become an independent lord, they argued, and the Terrasil Elves could hardly have designs on a place as small as Suldolphor. Why should he still care what happened to Calimshan?
And if the Terrasil Elves really wanted to occupy Calimshan, would that be so bad? At least Amaunator's resurrection plan would fail outright. By this point, experienced Torilians could tell what was going on.
Spellcasters had never hidden their hostility toward Amaunator. Scholarly Mages interested in ancient history were especially bitter: once they saw how little the old Magic Weave had constrained Mages, the present was hard to stomach.
The great Arcanist