Wercheg was a port city on the northeastern border of the Kingdom of the Nords, separated from the Vaegir Kingdom by only Elberck Castle. It belonged to Gand Jarl.
Yet when Allen arrived near Wercheg with a detachment of light cavalry, Gand Jarl's banner of blades and rippling waves was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a blood-red nightmare banner on a black field hung from the walls. It was the banner of the Dark Cult, belonging to Fenrir, the "Flame Paladin" and commander of the Order of the Thunder of Doom.
Indeed, Allen's column included large numbers of civilians, and they had to take circuitous routes to evade enemy scouts. Their pace was painfully, painfully slow.
They had traveled all the way from the bleak depths of winter into the warmth of spring, when branches began to bud. In previous years, people would already have been preparing to sow the fields by now.
Presumably, Fenrir had fought his way here from Jelborg Castle. Finding the siege of Sargoth alongside Hel too dull, he had brought his elite cavalry to launch a Blitzkrieg against Wercheg.
Now the nightmare banner flew high above the city gates. The battle must have gone exceptionally smoothly.
But Wercheg's fall created an enormous problem for the column behind Allen.
Their supplies were running low. Haediyar, the soldiers, and the civilians all had only limited provisions and money. If they did not quickly find somewhere to settle and continued wandering aimlessly, sooner or later even feeding themselves would become a problem.
At that point, an army of several thousand soldiers and nearly twenty thousand refugees would likely become the largest band of marauders in Calradia's history.
There had not actually been so many people when they left Hrus Castle. But with war raging and the situation in