Eirian's armor was polished ebony. It gleamed no matter how weak the light was. Thin sheets of folded steel that were molded specifically for her body and fighting style. The stylized Soliel sun was etched into the breast plate, along with the family motto.
All things burn, all things are illuminated.
The Soliels weren't known for their subtlety, though Eirian actually liked their family motto.
The Soliels had begun as the Age of Warfare was ending, and her ancestors had gained influence by helping to rebuild rather than destroy. They weren't pacifists; there were dozens of notable warriors among them, but they weren't bloodthirsty warmongers either.
A few bad apples aside.
Eirian's armor was in the family style, with elegant edges and very little decoration beyond the etchings. It didn't add any height, which was always annoying, but it did make her seem a bit broader, a bit bulkier, bigger.
Eric had told her she looked intimidating, wrapped in polished steel, Ardain on her hip.
Eirian thought it made her look more important, but she was long past assuming someone was strong just because they wore armor. She'd met plenty of fools and weaklings who had thought covering themselves in steel meant they'd win the fight.
It's not too heavy, maybe forty or fifty pounds in total, but she was used to carrying it and barely even noticed it after a few minutes. It had been a pain to learn to fight when she was young, because her fighting style had always been more about speed and flexibility than strength and hold.
Ardain was the core of that, long and slim as opposed to the hulking longswords many of the capital's guards carried or the short gladiolus swords most soldiers carried. She was light too, the blade so slim it looked like it would shatter under a single blow and tinged red like all blooding blades.
She was singing as Eirian put on her armor and gathered the last of her things before she rode out.
Chenzhou and Mingzhe had left with their forces yesterday morning and evening, respectively. The forces were too large to leave all at once, and it took hours for them to clear the Camelia, and then the only road into the borderlands for several miles. Chenzhou and Mingzhe's forces each amounted to nearly one hundred thousand soldiers, and Eirian's was the same. Moving such large forces took time, even with trained soldiers and animals.
The further into the borderlands they made it, the more difficult the movement of large bodies became, and Eirian knew that both men planned to break their forces into smaller groups once they ran out of proper roads.
Eirian faced a slightly different challenge in the heart of the borderlands. There were more roads because there were more villages, which meant fewer, smaller tribes as well, but those roads also served the larger tribes to the north and south and allowed them to respond and track enemy locations relatively quickly.
Eirian would also be hamstrung by protecting the villages, a tactic the tribes were well known for employing.
She was still planning to send scouts after Snake, too, and when she'd met with her sub-commanders, she'd told them as much, with an order to keep it quiet and to tell as few people as possible.
It was a risk. There was a fair chance that Snake had turned one of the four, but not doing anything wasn't going to catch the spy either, so Eirian had accepted the risk.
If nothing else, she'd find out who was loyal and who wasn't, and the more traitors they rousted, the faster they could secure the Camelia and ensure everyone inside was safe.
Both Chenzhou and Mingzhe had been reluctant to depart, though they'd carried on like the stoic generals of the old stories.
But Eirian had gotten to know both of them enough to know they didn't want to fight.
How ironic that two of the most important people in her life were so drastically different from Eirian herself.
She loved a good fight.
It was the best way to settle disputes, the most straightforward way to measure strength, and there was very little time for lies or deception in a fight, so what you did see of your opponent was mostly honest.
Chenzhou preferred emotion, to talk, to negotiate. He was a peacekeeper at heart.
Mingzhe preferred logic, science, and debate, but in the end, he was the same.
It made them good leaders, that reluctance to sacrifice or hurt their people unless it was absolutely necessary, but it also made them a bit too cautious to be the kind of brilliant military commanders their enemies would be terrified to face.
To do that, to fight at that level, a level of risk versus reward and willingness to indulge chance was required that most people were not capable of accepting.
Eirian fought on instinct. Well-trained, experienced, and honed instinct, but instinct nonetheless, and she didn't fear pain.
She was going to roll over the tribes like a boulder over dirt until none of them would dream of attacking the Camelia or her protectorates.
Fleet Goddess was waiting for her, with her matching breastplate and saddle. Eirian paused long enough to feed her a handful of sugar cubes before mounting up. Finn was remaining behind for now, to continue the investigation into the Vault and to keep an eye on Henri Colfax, who'd been chosen to stay behind and lead the Camelia while his sister took command of their forces on the field.
Brendan was safe under Marian's watchful eye and would remain oblivious to the fighting hundreds of miles away.
Yuze and Fox had met and exchanged information, and now Fox was headed north to Chenzhou, and Yuze was headed to Eirian. One of Yuze's other experienced spies, Falcon, was headed south to Mingzhe.
Eirian urged Fleet Goddess out of the stables and into the sunlight. It was a warm day, and it would be too warm to fight at its highest point in the afternoon. Another sign that Beng Shai was more dangerous than he'd seemed the day they'd met him. The heat would take a far greater toll on the armored soldiers of the Camelia than it would on his own forces.
~ tbc