The Warren of Caer Sidi

Aynia gave a customary bow and stood up straight. "I wish to consult the Oracle, if I may. I'd like to know the depth of it's knowledge on current matters, and get it's insight into our plans we've set in motion." She walked to a table and unfurled a map, setting a silver candlestick on each corner in an attempt to hold it down. "If I may go over what we've accomplished so far?" She gave a brief overview of the committed holdfasts, who was in the process of moving troops, where troops were and were to be stationed and what orders had been given. She pointed throughout her speech to various places on the map. A garrison here, a fleet of ships there, best avenues of travel and paths to take when transporting goods and various beings.

"It's been over eight days since the last holdfast representative sent word back. I expect the closest holdfasts will have troop movement as we speak, with more and more following afterward. I do not want to be hasty, but we may be about to, as you could put it, 'nip it in the bud'." She finished talking and clasped her hands together, waiting for one of the representatives to speak.

As the Seasonal Queen greeted the entourage of the Oracle, and then summarily began swiftly in beginning discussion on the situation that she knew regarding the Chaosium, the group in question would've - whilst wearing respectful smiles on their faces and standing stiff and to attention in the presence of the royal - shuffled in their place ever so slightly, and one member, the Cleric, Eesiywen retrieved an object from a small bag present against his side, one that looked not unlike a disc that even now, had a glow that drifted upwards from the centre barely visible in the current climate. He would rest the disc neatly on his hand, and for a moment he would close his eyes, maybe even start murmuring at an almost completely inaudible volume and as he himself began to faintly glow with latent energy and something buried within the robe of which he was wearing began to be "siphoned" from, the disc in the hand would begin to jitter ever so slightly, and the drifting glow grew ever more powerful and visible, and before long, it almost began to look like it would coalesce into a non-corporeal, spherical shape that indeed was positively glowing ever still, cycling slowly between colours but most commonly, shades of mute blues of medium darkness. In conjunction with this act, the Library Guardswoman, Syllarel would speak up to both respond to Aynia, and make it clear as to what her compatriot was performing...

Syllarel, Library Guardswoman: "Your royal highness, the Oracle and the wider Library have been vigilant in scrying and recording the events, any potential updates and the transgressions relating to the dastardly invaders.
From what has been gathered, the Chaolich may prove a larger threat than even before anticipated. I expect you shall want to hear of this from their honour, the Oracle, correct?

As we speak, my compatriot is... Summoning. The Oracle, shall we say? I believe that you may already be privy to his actions, your royal highness Aynia."

The non-corporeal sphere of energy emanating from the disc Eesiywen did not grow any larger than an acorn of a large caliber, however the glow did increase in saturation and potency indeed. And then, the "sphere of energy" spoke, in a mystical, low-pitched, blank but not unfriendly tone that seemed vaguely mysterious to the ears... It would communicate to begin with, jovially, though this seemed to be vaguely forced rather than truthful...

The Oracle of Caer Sidi: "Many thanks for giving me the needed power to appear here, Eesiywen! You get an easier workload when you return to the library, that I'll promise you...

And thank you, thank you indeed for inviting me here as well, Aynia. It's always nice to have a little chin-wag with you, if you catch my drift.
But, I don't think today will be a pleasant chin-wag, hmm? You've asked me for my consultation, and that I shall give you, no strings attached, nothing lost on anything. Which does mean that I've got some information for you that you might not be so happy to hear, but will most likely want to hear nonetheless."

The sphere of magical, glowing energy that the Oracle appeared as almost seemed to grow dimmer in colour at this point, and when it continued talking in it's mysterious, magical sounding way, the joviality was lost.

The Oracle of Caer Sidi: "So, we at the Library have been using some of our magics to scry the world a tad, and combining that with the information we've catalogued by various means that I won't bore you in divulging, at least not now, we've found out something quite alarming indeed about this new Chaosium invasion.
Something that might throw your plans asunder and force you to rethink, perhaps? No offense intended.

We're almost completely positive that Aimsir Cathedral is not the only place the Chaosium is seeping from nowadays. A portal has opened up to the Northwest, North-Northwest of Adhmad Bont and Southwest of Direach Bont, to the East of our valued friends in Minas Tyrrith and Tyrn U'Yn Elfait. Oh, and there's another one towards the Deep South, one that we're pretty confident is located on the Peninsula south of where those Privateers; the Bloody Fleet have settled down at...
I do believe quite confidently that right now, the Chaolich is focusing the brunt of their forces from Aimsir Cathedral, but already our scrying, and some rumours and sightings to boot that we've recorded suggest that some very monstrous and chaotic entities are emerging from the locations of these two other portals.

That's the major thing I wanted to bring up to you, your royal majesty. I'm sure you can find a way to take this knowledge and act accordingly with it, if my vote of confidence means anything to you."

The Oracle would've said rather plainly and without any sense of emotion. And with that, it, alongside the three gentlemen and ladies of the entourage would grow silent and wait respectfully for the Seasonal Queen to make her response.

Aynia's eyed narrowed and her mouth pursed a bit, but it was the only indication of the horror she felt inside. Three portals? Would there be time to warn the holdfasts near them? How many creatures had escaped the portals so far? Her mind was racing with questions and formulating answers as the Oracle continued to speak. She was still listening intently, taking in every word and filing it away. As soon as the Oracle was finished she walked confidently to the large map laid out on the table.

"Could one of you," She picked up a small token, "please locate on the map the approximate location of the portals, as best you know?" She looked over at Carrot to see him standing with a very concerned look on his face. She spoke to him gently. "My love, if you could take care of issuing this information to the holdfasts? The ones closest to the portals should take priority. We also need to organize forces to send to those areas. We can't leave them undefended and we must protect the holdfasts. If you need me in a meeting with your captains just call on me."

Carrot thought for a moment and turned to his Valet.
"Go and rouse my guard, tell them to make ready for a ride, get provisions and spare horses ready, we have far to go and little time"

He turned to Aynia as the Valet left.
"Chail is ready as it can be. The column will be here soon, I will ride for Bastion and embark to warn the Holds at risk from these new portals."

Noting Aynia's weary look Carrot stepped to her side
"We will prevail! if you require nothing else, I will leave on the hour.
Get some rest my dear, this fight will be long and there will be time for reunions later"

The Seasonal Queen's fears and worries for the new, most important and no doubt distressing news on the Chaosium, despite her external resistance to showing it wasn't so lost on the Oracle's Entourage during the moments preceding the Oracle's communication. Indeed, for the three of whom are present and call their affiliations to the Oracle of Caer Sidi first and foremost, - Eesiywen, Correl and Syllarel - they had already been privy to the information beforehand, courtesy of the ( *ahem* ) head honcho itself, and their own fears over the Chaosium and it's newly revealed ability to make use of not one, but three portals all across the Warren had been cemented in them for some time. All three wore brave faces, but the most obvious of whom had been struck metaphorically by the news within the Oracle's Entourage; Correl hadn't been so able to disguise the slightly wider than normal eyes, and an uncertain, faraway gaze... But, we shall digress. Aynia had made a command to the entourage before her to mark down their predictions on the locations of the newly-found portals of chaotic nature. For a moment, the entire group - headed by the Oracle - did not budge, but soon enough one of them was reared into action after a subtle call to action by the Oracle himself:

The Oracle of Caer Sidi: "D'you want to do the honours, Correl?"

Correl made a slight motion of his head as if to nod, aimed towards the Oracle. And therefore after followed with a small bow aimed towards the Seasonal Queen, and her Regent ( though at that point, he was occupied with talking to his Valet ) and simply uttered:

Correl, Library Busybody: "Your Seasonal Majesty. Your Excellency."

And - though acting a little slower than expected of him perhaps - he followed by retrieving two of the aforementioned tokens; one from the Queen's hand herself, and would then place both of them down on the map. Naturally, they were placed in similar or even congruent places from what had been described by the Oracle previously. One North-Northwest of Adhmad Bont and Southwest of Direach Bont. The other, on a peninsula due south of the Dryland isles now inhabited by the privateer group the Oracle had previously mentioned. Soon therefore after, Correl had taken a few steps backwards towards the Oracle, Syllarel and Eesiywen and once more bowed towards the two royals of the room, which Syllarel had followed with a curtsey, though Eesiywen, occupied with his magics and keeping the Oracle's "connection" to the current location stable simply remained respectfully stationary. It was the Oracle whom would once more speak up after the fact. In the same mysterious, slightly echoing voice that left no inflection as to tone as before, he would exclaim softly:

The Oracle of Caer Sidi: "Well, there you have it Aynia. If you have any questions you'd like to ask of me, by all means do go ahead, I'm most certainly not in a rush. But then again, that's the most I can say about the current situation with our not-so-respectful rivals despite maybe some small, minute tidbits here and there.
You, and dear Regent probably have a lot on your plate you both need to attend to at this point anyhow, so don't let your favourite loremaster keep you two, yes?"

Carrot looked over at Aynia and stepped forward to look at the maps, he quickly pulled a piece of parchment to himself, swiftly tracing the map and marking the locations of the new portals. stepping back to Aynia's side when he had the map ready. "All I need before we part is your seal, to smooth any arguments that could arise"

Aynia looked over at the Oracle and it's representatives and gave a nod. "You've shared crucial information and I thank you for it. If you could please continue to monitor and send word at once if you discover any new developments. I can excuse you for now." She gave a deep curtsy in the customary fashion before turning back to Carrot. Her brows furrowed and she met his eyes. She knew he had to go, but she felt better with him there. It was regrettable their parting must come so soon after they had reunited.

"Of course." she replied before turning to her valet and instructing them to fetch a seal and wax. In a few moments the valet was back with the required items. Aynia melted the wax with the help of one of the candles on the table before wrapping a ribbon around the folded paper and pouring the small spoonful onto it and pressing in the seal. As it sat for the wax to cool she continued, "I doubt any trouble arises, but it never hurts to be prepared." She popped the seal off the wax, leaving behind the mark of the Monarchy.

She took the folded the map and handed it back to him before taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh.