The loud one who instigated the first 'fight' between the two factions was easy enough to find for the dark elf, but the elf-touched was nowhere to be seen.  The man certainly had not lost any of his 'charm' as he noticed her gaze and nodded in jest.  She snorted under her helmet and tried to find the female but she was keeping herself hidden.  In any event now was not the time for her to attempt anything in the presence of her mistress, also there was the plain fact that she was part of her liege's 'forces'.

Still, a chance would open up eventually.

Lady Esmerelda made her rounds through the ranks to encourage them.  Everyone was quite interesting in the young lady but her escort made sure no one got too close.  A few minutes more and it was time to leave, but as they left, the dark elf's sensitive ears picked up a light thud as something fell from above.  A quick glance back showed it was the girl who had been helped by the elves.  Unfortunately, as they were already starting to leave, the glance was all that she managed to get before they departed.

The White Rock Confederacy quickly mobilized into several small groups.  While they got a decent look around the previous night the fact was there was a lot they still did not know.  They needed to keep an eye on as many areas of the castle was possible so they would not be taken by surprise.  They quickly came up with a system where, if a certain group was outnumbered they would quickly retreat to a fallback point where they could signal an alarm for the others.  The biggest problem was there were only so many combat ready troops so every man mattered in this war.  As the Empire would no doubt be better as a military a big engagement was not to the White Rock's advantage, their best bet was to chip away at the enemy forces one by one.

[hr]

The Onyx Empire was up and ready for action, very quickly they had mobilized for combat even before the horn had blown.  They were pleasantly surprised when they too, got a visit from their patron, Lady Primrosa.  Like her sister, she was also accompanied by a dark elf, the red-armored sister.  From the get-go she seemed pumped and ready to go.  Her energy was infectious to the troops as they watched the lovely young woman give her own pep-talk to the troops.

[b]"Thank you all for being willing to fight for me!  It is my honor to fight by your side-"[/b] The red-armored dark-elf turned to look at her as if questioning her words which Primrosa quickly noticed and quickly added, [b]"-in spirit!  As the rightful heir to the castle I will do everything in my power to aid your cause!  I would join you on the battle in a heartbeat, if my father approved but since they are forbidden from killing me I suppose it wouldn't quite be fair to my sister's side."[/b]  That got a few chuckles from some of the knights who knew how hard it would be to fight someone without killing them in combat.

[b]"May the great dragons watch over your every step!"[/b]  As if on cue, as soon as she finished the horns blew, signaling the start of hostilities.  The empire quickly went into motion.  They split into four groups, two spearheads, a reinforcement group, and the back defenders.  The spearheads would go in and probe enemy territory, attempt to locate any traps and see if they could catch any confederates off guard.  The reinforcement group would keep themselves as inbetween the two groups as possible and would rush to whichever required aid should the time arrive, they would not engage the enemy on their own however.  The last group was to make sure the enemy could not infiltrate their camp and sabotage their sleeping quarters, also they would continue to do recon in their own territory to see what they could uncover.

Lady Primrosa watched as the fine tuned machine marched out, leaving behind many of the noncombatants at the home base.  Time would tell which side would be victorious, but she was sure the Empire would be the winners in the end, even if she had little to go off of at this time.