Julan huffed, quickly grabbing a pebble beside him and tossing it at Rhazii. "Hey, stop that! Her name was Hal-Leeus, but she just ended up being...irritating after a while. She was fine at first, but all she ever wanted to do was ask me questions. I enjoyed asking her about the village at first too, but she had a [i]lot[/i] more she wanted to ask me. Just...questions, questions, and more boring questions. Her friends were better, though, so it wasn't all bad."

After his attempt at deflection, Julan gave a look around away from the fire and back towards the city. He started to stand up, then glanced back at Narsi. "Are you dry yet? Maybe we should get back, find something new to do. If you've just been alone so far, then I'm sure there's plenty you haven't done yet back in the city."

[hr]

Ahnasha's answer did not come quickly. For a few moments, she just breathed before setting down her mostly-full cup and standing to her feet. "I feel like getting back home. Work on the portal is starting this week, and I am going to have a lot to do helping to get it ready. They are going to need conjurers and enchanters alike working on it. Meesei said I didn't have to see to it personally, but...I would rather make sure it is done right."

Meesei would not be arriving to collect the pair any sooner regardless of what Ahnasha wanted, but that did not stop her from leaving the table regardless. Even if she was no longer angry, it was clear that she was not in the mood for much conversation.

[hr]

The next several weeks saw an almost unprecedented amount of activity in the Blackreach clan. Just as Ahnasha had commented to Fendros, work on their portal began in earnest, which called upon the expertise of the best conjurers and enchanters available from [i]any[/i] of Tamriel's lycan clans. Not to mention, both the Empire and Dominion had their hands in assisting with the project. Though it was perhaps pessimistic, Meesei doubted they actually [i]wanted[/i] to devote their resources to assist, but it was likely that they would want to have their own experts verify the safety of the portal before they would send any of their own soldiers through it. 

Of course, only a small portion of the clan would even notice the portal's construction, since the building site was in a clearing a fair distance away from the city. However, what would be obvious were the other preparations they were making. Namely, they had already begun to bring in people and supplies from all of the clans in Tamriel to take part in the invasion. The bulk of the warriors would not be arriving for some time, as Meesei did not want to weaken the other clans' defenses until the last possible moment, but they were already preparing for them. The Silent City would be housing some of them, but they were building camps to accommodate the bulk of their forces outside the walls. They were only simple wooden barracks, but as some portion of them would need to stay there for weeks, they would be better than tents. 

For the moment, the majority of those arriving from other clans were either leaders, or support staff handling the logistics of moving in their army. In addition to the camps themselves, they had to bring in more food stores from other clans, plan for the transport of clean water to each of the camps, and set up infirmaries with skilled healers and sufficient stocks of potions. It was a great deal more work than even Meesei had expected, but fortunately, there were those among the clans who had the sort of experience needed to make it go reasonably smoothly. 

Thusfar, the preparations had not required too much additional work from most of Meesei's pack, apart from those, like Ahnasha, who volunteered herself to help. As such, the Silent City's forgemaster was able to find an opportunity to call in all seven of them at once for some matter about which he had been noticeably non-specific. Although, Meesei had been assured that he had only good news for her. 

Meesei moved together with her pack, through the tunnels into the depths of the Silent City. Lorag was intending to bring the children out for more training afterwards, so the three of them were tagging along as well. Their forges had been built close to the machines that powered the whole of the city, and were heated by a seemingly limitless supply of steam. From what Meesei had been told by their blacksmiths, adapting the steam to their forges allowed them to operate them more easily, and get their fires even hotter. They had expanded their forges and had built several of them in multiple rooms in the lower floors of the city. Their productivity in forging weapons and armor for their warriors had exceeded expectations...at least until those expectations had been raised up to match. 

Despite having been working late the previous night, Ahnasha appeared to be in a strangely good mood. Or at least, she was not showing signs of any fatigue she might have. She was even the first to speak up, smiling lightly. "Okay, so I'm sure [i]I'm[/i] not the only one wondering what this all is about. Personally, I'm willing to bet they have something for us. If this was something like new techniques, or...some discovery to make new kinds of weapons for our warriors, then he would just be talking to Meesei. I'm willing to bet he has something for [i]us[/i], specifically. Really, I'm just wondering what."