With every week leading up to the invasion, life became noisier and more complicated for the Silent City. Logistics moved at greater volume. New faces arrived every day from around Tamriel. But, what started as a brief taste of the cosmopolitan turned rapidly into the stringent order of a military encampment.

There was some cordial intermingling between the Legion, the Dominion, and the Clan. The Legion and the Dominion always crossed paths in a suitably tense manner, but on their own they were surprisingly professional individuals. No amount of rudeness, condescension, or fear added up to anything tangibly disruptive while the officers had oversight.

There was even some trade and social interaction between clanspeople and the soldiers. Only one or two incidents caused by bad eggs on either side turned into scuffles. On both occasions, the complicit parties were properly punished as examples to the rest. Fendros found himself mediating in these incidents, but he was relieved to find the tasks easier than many others he had overseen: Legate General Gro-Tagnud and Commander Teroiah may not have seen eye-to-eye, but they were just as much in competition as to the discipline of their forces.

Sabine wished it were so easy to bring into line the mages assigned to the clan's tasks. The constant bickering resulted in her having to butt in to correct both of them in their knowledge, and while Sabine's social confidence was much better than years before, she derived no joy from being forced out of her conflict-adverse personality. The push and pull between such matters and the anxiety-inducing demands from Hal-Neesa had left her much more tense than usual. On the upside, she had gained much more practical experience with her portal magic while travelling around so frantically.

Funnily enough for Sabine, lifting heavy stones with magic had something of a grounding effect on her body. Ready at the base of the arch, she nodded affirmatively up to Ahnasha. "Ready." Her high voice was gravely with fatigue, though the construction environment had made raising her voice more than usual a necessity. "Everyone step away from under the archway, please."

Sabine's hands roiled with powerful alteration magic that spun with strange, shifting geometric shapes. She brought her hands forward, breathed in, and with the slow and determined movement of her arms hovered the keystone of the arch out from the soil. Upward it slowly crept towards its destination.

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Lunise, ever consistent to keeping up appearances in both modesty and fashion, had arrived prior with Meesei garbed in a sun hat and a fine white summer dress. The dress itself was ornate with tiny pleats and embroideries around the torso interwoven with sparking silver threads. In spite of Meesei's relative devotion to her own wardrobes, even she could appreciate how the dress flattered Lunise's form to a surprisingly effective degree.

Of course, sun bathing on the stone had soon encouraged Lunise to relax as Meesei was. Where she lay, her skirt was hiked over her lifted knee and she had undone the buttons around her sleeves to allow her arms and shoulders to freely take in the sun. The back of her head rested on the brim of her sun hat for comfort as she, too, faced towards the sky with a light smile.

Sensing Meesei's look, Lunise opened one brightly coloured eye halfway to look across at her. "So much time spent in that cavern. Hmm, my skin was going so pale it was getting soggy." Her chest rose as she took in a luxurious breath in through her nose. "But if I burn to a crisp out on this island, you shan't be without blame." Her face drifted to look back at Meesei with both eyes as she spoke. They were both familiar with their tendency to be unable break eye contact.