"My officers will trust me, and they will follow my orders. That is all that matters." Meesei remarked. After a moment, she stood from the bed and walked up to Lunise, embracing her without hesitation. She leaned into Lunise, nestling her head into the nape of her neck and closing her eyes. "Not only will you be protecting the sigil stone, but also the camp itself, and all of the wounded that make it back through the portal from all three armies. There is no one I would trust more to protect them."

[hr]

With as much as had happened over, to Meesei, what had been several days, it was somewhat jarring to be back with her clan. She now had a new mountain of worries tearing at her thoughts, but the invasion was still looming. Meesei still had duties to carry out, people to speak to and coordinate, last-minute plans to refine. And she could not simply ignore those responsibilities, regardless of any new turmoil in her life. So, she had no choice but to keep quiet on her concerns for the rest of the day and just focus on her duties. She would just have to take what time she could to speak to her pack, Hal-Neesa, and anyone else she might find to help her in the small handful of days it would take to build their second portal in the Hunting Grounds. 

The next day began early for most of the clan. Even if the sun had somehow been visible from within the cavern, they were up well-before it would have risen. The area around the portal had been cleared of any mushroom trees or any other potential obstacles, just to allow them to gather their supplies more conveniently close to the portal, as well as to give them a clear path to cart in the massive enchanted stones that would be constructed into their second portal. These stones were far larger than the ones that comprised their current portal, and when brought together, they would form a portal comparable to a great gate from the Oblivion Crisis. Without such a sizable portal, they would not be able to bring their forces into Vile's realm near quickly enough. 

For now, however, they had to focus on establishing their forward camp in the Hunting Grounds. Meesei's pack was gathered at the portal for its first activation, and they would be among the first stepping through once it was active. Being that they were not heading into battle, they were no more armed nor armored than usual, which held true for most of the other lycans present. The Imperials and Dominion personnel might have been on-edge, but the lycans had no reason to fear Hircine's realm. In addition to the mages that were already working on the final preparations activate the portal, they also had a multitude of laborers that would start work on their forward camp as soon as they were cleared to step through. Being that it would be far too impractical to establish three entire, separate temporary camps any meaningful distance from one another, the lycans, Dominion, and Imperials would essentially be sharing the same camp over the next few days. At the very least, they were going to be forced to be much closer to one another for a few days than they had been for the last few months. From her clan, Meesei had selected Vera to take on the responsibility of overseeing the construction and administration of their forward camp, for several reasons. Not only had she been the clan alpha since before they migrated from Bruma, but Meesei knew she was a patient and level-headed woman, which would almost certainly be necessary if she was going to have to coordinate with both the Imperials and Dominion. 

Meesei, on her part, had little left to do but to wait for Ahnasha to signal her that they were ready to open the portal, then send a messenger back to the city. The sigil stone that would be powering this portal was being kept nearby inside the Silent City itself, as there was no reason to keep it physically near the portal. The magical connection between them would not weaken unless the stone was brought much farther away. Darahil was the one who was tasked with activating and monitoring the sigil stone. Meesei's pack might have noticed that she seemed distracted the entire morning, though that might have been understandable given that they were about to journey to the Hunting Grounds itself. She had not yet told them about her visit to Artaeum or what she had learned about herself, though she did intend to. She did not feel it would be right to keep it from them. For now, though, she stood staring at the inactive portal, unable to hide her worry.