Once inside the gates Leonidas felt a small sigh of relief escape him. The city was intact and they had made it in time. But that moment of relief was a brief one because now the hard part started. One of the first things Leonidas saw inside the city was Faira going to fetch Arcius from the farm girl they rescued. Leonidas contemplated for a moment to stop her and let the girl fawn over Acrius for a little longer, but then decided it was about time for the distraction to be sent away anyhow and let Faira shoo the young girl away. Acrius Soon came up to  bother Balthazar about cleaning his armor for him. Again Leonidas almost told Balthazar to let the boy clean it himself, he got himself into that mess rolling in the mud he shouldn't get the easy fix of magic to come clean again.

There was a bit more ruckus in the gatehouse as his troops and guard started to unwind a little bit after the long march. Leonidas continued forward with Balthazar and Rudolph moving forward to meet the Duke. The majority of the troops that they had brought quickly blended in with the rest of the Empire troops that had come to the city to defend it. While his Guard was able to take a little rest if needed.

[@Hawthorne][@Gisk][@Borosev][@Inertia][@LadyRunic]

The walk through Bergkoff's streets was an interesting one for Leonidas as he listened to Rudolph talk about his home, and he even gave a small glance at Zatana when the comments about Drow came up. "[color=fff200][b]Now Rudolph, I don't know if you know this yet, but I plan to work on those prejudices through the empire. I won't downplay what they did to the Kingdom of Karsburg, but without those incursions and others like it Humanity wouldn't of banded together, we wouldn't of formed the Empire we are today. And then when attacks like this one would come your home here wouldn't of received the 500 extra reinforcements that is has gotten to strengthen its defenses and would most likely fall[/b][/color]" Leonidas started his explanation. "[color=fff200][b]And past that those Incursions were long ago and if we were to blame every Drow for the actions of their kin from that day in age wouldn't we be subject to the same? Think if the Dwarves still held humanity responsible for our acts of war from long ago? We took many of their Mountain citadels tried to use their fortified holes as our own. We set their people back generations destroying forges and desiccating their lands. But now they hold their lands, they are our trusted allies, and they provided us with cannons and weaponry to hold back this assault. If we let hatred of the past grip us, we will never be able to move forward.[/b][/color]" He finished his speech, making sure that he spoke loud enough so those of his guard who had stayed with him would of heard it clearly. After that he noticed Merik had gone off on his own. "[color=fff200][b]Will one of you go find Merik, I don't know how the local troops will take a Lizardman just walking around.[/b][/color]" He asked while looking around at the damage that had been caused thus far. The city was holding up for now. And hopefully it wouldn't have to hold out for to long.

It wasn't to much longer before they reached the Keep, Leonidas dismounted his horse and left his Warhammer with his stead before moving on. Seeing the dead and injured after a battle was something Leonidas never felt he would truly get used to, but he pushed on knowing his time was better spent trying to end this siege stopping more from being injured than tending to those who already were being seen after. Although he did make a note to himself to come back and help heal the critically wounded after the meeting. Although his guard was allowed into the Keep, only Balthazar and Leonidas were permitted the audience with the Duke. The two men entered the hall Leonidas stood tall as he approached. "[color=fff200][b]Greetings Duke Karstilli, we thought you might want a few more men to man the walls. I know it isn't much, but Lord Siegfried should arrive in the next two days with a company of 500 knights. Although I hope by then they will just be here for the clean up as we will have already finished this siege.[/b][/color]" Leonidas said proudly as Balthazar gave his own greeting as a small bow to the duke.

[@ReusableSword]

As Merik reached the western gate things had quieted down. The troops in the area were able to tell the lizardman that the enemy had retreated back into the mountains for now but that didn't really matter because the only thing this gate saw was a few Wolf riders going back an forth. One of the men commenting how the numbers were a lot thinner coming back then they were going out, and another boasting that he was able to hit one of the buggers and take them off their mount pointing at a dead goblin a bit away from the gate. Otherwise things were calm here luckily for Merik there didn't seem to be any cannons at this gate, apparently there were only four in the city and they were currently concentrated to the north to stop the advance from up there. Although the guards seemed to freely give this information and didn't say anything directly yo Merik, he could catch a few glances and hear whispers coming from them many of the soldiers not liking a lizardman in their presence. It was something Merik had seen before the Lizardman would know that many in the Empire looked down on races that were not human and the only reason these men even seemed polite was the Royal guard Symbol that he keep in plain sight.