"The Emperor?" Emmaline asked with a slightly puzzled frown. Despite Beren's best efforts and the limited protection of her broad brimmed hat she was getting a soaking. The Protosate was dripping, but he seemed indifferent to the trouble. Emmaline wondered how well the crossbow string would hold up in the wet, even sealed with wax there were limits. 

"Empress Casavara retired to Contemplate the Mysteries in the Spring. Her nephew ,Haradatus the Second, is now on the throne. With new leadership come new priorities," their guide, whose name they still hadn't learned, replied easily. Contemplate the Mysteries might mean anything from a genuine retirement to scholarly life, to taking a knife to the kidneys at her nephew's order. Such was the way with Basilean's. Their might be half a dozen coups and counter coups before they settled on a final sovereign, whose early elimination of rivals made for a long reign after the initial blood letting. If this Haradatus was already sending out colonies, he must be confident indeed, or else these troops were too undependable to be anywhere close to the Imperial City.

"Well Long and Strong to him," Emmaline replied, using a Basilean colloquialism to invoke good luck on the Emperors reign. It had a few different meanings depending on how it was used but it made their guide smile. They crossed a second ditch and entered the camp proper. As expected tents and more permanent structures were laid out on grids. Stumps of trees scattered around the stony expanse of ground, their trunks pilled up and stripped of branches at a makeshift lumber mill towards the rear of the camp. The center was an old stone structure that clearly predated the colonists, probably it had been little more than a tumble down pile of moss covered stones when they arrived, but the industrious Legionaries had already restored it as best they could, replacing fallen stonework with timber and an impressive roof of split shingle.

"Welcome to Fort Serpentus," the guide declared grandly.