And So It Begins

Alessandra made her way through the citadel that stood in the center of the country that was still in the process of being rebuilt. The new architecture in the country was going to combine the size and savagery of the giants, the labor force tasked with the rebuilding, with the elegance of those from Alessandra's home land, elegant towers and buildings fit for a goddess. The citadel serving as her current residence until a new castle had finished being constructed as her advisers had deemed the current royal palace of Elbaf "unsightly." As was becoming increasingly normal these days, she was flanked by her two most trusted advisers. Her destination in the citadel was a truly massive room that was forbidden to be entered by all but the empress and her generals, the floor of which was engraved with a map of seemingly all the known world allowing her to plan her moves carefully and with surgical precision. As her eyes danced around the map, she found the target she was searching for, a massive desert island, the inhabitants of which had been dehumanized and regarded as mere animals by the rest of the world, to Alessandra however, they would make fine allies, or more specifically foot soldiers so that her people would not have to preform the unenviable task of running blindly into the enemy. A chess piece, sculpted into the form of a wing man, set upon the maps rendition of the island, the piece however also served as a den den mushi, this one served the specific duty of contacting her "son". "Dearest Apollyon, do give my child a call, ensure that he has not turned another potential ally into a god forsaken graveyard.