Dominic made his way through the halls to the tower, and up the stairs, where he found that the same maid was on duty, looking somewhat exhausted and flustered.
In the hall before the doors to their respective rooms, Two guards were keeping watch, though Dominic used the word ’guards’ loosely.
Both men were well past their middle years, and one looked like he had been pulled out of retirement for this duty. But he had the sun worn face of someone who spent a lot of time outside, and his pistol was hung in a well-worn holster on his hip.
Dominic couldn’t see a trade skill core on him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t own one. Or even that he wouldn’t be formidable with a pistol without one.
"Royal Advisor, we have been assigned night guard duty for your suite." The old man greeted him.
"Thank you for your sacrifice. I was never a fan of night shifts."
The Guard nodded in acknowledgement of the comment and returned to carving something from wood with a pocket knife, though he was also watching the staircase and the hand holding the stick was right next to his revolver.
Dominic stepped into his room and saw that the window had been broken. The room smelled faintly of some chemical he couldn’t name, but the room had been aired out to some extent before the window had been boarded over.
"I’m sorry that it’s so dark in here. We were unable to get a glazier up here to replace the window today. I believe that the Princess has requested that the tower be reinforced for tomorrow night." The maid informed Dominic softly as she came in with his food.
She made a sign of warding over her chest as she took out the poison tester’s spoons, and Dominic cast [Quality Kibble] again, just in case.
"Did you cast a spell on the food? Is it poisoned?" She asked quietly.
Dominic shrugged. "The spell is supposed to cleanse toxins and rot from food. But as we learned this morning, it doesn’t work if the poison doesn’t affect me personally. Which is fine, in most situations.
But you’re the one that gets to find out if there were any toxins that I am immune to."
"I am asking for a raise after this assignment." She muttered.
The dinner was simple, just stew and buttered bread. That made it easy enough to test, and it was the same thing that she had eaten in the servants’ kitchen earlier on her own dinner break.
Why the Royal Advisor was getting the same thing as the Servants of the Marquis’ Keep was a mystery to her, but Dominic didn’t seem to mind.
At least she knew that it wasn’t likely to be poisoned.
Dominic woke to the sound of blaring alarms and the rhythmic thump of airship blades spinning up to speed as the vessel prepared to move. It wasn’t even bright out yet, but Dominic could hear movement in the hall as he got dressed and put on his armour with his better Robes.
If they were going to have a full battle today, he was going to look good doing it.
Dominic activated [Mage Armour], so he had a layer of protection in case of issues, but when he opened the door, he found that the same guards were still present, and a very sleepy looking maid had just been roused to find them all breakfast.
The only major issue was that the tower was nowhere near the kitchens, and Dominic didn’t have time to wait.
"Don’t worry about me, I will eat once I get to work. But grab four servings anyhow, so anyone who might be watching believes that I’m taking my time getting ready this morning." Dominic instructed.
He followed the maid down the stairs, and when she turned to go to the kitchens, Dominic moved as silently as he could down a side hallway, headed for the section of the Palace where the Princess was staying.
The Royal Guard was on full alert and expecting his arrival when Dominic made it to their hallway. Colonel Wilkes, who had his helmet off to distinguish himself from the other Royal Guards, motioned for him to join them.
"The Princess still needs a few minutes to get ready. I believe she has been sending messages back to the Royal Council for their war strategy meeting of the morning. We’ve got food ready, prepared ourselves, so we know that it’s safe." The Colonel explained.
"Good call. I had the maid go get food for everyone who is in the tower, myself included. But my portion will either sit on the desk, or someone will get brave enough to eat it."
They ate in silence, waiting for the Princess to be ready.
When she eventually called them in, Princess Alexis looked pale and troubled, as if already regretting volunteering for this particular posting.
"What is the news of the morning? I hear the airships preparing to go above, so we must have an invasion force incoming." Dominic greeted her.
Alexis nodded. "Indeed. We have an entire army coming our way, but not from Staptontave. That force is still right where it was. What we have detected is a wing of ten Dagos airships, each equipped with a pair of cannons per side, and an entire mechanized infantry Army.
They came directly from the north, somehow bypassing our border security. But the Nobles whose lands they passed through overnight reported nearly a thousand vehicles pulling trailers loaded with soldiers and equipment."
Dominic did quick mental math. Fifty soldiers per truck seemed like the logical maximum, and half the trucks would be reserved for supplies if they were planning to be here more than a few days. So, twenty-five thousand soldiers.
That was a considerable number, but for the siege of a walled city, it wasn’t unreasonable.
It was close to the total population of Burton, and five times the number of soldiers they could field, even with conscription, but it was unknown if the Dagos Army had sufficient levels of technomagic to breach the walls.