"I wonder if the defenses against physical attacks are partly redundant, additive, or multiplicative? It might be that by the time you're third circle you're as hard to injure as an elder dragon." Iskandar refused her earlier request to do durability tests but maybe she can change Kybele's mind for science.

"Wouldn't that be fun? I wouldn't bet that way but I suppose that's an empty statement, isn't it, since I don't mean to hold still for a controlled test. Now shoo, I'm going to bed."

Nenio can reluctantly be shooed. 

One feature of army life she might not have appreciated yet is that getting a lot of people up in the mornings in a timely manner - especially new recruits - requires quite a lot of noise. There's some effort to ensure it doesn't awaken wizards or people on night watches, and the knight commander's tent is far enough away from the troops to also evade the worst of it, but even aside from the instruments used to wake them there's no way to quietly get ten thousand people up and moving. Is she already awake, or will this come as an unpleasant surprise?

She went to bed at a responsible hour! It's unpleasant but it's not catching her after too little sleep.

Then she won't be too bleary eyed when they set out in earnest! It takes about two hours for the troops to get up, eat, and then finish packing and policing the camp, which gives plenty of time for all the spellcasters to finish preparing their magic and for her to get any morning tasks on her to-do list finished. The standard distance a soldier can be expected to march in a day without burning themselves out is 15 miles in a 4 day on 1 day off pattern; given the greenness of their troops and the terrible terrain at the wound, they'll be aiming for 11 miles, which should also ensure everyone isn't helpless from exhaustion if they have to fight at the end of it. 

Does she plan to borrow a ride or go on foot?

She'll go on foot. She's not faster than a horse that's trying to go fast but she's certainly able to be faster than a marching army and not tired after.

(Iskander would like a horse.)

Rank hath its privileges, and perhaps more importantly for Iskander being closely related to someone important is nearly as good as far as Mendev is concerned. Despite not having any formal position in the crusade, Iskander doesn't even need to lean on his sister's authority or otherwise push to get himself a mount and a position near the heart of the formation.

Where he can be joined by a rather familiar face, also mounted on horseback. 

"Iskander! I see at least one of you is setting a good example."

"G'morning. The example of sitting down instead of striding across the landscape in delight at my own physical capabilities? Yeah, she's awful that way, all, lookit me, I can go so fast."

"It makes my feet hurt just thinking about it." 

"She usedta ride more, not because her feet hurt but because she'd trip. Not any more though."

"And here I am without a spell for tripping people. I suppose there had to be a reason everyone always said wizards were better."

"People say that? Where you can hear them?"

"I'm rather a disappointment to a lot of people. Not usually for the magic, though, most people aren't wizards either and they'd have been perfectly happy if I became a paladin like my cousin."

"Well, Ky likes anything that dumps power in her lap - no, I should qualify that, there's probably loads of exceptions, but she likes Galfrey for this reason - but she likes you too on account of those promised ballads. She will be so disappointed if you don't cough up."

That might be the best reason anyone has ever given him for liking his cousin, he's delighted. Or, well - it's not that he's never met anyone it was true of, but you'd need a crowbar to pry the truth out from behind their self righteousness, and the straightforwardness is refreshing. It's not like he has a problem with appreciating bribery. 

"I'll make sure not to disappoint."

The next few days proceed largely without incident. One of Kybele's bloodying expeditions has to come back emptyhanded because the cultists managed to break contact before they arrived, but the ones she actually manages to participate in go reasonably smoothly. There are some deaths among her people, from lucky cultists and disguised demons and in one case particularly awful terrain, but she is never herself in any serious danger of being killed or defeated; it turns out that bringing superior numbers against small and disorganized groups is a fantastic strategy she should continue wherever she can manage it.

Unfortunately, the worldwound is not so polite as to let her continue her rampage indefinitely. In this case, it takes the form of a report from the crusade's advance scouts that the crossing at Villareth's ford is held against their crossing - and by a proper force of demons, to boot.

"How many is a 'proper' force?"

"Hundreds, ma'am, at the least. We weren't able to get close enough to the fort to get a good look inside, though; they spotted us before we made it to the river, and some flying demons rode us off."

"That's not ideal. River crossings under fire are always a complicated affair even when you don't have to take a fort after."

She looks down at the maps spread across the table thoughtfully.

Her range on the paper is not really good enough to do the confetti hurricane thing. Hurry up with that ballad, Daeran's friends. "Recommendations?"

"It looks like there's another ford about a half dozen miles north. It's not nearly as good, no way we'd get the wagons and such across, but we could send an elite strike force to cross upriver overnight and have them in position to hold the other side when the rest of the army is crossing."

"There's definitely a lot of upside there, but it could go badly if they see it coming. They'd be stuck over there with no way for the rest of our army to support them. Worst case scenario, they get surrounded, we lose a bunch of our best troops and then we still have to take the crossing.

"We could take it head on. We've got numbers on them; if we get out archers in position, we can force them to choose between staying behind the walls and contesting the crossing, and then once we have enough people on the other side we can force the fort itself. It'd be bloody, but if we have enough priests in the vanguard to channel we can avert the worst of it and there's not a lot of room for things to go unpredictably wrong."