Three words. Delivered flat, without elaboration, as if each one cost him something to say. Tharion was not a man who admitted fault easily. The fact that he opened with this told Alexios everything he needed to know about how badly the East had fallen.
"Elvardia is conducting a full-scale invasion," Tharion continued. "Their forces coordinated with the Covenant of Eternity. Undead tunnels beneath our settlements, siege engines from the surface. They deployed suppression artifacts across the region to delay information from reaching us in time."
He paused. His jaw worked.
"By the time we understood the scope, more than a dozen settlements had already fallen. The eastern territories are compromised. Several more will fall within days."
Alexios said nothing.
