"Is something the matter, lieutenant?" approaching silently, Tilmiel emerged from a dark corner, which should be much too small to accommodate for her, but still did without issues, alongside her, many more nightbirds also appeared from all around, some simply walking in, others landing from unknown heights without as much as a single sound.
"Nothing important" responded Horhir, having sensed the usage of famine by his fellow, the utilisation of aspects of the apocalypse was never very discreet, and judging by how it came undone, Ourlst had run into another problem, not that Horhir could say anything about this, he doubted whatever his fellow was dealing was worse than his own shortcomings, not one, but two regions under his jurisdiction were in a stalemate as he could not find the livings, of all things…
Of all things that could slow him down, he was failing to even locate the enemy, when every undead could sense life force from kilometers away, when he had access to life hounds who could do this from further distances and using trails much older, he had never even found the westerners, and he had lost the easterners, when they were inside their caves!
He did not know which was one was more ridiculous, which one made him sound more incompetent, unlike Ourlst, he did not have to maintain an illusion of some honour and such, he was free to use incredibly underhanded tactics, he had ruined all potable waters and every livings beings with plague and disease, and he had still failed.
The undead had even went himself, brought with him a competent mage, architect and especially trained hound to try and find how, or where the feasters had disappeared to, but the results left no doubts, the caves, not even one, had any sort of passage, magical formations or held any trails that could indicate how this perfect vanishment had occurred.
Horhir had no clue, or even just a vague direction for where to look to, being effectively put in the same situation as in the Western Cliffs, having to find a needle in an ocean-wide haystack.
"Well then…" the knight still had to find a solution somehow, he couldn't just show up before Loimos, shrug his shoulders and say that he had no idea where the livings were at, that was just ridiculous, and truly shameful.
Yet, Horhir also did not have the means to just search every nook and cranny, the regions were all wide, the peaks and cliffs were especially difficult to search due to their topography, hiding spots were everywhere but there had to be something more, something that he had not yet considered, or perhaps that he had and simply not fully followed through with.
"Let's imagine something… If everyone here were denizens of this region, and the livings came to attack us, trying to suffocate our source of strength and the way we managed to maintain ourselves- Where do you think we should retreat to?" one thing he knew was that the regions had been at odds for far too long for anyone to consider moving to their neighbours, they had to be in their respective homelands.
"The underground obviously, if we can not fly or create structures above at least three layers of clouds, nor can we effectively hide above ground, then going deeper in the earth is the only option- However, we have discovered many paths leading to deep cave within and below the mountains, we checked them already and used our honed senses alongside echolocation to detect any passage we may have missed…" Horhir rose one hand, slowly bringing it right in front of the nightbird's jaw.
"I highly doubt they have the means to create floating islands, and we know that not any flying landmass exists above Belliste, General Loimos informed us on such details ahead of time…" Tilmiel nodded, she had been there as well.
"...Which obviously means that they are below ground, as most of us probably suspected already, however, we have been thinking too simple this entire time, tell me Tilmiel, what is your opinion on how they escaped notice as they disappeared from their homes?" he asked another question.
"I assume that they used one of their 'meals', the food they prepare to give specific effects and capabilities for a limited amount of time, this one with the ability to make them unseen or something along these lines, allowing them easily move around and to their hiding spot without us noticing a thing"
"That is rational, but I think we all underestimate the feasters, we haven't seen anything from them just yet, so we have been minimising unconsciously, as though that lack of exploit was a proof of weakness, I think the underground they escaped to is already sealed off, and it has been blocked off irreversibly since well before we even set foot on Belliste" Horhir sounded somewhat like he was presenting a conspiracy he had uncovered, agitating his index finger in the air a bit too much.
Tilmiel caught on to what he was getting at.
"Lieutenant, you believe they all teleported to this safe haven that had been prepared way ahead of time, not even specifically to hide from us undeads? If that is the case, then the potency of the sustenance they prepare is significantly played off, teleportation is not something just anyone can pull off…"
"...And it would also imply that this is not an emergency measure, or rather, not as precipitated as we might have assumed, that underground is probably furnished with everything that they need, for us to not sense it, either it is so far underground that our senses can not reach, or they have something in place preventing detection" she reasoned, although a bit convoluted and not supported by any evidence, it at least explained the situation without leaving any holes.
"I will need someone to go ask for a means to accurately research the ground for any hollow space, be it a competent earthen mage, a beast or a device, anything will do!" without any need for discussion, one of the smaller nightbirds leapt away.
"What will we do then, Sir? That space is deemed to be much smaller, and thus more tightly guarded than the surface, we probably won't be able of enacting famine or pestilence"
"No worries, if we truly have no way of acting in this manner, then we shall fall back on negotiations, I won't have any leverage then, but I must try it before resorting to conflict, and if it turns out that we can still send a plague their way… Then I shall pretend to negotiate without leverage" he placed one hand on the pommel of his blade.
"But whatever is the case, we need to approach carefully, unless they have other safe havens they can move to, they will be especially defensive…"