The entire actual capture of Helmbrig only took Kurt a few hours. However, the preparation of the armies had taken a few days, during which Carla had moved troops. They still didn't want to put the gate there. Too many questions from the Hamlet guards they thought.

Barney had taken over as was one of his demands. He apparently got along well with the old Baron. The goblins weren't exactly welcomed yet by the populace. But there wasn't much any of them could do about it.

Barney had actually found that the place he was at worked out well for him, even with the configuration. Giving him complete access to the castle and enough room to get to see the ocean from the other side of the mountain.

The transition went as smoothly as one could expect. There were of course some alterations from their takeover. Maybe more so because of the goblins.

Ex-Baron Herold had made a lot of it easier actually. Once he gave up it seemed the best use of his talents was to make sure no one got hurt.

He knew the people and the people in charge. Realistically he had made the best decision. To fight back would have been bad. To try to keep his usefulness around would be beneficial to him.

Barney planned to find the right balance to make sure he could still walk through the area, and keep the heart where you could slip through at a balance. Once there he would make a proper entrance to a spot.

Even though it gave Harvey considerably fewer benefits to keep things so large. He could still channel purposefully. And he could change it if he really needed it.

The main reason Layla's was the size it was is that it optimized the water creation for the water fall. Meaning Kurt still would have to walk down stairs to use the ability from his house on top of the pillar. Layla said she was still technically growing as a fae so that might eventually change.

Betsy being a guardian was also checking up on the new facility, as she called the castle. She had a lot of plans. There was some real truth to what Kurt had said, it may be beneficial to just join them. They did need a large labor pool and could pay decent wages for it.

"I can't believe you just walked in there and took it," said Talia.

"Yeah, I told you I had a plan."

"The Valentines want to bring a battalion to start disrupting supply lines. Hopefully, we can confuse them before everyone finds out."

"And the best part is since they surrendered," said Kurt, "they are the same people, so we can just walk them to the pass and attack wherever."

"They will find out quickly, so we should take advantage."

The problem was the trip, in order to do this they would have to come back to Hamlet through Arrow Mountains and Paul's Well. Which wasn't exactly on the way with their current plans.

"It would take so many factors to move our gate like that."

"Okay," said Talia, rubbing her chin. "What if it wasn't your gate?"

"If it's yours then you lose access to the front line," said Kurt.

"But not permanently, we can move the gate quickly with Harvey and Barney, and then we have a ship out here, pointing to the ocean off the coast. And run it back after the drop off."

"That's risky," said Kurt. If something happens and the gate ends up sinking"

"So even having two movable gates we have troubles."

"I planned to slowly populate like we have been doing. Carla loves being part of the plan herself, even as just a troop movement. The goblins don't let her participate if they believe she has any chance of being injured."

"So you're saying my best bet is probably convincing Carla and Justin."

"Why can't Justin just connect to Barney?"

"Because it's Layla's power," said Talia, "Justin would have to submit to her, he says. It seems that's what allows the sharing of slip space."

"That makes sense we had to do that with Cindy and Arthur"

"Yeah."

"If any of them have some rank and are attractive you might be able to convince Sara."

"So you won't help me?"

"I didn't say that." Kurt came closer to Talia and gave her a kiss. "Of course I'll help."

"I know this will have a lot of bad moments."

"We will handle it. They were coming regardless, right?"

Moving a few people would be simple, moving a lot of people would take cooperation, which was the problem. The real solution is adding another fae to the mix that would allow them to move Valentine's gate. But there it seemed an unlikely proposition.

"I'll talk to Betsy, maybe we can change the route a bit, and start near the Arrow Mountains. If we do that, Layla can just move the gate and everyone can come at once."

"That would make everything simpler," said Talia. "Then you can just slip to Paul and Barney."

"That was part of the point of this."

Betsy was not happy about the idea. She was shouting at him about how the coronation was already being strained on the schedule.

Eventually, they had worked out a way, but it involved a lot of long trips to bring them back on schedule. Kurt wasn't looking forward to that.

But in a few days, a whole battalion of Valentine and Southern Alliance troops had come to Helmbrig. And were ready to move out quickly and start causing havoc.

The war had begun. The front line was periodically fighting when the forces met. The cause of the shadow's aggression was still unclear

Having a base in both worlds would be beneficial was the only thing Kurt could think of.

Since the battalion of Valentine troops was the force disrupting everything. They had moved out quickly to do just that.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.