"Senja tell me what happen?" Qianru plastered her with the same question ever since she was changing her clothes, "It would be something really important right? Is everything fine?" Worry in her voice was the evidence that she was not well informed.
"I will explain to you later, but for now let's meet Yi Qing first." Senja said while walking unhurriedly toward the room, where Yi Qing had been waiting for her. Qianru was pregnant, Senja didn't want to hurry her step, but that woman insisted to come along with her. "Have you prepared the things I said to you before I left?"
"Yes," Qianru nodded. "Everything is in the armory at the back of the fortress."
"Good." Senja smiled gently before she opened the door and resumed her calm and compose self to face Yi Qing and whatever news that he brought with him.
Inside the room, Yi Qing was accompanied by two more soldiers and all of them were wearing grey clothes with swords on their hands.
Upon seeing both Senja and Qianru, the three of them put their sword aside and bowed respectfully with head hung very low. Only when Qianru excused them impatiently they stood up and straightened their back.
"So, what you have got?" Senja asked, standing in front of the three men who were taller by a head from her, didn't make her less dominance from them.
"Report to Young Miss Senja, there is a movement at the west side. My man had confirmed that it was Prince Xiao Wang Wei with the army troupe."
Qianru furrowed her brows in confusion, but wisely remained silent as she saw Senja didn't give any reaction with the news. She didn't want to interrupt their discussion.
Senja didn't surprise with this news, the death of Wang Yu made everything went faster than it should be. There should still be three weeks before these things really happened. But, her action had changed all of the things and now the result was unpredictable.
However, she had prepared for it and hoped this time everything would be fine. Considering she had come prepared and had more manpower than the last time, she wouldn't let the same thing happen twice.
"How far they are?" She asked while deep in thought, she stared at the backyard through the window as if she could see Xiao Wang Wei and his troupe.
"It will take five hours to reach the fortress."
"Five hours…" Senja mumbled. "What date now?" She asked abruptly.
Despite his confusion of her sudden question, Yi Qing still answered her. After he mentioned the date, Senja was silence for a moment.
The date that Yi Qing had mentioned was the day that there would be a sandstorm. She remembered it clearly as it was an easily remembered event. She was sleeping inside Qianru's room together with Xiao Mugi when it had happened.
"Young Miss Senja, for your safety we need to go now. It is not safety here." Yi Qing broke the silence as he suggested carefully. "Within five hours they would reach this place, and our men are not comparable with them. There are around two thousand armed forces with Prince Xiao Wang Wei."
What Yi Qing said was true. With the men in the northern fortress and the three hundred soldiers as a backup, their number was only seven hundred people. It didn't even reach half of their people.
However, Xiao Wang Wei didn't know the thing that Senja knew… she could use this sandstorm for her advantage.
"No, they will not attack us today." Senja said with certainty.
She looked out from the clear sky from the opened window. The sky was describing the literally meaning of the calm before the storm.