The travel back to the pact nations has been far more pleasant an experience than it was on the way to New Vetus. I opted to pass over the isthmus, so there was no concern about the sea looming below. While I would have preferred having Leal by my side, I didn’t miss having to carry her.
Without needing to struggle against the ursu’s weight, I could settle with my usual falcon form. It is so much more comfortable flying at this size simply because my white flame, while immensely more visible in the sky, is unbeatable. It’s really too bad I can’t keep up the intensity at larger sizes. Being an intimidating creature can be rather satisfying.
I’m sure the ursu below watch me as I pass overhead, but even if they want to stop me, there’s no way for them to reach me. I can fly over their lands, cities, borders, and armies without so much as a squeak of resistance.
A part of me is tempted to drop and ignite some fires amongst them, simply to slow down their invasion. But my thoughts go back to what Leal would want. There are likely many amongst them who are only fighting to protect those they care for. Identical to my own reasons to fight.
Is it right to take others’ chance just for the possibility it will benefit me?
No. That answer is obvious. But does what is right truly matter when it comes to keeping my friends safe? I have killed people from many races now, but I have massacred thousands of mermineae on the belief that it was to keep my friends safe. Can I do the same to the New Vetus soldiers after I’ve discovered that many fight because their family is held hostage?
I already know the mermineae are fleeing in fear from Kalma, so is it wrong of me to have incinerated as many as I have? The strength of the average mermineae is magnitudes greater than the unenhanced of the pact nations’ races, so I have to assume what I’ve done is necessary. If they aren’t stopped, they will cut through the pact nations, killing everyone they can in their attempts to take over. To take the land and carve a home for themselves.
It is an unfortunate situation, but until another reasonable alternative shows itself, killing is the only option. I can’t hold off an entire race spread across hundreds of thousands of metres by scaring them with my flame alone. If I simply run them off from an attack, those mermineae will just join the offensive at another location. A location without me to defend.
I shake my head. No use concerning myself over problems without solutions. I know what I have to do, and as grim as it may be, I’m not about to cower from that if it will keep my friends safe.
Below, the land transitions into what was once Joiak. The desolate winding roads weaving between the two kingdoms are now overlaid by a stone path and bridges supporting rail tracks. How the ursu built this infrastructure so quickly is a mystery, but it doesn’t bode well for the Joiak Kingdom if the ursu have already built paths into their land.
I don’t care all that much for what happens to the kingdom that would endorse the horrid treatment of its people like it did with Mr. Marshall’s mill, but the more land the New Vetus army controls near the pact nations, the worse our situation.
Not only are the pact nations fighting both the mermineae and The Theocracy, they have New Vetus now coming from the south as well as the constant threat that the Empire could invade at any moment from the northeast.
Why do all the factions have to decide now is a good time for war? Should I even trust the pact nations to get through this? Maybe I should just grab my friends and take them somewhere safe. But where is safe? I can’t bring them to New Vetus for obvious reasons, The Theocracy is more likely to execute them than shelter them, and I don’t think I could ever trust my friends to be safe in Henosis after what they did to so many of my kind.
There are countries further away, but I know very little about many of them. It would be especially difficult to get my friends there. I cannot carry all of them at once, so it would take months to move them regardless if we tried to travel by land or I made multiple trips.
That doesn’t even consider the possibility that those states might be just as bad as any other.
I’m stuck protecting the pact nations, so that they can protect my friends. And as long as my team doesn’t encounter a Viisin, I trust them to survive without trouble. Well, assuming they don’t have a hit-squad sent to hunt them down.
I fly far past the point where our battle previously took place. Unfortunately, the land is no longer contested. It is entirely within ursu control. Far beneath me, they lay the foundations for their rail network to connect with the one laid by the pact nations after we retook the land from the mermineae.
It isn’t a pleasant sight to see all the ground we put weeks of effort into retaking, simply snapped away by a third party we never expected to be against us.
A whole day passes before I finally see where the front line has settled. The ursu have pushed the pact nations further back than even the mermineae had when I’d returned to this side of the Alps. The town commandeered as a command post now lay deserted hours behind me.
The majority of ursu along the line neither have swords nor armour like those that attacked our camp, but they do have the miniature cannons those guarding the gulag used. Most of the land was expansive stretches of trenches, both sides filled with the unenhanced. All simply numbers to fill the space and worth no more.
I fly along the line for a while, simply watching over the fighting. In places, the battlefield favours a particular side and the line bends to account. After a few hours of this, it becomes rather clear that nothing really happens when the unenhanced fight. Both sides hide in their cover and fire, hoping for some lucky shots when artillery doesn’t rain from above.
Only when the stronger warriors — the ursu’s armoured soldiers and the pact nation’s mercenaries — enter the battle, does any shift truly occur. If a side is unlucky enough to face them without support of their own, their defeat and death is guaranteed. Those on the ground know it too. When the stronger warriors appear, there are many that try to flee, only to be shot for desertion.
It’s horrible, but making an example of deserters is common on both sides of the conflict, and for good reason. Often, the appearance of the stronger warriors is a hoax. Simple soldiers dressing themselves as those stronger in a bid to terrify the enemy. And when the overseeing officer refuses to shoot his soldiers in the back, it works.
Eventually the defensive lines separate, spreading into the distance, but not thinning. Soldiers face desolate land. I’ve fought alongside the pact nations long enough to know this is merminea controlled area. It’s curious to see the ursu taking a similar defence as the pact nations, despite their lesser numbers.
It is incredibly relieving to witness the ursu trying to push against the mermineae in addition to the pact forces. If they had allied with the mermineae, or attempted to take the pact nations out before moving on to fight the slender race, then we would have no chance.
At least now we have the opportunity to incite the two factions to slaughter the other instead of us. Whether those in charge of the pact nations can achieve that, however, is another story.
As I fly over the border between the pact nations and mermineae, I observe many battles between the two. The Order has finally got itself sorted. Beiths now push against the offences of the mermineae. The sole fighters are sparse and only show up on the rare battlefield, but they show up none the less.
Having a single warrior or mage wiping out swarms of mermineae is so much more efficient than relying on thousands for a less than equal trade. It might have taken months, but the Mercenary Order has finally adapted.
Still, with the added war, it doesn’t make much difference.
Finally, after a long trip — and a volan mage trying to knock me out of the sky — I finally reach the command post. This time, it’s in a major city. Most citizens have been evacuated, and it leaves the place eerily quiet in the areas not occupied by the military and mercenaries.
Sorting things out with the pressure mage volan had been an ordeal — apparently calling her an air mage was insulting… for some reason — but now I have to present myself to the commander. As before, I expected to find Remus and Commander Darton with him, but that isn’t what awaits me as I enter the room.
A trio wearing business suits stand behind a large conference desk. As I step into the room, the two khirig I felt in the corners of the room rush forward. One slams the door, while the other does something strange with its hands. Turning, I notice too late the strand of water connecting the khirig to something above me.
Bars of water drop in a circle around me.
What is this? Why are they attacking me?
I fight the urge to lash out to escape by any means. Maybe this is some mistake. I glance down to see if I could melt my way down and out of the cage of water. But no, the water mage has surrounded my feet in a puddle. Thankfully, he’s kind enough to keep the water away from my feet, which is about the limit of the good things I can currently think about any of the people in this room letting this happen.
Remain calm. I still have my outfit, which should keep the water off me. Plus, I’m not entirely defenceless to water anymore. Assuming the other khirig is a water mage as well, I’ll only need to kill the two before they can focus their water on me after I break free. Assuming they aren’t at the Beith level, it should be easy.
Still, the water around me does nothing to ease my nerves.
“What is this?” I ask, struggling to keep myself calm.
“You are being detained for desertion,” the only dohrni in the room says. She wears clean, black sleeves over each of her tentacles, which is strange to see as almost every other dohrni I’ve met hasn’t bothered with clothing.
“Desertion?” I repeat. “What are you talking about?”
One of the well-dressed trio, another khirig, straightens on his slender antlers and lifts a bundle of papers before his face. He recites words from the page. “Infraction: Abandoned the battlefield without sufficient reason or consent from a superior. Infraction: Failed to report actions at a hearing within the allocated time.”
“What? A friend needed my help. I didn’t have time to tell anyone.”
The khirig continues without acknowledging me. “Infraction: Failed to report crucial mission intelligence to command. Infraction: Unauthorised dialogue with enemy combatants; treason. Judgement: Confiscation of all personal rights, allocation of handler, and suspension of movement unless given authorisation by said handler.”
I can hardly believe they are doing this. It all seems like a stupid joke until the khirig behind me that closed the door approaches with arm cuffs dense with glowing inscriptions. The thing looks just as advanced, if not more so than the intricate lines within the Empire’s weapon. I don’t know what it does, but there’s no chance I’m risking that touching me.
I’m done with this shit.
Thin rings of white flame encircle the necks of the two mages behind me while balls of that same fire materialise before the three standing ahead of me. The air shimmers from the unrestrained heat. The room temperature skyrockets. I make sure each of these people knows just how hot those tiny flames are. On top of that, I flood the room with my presence, freezing each in place.
“If any of you makes another move, I’ll be the only one leaving this room as anything other than a mote of ash.”
The water mage holding my cage twitches, so I burn away all of his antlers to show I’m not messing around. The markings disappear along with the khirig’s branch-like external bones, leaving the water to drop around me. My outfit blocks most of it, but some does make it inside the tears of my torso, only to burst into steam on contact.
It hurts, a lot, but I don’t lose focus on the four who might still try something. The water mage now lies on the ground, flesh exposed and unable to stand up, but alive. He’s not screaming either, so I assume it mustn’t be too painful to lose those antlers.
“You realise what you are doing, right?” the third of the trio — an albanic this time — asks with a tone that implies a calmness that is betrayed by the sweat running down the side of his face and his eyes not leaving the tiny orb hovering before his chest. “You are making yourself the enemy of the Mercenary Order. Do you not understand the severity of this mistake?”
“When the alternative is to become a prisoner, I’d rather take my chances,” I say. I can’t believe they would do this after how much I’ve helped them. Considering they are so desperate to keep their Beiths hidden, they would never have reconnected with Joiak if not for me. This is exactly what Letty — that dohrni that helped find me some clothes — warned me about. The Order would do anything in its power to put a leash around me.
“What about Grímr? Where is he? Did you charge him with desertion too?”
The albanic raises an eyebrow in question, but answers anyway. “No, he was pardoned under the severe injuries clause during his trial.”
Well, that is a relief to hear, assuming he is truthful. Whether they didn’t do so because they believe they already control him, or for some other reason, I don’t know. All I know is that these charges they are trying to hit me with are nonsense.
“I am leaving. If I find anyone coming after me, I will immolate each of you.”
The door burns off its hinges and I walk over the smouldering remains, through the building, and out into the uninhabited part of the city to wait. I gave them an option, and I am ready to follow through with my threat if anyone comes after me.
It was immensely difficult to not just burn each of them where they stood. We are already struggling against the mermineae, ursu and The Theocracy and they decide they have to ruin what cooperation we could have had?
On the way here, I’d decided the best course of action is to leave my friends here and protect the pact nations alongside the Order. Now? I’m not so sure. Will they use them as hostages like New Vetus did with Gerben to keep Leal in line? If so, I really need to get back to Meja and find the five. They won’t be able to defend themselves if it is the Order coming for them.
But first, I need to see if a particular trio of Order executives will leave this city alive.
The travel back to the pact nations has been far more pleasant an experience than it was on the way to New Vetus. I opted to pass over the isthmus, so there was no concern about the sea looming below. While I would have preferred having Leal by my side, I didn’t miss having to carry her.
Without needing to struggle against the ursu’s weight, I could settle with my usual falcon form. It is so much more comfortable flying at this size simply because my white flame, while immensely more visible in the sky, is unbeatable. It’s really too bad I can’t keep up the intensity at larger sizes. Being an intimidating creature can be rather satisfying.
I’m sure the ursu below watch me as I pass overhead, but even if they want to stop me, there’s no way for them to reach me. I can fly over their lands, cities, borders, and armies without so much as a squeak of resistance.
A part of me is tempted to drop and ignite some fires amongst them, simply to slow down their invasion. But my thoughts go back to what Leal would want. There are likely many amongst them who are only fighting to protect those they care for. Identical to my own reasons to fight.
Is it right to take others’ chance just for the possibility it will benefit me?
No. That answer is obvious. But does what is right truly matter when it comes to keeping my friends safe? I have killed people from many races now, but I have massacred thousands of mermineae on the belief that it was to keep my friends safe. Can I do the same to the New Vetus soldiers after I’ve discovered that many fight because their family is held hostage?
I already know the mermineae are fleeing in fear from Kalma, so is it wrong of me to have incinerated as many as I have? The strength of the average mermineae is magnitudes greater than the unenhanced of the pact nations’ races, so I have to assume what I’ve done is necessary. If they aren’t stopped, they will cut through the pact nations, killing everyone they can in their attempts to take over. To take the land and carve a home for themselves.
It is an unfortunate situation, but until another reasonable alternative shows itself, killing is the only option. I can’t hold off an entire race spread across hundreds of thousands of metres by scaring them with my flame alone. If I simply run them off from an attack, those mermineae will just join the offensive at another location. A location without me to defend.
I shake my head. No use concerning myself over problems without solutions. I know what I have to do, and as grim as it may be, I’m not about to cower from that if it will keep my friends safe.
Below, the land transitions into what was once Joiak. The desolate winding roads weaving between the two kingdoms are now overlaid by a stone path and bridges supporting rail tracks. How the ursu built this infrastructure so quickly is a mystery, but it doesn’t bode well for the Joiak Kingdom if the ursu have already built paths into their land.
I don’t care all that much for what happens to the kingdom that would endorse the horrid treatment of its people like it did with Mr. Marshall’s mill, but the more land the New Vetus army controls near the pact nations, the worse our situation.
Not only are the pact nations fighting both the mermineae and The Theocracy, they have New Vetus now coming from the south as well as the constant threat that the Empire could invade at any moment from the northeast.
Why do all the factions have to decide now is a good time for war? Should I even trust the pact nations to get through this? Maybe I should just grab my friends and take them somewhere safe. But where is safe? I can’t bring them to New Vetus for obvious reasons, The Theocracy is more likely to execute them than shelter them, and I don’t think I could ever trust my friends to be safe in Henosis after what they did to so many of my kind.
There are countries further away, but I know very little about many of them. It would be especially difficult to get my friends there. I cannot carry all of them at once, so it would take months to move them regardless if we tried to travel by land or I made multiple trips.
That doesn’t even consider the possibility that those states might be just as bad as any other.
I’m stuck protecting the pact nations, so that they can protect my friends. And as long as my team doesn’t encounter a Viisin, I trust them to survive without trouble. Well, assuming they don’t have a hit-squad sent to hunt them down.
I fly far past the point where our battle previously took place. Unfortunately, the land is no longer contested. It is entirely within ursu control. Far beneath me, they lay the foundations for their rail network to connect with the one laid by the pact nations after we retook the land from the mermineae.
It isn’t a pleasant sight to see all the ground we put weeks of effort into retaking, simply snapped away by a third party we never expected to be against us.
A whole day passes before I finally see where the front line has settled. The ursu have pushed the pact nations further back than even the mermineae had when I’d returned to this side of the Alps. The town commandeered as a command post now lay deserted hours behind me.
The majority of ursu along the line neither have swords nor armour like those that attacked our camp, but they do have the miniature cannons those guarding the gulag used. Most of the land was expansive stretches of trenches, both sides filled with the unenhanced. All simply numbers to fill the space and worth no more.
I fly along the line for a while, simply watching over the fighting. In places, the battlefield favours a particular side and the line bends to account. After a few hours of this, it becomes rather clear that nothing really happens when the unenhanced fight. Both sides hide in their cover and fire, hoping for some lucky shots when artillery doesn’t rain from above.
Only when the stronger warriors — the ursu’s armoured soldiers and the pact nation’s mercenaries — enter the battle, does any shift truly occur. If a side is unlucky enough to face them without support of their own, their defeat and death is guaranteed. Those on the ground know it too. When the stronger warriors appear, there are many that try to flee, only to be shot for desertion.
It’s horrible, but making an example of deserters is common on both sides of the conflict, and for good reason. Often, the appearance of the stronger warriors is a hoax. Simple soldiers dressing themselves as those stronger in a bid to terrify the enemy. And when the overseeing officer refuses to shoot his soldiers in the back, it works.
Eventually the defensive lines separate, spreading into the distance, but not thinning. Soldiers face desolate land. I’ve fought alongside the pact nations long enough to know this is merminea controlled area. It’s curious to see the ursu taking a similar defence as the pact nations, despite their lesser numbers.
It is incredibly relieving to witness the ursu trying to push against the mermineae in addition to the pact forces. If they had allied with the mermineae, or attempted to take the pact nations out before moving on to fight the slender race, then we would have no chance.
At least now we have the opportunity to incite the two factions to slaughter the other instead of us. Whether those in charge of the pact nations can achieve that, however, is another story.
As I fly over the border between the pact nations and mermineae, I observe many battles between the two. The Order has finally got itself sorted. Beiths now push against the offences of the mermineae. The sole fighters are sparse and only show up on the rare battlefield, but they show up none the less.
Having a single warrior or mage wiping out swarms of mermineae is so much more efficient than relying on thousands for a less than equal trade. It might have taken months, but the Mercenary Order has finally adapted.
Still, with the added war, it doesn’t make much difference.
Finally, after a long trip — and a volan mage trying to knock me out of the sky — I finally reach the command post. This time, it’s in a major city. Most citizens have been evacuated, and it leaves the place eerily quiet in the areas not occupied by the military and mercenaries.
Sorting things out with the pressure mage volan had been an ordeal — apparently calling her an air mage was insulting… for some reason — but now I have to present myself to the commander. As before, I expected to find Remus and Commander Darton with him, but that isn’t what awaits me as I enter the room.
A trio wearing business suits stand behind a large conference desk. As I step into the room, the two khirig I felt in the corners of the room rush forward. One slams the door, while the other does something strange with its hands. Turning, I notice too late the strand of water connecting the khirig to something above me.
Bars of water drop in a circle around me.
What is this? Why are they attacking me?
I fight the urge to lash out to escape by any means. Maybe this is some mistake. I glance down to see if I could melt my way down and out of the cage of water. But no, the water mage has surrounded my feet in a puddle. Thankfully, he’s kind enough to keep the water away from my feet, which is about the limit of the good things I can currently think about any of the people in this room letting this happen.
Remain calm. I still have my outfit, which should keep the water off me. Plus, I’m not entirely defenceless to water anymore. Assuming the other khirig is a water mage as well, I’ll only need to kill the two before they can focus their water on me after I break free. Assuming they aren’t at the Beith level, it should be easy.
Still, the water around me does nothing to ease my nerves.
“What is this?” I ask, struggling to keep myself calm.
“You are being detained for desertion,” the only dohrni in the room says. She wears clean, black sleeves over each of her tentacles, which is strange to see as almost every other dohrni I’ve met hasn’t bothered with clothing.
“Desertion?” I repeat. “What are you talking about?”
One of the well-dressed trio, another khirig, straightens on his slender antlers and lifts a bundle of papers before his face. He recites words from the page. “Infraction: Abandoned the battlefield without sufficient reason or consent from a superior. Infraction: Failed to report actions at a hearing within the allocated time.”
“What? A friend needed my help. I didn’t have time to tell anyone.”
The khirig continues without acknowledging me. “Infraction: Failed to report crucial mission intelligence to command. Infraction: Unauthorised dialogue with enemy combatants; treason. Judgement: Confiscation of all personal rights, allocation of handler, and suspension of movement unless given authorisation by said handler.”
I can hardly believe they are doing this. It all seems like a stupid joke until the khirig behind me that closed the door approaches with arm cuffs dense with glowing inscriptions. The thing looks just as advanced, if not more so than the intricate lines within the Empire’s weapon. I don’t know what it does, but there’s no chance I’m risking that touching me.
I’m done with this shit.
Thin rings of white flame encircle the necks of the two mages behind me while balls of that same fire materialise before the three standing ahead of me. The air shimmers from the unrestrained heat. The room temperature skyrockets. I make sure each of these people knows just how hot those tiny flames are. On top of that, I flood the room with my presence, freezing each in place.
“If any of you makes another move, I’ll be the only one leaving this room as anything other than a mote of ash.”
The water mage holding my cage twitches, so I burn away all of his antlers to show I’m not messing around. The markings disappear along with the khirig’s branch-like external bones, leaving the water to drop around me. My outfit blocks most of it, but some does make it inside the tears of my torso, only to burst into steam on contact.
It hurts, a lot, but I don’t lose focus on the four who might still try something. The water mage now lies on the ground, flesh exposed and unable to stand up, but alive. He’s not screaming either, so I assume it mustn’t be too painful to lose those antlers.
“You realise what you are doing, right?” the third of the trio — an albanic this time — asks with a tone that implies a calmness that is betrayed by the sweat running down the side of his face and his eyes not leaving the tiny orb hovering before his chest. “You are making yourself the enemy of the Mercenary Order. Do you not understand the severity of this mistake?”
“When the alternative is to become a prisoner, I’d rather take my chances,” I say. I can’t believe they would do this after how much I’ve helped them. Considering they are so desperate to keep their Beiths hidden, they would never have reconnected with Joiak if not for me. This is exactly what Letty — that dohrni that helped find me some clothes — warned me about. The Order would do anything in its power to put a leash around me.
“What about Grímr? Where is he? Did you charge him with desertion too?”
The albanic raises an eyebrow in question, but answers anyway. “No, he was pardoned under the severe injuries clause during his trial.”
Well, that is a relief to hear, assuming he is truthful. Whether they didn’t do so because they believe they already control him, or for some other reason, I don’t know. All I know is that these charges they are trying to hit me with are nonsense.
“I am leaving. If I find anyone coming after me, I will immolate each of you.”
The door burns off its hinges and I walk over the smouldering remains, through the building, and out into the uninhabited part of the city to wait. I gave them an option, and I am ready to follow through with my threat if anyone comes after me.
It was immensely difficult to not just burn each of them where they stood. We are already struggling against the mermineae, ursu and The Theocracy and they decide they have to ruin what cooperation we could have had?
On the way here, I’d decided the best course of action is to leave my friends here and protect the pact nations alongside the Order. Now? I’m not so sure. Will they use them as hostages like New Vetus did with Gerben to keep Leal in line? If so, I really need to get back to Meja and find the five. They won’t be able to defend themselves if it is the Order coming for them.
But first, I need to see if a particular trio of Order executives will leave this city alive.
