Chapter 504: Fractures (2/2)

Ilea spotted the tiny specks of fast moving people. “You think they’re with Baralia?”

“I have no clue. Maybe that’s the first strike team who reached us. It’s been over a day since our briefing after all,” he said. “I’ll get back to work. Let me know if you uncover anything new.”

Ilea nodded, taking a last glance at the people who moved on the ground. She had a hard time making out any details in the rainy weather. The distance didn’t help either. His eyes are as good as mine or better, she noted.

As long as the newcomers don’t get in the way, she thought and blinked down. Much of the city was still very much crawling with monsters and they had stalled for long enough.

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Felicia hadn’t been terribly joyous about the prospect of working with the Dawn Company. She had heard quite a few things about the elite order from Asila, few of them reassuring.

The fact that she had never heard of the gold mage in the group didn’t exactly help her trust him either.

They had reached Harchat after around seven hours of traveling. Both herself and General Ryse could have made the journey in less than four but they lacked the means to carry the nine others.

[Mage – lvl 275]

Ryse was the only person she couldn’t identify in the group, making her effectively the third highest level participant in their little raid group.

If we don’t count the two monsters who left on their own, she thought to herself. Ilea was, well, she was Ilea. Felicia had watched her fight and grow, quickly knowing that that woman would reach heights she herself would never see.

And she wasn’t disappointed. Felicia had looked into some of Lilith’s exploits and if anything, she thought them downplayed.

She chastised herself often for her indecisive ways, how she followed after Edwin with little will nor passion. Only when their father became an actual target they could get to did she feel involved again.

For her brother it seemed to be the opposite. He had accomplished the goal that had driven him for years on end. And now he was lost.

Felicia on the other hand, her world had opened up.

For all her wavering and uncertainty, it had resonated with Ilea, the woman young, full of life and adventure. She had made a friend then. The aspiring adventurer and the lost noble child. Now they were Lilith and the head of a powerful noble House.

Admittedly, she was falling behind. Felicia doubted she could ever truly repay what Ilea had done for them, not that her brother would ever admit she was much of a help in the first place.

Then again, she knew that Ilea didn’t really care. As long as they stayed friends. She really did like her, the healer somehow remaining untainted in this horrible world. Felicia knew her views were biased, that she liked Ilea for the ideals she represented in her mind and not for what she really did.

The woman was a monster, obsessed with battle and magic, always on the lookout for more dangerous missions and monsters to challenge. Her heart was in the right place and Lilith did what she could but in the end, the stories she had read as a child remained just that. Simple fantasies with simple problems.

If she wanted change, she would have to make it, through work, gold, and blood. Lilith was trying a different approach but in the end, the price they paid would be similar.

She hadn’t seen Ilea for a while and when she had spotted her, the first thing she wanted to do is run her down with a hug. They had so much to talk about after all. Maybe the woman could even take Maria out on a monster hunt to calm her down a little.

Neither of them approached one another however, simply exchanging a glance. Felicia was sure that nothing had changed between them. They themselves might not be the same anymore but something more connected them. From a time when everything seemed a little less complicated.

I should really talk to her, otherwise I’ll idolize her even more, she thought and rolled her eyes at herself.

Lilith was one thing but the man she had been with felt just as dangerous to her. The way they joked with each other, entirely uncaring for the dangerous mission they’d been sent to accomplish. One could dismiss it as bravado or foolishness but Felicia knew enough of the world to know that these two had dealt with threats that made this war seem like a children’s play.

And still they had come.

Ryse had been surprised too apparently, expecting the Dawn Company but nobody else.

Ilea’s demeanor didn’t fit with a covert operation, a large fire informing everyone about their whereabouts for kilometers. The Destroyer might even be worse.

She assumed Ilea had done it because she was bored but the man had done it just to annoy Ryse.

Thus they were sent on a task everyone else would deem suicidal or perhaps even impossible. To clear out the Cursed and unknown monsters within and around the cities taken by the Order’s blood ritual.

It was a task for the imperial army, not two people. And still, either had fought armies on their own before. Each had won in their own way. Perhaps his order had not been a dismissal but an appropriate use of their abilities.

Velamyr Ryse was known to be easily irritated but he always had good reasons to be and he openly confronted those who caused it. He was a General of the imperial army and demanded his peers and subordinates to act accordingly.

That meant swift, smart, and decisive actions with favorable results for the Empire. Those weren’t always words associated with the army however, thus his reputation.

Maybe an old feud would cause him to send the two to their deaths but Felicia didn’t take it that way.

She focused again when an eagle landed on a nearby branch.

One of the Dawn Company mages had a way to control the bird, to use it for surveillance. As ruthless and dangerous as they were heralded, Felicia could at least appreciate their professionalism.

Working with those two would have been a major headache, she thought, glad about their separate mission. There would have been no time to talk to Ilea anyway.

Plus, it should likely stay a secret that they knew each other as well as they did.

“They burned down all the surrounding forests and shut the gates. Very little cover remains and the guards are vigilant. They’ve been preparing for an imperial assault for a long time it seems,” the hooded mage said.

They had expected as much. No settlement in Baralia would be easy to approach, let alone infiltrate.

Their group hid deep within the forest, a few kilometers away from the plains leading to the city of Harchat.

The town wasn’t the largest or most defensible settlement in Baralia. It however housed one of the largest populations in the country.

“There were fires recently,” the hooded man added.

“Perhaps news have spread from the east and south,” Velamyr suggested.

“There would be chaos, if the true extent of the Order’s rituals was known in the general populace,” the mage said.

“Don’t underestimate the power of fear and century old oppression,” Felicia said.

The mage didn’t react but the meaning was surely not lost on him. Asila wasn’t exactly known to be a safe heaven for the poor and unfortunate.

“The Order of Truth is well regarded, often the only healers who can take care of ailments within these parts,” Velamyr said. “A revolt would not necessarily help us. We need to get in and find the ritual site.”

“The old information we have suggests several large Order temples, each heavily guarded with extensive underground structures. I couldn’t detect anything that heavily diverged from the norm,” the mage said.

And you know exactly what the norm is?

“The tunnel seems like the best option we have,” one of the warriors said.

“I agree. Do we have suitable spots already?” Ryse asked.

They moved silently through the forest, a little dejected at the prospect of digging a tunnel.

Even with one earth manipulator and several powerful elemental mages present, it would take the better part of a day to get to the walls. And they had no knowledge on below ground defensive measures. It could very well be that they had to retreat again.

The confidence Ryse had in the plan made her think that he knew something she didn’t.

A few silencing and illusion enchantments had been placed between a few trees and bushes, hopefully enough to prevent an early discovery by one of the patrols that regularly searched through the surrounding lands.

Most of the soldiers and mercenaries they had seen didn’t seem too keen on discovering anything. They’d be the first ones to go, thus thinking of self preservation above all.

It wasn’t a surprise that Velamyr talked extensively about honor and duty as soon as this was discovered.

Felicia didn’t disagree with him but the man really couldn’t read a crowd. Either that or he simply spent too much time with military officers and people who tried to get in his good graces.

She did feel a little bad about being one of those people. I’ll tell him when the war is over, she thought. Right now was not the time to explain to a General why some powerful Gold mage and a few high level assassins or mercenaries might not care too much about the national duty and self sacrifice.