Yallia

Looking over the documents Neil and I had gathered from the underground I wished I had some more paper, pens, or any of the other supplies I usually took for granted on an expedition. All I had was my own notebook, and the pencil stub I kept in it.

Even this would have been enough if it weren’t for one thing. The damn Humans of this mountain spoke their own dialect. It seemed to be a version of Human Imperial Common that shared a number of similarities to the dialect found in the Skasharin desert. Without some more extensive notes or an expert I wouldn’t be able to make a full translation of this. The closest library with the references I needed was back in Eurastia. The closest expert was on the river on his way here.

Thinking of my father I started packing up the notes I had taken from the office under the mountain pausing for a moment to look at the one of the few I could make heads or tails of, the map.

It was one of the best maps I had ever seen of the Alatross islands. The main island was rendered in fantastic detail with most topographical features being covered, rivers running across it and a half a dozen other points of interest marked on the map with various symbols on them. Even the hundreds of smaller islands surrounding the main island were depicted, although most of them had far less detail on them. The few that were detailed also had symbols on them as well. Most of them were small stars, which if this map followed usually human conventions meant a city, or perhaps an outpost of some sort. Given the fact that human settlements were completely unheard of in this area I could assume that all these stars weren’t actually cities, otherwise someone would have heard of them before. Maybe outposts? Or perhaps even Lamia settlements that the humans had considered important for some reason.

Once I had rescued my father I would convince Neil to join the two of us on an expedition to see some of them. Who knew what wonders they held? Although hopefully they held none of the horrors we had found below the mountain.

Out of all the human ruins I had ever seen that was the worst. I’d heard stories about Human cities, some of the journals from the earliest archeologists and explorers read more like adventure novels than actual academic journals. But living it was another thing altogether.

Putting the map back in my bag I pulled out the documents I stole from the Empire safe house back in Puna. I had managed to find a crew manifest, along with a requisition form amongst the papers, I had only found it after Neil left unfortunately so I couldn’t have Neil tell the Lamia and my own attempts at telling them had ended in the elders getting annoyed and shooing me away.

The documents detailed the crew of the entire expedition, and it didn’t look good. They brought with them thirty elite soldiers, four mages, one kitsune boiler operator, whatever that was, four gnomish heavy infantry, ten gnomish crewmen, and a handful of other experts in herbalism, potion making and alchemy.

The elite soldiers were bad enough, the empire fielded one of the finest armies on the planet and their elites were a cut above the rest, but it was the gnomish heavy infantry that really frightened me. What the gnomish lacked in physical robustness, size, or strength they more than made up for with their equipment. Their own gift of Gaia allowed them to make technological marvels capable of terrible destruction. Their heavy infantry was the reason the empire had only ever managed to win pyrrhic victories against the Gnomes, which had forced the Empire to use alternative tactics to absorb the small kingdom.

Aside from the heavy infantry the number of Gromes was worrying. Even if most of the Gnomes were there to service the Heavy Infantry and the shop they were travelling on, there were just enough to maintain Gnomish weapons for the regular Imperial soldiers. Their soldiers were dangerous enough with conventional weapons but armed with Gnomish casters?

No matter what potions the Lamia were hoping to make from the plants Neil had been sent to get any fight with the empire would be a slaughter. Now that I knew how bad the situation really was I needed to figure out how to rescue my father and convince Neil to not throw his life away trying to help these people. Maybe double down on encouraging a peace treaty? The expedition had no laborer's with them so they likely planned on press ganging the Lamia to help them with whatever they needed. If I was lucky it wouldn’t even turn into a fight.

Standing up I began walking back and forth in front of the river near Nialla’s house. Looking back towards the village it certainly looked like the Lamia were hedging their bets at least. Young men and women were laden with large packs containing food, plants, and other necessities and being sent to the summit. The very young were assisting the elderly and it almost looked like the entire village would be abandoned. Except for the hunters, some of them went with the civilians to the summit carrying supplies, but most of them were in the village preparing weapons, and other simple defenses. The village had no walls, moat, trenches or any other defensive works. Instead holes were dug at various spots in the forest leading towards the river and they were hidden under small screens that were disguised with flowers, plants and even a few rocks. I had thought they were simple pit traps, but they appeared to be small, fortified dugouts that the warriors could hide in and ambush their enemies.

Other Lamia were disguising themselves in green, brown, and even splashes of orange paint which seemed to be working as an excellent camouflage. They were climbing trees and leaving small bundles of arrows and other weapons for their use later.

The final group was headed by Hallice, she was in the town square slithering back and forth between four groups of two Lamia who were each working in a different corner of the square. One of the Lamia was preparing plants and handing them off to their partner who would carefully check the plants and add them to one of the three bubbling mixtures each group was working on.

I had been impressed by Neils potion making skills, for someone who had only been making potions for a week he had a real talent. But watching these people I could see it was like comparing a gifted child to a master craftsman.

What it took Neil 30 minutes of concentration and focus to do the Lamia were able to do in minutes as they focused on three or four cauldrons each, adding a small amount of each ingredient to an individual pot.

While I had no idea what they were making I had been in enough fights to know what I would want in their position. Healing potions, and poisons; both a poison that could be applied to weapons, and something that could be breathed in, healing potions, anything to increase speed, stamina, strength, reflexes, healing potions, and antidotes for the poisons.

If it did come to violence the Lamia would be smart to try and turn this into a protracted fight using guerilla tactics. They had the home field advantage and could most easily find the ingredients to make new potions, find readily available sources of food, and potentially even find allies from the surrounding tribes, if any of them would be willing to fight with the tribe. The Empire on the other hand had only the soldiers they had with them and didn’t know the lay of the land. Even identifying useful potion ingredients might be difficult.

Looking over to the hunting parties I spotted Falleris, the leader of the hunters standing in the middle of the preparations. To most people he would look like he was calmly directing others, indicating where defenses should go, setting teams to work together and being a rock that his people could rely on. To me though I saw the subtle signs of tension. There was a tightness around his eyes that spoke of hesitancy if not outright fear, and I saw how Esther stayed close by to subtly direct him and offer advice.

The rest of the elders didn’t seem to need much help with any of their tasks. Anais was directing her gatherers to ensure the area around the village was picked clean of anything useful and most of it was packed carefully in baskets and stacked near the base of the mountain. Jax had gone to the summit hours ago, presumably to ensure everything on the summit was prepared for a mass evacuation.

I had to admit to myself I was impressed by the preparations. Not only were they ready for a large scale battle, but also they were ensuring that the regular villagers had a secure fallback position.

Hearing a shout I looked around trying to find the source of the noise, I could see that I wasn’t the only one as Falleris was looking up the mountain. Turning I saw a male Lamia rushing down the mountain yelling and gesturing to the river.

Running back to the Nialla’s house I climbed a up the side of the house and jumped from the top of the wall to a tree. Running along several branches I pulled myself up until I was standing on a branch as wide as my hips. Laying down I crawled out to the edge of the branch and peered through some leaves not bothering to use magic to conceal myself. In the distance was a strange looking black ship moving towards us. It had no sails, or oars, instead there was a large chimney rising out of the hull with a small amount of steam coming out of it. The ship was extremely wide and taller than most river boats I had ever seen and I saw two sets of port holes on the side of the ship indicating that it had two levels on the inside and presumable one more underneath the water line. There were two large water wheels on the side of the boat pushing it through the river at a quick pace. Watching the ship for a few minutes I got the sense that it was traveling fairly slowly, but even still it would arrive in town shortly.

Climbing down the tree I entered Nialla’s home and gathered up my things. I had made a point of not unpacking so it didn’t take long. I carefully placed the papers in my hands in the bottom of my bag, and everything else was thrown on top.

Hearing a small group people coming around the side of the house I put my bag on, ran to a wall jumped off it, grabbed a beam on the ceiling and using my momentum I swung my legs over another beam. Hiding myself under an illusion just as the door opened I focused on my breathing as the two Lamia warriors entered the room.

I was facing towards the roof so I couldn’t see them, and while I couldn’t understand what they were saying I could understand their tone. The first sounded confused and a little dismayed, the second responded with something that sounded angry and I was pretty sure he struck his friend. One then walked through the room swinging his spear back and forth. After a moment two joined him and only after they had poked all the corners did they leave.

As I hung from the ceiling I considered what they had been up to. It was possible that they had orders to kill me, but somewhat unlikely. If they had wanted me dead then there was no reason to wait for the Empires arrival. More likely they simply wanted me out of the way to make sure I didn’t cause any problems during the negotiations. Or it could have been to tie me up, wrap a bow around me and present me to the Empire as a gift in order to gain favor.

No matter what they had wanted I felt it best to simply hide nearby and watch the proceedings as closely as possible, should an opportunity arise to help my father I wanted to be ready.

Slipping out of the hut I snuck into the jungle and climbed the same tree I had scouted the Empire ship from earlier. Using magic to increase the shadows around me and make myself a little harder to see I settled in to wait.

I watched the Lamia make their final preparations, some Lamia pulled blinds over their hiding places, a dozen formed up with Esther as she sent Falleris away, gesturing up the mountain. I could tell he was reluctant to abandon his leader but Esther must have made a convincing argument as he eventually turned and gestured to half a dozen of the hunters. They all went to Hallice and helped her, and her assistants pack up their equipment and then carry it up the mountain.

Esther was left with two thirds of the hunters, over forty people spread around the campsite. Most of the hunters were hidden, but four stood with Esther in the open near the shoreline.

It was a simple idea, meet the empire head on, present a small guard to show that they were not pushovers, but have the rest of the hunters hidden in order to ambush the empire if needed. As for Sending the other elders away, if the talks and the battle went poorly then the Lamia would still have most of their leaders, and enough of their hunters still alive that the tribe should be able to survive.

The ship was close enough that I could start to pick out individual details. It was made of steel and I had to wonder how the Empire had even made it here. They must have been planning and preparing for this expedition for a lot longer than I had thought. I couldn’t imagine a boat like that being built very quickly, even the steel would have to be imported, unless the Empire was willing to buy every scrap of steel made here for the last few years. Despite how impressive the ship was I could now spot small amounts of damage on it.

In several places the steel had been bent and cracked, unpainted hull showing were patch jobs had been done to keep the vessel ship shape. The crew itself was also looking a little haggard. Usually, Imperial soldiers would be at parade rest at almost all times. But several of the soldiers had stains on their uniforms, missing buttons, and even spots of blood on their jackets. Small imperfections, but imperfections nonetheless.

The Lamia looked stunned at the approaching vessel, to their eyes it must have looked like their old gods come back. Only Esther managed to keep her facial expression neutral.

The deck of the ship was ringed with soldiers who were standing at attention looking down at the Lamia. I counted twenty dog-kin soldiers standing in small groups of three or four, there was also a group of four Lamia in the middle of the ship. They were wearing clothes that looked to be from Puna, thick materials that had been created in workshops rather than by hand in the deep jungle. Esther in her far simpler clothes looked almost savage in comparison, but she held herself with a confidence and presence that looked regal in its own way.

As the water wheels stopped the boat came to a stop in front of a small clearing near the village and several anchors fell from the side of the boat landing in the water with a splash. For a moment the people on the ship looked down at the Lamia and the Lamia looked up at each other. If Esther hadn’t been there, I have no doubt that the Lamia probably would have broken and run when the ship stopped in front of them, but with her there radiating calm and certainty the Lamia held their ground, although they looked nervous.

Several soldiers moved to the railing and moved it to the side revealing a plank made into the side of the ship, it was lowered to the ground forming a simple ramp. From my vantage point I could see on the deck that an officer was conversing with four people.

One was a tall dog-kin wearing a gold red uniform of the Empires elite soldiers, an officer judging by the colors on his uniform, behind him stood an enlisted man, another was wearing black robes with the symbol of the 1st Imperial mages on the back. They were the Empires most elite warrior mages able to cast spells from at least three affinities they were worth a hundred regular soldiers. Beside the mage was a Lamia who at first I thought looked bored, but after looking closer I noticed the end of his tail swishing in agitation. The final person in the group was a man I had hoped to see, my father.

The officer and the mage spoke to each other for a few minutes before the officer made a chopping motion with his hands silencing the mage. The soldier behind the officer then peeled off from the others and organized the rest of his men, most of them he had stand back against the wall of the ship out of sight of the Lamia, three soldiers however joined the solider at the top of the ramp with the Lamia. The officer joined them a moment later with the Lamia. My father looked like he was planning on joining them when the officer shook his head and the soldier pointed to two soldiers who directed my father back into the ship and out of sight.

I had to stop myself from jumping down from the tree and trying to find a way onto the ship. From what I knew of the ships compliment onboard I would have to dodge five to ten soldiers, four gnomish heavy infantry, three more mages, and the rest of the crew as well, not to mention the soldiers around the edges of the boat keeping an eye out for people trying to sneak onto the ship.

No this wasn’t the time to try, but it would come soon.

Sitting tight I watched as the officer walked down the ramp his soldiers flanking him and the Lamia walking to the side of the group. With them, but still apart. Splashing through the water at the edge of the ramp the Officer gave no indication that the wetness bothered him.

They stopped roughly ten feet from the group of Lamia. The officer said something that I couldn’t catch and I internally cursed my hiding spot, close enough to see but not hear.

The Lamia that travelled with them interpreted for him and then carried back Esthers response. The hunters watched the soldiers warily and the soldiers standing at attention looked straight forwards weapons held on their shoulders.

Looking at the weapons I could see that they were clearly of Gnomish make. They were shaped loosely like spears although the end near their body were shaped to fit into a persons shoulder and the far end had a wicked looking knife hanging under the end of what would normally be a spear. Gnomish Casters. The Empire had made use of muskets for decades, and while the Gnomish Mana Casters were similar they were much, much more potent being able to cast a variety of magical effects instead of just a simple lead ball. Horrifically effective weapons as the Gnomish had proved during their war with the Empire.

The talks seemed to be going well enough and I was starting to hope that a confrontation might be avoided when a door on the ship opened and the three missing mages left the ship. They spoke to one of the soldiers who pointed to the railing.

The mage walked to the edge of the railing and called out in a voice loud enough to carry to me.

“Sir! We’ve detected Taint in the village!”

The officer stiffened looked back towards the mage, then calmly turned back towards Esther who had tensed at the shout.

Without another word the officer turned and went back to the ship as the soldiers shifted their position to form a solid wall covering the officers retreating form. While the soldiers hadn’t raised their weapons their demeanor had nonetheless shifted to add an aura of menace. Fighting seemed inevitable now and everyone knew it.

Esther called out to the officers back which caused him to hesitate on the ramp, but the Lamia that was interpreting had already started to retreat up the ramp and he didn’t translate her words.

After a moment the officer continued and entered the ship waving his hands at the other soldiers who readied their weapons and started down the ramp.

Esther turned to leave, the hunters near her forming a wall between her and the advancing soldiers.

The hunters stared down the soldiers as they continued down the ramp quickly and began forming up into two ranks across from the Lamia hunters. It wasn’t until Esther was hidden behind a small grove of trees that the Lamia acted.

A voice called out from the forest on beside the small clearing just as the soldiers finished forming up.

Just after the voice called out a small sack was thrown from the trees over the dog-kin soldiers, an arrow appeared from the other side of the clearing and punctured the skin. A green fog burst from the projectile and covered the entirety of the clearing. The Lamia who had been guarding Esther turned and followed their leader out of the clearing not even bothering to fire their arrows.

A voice called out from the fog and even as far from it as I was I knew the words it spoke.

“For the Empire!”

A chorus of voices joined it a moment later.

“FOR THE EMPIRE!”

With the words spoken the dog-kins Gift of Gaia activated and even without seeing them I knew what was happening. Each dog-kin was now radiating a weak aura around them that would only effect the members of their pack. On their own the auras were not very strong, just a small increase to their pack mates strength, stamina, healing, and pain tolerance, but when enough dog-kin used them together the effects stacked on top of each other creating a much stronger and larger effect.

With this many soldiers this close together they would probably be able to shrug off most damage that wasn’t immediately fatal, and be capable of fist fighting someone twice their size.

Not that they would need to fist fight with Gnomish made weaponry.

A dozen arrows entered the fog just as a mage on the ship blew the fog away with a gesture. Small eddies of the sickly vapor lingered around their feet as the soldiers were revealed. From my position I could see several soldiers had arrows in their arms, chests, and one unlucky man had an arrow through his throat, blood pouring out of the wound as he nonetheless stood at ramrod attention ignoring the arrow. The Lamia must have seen it as well as the arrows slowed and stopped.

The sergeant called out again and the first line of soldiers dropped to their knees and every man raised their weapons to their shoulders.

The Gnomish made weapons were shaped like regular muskets, but that was where the similarities ended. Instead of propelling a small ball with an explosion of gunpowder, these weapons used raw mana harvested from crystals to create small spells of their chosen element. For most of the soldiers this was fire.

The first line of soldiers pointed their weapons towards the four retreating Lamia and pulled the triggers. The crystals discharged their mana and bolts of fire leapt from the barrels of the weapons.

Most of the bolts hit trees and exploded, bits of wood rained down on me even as far away I was. I could see Esther fall to the ground as the warriors who were following her were blown apart, as large holes appeared in their backs, and several limbs were blown off of their bodies as well. The back line fired next, half of them aiming into the forest on their left and half to their right. The explosions were more spread out, combined with the Lamias hiding spots was probably the only reason the Lamia weren’t wiped out immediately.

As it was even the tree I was sheltering in shook violently when a bolt of fire struck a tree 20 feet ahead of me.

A handful of arrows left the trees to strike soldiers but the dog kin ignored them and continued to fire into the trees. The sergeant would call out and one of the lines would fire, he would wait three seconds and then call out again and the other line would fire. The constant fire was enough to discourage the Lamia from returning fire too often and the few arrows that did find their targets weren’t enough to stop the Imperial soldiers, for the first few seconds.

I had suspected the arrows were coated in poison and my suspicious were confirmed when the first soldiers that had been struck by arrows began falling and having seizures on the ground. The Dog-Kins Gift of Gaia may have let them shrug off a lot of damage, but they were still mortal, just able to fight through pain and injuries that should have been debilitating.

First one, then two, and then two more soldiers fell, but the dog-kin showed their discipline by holding their position and they continued to fire despite their friends collapsing around them. However they had always been outnumbered and the slackening weight of fire could have spelled disaster, if not the support from the ship.

A second mage gestured from the deck and walls of earth raised on both sides of the soldiers cutting them off from the forest and giving them shelter from the arrows.

From my vantage point I saw the sergeant direct the soldiers to split into two groups each manning a wall and facing into the forest. Their return fire slackened for a moment as they moved allowing the Lamia to take the initiative and fire a flurry of arrows at the soldiers. I saw another four soldiers struck by arrows, and now that I knew what to look for I could see the spread of poison in the men's veins signaling their eventual deaths, unless their own antidotes were administered soon, but for the moment they were able to keep firing along with the other soldiers.

Another skin was thrown over the soldiers to be struck by another arrow spreading a second greenish fog over the soldiers. Their fire never let up, even if their accuracy suffered, but this time the air mage was ready and the fog had barely descended before it was blown away again.

Three Lamia moved closer to the soldiers for a better firing position when I saw the Gnomish heavy infantry make their appearance.

Their armor was over seven feet tall, and vaguely shaped like a person. The torso was a cylinder with an exhaust stack raising out of the back, the limbs were short and stubby when compared to the rest of the body and the head itself looked like an ancient knight's armor with dark glass in the eye sockets. Two of the armors had small flames coming out of the ends of the arms and I had heard enough about Gnomish armor to know what was about to happen. Jumping from my tree I made sure I was as cloaked as I could manage and I sprinted past a confused looking Lamia.

As the heavy suits clomped down the gangway in a two by two formation a half a dozen arrows plinked uselessly against the armor. As soon as the armor reached the ground they split into two groups of two and headed into the jungle.

I had barely made it more than a handful of steps when I heard and felt them.

There was a loud FWOOOSH sound behind me followed by terrified screams from the Lamia and even as far as I was, I could still feel the heat on my back.

Looking back I saw a gout of flame arcing into the forest behind me, the Heavy Infantry were pouring fire onto the trees like a gardener watering plants. Everywhere the flames touched the forest burned. A moment later there was an explosion behind me to the right.

I ran through the small clearing surrounding Gand and Nialla’s house and slid into cover behind a tree. From my new vantage point I could no longer see the fighting, only the flickering orange light of the fire and the screams of the Lamia reached my ears. A handful of Lamia exited the forest just after me and slithered through the clearing, wild panic on their faces most of them had thrown down their weapons and were simply running for their lives. One poor soul was even on fire as he ran through the forest screaming.

After that the battle seemed over, the Lamia were in full retreat and the Empire was simply treating their wounded and securing the area.

I was about to slip away into the forest when I heard the march of well organized soldiers headed towards me. Double checking my illusion I hunkered down and watched as ten soldiers led by the sergeant burst out of the clearing in a row of five men by two men weapons held at the ready pointing into the forest over my head.

The soldiers swept through the area quickly and I held my breath when one stood close enough to me that I could reach out and touch his boot.

“Call it out!” the sergeant called out.

One by one the soldiers yelled out that the area was clear, even the man near me.

Afterwards the officer, a mage and two of the Gnomish Heavy Infantry left the forest, the large powered armor clomping past me. The mage had his head down looking at a small stone tablet, his face illuminated by a light blue glow.

“It’s weak but it’s coming from inside the house, near the corner.” The mage said without looking up from his tablet.

The officer gestured to the house and the power armor clad Gnome walked into the building demolishing the wall and bodily shoving the structurer out of the way.

When it was cleared the mage walked over to where the corner of the house had been and finally put away the tablet. Without moving a muscle slowly the dirt started shifting and moving, and then something began being pulled from the dirt.

It looked like the root that Neil had complained he had been sleeping on, until it started wiggling and eyes opened along its length. The mage placed it into a small jar carefully closed it.

“How bad is the infection?” The officer asked.

“This is the only source that I can find so far, but we should make a more thorough check of the village.” The mage responded.

“Sergeant Rolphus?” The officer said.

“Yes Sir?” The sergeant said walking forwards.

“How are my men?”

“Four dead, three more in critical condition, we can secure the landing area, easily enough but I’m not sure if we have the manpower to secure the village itself sir.”

“I understand Sergeant, but the Lamia are in complete retreat, I want you to take your men and escort specialist Tralvers through the village. You are authorized to use lethal force on anyone who fights back or is showing signs of infection.”

“Understood Sir, can I have any of the Heavies?”

“We’ll need them for the landing area.”

“Yes Sir.” The sergeant said with a salute as the officer turned back to the ship with the Gnomish soldiers. The Sergeant began calling out orders.

“Alright everyone, we do this by the book, squad by squad advancing formation, check your corners and stay close enough that our auras can reinforce each other's. Specialist Tralvers I will need you to stay close to me and follow any order I give, is that understood?”

“Yes Sergeant.” The mage responded with disdain lacing his voice as he looked down at his tablet again.

“Alright move out!” He shouted waving inland towards the village.

When everyone was gone I waited five more minutes before slowly crawling away. When I was far from the ruins of the house I stood up and began running.

I wasn’t entirely certain of what just happened, but things had gotten a lot more complicated, and I needed to find Neil before he wandered back into the village.