It was early in the morning when Lieutenants Lapidos and Amon entered Captain Sada’s office. They were both drenched. “It has been raining for three days nonstop.” Lapidos muttered. “I do not approve of it; my uniform hasn’t looked decent since it started.” Amon’s lips curled into a smile. At was at moments like this that the difference between their training became most clear.

“Cease the chatter lieutenants, I assume the two of you have something of significance to report, since you’re both here.” Sada said, her eyes narrow. That generally meant she was in a bad mood. Amon had seen her often like this during their years at the academy. Well, her mood was about to get worse.

“Captain, five days ago Scout Samir failed to check in. I sent a two men team to locate Samir. They found what was left of his taukar and his body. His weapon and head were missing.” Amon said. Sada looked up. “His head was missing?” Lapidos nodded. “It is clear that the enemy took it with them to examine it.” He sounded approving; it was what he would have done.

“Additionally, the team spotted several patrols in the area. They had to retreat.” Amon added. “The enemy seems to be setting up defensive perimeters, we should inform General Yifat.” Lapidos followed up immediately. Sada nodded. “The general is currently on her way to the capital, knowing her she will be riding hard. Lapidos, after you’ve finished your report, send our fastest rider after, she should arrive in the capital only shortly after the general. Amon, I want a full reconnaissance team to investigate the area where Scout Samir was killed. Locating enemy strongholds has priority, I want to know where these patrols are coming from. Oversee the mission yourself, this needs to be done right. Meanwhile I will inform command. Oh, and Amon, draft a notification for Samir’s next of kin, they should know he won’t be coming home. Dismissed.”

The lieutenants saluted and left the office. “If we’re going to see action, I hope the rain lets up.” Lapidos said as they stepped outside the building, into the mud. “I really don’t want to march through this muck.” Amon grinned. “I’m looking forwards to this. Back at the academy we had exercises like these all the time. It reminds me of the old days.” Lapidos tilted his head. “Your training was very different from mine. Now, if you excuse me, I have a report to write.” He nodded stiffly and then left for his own office. Amon watched with some amusement as the other lieutenant carefully stepped around a puddle. “I bet it was.” He softly said.

A few minutes later, he entered what he thought of as his part of the camp. There weren’t any buildings here yet, just the assembly of yurts that had been there since the beginning of this adventure. He grabbed the first scout he could find and told her to gather another thirty and meet him in front of his yurt. Then he went to his yurt to draft the notification for Samir’s next of kin and a cup of tea.

He was downing his third cup when the scouts had assembled in front of his Yurt. The rain was getting worse, but for these men and women that meant very little. “Good morning, I have good news. The war is on. Unfortunately, the first casualty was on our side. Scout Samir will be remembered as a friend and comrade in arms. But we can’t leave it at that, he of course must be avenged. Keep in mind that this will be a recon mission first of all, but I’m not above delivering some payback. We will be travelling light, pack only essentials. We mount up in five bells. Let’s make it count people. Dismissed.”

He was excited, this was going to be the first mission he had led that wasn’t training or hunting. His unit was newly formed, so it was vital that he got this right. Not that there was reason for worry. The academy prepared you for the absolute worst the world could throw at you and many under his command had seen action during the Northern Rebellion in one way or another. His hand traced the scars on his face. The enemy didn’t have any wyvern according to military intelligence. His friend in General Benroy’s wyvern corps had confirmed as much. They had flown the skies unchallenged, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

He shook his head, best not to dwell on the past, he had a mission to prepare for. He cracked his neck and went back into his yurt to make final preparations and pack for the mission.

Ɏ

Anna sneezed as she swiped the floor. Mage Chaim looked up in annoyance. “Are you going to make more of that noise?” The words entered her head, as if she had thought them herself. The only thing keeping them and her own thoughts apart was the cold feeling she got from them. “I don’t sneeze voluntarily; I think I caught a cold.” He looked up with interest. “You found out how to bring into practice Mage Levana’s first theory of binding?”

She gave him a blank stare. The interest in Chaim’s eyes died. “Of course not, that wouldn’t make any sense, you barely grasp the basics of the art.” He stood up. “But it might not be bad to instruct you in how to perform a binding, come with me.” Together they left the small cottage that had been raised outside the village. She had asked him why he was given a house, while the other mages were shacking up in the encampment. He had been cagey about answering the question. So, she had pestered him with it until he gave her the answer. Apparently, the military had some bad memories regarding magical experiments gone wrong

The rain was beating down on the two of them, chilling Anna to the bone, annoying Chaim. “This weather is dreadful, which is why we’re going to perform a small weather binding. Jus for the two of us. What does Levana teach us about bindings?” It was still unsettling how the man never seemed to blink. Other visius did, she had seen them do it, but Chaim’s eyes were always wide open.

“Ehm, Levana says that other than regular spells bindings don’t require a sacrifice.” She looked at Chaim, who just kept staring at her. Clearly there was a second part she was supposed to know, but nothing was coming to mind. Chaim muttered something in his own language, but didn’t bother to send through the mental link they shared. One of the words was ignorant, that much she could figure out. Mostly, because he used it so frequently.

At first Chaim had been enthusiastic about teaching her, often talking about her great magical potential. He had quickly learned however that it wasn’t going to be as easy as he had thought. First of all, there was the language barrier. Many spells required a vocal component besides a sacrifice, all of which were in the visius tongue, which she had dubbed the vicious tongue for it was impossible to learn. How had Thomas picked it up so quickly?

Secondly, she couldn’t read or write, which meant that she had to memorize everything. It frustrated Chaim to no end that she couldn’t memorize complicated magical theory, which he spent so much time explaining. A couple of times now he had called her a savage peasant. She had shrugged the insults off. There was no reason to feel guilty for not having learned the skills he expected her to have. After all, reading and writing were useless skills when there was little possibility to make use of them. There were maybe ten books in the village, most of them religious. And why read them when they were told in temple?

Chaim snapped his fingers and shouted something. Anna quickly started paying attention. “Mage Levana discovered that instead of sacrifices, bindings use a different source of power. What that source of power is exactly remains to be seen. Some old fools believe it to be the gods themselves, which of course is nonsense. Once we cure you illiteracy, I will have you read Yerucham and Dalit, who together prove that entities like the gods don’t exist.”

He saw Anna open her mouth, but cut her off before she could start. “On Camerak at least. Whether they exist here remains to be seen. Now, personally I believe that bindings draw their power from the movement of energy in a planet’s crust. Better known as ley lines, which would explain why bindings of a large scale can’t be performed just anywhere.” He looked at Anna, who was blankly staring at him. “Maybe, we leave the finer points of binding theory for another day. In practice they are all about precision. Since it is raining, it will be harder to be precise.”

He cut the tip of his index finger and started tracing symbols in the air. They caught on fire, then turned blue. “These four symbols were left to us by the very first visius. Nobody knows what they mean exactly, but when one places them on the ground and connects them with lines, they make a binding. In and on itself these bindings are useless. You need a clear intention while laying them out, so that they serve a purpose.”

Anna frowned. “Any intention?” Chaim nodded. “As long as it is simple. The catch is that while laying the binding you can only think of the intention, if any other thoughts cross your mind the binding becomes useless and you have to start over. Truly it is inferior magic compared to modern spells, but the Northern traitors applied it with some success.”

He smiled, needle like teeth bared, and gave her a stick. “Make the rain stop with in the circle. I will leave the symbols here. Best of luck.” He turned around and walked away, leaving her in with a stick, in the mud, in the rain. She sneezed again, then started scribbling.

Ɏ

The rain didn’t let up. Not after two days, not after five, and Amon had to admit that even he was being affected by it. “This planet has too much fucking rain and not enough snow, don’t you think Lieutenant?” One of his men said. “Language Scout Shirit.” He said absentmindedly as the woman laid down in the mud with him. They were looking at a group of humans who were sitting underneath an improvised tent around a fire.

He wasn’t afraid they could hear him. They were more than two hundred meters away and humans had bad hearing as far as he had decerned. “The men are wondering, are we going to get some payback for Samir today?” She wasn’t asking for the men, Amon knew. She and Samir had been like he and Sada had been. A couple sometimes, partners always. The academy fostered these kinds of relationships in its students. It knew that the soldiers it trained would fight harder if they were protecting another soldier and not just the empire.

“We’re waiting to see if reinforcements are coming. If those haven’t arrived by nightfall, we’re taking them out.” Shirit grinned, it was clearly what she wanted to hear. They had found the patrol early in the morning and had silently observed them for the rest of de day. The humans seemed to know their way around the terrain very well, but were otherwise sloppy and undisciplined. Not unexpected, there was very little in these parts that could hurt someone. There was some dangerous wildlife, but nothing compared to the creatures you could encounter on Camerak.

Shirit left his side, sliding in the hole his men had dug. At least there it was dry, the membrane that covered it sheltering them from the rain. No fire had been made, by his people standards the days were nicely tempered and the nights were just a bit cool. For scouts, who frequently slept in the snow this was nothing. He had gotten some concerning reports that temperatures were going to rise drastically in the coming months. It might affect the fighting capabilities of his men if they were being cooked alive in their armour.

After a couple more hours of observing, only interrupted by dried meat rations and a cup of cold tea, he slid down into the hole himself. “All right gather round soldiers.” The thirty scouts got as close to him as they could. “This is an elimination mission. Normally we would capture one of the enemies and extract information, but there are only two assets who speak both their and our tongue, both of which are on their way North. There are only fifteen of them, so we have both numbers as well as the element of surprise on them. We’re doing a hawk manoeuvre. I want this to be a clean, textbook operation. That means, no casualties, is that clear?”

There were affirmative nods all around. “Scout Shirit, you’re leading the B group, circle around and take point. A group is with me. Final check everybody.” Cloaks were quickly disposed of, bows strung and blades checked. Now that there was a plan of operation everyone was eager to be on their way. Amon’s eyes found Shirit’s. Her eyes had turned nearly red with the amount of angry lights that were floating around in them. She nodded affirmatively.

“All right people, let’s go. Silence from now on.” They climbed out of the hole and split up, Shirit taking point for the B group, while Amon took A group. Silently they closed the distance until they were about fifty meters removed from the sentries. Amon tried to find B group, but they were invisible in the dark. He held up a hand, motioning his men to stop. Two came forwards carrying bows. He preferred a blade personally, but some scouts really took to it. These two came from the special archery program for which Amon had been deemed unsuitable. Golden flecks danced through their eyes, kept in check to not produce too much light.

Arrows were knocked and sent flying in one smooth motion. Less than a second later the guards fell down, making a lot more noise than Amon would have liked. He waved and started to advance on the camp. Like shadows they slipped into the camp, positioning themselves carefully around the sleeping humans.

Suddenly, a piercing scream filled the night, followed by shouting. The man at Amon’s feet snapped upwards, grabbing for his sword. Amon snarled and kicked the man back down, before running his blade through the man’s neck. Around him his men acted similarly, but further into the camp humans were getting up, yelling, unsheathing their weapons.

One spotted Amon and came running towards him. The human was carrying two axes and he was screaming. He took a defensive stance, waiting for the human to close the distance. Before the human could he was run through from behind. Amon watched as the blade protruding from the human’s chest was withdrawn and it toppled over, revealing Shirit. Her teeth were dyed in red blood and she was covered in even more of the liquid.

“Kill them all.” She shouted excitedly, ignoring Amon’s disapproving gaze. After this was over, he was going to have words with her, when the battle joy was gone. She disappeared back into the night, to slaughter more humans no doubt. He looked around, not that there were many humans left. He and his men had taken out a fair number of them, so there was no harm in letting Shirit have her vengeance. He heard a scream coming from the other side of camp. He winced at the sound. He waved over one of his men.

“Scout Nadiv, find Scout Shirit, make sure she doesn’t keep any alive longer than she should. I want to leave this position as quickly as possible.” Nadiv nodded and went to fulfil his orders. “Sir” Another scout started, but Amon stopped him. “You are right Scout Chiram, we need to send the humans a message. You’re a Northerner, aren’t you?” Chiram nodded. “Born and raised, sir.” Amon nodded. “Did you fight in the war?” Chiram nodded once again. “Then you will remember the message that was left behind after the battle for Ness Ohar. Something similar will suffice here.” Chiram grinned. “You have good taste sir; I will see what can be done in the limited time available.”

Amon nodded. “I will be in that tent over there, maybe the humans brought maps with them.” As Chiram and the men started hacking the bodies apart Amon walked towards the tent of what he presumed to be the commander of this sorry lot. When the humans found out about what had been done this night, he hoped that it would become clear that the only course of action was to submit. The North had understood that message and if those savages could be brought to heel than the humans could be too. Serving the empire could be a bloody business.