April 12th

Year 2120

Southern Mountain Range

Southern Wastes, Gartaena

What?! Merdilen thought, nervous. What is Kayline talking about? He remembered clearly what Kayline had answered when asked if she had killed Alvoren. I did, she had replied. He won’t be bothering us again. That couldn’t be true, could it? Merdilen started having trouble breathing. Had Kayline… betrayed them? Was Alvoren… dead? No, no, it couldn’t be. That had to be a lie of some kind. It had to be. If not… their whole quest would be over, and Merdilen’s best friend would be gone. But, then, where was Alvoren?

He tried to listen further, but Kayline and her father were speaking too low to be heard anymore through the heavy metal door that divided the cell and the rest of the room. Eventually, Kayline left the room, leaving him alone with his doubts and insecurities.

“Good to have you with us, Kayline,” Garnent said. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Juhen, take Kayline to her room,” he then said, gesturing to a specific big and burly bandit.

“Right away, sir,” the bandit, apparently called Juhen, said.

Kayline followed Juhen as he guided her through the maze of dark corridors until they finally stopped in front of a doorless room. Inside the room were easily ten bandits and about fifteen bedrolls, with most bandits either gambling over dice or mock-fighting. Most bedrolls were undone and messy, with clothes and objects scattered all over the place.

So uncivilized, Kayline thought with disgust.

“That one over there’s yours,” Juhen told her, pointing at a bedroll on the farthest corner of the room. It didn’t seem to be occupied by anyone, but it was still as messy as all others.

As she crossed the room, a bandit tried to approach her, wearing a cocky and confident look in his eyes.

“Don’t,” she told him, shooting him a menacing glare and reaching for her longswords.

“You’re a dangerous one, aren’t you?” the bandit said, backing away and laughing nervously. Kayline answered nothing.

“That bedroll belonged to Bruthen, y’know?” one of the gambling bandits called out to her.

“Yeah? What happened to him?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

“He fell down the mountain,” the bandit said.

“Fell or was pushed?” another bandit asked, making the group laugh boomingly.

“How terrible,” Kayline muttered, causing more laughter.

She frowned, and after inspecting her bedroll to make sure there was nothing in it, prepared to leave the room once again. Kayline didn’t leave any personal properties in her bedroll, though, not trusting in the bandits around her. Even though it was already late night, she headed out of the room, her backpack still hanging from her shoulders. She headed towards Juhen, the bandit who had guided her to her room, who was still roaming around.

“Could you show me around the lair?” she asked him.

“I’m no babysitter, girl.” He scowled at her, reluctant to do it.

“You don’t want my father to hear you’re mistreating his daughter, do you?” she then asked.

The bandit looked at her, angry, but then finally said, “Fine. Follow me.”

It was manipulation, she knew it, but she didn’t really have a choice. She needed to know about the whole lair if she wanted to have a shot at stealing a letter.

The bandit showed Kayline around their maze-like lair, taking her to the kitchen, dining hall, training area, and different offices for high-ranking bandits. Although Kayline asked for it, he didn’t give her a map, in an attempt to force her to be under constant supervision.

She felt interested in the offices, as she knew she’d need to get into one of those in order to steal the letters she needed to trick the armies and save Merdilen. Sure, she was in the same location as Merdilen now, but she couldn’t just go and save him now. Without a map, they would never be able to find their way out. Even if they managed to, the more than a hundred bandits would stop them long before they escaped. And even if they did escape the lair, the Fergahnian army camping outside would catch them and kill Merdilen before they were able to get away. Creating this distraction was their only choice. And she was determined to do whatever it took.

Alvoren followed Hogrel the soldier towards his tent, where Colonel Mandron had ordered he would stay for the time being. Colonel Mandron had seemed to accept him into the army, and had said that they would send him on a test mission the next day. Everything was so far working according to the plan.

“So we’re hunting a Transmutator, huh,” Hogrel mentioned, interrupting his thoughts. “Horrible beings, they are. They destroyed the whole world during the Transmutation War. Did you know about ninety-percent of the world died during that war?”

“Yeah… it must have been horrible,” Alvoren agreed.

“It still is,” Hogrel added. “The Transmutators have risen again, even though it’s only one this time. We have to kill it before it destroys the world again.”

“Fully agree,” Alvoren answered, trying to sound convincing.

“As you can see, I really hate Transmutators. As pretty much the whole rest of the world.”

“...Yeah,” muttered Alvoren.

After a short walk, they arrived at Hogrel’s tent. It was smaller than Colonel Mandron’s, as this one seemed to serve solely for sleeping quarters. Another two soldiers were staying with Hogrel in that tent, and they looked at Alvoren with curiosity as they arrived.

“We’ve got a new recruit,” Hogrel announced. “This is Axerhos.”

“Hey, Axerhos,” one of the soldiers, a thin one, greeted him, “care to play some cards? Our game would be better with two more.”

“...Sure,” Alvoren agreed. “If you’re okay with it.”

“Of course!” the other soldier, a big man, exclaimed. “We’re all comrades in arms now.”

With that, Alvoren sat down next to Hogrel on the floor awkwardly, and the big man started to deal the cards.

“So, what brought you here? You’re here to kill the Transmutator too?” the big man asked as he dealt.

“No, not really,” Alvoren replied, trying to not sound suspicious in any sense. “I’m here for the bandits. They’re constantly raiding my village, so now with this army here, I’ll finally get the chance to give them what they deserve.”

“But killing the Transmutator is an added bonus, right?” Hogrel asked, examining his cards. “Right?”

“Of course, of course!” Alvoren exclaimed quickly.

“What do you think about the Transmutator, Axerhos?” the thin man asked him, pulling a card from a stack and putting one back down.

“I… I don’t really know,” he replied, getting nervous. “I’m kind of indifferent to him.”

“But you would kill him if you got the chance to, right?” the big man asked him, squinting his eyes.

“Of course!”

“Good,” Hogrel said. “Because if not… it’d be treason talk.”

“I’d never do that,” Alvoren told them. “Don’t worry, if I get the chance, I assure you all I’ll do what I need to do.”

They finished the game in relative silence, and after having dinner, went to sleep. All was going according to the plan.

Kayline woke up. She hadn’t slept much, only drifting in and out of sleep, as she had been constantly worried about the bandits next to her. She doubted they’d dare do anything to their boss’ daughter, but still. She got up as soon as she was fully awake and, after having a quick breakfast, started to wander around the lair once more. Trying to look as casual as possible, she peeked into all boss offices, analyzing them. Most of them were near the center of the lair, in frequently-visited places. All of them seemed to be equally safe. She wouldn’t be able to steal from any of them if she tried to just sneak in.

Needless to say, she didn’t know anything about the bandits’ power structure, but there was one thing that was certain: her father, Garnent Sherdaine, was the most important one of the group. It’d be better to try to take the letter from him, as that way she would be sure the enemy army would believe it. But she wouldn’t be able to just sneak in and steal it. She’d need a distraction.

Kayline started to wander around the lair, examining it, looking for anything that would work as a distraction. There were some explosives, but that wouldn’t work. The fuses of all explosives were too short, and if anyone saw her near the place of the ‘accident,’ everyone would immediately blame the newcomer, Kayline, no matter who her father was.

She kept looking, until she realized something. There was a certain room of the cavern which’s roof was lifted by a rock pillar. Theoretically, if she were to slash with her sword at it once, it would weaken and fall a short time later. During that time, she’d be able to start talking to someone. If the roof were to fall during that period of time, she’d have the perfect distraction, and would, later on, have a good alibi for her defense.

But then, she thought of something else. Just knocking her father out wouldn’t be enough. He’d keep coming after them. Would she be able to kill him? No, no. There had to be some other way. Her father’s main advantage was his powers. If she could somehow rid him of those, he wouldn’t pose that much of a threat anymore, and they wouldn’t need to kill him. But, how? She needed to gain as much information about his powers as possible. And if she wanted to do that, she’d have to get the letter mission out of the way as soon as possible. After all, she only had two days and a night remaining for the infiltration. She’d have to work quickly. Therefore, she’d have to end the letter business now.

Alvoren woke up from his bedroll and looked around. He was in the soldiers’ tent, and Hogrel, the big guy, and the small guy were all getting ready for the day. He got up, and after greeting them, got ready himself, and headed out of the tent. The big guy and the small guy headed somewhere else, so he reasoned it’d be better if he stuck with Hogrel for the time being. Following him, they walked through the military camp. Hogrel knocked on the wooden pillar, on Colonel Mandron’s tent, and after a short wait, they entered. Both saluted at Colonel Mandron, and he unexpectedly tossed a military uniform towards Alvoren, the same as the rest of the soldiers had.

“Wear this if you want to be a soldier,” he ordered Alvoren.

“Thank you, sir,” Alvoren said. “I’ll put it on as soon as I get back to my tent.”

Alvoren cheered internally. He was truly a part of the army now.

“We have already measured your fighting prowess, but we have yet to measure your discipline and competence in non-battle missions,” Colonel Mandron continued. “So we’ll send you two along with a big squad of soldiers to the bandits’ mountain. Your mission will be to check it all in a day to make sure there are no more entrances or exits that haven’t already been acknowledged. It’s a fairly easy task, but as it is long and tiring, it will require discipline. Don’t disappoint me. You’re leaving in ten minutes.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” both Alvoren and Hogrel said, snapping a salute.

Alvoren would have preferred to spend the day just focusing on getting the letter, but if he wanted to truly pass by as a soldier, he had no choice. They returned to the tent, and after Alvoren put on his new military uniform, they headed towards the communal dining hall.

It was a massive tent full of wooden tables and benches, in which more than a hundred soldiers were having breakfast at the moment. They sat down along with another group of soldiers on a not-so-crowded table and started to eat. Although Merdilen was a great guy and Transmutator, he couldn’t make food that had once been alive, so Alvoren really enjoyed the meat sandwiches they were now giving the soldiers. After a quick breakfast, they headed out of the dining hall, towards a group of soldiers standing at the bottom of the mountain.

“Are you ready?” the captain was saying.

“Sir, yes, sir!” the whole squad said, Alvoren and Hogrel along with them, having just arrived.

They had arrived just in time.

“So, as you all here know,” the captain proceeded, “we’ve been assigned with the important task of examining the mountain, as to make sure there are no other exits that aren’t accounted for. Let’s get going!”

Kayline hit the pillar supporting the roof hard with her sword, and dashed away. She quickly got out of the room and started to walk away quickly, trying to look as casual as possible. She probably had a few minutes before the roof in that section collapsed. She walked quickly towards her father’s office, where he was, and ignoring the sadness that he caused, started to speak.

“Hey, I’ve got a question,” Kayline asked him. “How did you get those flashy powers of yours?”

“Huh?” her father said, looking up from his papers. “So you’re interested, huh. Well, I guess it makes sense. It’s one of the reasons you joined us, after all. I guess there are no reasons not to tell you. You see, there is a fortress a few weeks south from here, a fortress which was once full of incredible powers.”

Morkilen Farenthar’s fortress?! Kayline wondered, surprised.

“I heard of this fortress long ago, when I was still with you three,” he continued. “That’s what prompted me to leave. The lure of adventure. The search for power. You’d get it, right, Kayline?”

That’s no reason to leave a family behind, she thought, clenching her fists. It has never been and never will be.

“I… understand,” she lied, her voice trembling slightly. “I… guess I would have done the same thing.”

“Good girl,” he told her. “But, you see, it had been looted clean long before we arrived. All that we found… was a pair of serums. I injected one of it into myself, and that was what gave me my powers. The power to manipulate gaseous matter. I… am a Manipulator. The other one can be yours, if you prove to be loyal to me. It is right over here,” he then said, tapping a safe on the wall. “But be warned: if you steal it without my permission, there’s no place on Earth where you’ll be able to hide from me.”

“Of course, I would never,” she told him. But her mind was still wandering on something else. “The fortress had been looted clean? That means… there’s nothing left in there anymore?”

“Well, the accessible part had been looted clean,” he corrected himself. “There was this massive obsidian wall in there. I’m sure there was way more stuff on the other side of it. Believe me, we tried. But, no matter how much we tried, we couldn’t-”

He was suddenly interrupted by a loud rumbling, followed by a crash as rock hit rock.

“What the-?!” he exclaimed, running out of the room and towards it, leaving her alone.

The distraction had worked. Kayline quickly headed towards the stack of documents on her father’s desk, and took the bottom one, in hopes that it’d be harder to notice it. She stuffed it into her jacket, then prepared to leave. She looked towards the safe in which the power serum was in. She’d have to remember that. Maybe she wouldn’t need to kill her father after all. With those thoughts in mind, she left the room, successfully taking the letter with her.

Alvoren kept trekking through the mountain, searching for entrances. Playing the part of the villager Axerhos was quite easy to him, as most of that character was taken from his own person. Besides, he had always been good at role-playing. Role-playing as a villager-turned-soldier just came naturally to him. For Kayline, it must be way harder, he thought. She had to hide as a bad girl in a cave full of bandits, having to face her father who had left her on a daily basis. It was way harder for her. And, how would Merdilen be now? Did he know that Kayline was in the same cave as he was? He probably did. He could probably overhear plenty of conversations from over there. How would he be feeling? Alvoren just hoped he didn’t think Kayline had betrayed them. He had too many questions, and no way to answer them. Not yet. He could just focus on the task at hand.

Alvoren had quickly found out searching for entrances in the rock was extremely boring. It was just trekking through the mountain looking at the ground, examining every hole and crevice. And there wasn’t even a good landscape to see from there; all he could see in the Southern Wastes was just barren dirt. He just kept looking for exits, until he heard—or, better said, felt—a rumbling in the ground. The ground started to tremble, then suddenly, a big section of the mountain collapsed, falling down to… the bandits’ lair.

All the squad soldiers looked at it in awe, quickly preparing their weapons. A new exit had just been formed.

“What…? How…?” Hogrel wondered. That wasn’t natural. “We’ll have to send more soldiers to cover this exit. We wouldn’t be enough if the whole bandit army decides to escape this way.”

But, before long, they saw a group of ten bandits heading their way, looking as surprised as they were. As soon as the bandits saw them, they dashed towards them, weapons at the ready, jumping upwards through the debris. There were eight soldiers. And they had the high ground. They could take them on.

Alvoren ran to meet them, his sword ready, and slashed towards one of them. The bandit clumsily blocked the strike, not expecting the sudden offense, and Alvoren hit him backward with his shield, making him trip and fall once more down the hole. The bandit hit his head with a rock, passing out. They kept hacking and slashing at the bandits until all ten of them were either dead or unconscious. Fortunately, they hadn’t made much noise, so he doubted they’d alert the rest of the bandits. But then, a single bandit emerged from where the others had come from. Although he luckily didn’t seem to recognize Alvoren because of the soldier uniform, Alvoren recognized him.

Kayline’s father. The bandit who could seemingly control the wind. He grinned.

“Uh oh,” Alvoren said. They couldn’t take him on. Especially if the rest of the soldiers didn’t know of his powers. “This is no normal bandit! Run!”

Alvoren started to back off, but the rest didn’t follow. They attacked. The bandit started to move his hands rapidly, and the wind followed, pushing blades away and changing their course. All soldiers, except for Alvoren, had attacked. But not one of them had managed to hit the target.

All soldiers looked at him, scared, and started to back off, heeding Alvoren’s counsel. But the bandit reached out with his hand, and a wind current started to push a soldier towards the bandit’s outstretched dagger. It was Hogrel. None of the other soldiers were able to do anything, all paralyzed in fear. None except for Alvoren. He would never let a companion die. Not again.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to reach the bandit and attack him before he killed Hogrel, so he didn’t head for him. He headed for Hogrel. Alvoren kicked Hogrel in the side, pushing him away from the wind current, and he fell far to the side, hurting but free. But, as Alvoren had kicked him out of it, he was now in his place. The wind current started to pull him towards the bandit. But Alvoren had an idea. Instead of pulling against it, he pushed towards it, dashing towards the bandit at an alarming speed.

The bandit raised his dagger, but Alvoren, in turn, prepared his shield, holding it in front of him. The current kept pushing him towards the bandit, and when he got to him he hit hard with his shield, pushing the bandit backward, back down the hole. Pushed by the momentum, he raised his longsword to defeat Kayline’s father once and for all, but another wind current erupted from him, pushing Alvoren backward and high into the air.

“Run!” he exclaimed to the rest while falling.

Alvoren fell to the ground, hurt, and as Hogrel pulled him up, they started to run down the mountain. The bandit got back up, but he was too late. They had escaped.

Merdilen wondered about what he had been able to hear about what Kayline’s father had told her. So he had gotten his powers from Morkilen Farenthar’s fortress. But, he said the accessible part had been wiped clean. Did that mean… there were more people with powers similar to his roaming around the Southern Wastes? Everything would get way harder from now on. But, fortunately, they didn’t seem to have been able to take anything concerning the Transmutation.

So he made an impenetrable wall that can only be crossed using the Transmutation, Merdilen thought. Well played, Morkilen.

Manipulation. What seemed to be the ability to manipulate matter. Kayline’s father could manipulate gaseous matter, huh. That explained why it seemed like he could control the wind. But, he then seemed to be able to deflect every attack thrown at him. How were they meant to overcome that?

But that wasn’t his main concern. Kayline seemed to really be allying with her father now. And what about Alvoren? Was he really dead? During the last few days, Kayline’s father had come to him several times, forcing him to Transmutate gold for him, but he had refused each and every time. Therefore, they hadn’t fed him in all that time. He had endured, thinking it to be something temporary before Kayline and Alvoren came to save him, but now he wasn’t that sure. He hadn’t even known Kayline for all that long. What if she had really betrayed them?

Merdilen had no idea. He had no way of knowing. And that was driving him mad. Besides, as he was still drugged, he couldn’t even Transmutate to get out of there. Was it really over? No. He had to trust in his friends. But now, he was starting to doubt.

Alvoren, Hogrel, and the rest of the soldiers arrived running at the military camp a short time later, and while a few other soldiers went to report the news to Colonel Mandron, Alvoren and Hogrel headed back to their tent, tired.

“Hey… Thank you,” Hogrel told Alvoren. “For saving my life, even though you have known me for less than a day.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Alvoren said. “It was the right thing to do.”

As they spoke, they heard a large group of soldiers preparing outside.

“So, our soldiers discovered a new exit today,” Colonel Mandron told them. “We’re now going to secure that entrance, to make sure ours is still an efficient siege.”

“Should we go with you, sir?” Hogrel asked, exiting their tent.

“Don’t worry, son,” Colonel Mandron said. “You’ve already done enough for today. Rest.”

“Thank you very much!” both Alvoren and Hogrel said.

So, as the soldier unit left, both of them re-entered the tent, lying down in their bedrolls to rest a bit before having lunch. Suddenly, Alvoren realized something. The whole Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, including Sir Grendar, was going with the unit. This was his chance to steal the letter.

“I’ve got to refresh myself,” he told Hogrel after making sure the unit had already left, exiting the tent once more. “Be right back.”

With that, he left the tent, crouching and heading for Sir Grendar’s tent.

Most soldiers were now out securing the new exit, so he was able to evade every soldier he saw, which wasn’t a lot. After a short stealth walk, he arrived at Sir Grendar’s tent. He was pretty sure this was his tent, as he had seen him exiting and entering it several times in the morning and the night before. After looking around to make sure there was no one around, he entered.

It was the biggest tent of the camp, and any guards that it would have had were now in the soldier unit securing the exit. Alvoren quickly headed towards the nearest stack of papers and took the bottom one. It was a letter sent to Sir Grendar from one Sir Tromlen, talking about a certain dispatch of supplies towards the camp. This would perfectly do the trick. Using his fingernails, he scrubbed out all instances of the word ‘supplies,’ replacing them with ‘reinforcements,’ just as he had discussed with Kayline before they separated. Fortunately, the paper was thick, so it didn’t crack or break with the alteration.

Done! Alvoren thought.

He left the tent, stuffing the letter in his pocket, and headed back to his tent. Hogrel didn’t pay much attention to his arrival, not sensing anything suspicious with him. He took a deep breath. The first part of his mission had been a success. The next day, he would probably be sent once again on a mission to search for exits, as they hadn’t been able to search the whole mountain before, and later that night, Kayline and him would exchange letters. They would succeed. He knew it.

Kayline headed back towards the rock in which Alvoren and herself had separated, a heavy cloak wrapped over her head and shoulders to hide her appearance, her stolen and altered letter hidden beneath it. A lonely figure in soldier attire was sitting behind the rock, examining the landscape in search for her. Alvoren.

She raised her hand, greeting him, and he greeted her back. When she got next to him, Kayline spoke.

“You got some fancy clothes, huh?” she joked.

“I seem to be a full-fledged soldier now,” Alvoren replied, grinning.

“I assume you got the letter?” Kayline asked, going straight to the point.

“I did,” he confirmed. “What about you?”

“Me too. Bandits are disgusting,” she said with a shake of her head.

“Soldiers weren’t that bad. I got real close to beating them in poker,” Alvoren added. “I’m guessing we should make this quick. It would sound suspicious if I spent ten minutes ‘refreshing myself.’”

“Agreed,” Kayline said, handing him the letter.

Alvoren handed her his own letter, and she opened it, quickly checking it. It said of a Sir Tromlen who was sending reinforcements to Sir Grendar, along with his signature. It was pretty much the same content as in her own letter. It seemed pretty convincing. It should work out.

“Great,” he said. “We don’t really know which of the two armies will attack first, so we must be ready for anything. See you later.”

“Yeah. See you on the battlefield.”