The capital of the Disconnect Hills kingdom is on the eastern border of Disconnect Hills. So after three days of an uneventful journey following a small trail across Dew Forest, Magus entered Hermia. The city was overcrowded, and the wagons drivers shoo’d the crowd like they were chasing away pigeons.

Magnus can see a large castle on a distant hill. The sky was darkening, and he decided it was time to act.

Disconnect Hills used pennants as a way of conveying military authority. The owner of different pennants can mobilize various Disconnect Hills troops stationed across the kingdom. On each of the pennants there is a rare gemstone to ensure the validity of it, so it was difficult to produce counterfeits. The advantage of this system was that it reduced overhead time of hiring and legitimatizing new commanders. Magnus did not think the advantages of the system outweigh the risks, and he was about to exploit the system as he intended to take the some pennants from the castle.

“The Maven Kingdom is completely wiped out by Vrie. To restore it, you need to start from scratch. From ground zero.” Magnus remember the exchange from years ago when Luft informed Magnus of the difficulty of the task that lied ahead.

“Does that mean I have to recruit soldiers.” Young Magnus asked naively, he was about nine at this point.

“No.” Luft shot the suggestion down, “Which sovereignty will let you do that? People will also look at you like a mad man, you have to get troops from someone else, and then convert their allegiances, or use them to your benefit.”

Then Luft told Magnus about the pennant and Disconnect Hills. For years, Luft taught Magnus techniques of stealthy movement. They practiced light steps, getting up on walls, and quietly knocking out guards. After a few years, Magnus used his skills to do practical training. He would break into houses of the wealthy to steal jewelry, and then put it back an hour later. After he decided that was too easy, he would take a day before he would return the stolen items, and this modification benefited his training significantly because on the second day after a break-in, the houses would usually employ stricter security, so far he had not failed.

This time was different though. Magnus knew the castle guards would be way better trained than the mercenary watchmen he had tested himself against, not to mention he also had to work with a more extensive location.

Fear would not help him though, preparation would. Magnus carefully ran different scenarios through his head. He recited the steps: study the location outside, find an entry, study the location inside, find the escape routes, identify the positions of the guards, find the target, look for physical obstacles around the target, and understand the danger once the target had been acquired. It was night time when Magnus reached the castle. He found a great hiding spot in the bushes where he could watch people enter and exit the castle. Patience was also a big factor that would determine the success of these kind of maneuvers.

After an hour, the castle door finally opened. A figure on the horseback emerged. As Magnus prepared to strike at the person who had just rode through the door and the guards, he saw the face under the moonlight. It was a young woman, with tied back red hair.

Magnus hesitated. Could this person be Anya? The speed, reactions and the combat skills Disconnect Hills princess was rumored to be unbelievable. If that was indeed her, the surprise attack may fail and foil his entire plan. Magnus decided to not risk it and kept waiting.

The door did not open for another few hours. Magnus grew tired, and decided to head back, but a voice called out, “What are you doing, sneaky?”

Magnus knew the royal guards were probably way more alert than the regular ones, but he was confident enough to not be spotted. He had a realization that he was way too exhausted from camping out the walls for most of the night so he needed rest and not confrontation. Magnus began to run but the guard chased after him.

A couple minutes later, the guard still trailed him, although he could hear the panting. Magnus knew he would outlast the guard in this foot race, and he began wondering that if the guard had departed his post for so long, would it be time to circle back to the castle to break in.

Magnus decided against this very quickly, he knew he was under no shape currently to take on more guards. Hearing the sound of the footsteps ebb away, Magnus found a tree to rest by. The trees in this forest by the Disconnect Hills Castle weren’t the thin and prickly birch trees he had gotten used to on his visit to the Birchlands. These redwood trees reached up to the sky, with sturdy trunks and dense leaves that partially blocked out the Sun.

Magnus could see how the redwood forest could serve as a great tool for the defense of the castle. The thick trunks made quite good hiding spots. He had heard the story that twenty years ago or so, the Vrie Empire’s invaders calvaries were ambushed by the hidden forces in the forest. Arrows flew everywhere but only the invaders died. The generals of Disconnect Hills had a precise map of the entire forest, and made their troops practice different drills there. The soldiers knew exactly which spots they could shoot an arrow without being obstructed by a distant tree.

This was a story that spread many years ago, so the truth had been untested for a couple of decades. Not that the Disconnect Hills royalty minded that, as these days, the Vrie Kingdom could not even break through Zenith Castle up north. It did not stop the Vrie Empire from trying though, but the six battles they had against Princess Anya of Disconnect Hills there, they have lost them all.

Magnus became tempted to believe the story of the soldiers knowing the exact mappings of the redwood forest when a voice called out, “Found you!”

He was standing face to face with a young man, about the same age as him, but the boy did not appear to be a guard. For one, he had jewelries drizzled all over him. The necklace he was wearing had a purple gemstone that Magnus recognized to be the quite expensive tourmaline. In addition, he was wearing a small crown.

“Did not expect that.” Magnus remarked.

“Sneaking around the castle like that at midnight, good thing I noticed you, you little sketchy scoundrel. Now, confess to your prince of Disconnect Hills, who you are and what you want.” The young man drew a spear and pointed it at Magnus.

Magnus had learned what he could about the Disconnect Hills before committing to his mission, so he knew this must have been Prince Harmon. Harmon was a few years younger than Anya, and much weaker in combat. He had not gotten the chance for much battlefield duty yet, partly was because of his youth, and partly because he was not nearly as studious or as brilliant as his older sister.

Not seeing any benefits of a drawn out confrontation here, Magnus simply withdrew his heavy sword and swung it high against Prince Harmon. Prince Harmon attempted to block it, but it was a weaker attempt than Magnus had expected. The spear flew out of Harmon’s hands and Harmon lost his balance.

Magnus had not put a lot of power into that strike as he did not want to hurt Harmon. The blow did what he had intended and Magnus turned around and headed back to the city.

After he returned to the city he looked for a tavern. Some rest is essential after such a long night of loitering around the castle walls.

He entered a small building labeled “Western Lodge”. There were plenty of people gathered around dressed in various ways. The residents of Disconnect Hills can generally be identified by their preference of thick fur coats, generally made of wolfskin. Wolves were abundant in Disconnect Hills and generally the most hunted animal. The winters were brutal in the northern part of the kingdom as it bordered the Vrie Glaciers, and the southern part was marginally warmer.

When Magnus approached the innkeeper to pay for the night, the man eyed Magnus and his eyes twitched a bit. The man told Magnus to hold out for an hour as he had to sort out some logistics with the rooms for the night.

About an hour later, as Magnus was getting impatient, he heard a commotion outside. There were the sound of horses and soldiers ordering plebeians to move out of the way. Magnus stepped outside, and recognized Harmon and a troop of about twenty men were stationed outside the tavern.

Harmon immediately spotted Magnus, and smirked, “There you are, little scoundrel.”

As Magnus wondered the chances of the current encounter being a coincidence, Harmon assured him it was not, “No criminal can get away from me. I sent the word out to have every innkeeper and shopkeeper to signal to me when they spot a young brat carrying a big and clumsy sword, and here you are.”

The sword’s uniqueness got Magnus in trouble. In addition, Magnus knew he was not one to blend in with the crowd, as he was about twice most men’s size.

“Now, I suggest you give up and let me arrest you, or your life may be in danger.”

Magnus simply shrugged, “Try me.”

Magnus dodged the prancing spear of Prince Harmon smoothly, as if wind has naturally carried him that way. He was not quick at all in his movements, and all the onlookers were not convinced he had actually dodged Prince Harmon’s quick and fierce strike. Prince Harmon readjusted his horse, and charged towards Magnus again. Magnus ducked, sidestepped, and backtracked a few step to dodge several more hits, effortless in his movements. His foot had not left the ground he was standing on since that initial charge by Prince Harmon. Frustrated, Prince Harmon decided that he was going to aim directly at Magnus’ skull from the top of his head and drill down. He charged ferociously at Magnus again as he swore he was going to make this one hit. This time, Magnus swung his sword to parry Harmon’s spear. The spear flew our of Prince Harmon’s hands, and Prince Harmon lost his balance and fell off his horse.

The crowd was shocked that this boy, barely looking twenty, was able to beat one of the most powerful warrior of the Disconnect Hills in combat. At least that’s what the citizens of Disconnect Hills were led to believe. The rumors outside of Disconnect Hills did not reach this consensus. They watched Prince Harmon clutch his arm in pain, as several servants helped him up and quickly hurried him inside the tavern.

Magnus sighed. His task just became that much harder that he had now caused a commotion. He wanted to travel across the Disconnect Hills unrecognized while he went about his business to search what he needed, but now with thousands of people witnessing his tussle with Prince Harmon, he wasn’t sure how he could travel across the land safely.

Magnus decided that he would try to infiltrate the castle one more time, but from the hill-side instead of town-side. That meant he had to get around to the back of the castle.

Still restless, Magnus decided he needed some sleep. He hurried towards the castle and scurried to the backside. He had not visited this face of the castle as he did not circle around the structure last time he was here.

As he got there, a wolf leapt out of the darkness and launched itself at him. Magnus could not anticipate the beast’s attack and fell over. The beast disappeared into the night. Magnus recollected himself, and looked for signs of the animal.

Under the moonlight, Magnus saw a cut on his arm. Then an unspeakable agony overtook him.