Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:03

Temporary Command Center, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

General Merrick Miller.

“All forces…” General Merrick began, before giving a quick look towards the commander of the army to be sure, “Begin moving out.”

His adjutants began issuing orders. With Lord Xavier here, the command structured was greatly simplified, the general’s words were Lord Xavier’s words, and no one dared to dispute the strongest mercenary’s words. No one argued, but this army was a mishmash of various forces, and not only that, but the general rarely commanded forces in the first place. The army moved, but it was sluggish and awkward, a recently roused behemoth, still drowsy and stumbling.

But, it did not matter any longer.

General Merrick had no desire to command this army, and unless forced, he would have refused. The capital held several potential commanders that would have been a better fit, some that had a better grasp of strategy than him, some that had a better sense of politics and would have eased the relationship issues, and some that were even more charismatic.

If the general was in charge, he was honest enough to realize that there was a good chance that the worst could come to pass, that they would be eradicated to the last man, and that the Royal Capital would be destroyed.

With Lord Xavier, such concerns were now unfounded.

Ranks 6 and below were often called the Realm of Mortals, but there was another name for them. The Ranks of the Ordinary. Rank 7 and above were then the Ranks of the Extraordinary.

Why the two different names? Most people who were not as knowledgeable used the latter, Ordinary and Extraordinary. They drew a clear line between Rank 6 and 7. Those that used the former knew that not only was there a line between 6 and 7, but another between 10 and what would be called rank 11. Ranks 7, 8, 9, and 10 were known as the Realm of Transcendence, and the common people simply called this the Ranks of the Extraordinary. But they did not realize that rank 11 brought a change from rank 10 that was even greater than rank 7’s change from 6.

No one really knew for sure, since rank 11s were figures from the myths and legends, but rumors said that Lord Xavier was rank 11.

General Portlo had once mentioned to General Merrick that even at rank 10, a person could not be considered a mere warrior, or even an army unto themselves. A rank 10 was a disaster in human form.

And General Merrick agreed, he had once seen Lord Ilvisar Caranith, who was a rank 9 Elementalist and summoner, but also rumored to be of rank 11 as an arcanist, test a spell. The spell was small, its effect only the size of a single room, and yet, that small space was still crackling with arcane energies that would reduce anyone who approached to dust. Lord Ilvisar had called it a failure, because the spell spread too easily, he had required considerable effort to contain it only to that small space. He had even mentioned that if left unchecked, it could have covered a city in seconds.

Magic might be able to wreak havoc on a greater scale, but with Lord Xavier, they could not loose.

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:05

Ruby Pawnbrokers’ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

Olivia Pine Fredirin.

“What should we do?” Ula asked.

“Hmm…” That was a good question.

From the way the girl stood between the two guards, it was clear she was their charge. Whether or not she was their master, or someone else had sent them to protect her, I couldn’t tell for sure. The fact that they allowed her to come here during the night, during such an event, indicated that she had some degree of control over them at the very least.

So who were they?

There were no identifying crests on their clothing, or what little of their armor I could see under their cloaks. And I did not recognize them from anywhere either. Granted, neither of those facts really mattered, the number of people who I wouldn’t recognize was massive, and anyone looking to do something questionable tonight would likely forgo anything that could reveal their identity.

I had seemingly met them by coincidence a few days ago, but was that really just a coincidence?

If it was not, and I was being tracked and followed, why would they allow themselves to be spotted, and in such an amateurish way? To confuse me and allow me to let my guard down? No… that is too much of a roundabout approach, too illogical, and too prone to failure, all for very little gain. If that was a temporary failure, a mistake on their part, then there was no reason for this particular group to continue following me, someone else should have taken over.

That at least, indicates that it might truly have been a coincidence.

So they stumbled upon me, and then chose to track me down for some reason, why?

Their lack of uniform equipment, not to mention the small girl, means that they are unlikely to be soldiers. The girl herself is wearing a few magic items, more than she was when we first encountered each other, but those were the only notable magical signatures emanating from her body. She was clearly not a mage herself, nor did she use magic to augment her physical powers, so at best, she would be around rank 2 or 3. She could be a halfling, but she was even too small for that, most likely she was just a child, maybe around five or six years of age. She wasn’t part of their military might, nor was she an officer.

The other two were then clearly her guards.

Was she from one of the combat schools? That seemed likely at a glance, I met her soon after my raids, but that would also indicate that our meeting was intentional, and I already discarded that idea. Further, the information I had received on each of the schools made no mention of a young girl who would require guards being affiliated with any of the schools.

Another seemingly likely option, was that this too was a coincidence. They were not particularly following me tonight, and we just happened to stumble upon each other again. But this was also nonsense. Ruby Pawnbrokers might be a viable target for someone looking to rob, but not this office. The only people who would break into this building were those looking to damage the company, not profit themselves.

I suppose they could have just noticed something odd and were trying to investigate, but if that were the case, they would not just be standing out in the open on the side of the road. They would have either entered, or stayed hidden while watching.

No, one coincidence I can accept, but not two. I am clearly the target here.

But are they after Olivia Pine Fredirin, or the halfling warrior Cat?

One thing I was confident of, was that they were from one of my aunts or uncle’s houses.

“We will invite them in,” Concluding my thoughts instantly, I responded to Ula.

“We will?”

“Yes,” I said before removing one of my gloves.

I drew my machete across my palm, leaving a decent cut that welled with blood. As it dripped onto the floor I saw Ula spin to face me, for a second an image of hunger flitted over her eyes before she scrunched up her nose and stepped back.

My blood did not pool onto the soggy parchments that were underfoot, but instead seeped through, away from sight. As the wound on my hand closed up, and as I put my glove back on, the blood had filtered through the floorboards, then slid across the roof of the 1st story towards the door. Before it reached, I split it into four parts, one spread onto the hinges of the door, and another part went to the doorknob. The other two took up seemingly random positions, one moved to the far wall and the other stayed on the ceiling a few feet away from the door.

Satisfied, I used my blood to unlock the door and turn the knob, and with the door now free, the hinges swung inward. To anyone looking in from the outside, such as the girl and her two guards, it would appear as if the door opened without anyone’s assistance.

Before I could consider if they would take the bait, and even before the door had fully opened, the girl had started walking forward, her two guards hurrying to follow.

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:05

Ruby Pawnbrokers’ Office, 7th Circle, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

?????????????

Once I saw the door open, and heard that I should come in, I did not hesitate.

I wanted to run, excitement coursed through me, but I also wanted to make a good impression. I was schooled in etiquette when I was young, and while I no longer went to my lessons, I still remembered. I knew that my Destined One had also received the same education, so I did not want to disappoint her.

My two guards followed me after a second of delay, their hesitation rousing my ire. I knew they did not understand, could not understand, even if I had tried to explain. I did not need to hear them to know that.

The building, whatever it was for, was not in a good state. The interior was dark, I could see that even when I was still on the road, but entering it allowed me to see that it was also wet and damp. Puddles had formed on the floor, and cold water was dripping from the ceiling.

When I was younger, I feared things like ghosts and spirits, and this building looked as if it should be haunted. The misunderstandings of youth, what I thought were spirits, were just people, and the undead no longer scared me. I was able to hear most of them, the undead. The more intelligent they were, the easier it was. Less intelligent ones were more like animals, only able to say simple ideas. The completely mindless ones such as skeletons or zombies did not speak at all, but they emitted a low humming sound.

There was only one thing that I could not hear, and that was my Destined One who was above on the 2nd floor, along with one of her guards.

Spectres, they called themselves. Not an accurate name, her guards sounded no different than other humans, while specters, when they did anything other than wail incoherently, would still scream and cry.

I wondered why they called themselves that.

“My Lady…” One of my guards, his presence surrounded with the sound of scratching, scraping, grinding, and tearing, tried to dissuade me from entering, but I ignored him.

Entering with my two guards in tow, I realized the building wasn’t as bad as it at first appeared. It was dark, but one of my guards had a light emitting magic device that lit up the surroundings. The building seemed to be an office, a counter was in front of us, some chairs and small tables made a waiting area, and then the back was sectioned off by some doors, one of which was opened and revealed a staircase going up.

Water was everywhere, but it seemed like a recent development, everything looked to be in good order aside from the dripping.

“Wait!” My guard called out suddenly, his hand already on his sword.

I looked at him confused, he was dividing his stare between a section of wall between two of the doors, and a bit of the roof right over our heads.

“...what is it…?” I whispered.

“No… I thought…” He mumbled, but then shook his head and put his weapon away. “I thought I sensed magic, but it must be nothing. Still, we should be careful. Let Forik go first.”

I looked at my other guard, Forik if the first was to be believed, I never trusted them in the first place, I couldn’t hear them due to the awful sound they made, but I did not think they would lie about their names, there was no need to. He was also looking around, and hadn’t drawn his sword, but I could tell he was larger than the first. I did not know who was stronger, but the large one would probably delay any enemies longer with his body, allowing the first to escape with me.

“... It is fine…” I said and walked towards the stairs.

Neither guard said anything else, but they both followed me.

Each step up the staircase was excruciating. My Destined One was there, just up these stairs. I so badly wanted to run, to sprint to her, to hear nothing. But I must restrain myself, I must present myself well. I need her to be pleased with me.

She is my Destined One, the only person I can stand to be around, but I know that to her, I am nobody. No, even worse, from hearing her guards these few days I knew I was an enemy.

Ah… how difficult is this? My entire life, I cursed the fact I could hear, but now, in front of this one person, this one person I desperately wanted to understand, I could hear nothing. The irony, because if I could hear her, I would have no desire to do so in the first place.

I could hear her guard, the Spectre, she must be equipped with a bow of some form, she was standing back, but ready to shoot if something happened. I would never do anything to upset my Destined One, but my guards…

I hadn’t told them who my Destined One, that she was my cousin, Olivia Pine Fredirin, so they should have no desire to harm her. But, I know that in my efforts to meet her, they had realized that she was a figure of some power, and dangerous. How many times, if not for my ability to hear, would we have been caught trying to find out about that warehouse? Still, to my guards, my own safety was the most important, so as long as I wasn’t in danger, they will stand down.

Now at the landing, I stopped to take a couple of breaths.

“...do not… do anything…” I whispered to my guards, “...No matter what…”

I stepped into the room and froze.

My eyes locked onto the adjacent pair, two silver orbs barely peeking out of her black face mask, they were two shimmering stars in the night sky. Nothing else mattered, only those eyes.

“...how beautiful…” My absent-minded words were heard, and the silver eyes suddenly narrowed.

Panic wracked me, I needed to make a good first impression.

My former etiquette teacher told me to smile when meeting new people, and I tried to do so. But it had been so long, too long, since I last smiled. My facial muscles were stiff, I could only put a cramped and crooked smile onto my face.

I must look awful.

“Li-Lillian Qu-Quarry Fre-Fredirin,” I stammered out, “gr-greets y-you.”

Saturday, February 21st, N.E. 807, 01:07

Royal Army Mounted Command Center, outside the southern wall, Royal Capital Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

General Merrick Miller.

Located safely in the middle of the now nearly forty thousand man army, we advanced into the cold night. The army was still a mishmash of various groups, Royal Guardsmen, the Capital Defense Force, the Kingdom’s army, mercenaries, various noble household troops, adventurers, members of combat schools, apprentice mages, priests from the different churches, even the Crystal Jade Empire had dispatched fifty soldiers from their embassy.

A motley assortment of forces, but a powerful one still. Morale was high, supplies were abundant, the cause was just, and while the elementals were a powerful foe, they were a stupid foe. As long as we had the numbers and strength to not break apart at first contact, we could easily defeat them. With the numbers we currently had, not only would we win easily, but most likely casualties would be low.

Lord Xavier being given command was a great boon to the army, but it overshadowed the contribution made by the Pine Family, and the forces that they sent were arguably more important. If they hadn’t sent out such a powerful group, which itself not only provided a powerful boost to morale, but also shamed the other nobles into participating earnestly, the army would be much smaller and weaker. In a way, with Lord Xavier, a less powerful army wouldn’t matter much, but injuries and deaths would be much higher.

The Pines would receive some kind of commendation for this afterward, but he would have little to do with that, outside of sending in the initial petition. Everything beyond that would be politics, and outside of his pay grade. However, since he knew the army’s current state was owed to them, he had extended an invitation to the commander of the Pine forces, the half-elf Eslan Tale, who was now currently seated atop his horse following around with the rest of his adjutants.

“Once again, I need to offer my thanks to you, Commander Tale,” The general addressed the Elf, “If not for your family’s reinforcements, things would not have gone as smoothly.”

“Think nothing of it General Miller,” The elf calmly shook his head, “And regardless, your thanks are misplaced.”

“Oh, how so?” He asked with interest.

“The Pine Family has few forces within the Capital, and standard protocol would dictate we only send out what we could spare after securing our own territory.”

“...” The general frowned lightly to himself, The commander’s words did ring true, but still…

“Come now, Commander,” One of his adjutants said, “Few forces? With what you sent, I fear for what you consider to be a large force.”

“Haha,” Another spoke, “Yes, if three rank 7s is small, then this army must be considered as only medium sized.”

“Surely you jest,” Commander Tale said without laughing, “These forces we sent, consist of all of our available forces.”

“Haha… Wait, really?”

General Merrick was likewise surprised, he couldn’t stop himself from turning to look back at the elf, along the way noticing that several of his adjutants appeared shocked.

“You surely left defenses at your estate and other holdings?” Another one of his adjutants asked.

“We left a skeleton crew at the estate, but we evacuated all of our staff into the Royal Castle. We’ve deployed all of our available forces here.”

“...” His frown deepened.

That was not good military strategy, even a half-baked strategist like him could tell that. All of the Pine Family holdings, save for their main estate, would be undefended, and even that estate would be barely defended. And should the worst happen, if the General remembered correctly, three of the Pine Family’s five children were in the Capital, they would be without any protection. Even if the Elementals were beaten back with no danger befalling the city, which is how it should work out, but if their forces suffered heavy casualties, they would be in an incredibly precarious situation.

If this was a grab for glory by Commander Tale, he would have to rethink things.

But then, he remembered something.

“Commander,” He said, “You said my thanks were misplaced? If not to you, who should I send them to?”

“Mmm…” The Commander seemed to think as he rubbed his chin with one hand, “To be honest, this idea was not mine, but my Young Lady’s.”

Very quickly, General Merrick recalled everything he knew about the two young ladies of the Pine Family.

Pamela Pine Fredirin, the eldest daughter, was relatively unknown. In the past, she seemingly had some talent as an artist and as a mage, but she had fallen off of the stage into obscurity. As far as he knew, she wasn’t skilled in management or military affairs either.

Olivia Pine Fredirin, the youngest daughter, had almost no reputation to speak of. She was too young to make any waves since she wasn’t a heavens defying genius, but he did recall hearing that her carriage had crashed into a river early in the month. In fact, last he heard, she was recovering back in the Pine Domain, he wasn’t even sure if she had returned or not.

“Which young lady,” He asked, “If you do not mind telling me.”

“It was Lady Olivia Pine Fredirin’s idea, General.”

“I see,” Is what he said, but he really did not.

Some of his adjutants had strange looks on their faces, looks that they quickly hid before the elven commander could see them. He’d have to ask them about it, later on, there was something he wasn’t understanding here, but it wasn’t important right now.

“If you do not mind me asking a question myself, General?” The Commander asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“What is it?”

“What exactly is our plan? The information sent to our house was not detailed.”

Of course it wasn’t, detailed information, what little they had, would not get sent out to anyone. In fact, only the upper ranking generals within the capital, of which he was one of three, were informed. That information was restricted not only to prevent a panic, but to stop any opportunistic individuals or groups from getting any funny ideas.

Plus, it contained matters of great importance in the succession competition, after all, Frederica Canyon Fredirin, one of the Canyon Family’s new pillars of support, had likely fallen in battle. Sending that out, especially to the other ducal houses, was completely unacceptable.

With that being said, Commander Tale was now a major contributor to the entire army, and since he had sent the Commander an invitation to the command group, he couldn’t refuse to tell him what had happened. And regardless, that information would come to light after this situation was resolved, so the Commander would hear of it sooner or later.

“About that…” He said as he glanced at Lord Xavier, the mercenary had remained silent atop his horse this entire time, and remained so even now, “The fortress at the Bleeding Forrest has likely been overrun by now, the general in charge lead a rearguard action to stall the Elementals, but we lost all contact about an hour ago. The last report indicated contact with the Fragment that started the overflow, so based on the time frame, we are looking at around ten thousand to fifteen thousand elementals.”

“I see, so the general sacrificed himself to buy time for the rest to retreat, then are we meeting up with them? How many are there?”

“Three thousand, approximately. And we will not be meeting with them.” He let out a breath as he said that.

As he knew it would, almost everyone within earshot sported looks of disbelief on their faces.

“We can’t,” He spoke before anyone else could, “The rear guard only managed to buy, at best, thirty minutes of time for the rest to retreat, and that thirty minutes ended almost an hour ago. In snow like this, how far could the retreating forces get?”

“If we rushed…” An adjutant spoke up, but even as she did, she knew it was pointless.

“If we rushed, we might be able to rendezvous with them in time, but we might not. Even if we make it, we’ll have an exhausted army meeting up with an equally exhausted army that was being chased. We might even lose the entire battle in that case.” He spoke his words firmly, even if they pained him.

The loss of three thousand men was a terrible thing, from a purely numerical standpoint, and from the perspective of a man who leads others into battle, who takes their fate into their own hands.

But what really pained him, was to disregard General Canyon’s intentions. She had likely sacrificed her own life to save as many of her men as possible, but now, her sacrifice would be wasted, those men and women she saved, would be forsaken anyway.

“Plus, we have another problem. The Elementals will go straight towards the largest and nearest concentration of living things.”

“Which is the capital,” A different adjutant said.

“No, it is not. Besides the retreating forces, the other large congregations of living things would be Riversdale and Morristown. Most likely, the elementals were split and some will go after each group. To make matters worse, Riversdale is to the east of the road we’ll be using, and Morristown is to the west. If we rush south on the road, the other two groups of Elementals could end up flanking us, or even hitting us from behind.”

“Actually, there is an even worse outcome than that,” The only adjutant he had shared these plans with suddenly spoke up.

“He’s right. If the flanking groups outpace us too heavily, they might end up closer to the Capital than to us, if they decide to go towards Arvas, the city lacks the strength to defend. I do not need to tell you what that would mean.”

Arvas sent out almost everything it had, the remaining guards and household troops would be nowhere near sufficient to defend against even one flanking group. The walls would be breached instantly, and what would follow would be a chaotic urban fight that would be less fight and more slaughter. The Royal Castle itself had magical defenses that would keep it safe, but the rest of the city would end up wrecked and scoured of life. And the Castle was only so large, they could easily lose nearly all of the Capital’s people.

“That is why we are going to only advance five miles to the Berzin Hills. We’ll set up formations within the basin, build fortifications, and load whatever siege weapons we have up onto the hills themselves. We’ll spend whatever time we have digging pitfalls and burying mines, we need to do whatever we can to preserve our forces. Gods forgive us, but we just can’t save those soldiers.”

Saturday, February 20th, N.E. 807, 01:12

Bleeding Forest, 34 Miles South of Arvas, Fredirin Kingdom.

??????????????

The Bleeding Forest was young, no tree went more than a few years before being uprooted by some rampaging beast. It was a land of constant death and rebirth, the rampant mana running through it saw to that. The mana nourished the ground, making it extra fertile, and any seeds that took root would grow rapidly. Their forms would be twisted, corrupt, but they still grew. Even the area near the keep, which was culled daily, still saw shrubs and other plants bursting into existence in only a moment.

However, right now, an oddity had appeared.

The blizzard was not enough to slow the growth, even the Elementals, as they cut through the woods and froze everything else in their path, only hampered the Forest. Already, the dead trees were breaking down, new ones spouting in the now vacated areas. Molds and vines used the corpses of plant and beast as fuel for their own rampant growth.

But not here.

An area nearly a hundred feet across was scoured of all life, the very ground was baked, the dirt and mud turned to glass.

Only two entities existed within the crater, a pile of ice, and the battered body of a human. The ice was slowly melting, the water trickling towards the center of the burnt basin. The human too, was leaking, as it struggled to draw breath, blood oozed from its body and made its own journey towards the center where it mixed with the water.

Snow fell onto the two of them, at first it melted as it touched either the human, or the ground around it, but as more fell, the ground, and the human began to cool. A fine layer of white began coated the blackened ground, and after a while, the human too. A cold wind blew, further stealing the human’s warmth, and making the breaths even more laborious. Seconds ticked by, and soon all that showed of the human was a red layer of snow. But still, it struggled to breathe, to live.

The human’s hand held a sword, but slowly its strength waned, the hand relaxed, and the sword slid from its grip. The weapon resembled nothing like the form it held an hour ago, the hilt crushed, the blade cracked, but even then, its quality was clear.

As it slipped farther away from its owner, it left a small trail in the snow. And seemingly having noticed that the sword had left it, the human attempt to grope through the snow and reclaim its weapon. Inch by inch, fingers crawled towards it.

But with each additional labored breath, the movement slowed, until finally, it stilled. The hand stopped, and then a moment later, the breathing came to a stop.

There was no warmth in the clearing any longer, no movement, no life. It grew colder and colder. The ice stopped melting, the water froze, even the blood turned thicker until it too froze.

And still, the temperature dropped, the body of the dead human froze, the nearby trees, destroyed from the battle, froze solid. The air became so cold that little droplets of clear liquid began forming on the ground. As the droplets appeared, the wind picked up, howling with a fury almost never seen. Snow blew from all over the forest, all of it drawn to this small clearing. The droplets kept forming, the wind kept blowing, and the temperature kept dropping. The human’s body began to crack apart right as the first blue drops of liquid began forming. The blue mixed with the clear, and all of them converged onto the corpse. They moved independent of the wind, seemingly having a mind of their own. They crawled onto the body, slithered across it, through clothing, through armor, through frozen blood and flesh, and then they seeped into the openings, the eyes, mouth, nose, ears, even the wounds, nothing was spared.

Suddenly, the dropping temperatures let up, the wind returned to what could be called normal within a blizzard, and only the snow continued to move as it drifted down from above. It was as if the violence from moments ago had never happened, the scene was no different from when the body had drawn its last breath, from when Frederica Canyon Fredirin had died.

The small droplets had displaced the snow that had fallen on her body, and the flakes that continued to fall suspiciously avoided it. It was only the snow that rested on the ground that was disturbed as her body sat up without warning, and then stood. Her movements were halting, jerky, but she moved yet still.

She flexed her one good hand, while at the same time a layer of ice formed over her ruined arm, even forming a crystal clear elbow, then a forearm, and then even a hand. Partially covered in a layer of ice, with one of her limbs now made of that same ice, Frederica looked around emotionlessly, before she locked her gaze towards the north.

She said nothing, but as if she were an afterimage made by the snow, Frederica disappeared into the night.