The once fortified Fysalli, Witton Hold, was once again the centre of Imperial activity. Little remained of the rubble and ruin that Witton had been turned into after the disastrous attack by the Chaos Courts more than a year ago, and in its place were once again layers of protective Waypoints, quays, and a toughened fortress of smooth stone.

Unlike the previous example, the one that had exploded from the Chaos Lords’ secret weapon, this fortress encompassed the entirety of the land floating in the Chaos Sea. In fact, the land had been turned into a fortress instead. It wasn’t quite perfectly spherical in nature, there were odd bumps, protrusions, craters, and holes on the surface. It was made of grey-ish rock, marble and granite, and perhaps a bit of basalt, all conjured and shaped from the Chaos Sea. the chance to build the fortress up from nothing had delighted the earth shapers to no end.

Four smaller spheres orbited around the main fortress, each with battlements and Plasma Carronade emplacements, at a different distance from the main fortress. The closest one was only a hundred or so paces away, while the farthest was nearly a league. Aside from the spheres and their contents, nothing else existed within the Fysalli. Chaos from the boundary flowed in a single stream towards the outermost satellite, which then flowed to the second, third, then fourth one, before reaching the main fortress. At that moment, a single Chaos ship entered the Waypoint and followed the Chaos river towards the outer sphere.

Aboard the Sullen Striker, Riley Siofra Davar leaned on the upper deck railing and watched the first ward come closer and closer to the bow. The Striker was similar enough to the Ebon Horizon, the merchant ship he, his brother, and little aunt had been contracted to, that he found it oddly soothing and familiar. Of course, only until the memories of the crash, and the battle within the depths, the Pure Lands, reared its ugly head. It wasn’t something easy to forget, despite the nearly two Seasons since then.

Aunt Layla had listened to his nightmares one evening when the three of them had gathered in a tavern. That had been back in Delovine plane rather than Witton Hold. Aidan, his elder brother, had similar nightmares, and from how Aunt Layla’s eyes tightened, so did she.

“Mind healer,” she said abruptly then. The brothers exchanged glances and nodded.

The sessions with the temporary legion’s healers had helped, as did writing down his nightmares whenever he had them. Aidan drew images of that dreadful time, even if his skills in art were cow dung. Looking at the stick figures and the abstract representations of fire, blood, and death had been oddly satisfying anyway, though big bro stopped showing him when he teased him about it.

Turnabout was fair, however, since Aidan joshed him about his chicken scratches in his notes. As for Aunt Layla, she usually spent her evenings drinking all the ale and wine she could get her dainty hands on.

How she managed to keep those hands steady when it came to her Runeer work, he sure didn’t know.

The Sullen Striker passed by the first ward, and a few minutes later, the second. The first satellite was chock full of Plasma Carronade emplacements, and he counted at least a hundred in one area. The thing was nearly ten times wider than the Chaos ship, nearly a longstride in diameter. He didn’t know how many people manned the thing, just that it was probably less than even the ship’s crew. It wasn’t a garrison but a weapons platform after all, and a Chaos funnel. The area outside of the river was a complete void, and hopefully, that would keep the Chaos dwellers from infiltration.

He didn’t know the particulars of how Witton Hold fell in the first place, but he heard it was because the Chaos Lords got too close to the walls. How they did so even though there was another Waypoint layer, he didn’t know. Perhaps it was because they had Highlords with them?

The very thought made him shudder. The strongest person in Witton Hold wasn’t even a Knight Dominus, but simply a Knight Commander.

Er, he shouldn’t disparage that level. He chuckled to himself ruefully. When would he even advance to Knight Captain? A couple of decades if he was lucky.

Then again, this entire war was an opportunity to hone himself. Perhaps he could touch upon an Ennoia then. It would certainly help him advance faster.

The Imperial Path didn’t require having an Ennoia to advance to Knight Captain, but one was needed to go beyond it. If worse comes to worst, Knight Captains who haven’t touched an Ennoia could seek a remedy within one of Realmheart’s Academies. He might go back there and apply too, after this tour of duty was finished. Then again, they were fighting for his cousin’s home plane.

Ah, little Yuriko. She was nearly impossible to forget, even discounting her Mishala Heritage. Alas, the last time he saw her was back in Ulmira as she sought to escape her engagement. She was on her way to Rumiga though, and he worried if she had made it safely. That she had reached the same Anima level as they did was a wonder in itself. She was so young! She was only fifteen when they met, and er…her birthday was on the 20th Day of Earth, wasn’t it? So she would be sixteen in a couple of Seasons. He looked forward to seeing her again, and he prayed daily to the Ancestors and the Empress that Yuriko survived. He prayed that she thrived in whatever situation she found herself in.

Soon enough, the Sullen Striker arrived in Witton Hold’s 23rd Quay. he looked forward to the coming shore leave, even if he could only spend it in this dreary fortress. At least there was an entertainment district, as well as free-flowing beer. He did miss his sweetheart, Noanne Solvein. He hadn’t had enough time to visit her in Ulmira. He received one letter from her a couple of weeks ago, answering the one he left before he enlisted. She was going to pursue advanced studies, and in Alchemistry at that. Huh. That was a finicky discipline considering that Chaos materials were rarely identical. She had sent her application to several Academies, and not all of them were in Ulmira. If she really wanted to continue with Alchemistry, she should apply for the College of Esoteric Disciplines in the Jerizen plane.

He’d write to her again, suggesting as much, although Noanne was no fool and would definitely consider what was best for her studies. Now if only she wasn’t so absent-minded…

Soon enough, the Sullen Striker was docked and he had a week of shore leave to rest.

________

Almost exactly a week after they arrived in Witton Hold, Riley was back on board the Sullen Striker. This time, not only was he in uniform, he also carried one of the new weapons systems that had been sent to the temp legion.

Layla fussed with Riley’s backpack, fiddling with the runescript weaving and shifting the settings for his comfort.

“Be careful not to overdraw the charging coils, Riley,” she admonished him, “don’t get too caught in the heat of battle.”

Riley rolled his eyes, though he only did it when he knew she wasn’t looking at his face. She was at his back, after all.

Chaos Sea Animus Gatherer Pack. That’s what the Runeers called this monstrosity of a backpack. It was thicker and heavier than the travel pack, though it only weighed about fifty Jin. It was well balanced enough that the weight was evenly distributed across his shoulders, back, and legs rather than just his shoulders. It was the tubes and coils that took some time to get used to though. Ah, and he needed to use a special Plasma Caster to properly make use of it.

“One thousand lumens of storage,” Layla muttered. “That’s more than enough to fire a Plasma Carronade. Needs Animus compression for you to use properly though.”

One of the coils connected to a jade cartridge, while another connected to the cartridge holder on his belt. The device not only provided extra lumens but also charged it by the dozen per second. But only when in use in the Chaos Sea. Inside a plane, the device was no more than a glorified jade cartridge as it couldn’t replenish its reserves if the ambient Chaos were at one iarvesh.

Aidan had a different device to use. It was a Plasma Emitter, and it was nowhere as bulky as the Gatherer thing. In fact, Riley looked at the sleek gauntlets with no small amount of jealousy. Why did his elder bro get the cool-looking gear when he had this…thing?

Aidan was grinning as he played with his new gear. He no longer needed to use his Plasma Lancets to produce controllable plasma orbs for his Facet. No, that emitter used ambient Chaos to, well, emit plasma orbs on command. According to Aunt Layla, Aidan’s storage was less than half of his, at two hundred lumens. But that was already more than what a Knight would usually have in their reserves! Sure, it wasn’t condensed Animus, but Aidan didn’t need it! His Facet worked on plasma, and how he got the energy didn’t really matter much. Condensed Animus made the Lancet more efficient rather than strengthening the resulting bolts. In fact, Aidan compresses his plasma orbs to give it more juice.

“Oh, stop it,” Layla growled and Riley realised he had been glaring at Aidan’s gauntlets. The things were sleek. Ivory white with golden runescript lines? Argh!

“Yes, it’s smaller than your gear, but remember, as long as we’re fighting in the Chaos Sea, you can blast away with your Facet without worrying about your reserve.” She smirked. “You won’t be such a quick shot anymore!”

“Hmph!” Riley’s face reddened at the double entendre and the crudeness on Layla’s face.

“Hahaha!” Aidan chuckled before patting his shoulder. “Relax, little bro. Yours is more useful. For now.” Unlike the gatherer thing, Aidan’s emitters would still work within a plane. In a limited fashion, yet. More like a single plasma orb per minute instead of one measure every second. It also had jade cartridges embedded into its structure so it could hold extra reserve in that case.

Not that he expected the Sullen Striker to enter a plane anytime soon, anyway. And within the Chaos Sea, his pack was far superior, so that was a sop to his ego.

“There,” Layla said with a pat on his back. “Make sure you don’t overuse the Gatherer, and you’d better make sure it doesn’t get hit. If it explodes it’ll take most of your skin and muscles with it,” she muttered.

“Aunt. I’m not fool enough to leave it unprotected,” he said stiffly. His Protective Field technique had grown recently, after watching Yuriko’s efforts. Anything that would hit the backpack would have to pass through most of his defences first.

“Right.” Layla eyed him doubtfully. “Well, let’s get going. Captain Brogin doesn’t suffer tardiness in his crew.”

“We’ve still got an hour to departure,” Aidan said.

“Which means we’ve ten minutes to board.” Layla rolled her eyes. They’d done the same dance ever since all three of them were stationed in the same Chaos Ship. The Sullen Striker was a light assault cruiser class ship, meant for lightning strikes at enemy capital ships, or hit-and-run tactics against enemy forces.

As for their current mission? Well, even as they boarded the Sullen Striker, hundreds, no thousands, of other conscripts and volunteers boarded similar vessels across the 23rd Quay. The other forty-nine quays would be the same, and an armada of a thousand Chaos ships would soon leave Witton Hold in a bid to reopen the Rumiga Chaos Channel. And from there, they would crush the uppity Chaos Courts and return this region of the Chaos Sea to peace.