“This looks like a likely place,” Braden muttered.

Across the street was the entrance to a bustling marketplace, and even late in the afternoon, it was filled with shoppers and travellers. Beside him, Orrin shrugged, while Gwendith nodded in agreement. However, her eyes remained colder than ice.

Braden mentally shook his head. Gwendith Sharine was strange. He barely interacted with her before her abduction, and when she returned, the former snobby noble girl had been replaced with one of overbearing Cold. Only when she was with Yuriko did that ice thaw, and a warm heart was revealed. Braden wasn’t the only one who noticed as even his more oblivious twin had, too. Yuriko returned that warmth, and he was privileged to see her more affectionate side during those times.

Still, what that meant for his and Orrin’s suit, was troubling. Notwithstanding the 29th Pia’Vasi’s intentions. He knew quite well how relationships in the Empire went, especially for the more powerful clans. Uncle Colin hadn’t been married, but he had quite a few mistresses, even if some of those were married to someone else.

Well, whatever.

Most of the stalls in the market sold fish and other seafood. Not much of a surprise there, considering where they were. His mercantile senses went off as he saw several specimens of expensive foods, especially when he saw the prices offered. Why, that sea urchin was selling for 3 Shekels per HiJin! That’s roughly a third of what it would cost in Faron’s Crossing, and he’d stand to earn ten times as much if he brought that to Rumiga City.

The low cost of exotic goods almost shoved him out of his contemplative mood, but then again, not finding what they were looking for was frustrating.

“You know, this is a wet market,” Gwendith said softly.

“Ah, so it is,” Braden agreed. “Think we can find jerkies here? Or do you think we’re better off finding a chandlery?”

“Well, they're the ones most often dealing with travel goods,” Orrin suggested.

“Let’s look here anyway, so it isn’t a waste of time,” Gwendith decided.

Trying to take his mind off the great deals just waiting to be snapped up, Braden returned to his ruminations.

Foremost, of course, were his and his brother’s feelings for Yuriko Davar. Love at first sight had always struck him as more of a tale than reality, but seeing her for the first time two years ago pretty much confirmed it. That the woman of his dreams said that it was probably because of an ability of hers…

Well, she had severed that part connecting the three of them, although he couldn’t quite tell the difference. But, maybe it was the fact that he was less…obsessed? Before, the idea of someone else, other than his twin, being with her would have filled him with so much irritation and discomfort…well, now, that wasn’t present. It still bothered him, but only to the extent that he would feel regret rather than pain.

As for Yuriko…huh, she’d changed greatly since back then. He remembered that first meeting in the gymnasium as clear as glass. Her coldly imperious stare, her quiet competence, and her fierce battle skills.

The thoughts made his heart skip a beat. Ah, that icy stare.

Hmmm, well, now, she was quite warm and her face no longer quite as cold and expressionless. Whenever he saw her lips quirk when she laughed and smiled… Ancestors!

He was still a lovesick fool and the problem was with their new patron. He and his brother were technically traitors. The family had defected, Uncle Colin had ripped his Heritage away and swore under a different path.

Which made the coming considerations a bit easier to stomach. He’d seen how powerful she was now, and he knew that if neither he nor his brother followed suit, they would eventually fall by the wayside and be left behind.

But the point was if it would be right to shift from the Imperial Path just because he loved her? They’d already resisted doing so when pressured by their family. Would giving in not make them hypocrites?

Still, it was power freely offered. And given how paranoid Uncle Colin was about being controlled…perhaps he and his brother should consider it.

Ah, but Gwendith had taken Yuriko’s path, hadn’t she? He was sure the pinkish glow around her wasn’t her Protective Field, not when she used it to form and manipulate ice.

The market did have a stall that sold dried meats as travel food. The merchant extolled the virtues of his product, but Braden still managed to find directions for the general chandlery. They bought ten Jin worth of dried meat, but the cost was twice as much as he expected, even after he haggled the man down.

They left the market soon after, but on the road to the chandlery, he paused when he heard frenzied cheering and hoots of laughter. Braden looked around and was reasonably sure that they weren’t anywhere near the entertainment district.

“Where’re you going?” Orrin asked when he moved to cross the road.

“Curious.”

“Not really the time for this, you know,” Gwendith said.

Braden shook his head. “It’ll only take a minute.”

“Suit yourself.”

When Braden did come closer to the establishment and managed to push past the crowd, it was quite clear what it was: a gambling den. Not just for games of chance, but wasn’t that a fighters’ ring in the corner? He looked around and quickly spotted the odds board, raising his eyebrows in surprise at the generous terms. Most of the other games involved dice, and a couple were card games.

His fingers twitched as he fought the instinct to dive right in. Discreet use of his abilities would give him an advantage, and places like this were always slanted against the player.

“Braden, no.” Orrin grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

He sighed and nodded. While there was a chance he’d win big, the greater chance was simply wasting time and Shekels. Even if he did win, he’d get noticed, and that wasn’t good for any of them. And…

“Aren’t those Kassy and Roland?” He pointed.

The large wolf-kin had just entered the ring and was slamming his fists together. The wild cat-kin, on the other hand, was flashing her cleavage at the other card players and already had a large pile of coins in front of her.

A few minutes of watching Roland demolish his opponent, and subsequently lowering his odds sheet, and of watching Kassy move to the next table after getting a modest win, had him convinced that there wasn’t much for him to do here other than waste time. His intentions to win a few coins to ease the burden were somewhat useless now. With a rueful laugh, he walked out of the place and followed the road to the chandlery. And after finding out the cost of Wayfarer’s Bread now, realised that no amount of gambling for the day would have made any difference at all.

__________

The fortified Waypoint shattered. At least, the outer shell did. Riley sighed in annoyance at finding another shell Waypoint underneath. The signs were subtle, but after busting through two dozen of them already, he’d long since figured out how to tell them apart.

It was in the way the Veil flowed. With a singular Waypoint, the Veil looked practically the same as it would around a plane, but with a stacked, and fortified Waypoint, the Veil’s movement was just a tad bit slower. That and they often formed particular patterns too. There was no way to tell how many stacks were there, however, but practically, it couldn’t be more than five or six per Waypoint. At Equilibrium, one iarvesh was simply not enough to sustain such practices.

The armada pulled back right after the Waypoint exploded. Air, water, and dirt floated in the Chaos Sea, and began to disincorporate. The huge chunks only fizzled out at the edges, while the smaller bits turned to ambient Chaos after a few seconds. Without a governing Will, all sorts of material things dissolved back into its potential forms.

Unfortunately, there were no bodies floating around, so that meant the Chaos Lords had pulled out of the outer shell before they crushed it.

“That’s the last Waypoint stack, I think,” Aidan said.

“Great, so just another three days of bombardment to break it,” Riley grunted. They’ve been attacking this cluster for the past half a Season already, and frankly, after the initial assault, the Chaos Lords had only been wasting time.

When they broke past the first defensive line, Riley felt excited. Finally, they were going to blast open the blockade! But no, it turned out that the Waypoint stack was tougher than expected and even worse, the blasted thing had been moving away from Rumiga! That meant that another stacked Waypoint could be created in between the plane and this current one.

Aunt Layla had been in a fine snit over that one, and Riley guessed that was the reason why the Empire hadn’t managed to gain any traction for the past Seasons. If it took an armada of their size to break even, then another one was needed, or more ships with stronger attack power, to do it.

The assault cruisers and battleships reengaged their weapons systems as soon as it became clear that the next Waypoint didn’t have any occupants. Riley was sure the next set would already be in place by the time they breached this one. Hopefully, they would still be able to catch the enemy’s forces out in the open before that.

Riley fired his Plasma Caster and focused as much of his Facets and power could muster. He really wasn’t a long-ranged Striker, as his techniques weakened past a hundred or so paces. On the Chaos Sea, however, enough Will and Intent could see an attack through. Even if they were firing from more than a longstride away. Most times, the ambient Chaos changed to accommodate the attack, and since there was no active defence, it was all the more effective.

Both of them were Knights, even though neither have really touched upon an Ennoia, their Heritage was more than strong enough to match a Plasma Carronade. And with their tools, they could even sustain it.

It took just a bit less than three days, seventy hours ship time, before the Waypoint exploded. Sure enough, he could see the next fortified Fysalli already formed… but wait, it was still moving up the anchor points! This was a chance.

“The Chaos Lords are out of position. This is the best time to rush!” Riley muttered and heard Aidan agree. Both of them braced themselves for the sudden acceleration, and sure enough, the Sullen Striker fired up its propulsion runescript and the ship lurched ahead.

Beside them, a dozen assault cruisers pushed forward, guarded by a couple of lighter frigates and destroyers each. The bigger and deadlier battleships followed soon after.

Moving across the Chaos flows always did funny things with the perception of time. Riley could have sworn that it had only been a few minutes since the destruction of the Waypoint, but his timesense told him that several hours had already passed. It would only take half an hour before they would engage the enemy, though.

“Do you see that?” Aidan asked.

“What?”

“Something’s missing.” He squinted at the flows. Then his eyes widened, “The Interdictor isn’t working yet!”

“So what?” Riley snorted, “It’s not as if that would change things. Look at the edges, the vortex is starting.”

The Sullen Striker, positioned at the flanks of the armada, lurched to the port side. The deck tilted nearly thirty degrees, and many of the deckhands and marines grabbed the railings. One man nearly tumbled over, but someone grabbed his arm before he could smack into the Protective Sphere and damage it.

They veered away from the battlefront, and Riley noticed a couple of other assault cruisers followed behind them. A detachment of Chaos dwellers peeled off from their formation to intercept, but the ships were moving too fast.

The Sullen Striker righted itself, and the Animatech engines roared as they were pushed beyond their rated output. The jolt from the acceleration had Riley clutching at the railings, and he almost lost his footing.

When he stabilised, they were already far from the battlefront.

“Where are we going?” He muttered.

“I dunno,” Aidan grumbled. “Ask Aunt Layla?”

“What else can we do?” he grumbled back. After several weeks of just blasting at a Waypoint, and now, even glorious battle was denied him. “I’m starting to think signing up for the legion was a mistake.”