Kato Mishala Davar was miserable at the moment. Eastern Rumiga had always been colder than the west, and now in the midst of the Season of Earth, the life-giving rains that he appreciated while he was warm indoors had turned him into a soggy mess. It would have been alright if he could actually move, but now, he dared not.

The fall of Rumiga City had been weeks ago, brought down by the Agminis Legion’s Legate. Scuttlebutt was that an important artefact had been corrupted, which could only mean the Gemheart.

The city’s evacuation had been orderly, as far as he could see. But many things were lost, nonetheless. The two Ducal houses had not been selfish enough to withhold information but had released it as soon as the Legate gave the word. Then again, it might be because Agminis also released the news at the same time. It meant that most luxuries, heavy goods, and other hard-to-move things were left behind. Most of the city’s wealth was actually in trade goods. The Chaos Channel was the only path to Delovine, and all goods from Rumiga had to come through the city and the docks. By the same token, all goods coming in had to go through here, too.

Although given that the Chaos Channel had been blockaded for a while now, that trade lifeblood had dried up top. And he was rambling in his mind.

The bush he was hiding under didn’t provide much of a shelter. He idly wondered if he should have taken the chance to advance to Knight before. He’d graduated from Agaza Academy and had been enlisted into Legion Agminis, not entirely by choice. The war had been going on then, and the Chaos Channel had been blocked. But he hadn’t been ready. His inlays weren’t in perfect condition, and his delving into the Davar Heritage to find just the right inlay to complement what he already had was far from complete. He hadn’t wanted to rush the inlay just to make Knight, especially since the wrong ability would hinder his progress.

‘Look at me complaining about my riches.’ He chuckled mentally. The Davar Heritage went all the way up to Knight, which meant it belonged to the premier lineages in the Empire. No Heritage paved the way for one to go beyond Knight, however, several lineages built a good foundation for the attempt. Davar wasn’t the best at that, unfortunately.

After all of his meditation, research, and delving, he realised that his Heritage had been focused on marksmanship to the detriment of pretty much everything else. It wasn’t so bad, really, but Kato believed that a foundation was meant to be broad, not deep and narrow.

Now, in these circumstances, he wondered if he should have taken the chance after all. And maybe it was because of times like these that the Heritage was like that.

His thoughts skittered over the events of the past week while his hands clutched his Plasma Lancet. He didn’t have his Caster, though he had it stashed in a hidey-hole. The lancet would do for now, though if he had to fight, he would already be lost.

Right across the valley was a prison camp.

The evacuees had been captured. Warriors from Ivala City, and barbarians from the north. Combined with a force of Weak Chaos lords, they had overrun the scanty defences of Shallowhall village, along with the large refugee camp, and took everyone there. It was only luck that Kato had not been around when the raid happened. But his girlfriend Caera Sawthner was.

He spotted her being tossed into a prison wagon, along with others, and they were being carted off. He had assumed towards the northern barbarian stronghold, but it was actually to the Chaos Fortress that had reportedly grown just the past couple of years.

He hadn’t been able to stay, or even enact a rescue as he’d been spotted by a barbarian patrol. He ran, of course. No sense in getting captured, too, but he got cut off before he could head west, by more patrols. He’d been skulking around the area ever since, trying to find a way to get to Caera and rescue her. Well, the other captives, too, but his girlfriend came first.

He had inverted his Field technique to make it harder to see or sense him, by mimicking how ambient Chaos flows around an empty space. He had to be careful though, since an empty blob in the middle of the bushes would be just as bad. One of the instructors in the Watchtower, Jacqueline Yoran, who was also a militia leader, had taught him how to bend light around himself. That normally meant he couldn’t see, too, but the trick was to let some light come to his eyes.

So if anyone looked in his direction, they’d only see his hazel eyes. Much harder to see behind some leaves unless their gazes met.

The camp was still a bustle of activity. Thankfully, the barbarians were all business rather than doing what they normally do to captives. Which was honestly a bit more concerning. As a woman, Caera would be abused but would end up still alive at the end of it. It was infuriating, honestly, but Kato told himself to be practical. Even though he was cursing in his mind at Legate Brygos. Why didn’t the woman stick around to guard the citizens? That was Agminis’ duty.

Unless there was a much stronger foe that she was keeping at bay? The Federation’s top-tier warriors were at the Knight-Commander levels, but that only meant that all of them would have to fight the Legate at the same time to have a chance at even stalling her. Unless the destruction of the Gemheart hurt her, too?

Anyway, he was thankful that the barbarians weren’t acting normal, but worried, too. Anytime people didn't act as one expected is a cause for concern because it meant he was missing something.

He waited for dusk before he started sneaking into camp. Bending light around himself was a costly affair if he was moving while doing so. The inverted Field was no harder to maintain, even if it meant that it offered no protection to him. His thumb caressed the combat knife opposite the lancet on his belt. He’d have to use that instead of the plasma weapon.

He stuck to the folds in the ground, behind ridges, and trees as he made his way to the camp. Enhanced Senses and the fact that the Luminous Moon was bright tonight allowed him to make his way without stumbling or losing his footing.

The camp was several leagues north of Rumiga City’s ruins, halfway towards the Chaos Fortress. From Kato’s snooping, he found out that captives were kept here for a while, then brought up north once they were in lots of a thousand. He counted a bit more than nine hundred in the prison now, though he arrived at that number by spying, observing the logistics demand, and guessing at the makeshift buildings’ capacity.

The camp was also protected by the usual ditch and palisade, which wasn’t much of an issue to cross. It was difficult to do so undetected, however, but he had a solution to that. Sort of.

His desperate delving into the Davar Heritage allowed him to glimpse an Animus strategy that synergized with Jaqueline Yoran’s light-bending technique.

Da’s favoured technique was long-distance sniping, Marron’s was consecutive strikes that combined to form a powerful attack. His preference hadn’t been locked in, actually, as he dabbled in the many disciplines the Heritage offered. But he wasn’t sure if he wanted to lock in his inlay for skirmish warfare. The discipline was favoured towards ambushing and hit-and-run tactics, focused on dealing as much damage in as short an amount of time as possible, then running away.

Well, he would make the choice if he failed here, though hopefully, he wouldn’t get captured…

No. He didn’t have the luxury of that! His thoughts ran furiously as he thought things through. He didn’t have enough skill or power to take on hundreds of barbarians, even if most of them were probably at the Apprentice or Journeyman level. Ancestors, he was only a Journeyman himself, even if he was at the peak of the third level.

He should advance first, as a mistake would cost him his life and Caera’s freedom.

Resolute, he retreated, keeping careful watch against the patrols. The process of Knighthood took a variable amount of time, and it wasn’t going to be silent or discreet. He would need to find shelter first.

It only took him a couple of hours to find a secluded nook in one of the nearby groves. The lay of the land allowed him to be hidden by a ridge on one side, a boulder on the other, and a copse of trees on the third. The last angle required one to look down from the top of the slope to find him too, and since he sat with the boulder at his back, he minimized the chances of being spotted. However, the fluctuations of Knightly advancement would still draw Wyldlings to him, and there was a plethora of them nearby. He killed off a few swarmlings but left a Wanderer alone when it was clear the Antid was moving away.

He settled into a seated meditation pose and looked into his inner self. The inlays he had spiralled from his eyes to his heart and lungs. The last inlay for the Facet he wanted needed him to inlay underneath his skin as well the muscles on his legs and toes. Lungs, too, but since that was already covered, he merely needed to link the two Facets together.

The process was slow since he didn’t want to make a mistake, and it took the rest of the night to finish it. A lesser man might have taken longer, but then again, he had been at the cusp for a while now.

The only thing left was to condense his Animus from its current misty state to liquid drops. That one was what could betray him to the patrols. Well, that and…

He suddenly found himself in a land of mists. The dreamscape. He glanced all around him, but couldn’t find anything. But…there were threads wrapped around his body and leading out into the distance. The Threads of Fate?

Hmmm, what were these golden chains that were distinctly different from the Threads? There were two of them, one as fine as filigree while the other was thicker but no less ornate.

Then…

The threads around him swirled and coalesced above him, turning into a divine figure shrouded in light green robes. The Verdant Empress.

Kato uncurled from his meditation pose and bent his knee to the ruler of his nation, bowing his head in reverence. The Empress looked down impassively at him, then nodded.

A sparkling seed fell from her fingers, gathering ambient Chaos all around it, condensing it until it turned into droplets of concentrated power. The liquified Chaos shot into his body, which struggled to convert it to his Animus. The lines of inlays around his body served to contain the Animus at pressure, keeping it liquid rather than explosively turning to a gaseous or photonic state.

More and more Animus gathered around him, seeping into his Anima and his body, strengthening it according to the lines of the inlay. He felt strength converge on his legs, his heart, and lungs, and he felt his skin change ever so slightly. With a thought, he knew that he could cause it to create a layer around himself, including his clothes, of course, which would create a camouflaging net around him. Not quite Yoran’s invisibility, but this one took far less Animus to maintain.

He didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, the process finished. Kato hastily returned his consciousness to his body, suddenly worried that his breakthrough had been noticed.

And when he opened his eyes it was to the sight of a barbarian patrol clambering over the ridge.

“Fallen Sun.”