The flames and smoke were well within Mikel’s Ennoia of Embers, something he touched upon during his long convalescence. Enlightenment had come to him as he whiled away the long hours with only Krystal or a book for company.

He’d long wondered what the use for the Cypher Heritage in a nation that used Plasma Casters and Lancets, which essentially shot bolts of flame, at the enemy. He couldn’t control plasma with his Heritage’s Facets, at least, not without heavy investment into that technique tree and to the detriment of his conventional flames. Also, he knew what his mother could do with her fires.

But try as he might, he couldn’t find which Facet it was in the Heritage that allowed the woman that much control over her flames. The ones that manipulated the shape of fire started out by only allowing him cosmetic changes. What use was it to shape his fire blast into a paper crane and have it fly that way? What could his flames do that a Plasma Caster couldn’t do as well?

Sure his initial Facets sprayed a cone of flame that could catch several foes at once, but there were Plasma Casters that had wide-angle barrels that could do the same thing. There were even Casters that shot a packet of plasma that exploded upon hitting the target! What use were his Facet techniques then?

Not when they faced a veritable horde of enemies rather than one squad at a time that they had been training for during the last year in Agaza.

Perhaps it was that realisation that triggered enlightenment. Fire, no matter how small, grew once it found something to consume. It was that simple, wasn’t it? So, he could spend his Animus to create tiny motes of flame, and as long as they hit something flammable, they’d erupt in power.

But first, he had to recover. Not really naturally as somehow, the 29th Pia’Vasi managed to get a healer from Realmheart through the blockade.

Bianca Garderon was as feisty as her flaming red hair would indicate. She looked fairly young, but her skill with reconstructive healing was incredible to behold. Mikel’s deep wounds were resolved in a matter of minutes, while the original reason why the woman was called here, Yuriko’s eldest brother, Marron Davar, was well into the process of getting over her crippling injuries.

Mikel supposed that having a right lung turn into crystal, and a blinded eye, was not easy to heal. Still, from what he heard from Rami, the youngest Davar child, Marron would be healed in a couple of Seasons. That should be close now, Mikel thought.

Once he’d healed enough, he found there were many roadblocks to his initial idea. Creating a cloud of embers and spreading it around didn’t quite pan out. The weaker the flame, the easier it was to snuff, too. And it took dedicated focus, study, and the proper Animus braiding technique to get around that difficulty.

Perhaps it was then that he touched upon the Ennoia. He realised that it was impossible to fuel his embers with just his meagre Animus, not if he wanted it to have the effects he wanted. Krys also spoke about seeing more than the surface, and he remembered Yuriko’s stories of her travels.

Everything started and ended with Chaos, so perhaps the answer to his dilemma was there, too. He studied ambient Chaos motes as much as he could, and therein he found his answer. Every mote had the possibility of bursting to flame, should the right attunement happen. So all he had to do was to find a way to attune hundreds, or thousands of ambient Chaos motes at once. And in the process of looking for that resonating frequency, well, he found it.

A lattice began to form around his core, and it was only then that part of the memories and information locked in the Cypher Heritage opened up. Ennoias were not taught in the Academy. There were no mentions of them in the libraries or even the surface-level Heritages. And once he was relayed the information from the lineage, he realised why.

Ennoias could not be taught, they could only be learned. And even knowing about them could hamper the process of discovery, though not by much. Any details or instructions on how to touch an Ennoia bore the risk of tainting one’s understanding, which had the effect of stalling progress.

The thought was only an intellectual curiosity for Mikel. However, the most important part was that he had a new way of using his Heritage. Actually, now that he thought about it, did he actually need to use Animus to fuel his flames now?

He soon found out that he still needed to, at least for the seed flames. Perhaps he could eventually make it so that the embers would multiply by themselves and feed off the ambient Chaos?

Of course, it only took one incident with a burnt-down park that forced him to alter his studies from power to control. And once again, he was reminded of his mother’s wisdom. Making flames is easy but getting it to burn only what you want to is the key.

And so, the fruit of his efforts lay before him. The palisade was burning down, and the embers were mixed in with the smoke, which allowed him to somewhat control it. So he sent the dark smoke over the burning palisade and into the camp, smothering the Haveenian guards within. Krys stood guard next to him while he couldn’t really move from having his focus away from his immediate surroundings.

He could stop, of course, and release his control. But regaining control of the flames and smoke would take a lot longer than simply making a new one. After all, the fires burning didn’t technically stay the same, and without an Intent, it was the same as every other wildfire.

Through the embers he could see the Haveenians reacting. Not with panic as he initially hoped, but with measured confidence. They armed themselves, and even as Kale and the others charged down the incline, the previous watch rallied towards the entrance.

“No, you don’t,” Mikel whispered as he sent smoke and embers that way. It would also hamper his team, but only if he didn’t lift it away when they arrived. In the meantime, it prevented the Haveenians from grouping up.

He felt something tug at the smoke in the centre. When he looked, it was to the sight of a dust devil gathering all of his smoke into itself, thereby leaving part of the clearing free. The Spirit Binder doing that was a man with his arms windmilling about.

Before he could react any further, Krystal was already sighting down her Plasma Caster. She kept aim for a couple of seconds while her Animus charged up a stronger-than-usual bolt. Then, just before she pressed the trigger, she suddenly jerked the Caster to the right, causing her bolt to veer to her target’s left.

Coincidentally, that was when the windmiller attempted a dodge and wound up exactly where the bolt was going. A moment later, the superheated plasma bolt melted through his right shoulder and what was left of his arm fell off. He stared at it for a long moment, before his eyes rolled over and he fainted.

At that point, Kale and Rorke made contact with the Haveenian’s gate guards. The Kinnock clansman swung his greatsword sideways and released an illusory blade. It careened towards one of the guards, who panicked, not expecting to be attacked by a melee weapon at that distance, not thinking that it wasn’t really all that different from any other projectile weapon. It wasn’t even as fast as a plasma bolt. Either way, the guard managed to duck out of the way at the last second but got clipped at the shoulder anyway. Blood spurted from the wound and he staggered back, only to be pushed back into place by his fellows crowding behind him. Some of them got hit by the distant slice too.

One of the guards behind the first one flung a throwing knife coated in flaming Animus. It was too far away for Mikel to seize control of, but Rorke quickly interposed himself between Kale and the projectile. His shield was large enough to cover him from his knees to his neck, and it easily blocked the attack, at the follow-up crossbow bolts and miniature steam cannons, which were only called that in the sense that it was smaller than the full-size steam cannons that were bigger than a landcraft.

To Kale’s left, Zeyn and Danika pushed their way into the fray. The stocky woman simply charged through the guards, knocked them down and left it to Zeyn’s glaive to finish off. Of the other four militiamen, two supported them, while the other shot at the guards from Kale’s side, using those wide-angle Plasma Casters that shot out streams of superheated plasma rather than bolts.

It took a total of ten minutes for the battle to finish. Mikel followed down the incline and by the time he and Krystal entered, none of the guards were left alive. Kale had a vindictive expression while he cleaned his weapon, while Rorke remained stoic. Zeyn, Danika, and militiamen Martin Walker, and Isabelle Harper, were pulling the crates of Wayfarer’s Bread out of the wagons. The spatially expanded backpack could fit exactly one crate each, which held about a hundred Jin of the dense bread.

There were also barrels of ale and bottles of wine in the stack. Other luxury goods such as spices and salt, as well as barrels of salted fish and pork were here, too. Far too much food for them to carry on their backpacks.

Mikel entertained the brief thought of bringing the wagons along, especially since the land raptors they used to pull the things were still tied up, but he shook his head. It would leave them all vulnerable.

“Take six crates of bread, two of the dried foods, a barrel of ale, and all of the wine,” Kale said after they sorted through the loot.

Mikel gave the older boy a side glance. Odd choice to get the alcohol, but since he was the team leader, he chose not to protest.

“Destroy the rest, Mister Pike.”

“Aye,” Mikel answered easily, then looked at the animals. “And the land raptors?”

Kale hesitated, then shook his head. “Turn them loose.”

Mikel raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want to bring them back for their meat?”

The man scowled and shook his head. “No sense killing them either.”

Fair enough.

Another five minutes went by and Mikel burned down the remnant of the wagons and the unclaimed supplies. It was a waste of food, but better ashes than feeding the bellies of their enemies.

Then, they ran back towards Faron’s Crossing, which was half a day’s march away. Ten minutes later, they were nearly a league away. That was a short distance, but they mostly kept to cover and marched single file.

The southern hills were well known to them by now, even those who weren’t native to Faron’s Crossing. Kale and Rorke had come from Rumiga City a Season ago, sent ahead by his Ducal House. There had been worrying news that the city had fallen. No word had arrived from the east, and the crossing over the Zarek Mountains was more dangerous than ever.

‘The Ivalans are probably sending people into the Zarek to get to us here.’ He thought idly. Since the mountain range practically spanned the entire north-south axis of the plane, no nation could actually claim sovereignty over it, not to mention that the Avos Zarek was the actual ruler of the place. He wondered how much the Federation had to pay to bribe the Avos to let their warriors through.

They were about halfway back to Faron’s Crossing when Krystal suddenly signalled a halt. Mikel frowned as they waited. Then, grim-faced, his girlfriend came back to them and said, “Enemies ahead if we follow this path, but every other path we take could lead us to an ambush.”

“What are they?” Kale asked quietly.

“A Chaos Baron,” Krystal said grimly, “and a squad of nameless.”

“Tsk.” The team leader clicked his tongue. “We’re outmatched. Think you can find a way without fighting?”

Krystal nodded. “Yes, directly back. But then, I don’t know if that would work. I’m not sure if they’ve spotted us.”

“Then let’s run.”