by Nefarious
“I need to know, where the fuck is she?” Orion roared.
This shocked Kora backwards but Kasib didn’t flinch. “She’s in your family’s lands; she’s the general stationed at the western front, against the tribes,”
“I need to go, I need to go now!”
“No!” Kasib said, his words pushing Orion to the ground. “You need to take into account the monster she is; she used to be stationed in the south against the Horsemen, so she’s on good terms with the Metole and as proof, they’ve gone to support her at the frontlines. The Piros allow her to run wild and topple their own Empire without punishing her, and the Cruorems fear her, and the Zakari fell to her blade. If you’re going to charge at her mindlessly, I might as well cut you down now. At least then you’ll see the rest of your family faster,”
Orion smashed his fists against the ground but Kasib paid no heed, calmly pacing around. “Right now, Jowler is telling the others that Yhaoli is likely in the south, urging the Horsemen to invade. That means I won’t be able to help you as I still have a monster to cut down. Still, there’s a chance this is another diversion and it’s actually in the west, helping the tribes. That means you’ve got a chance of running into it, and I don’t know who’s stronger, Eira or Yhaoli, and I definitely wouldn’t want to see the aftermath of a battle like that. Either way, there’s a chance you’ll be against both if you go west. And while Jowler is sending half the Seekers south and half west, none of them can help you against the foes you’ve chosen, so you’re on your own. Now, do you still want to go?”
“Yes, yes fucking yes,” Orion roared.
“Just like Reion,” Kasib murmured. “Then go and pack up, you’ve got no more reason staying here,”
Orion took this as gospel, leaving for the clearing. Just as Kora was about to follow, Kasib stopped her.
“Bian, I’ve heard of you as well,”
This froze her.
“Caleb wants you back, and he is also against Yhaoli. In a different situation, I can see him allying with Orion but not in this one. While Yhaoli is likely south, I selfishly ask you follow Orion to the west. Neither of you will survive in the west but at least you have a fighting chance together,”
She nodded wordlessly.
“Also, you should be careful. Since we know about you now, so will your family. They will have sent someone to fetch you back now, so keep an eye on your back. If you two group up, you’ll be able to fight back anyone but Caleb, but it’s up to you if you want to fight your family in the first place. It can lead to some… disastrous results,” Kasib said, pausing in thought. “Either way, you should chase him down before he leaves without you. I hope you two the best,”
Kora sprinted off immediately. The bald Seeker deeply unsettled her, especially the insight he held, almost as if he had read her thoughts.
Kasib, on the other hand, watched her fleeing figure, sighing. He had once been in that youthful position, surrounded by strong friends and enemies who now occupied the uppermost tier of the world. But now they were all dropping like flies, and he feared his time wasn’t for much longer now.
47. Silence
* * *
Orion awoke with a jolt, kicking the footboard rail of the bed he lay on. Upon calming and realising what he had just seen was a nightmare, he sighed and settled back into his blanket, its rough fabric scratching against his skin. Bleary light shone through a window, brightening the room. It was decorated plainly with at least a few years since its last lick of paint.
Kora lay beside him, her caramel-brown hair splayed across the mattress. When he eventually stirred, he didn’t wake her and instead slipped out to the kitchen to put together breakfast. Minutes later, when she came over, he finished up and ate in relative quiet.
“How was your night today then?” she asked.
“Same old, same old,” he grumbled between a bite.
“Really? I didn’t hear anything!”
“You slept like a log; of course you heard nothing,”
She giggled while his lips curled and his eyes gleamed.
It had been four months since the Seeker’s Summit, and they were now in Yupker, a city a month or so east of the Zakari House’s ruins. Their journey to the west had been relatively calm: they had been ambushed by bandits more than once, but these fights had been alike ants against giants, the outcome always soul-crushingly obvious.
While the frontlines of the war had begun at the far end of the Zakari’s former domain, the Tribes had edged into the Empire bit by bit. There was even a popular rumour in the city that Eira had willingly given away the land, the given reason being she had wanted to create a wide buffer between the Tribes and the Empire. Regardless of the validity of the rumour, this was exactly what she had done as she had ordered her soldiers to poison the wells and salt the ground when retreating.
This meant two things: one, the Tribes wouldn’t be able to set up any sustainable camps in the territory they captured, which meant for every metre they captured, they would need to transport their resources a metre more. While this seemed a self-evident point, it was also awfully effective as the Tribes’ invasion had lost vigour after several hundred kilometres into the Empire as it got harder and harder for the baggage trains to arrive on time, and sometimes even arrive at all. Second: Eira had no plans of repurposing the Zakari lands into the Empire, after all, even if they did retake the ground they had lost, no man nor beast would be able to survive on poisoned land.
Either way, this had resulted in Yupker, a city nestled deep in the Empire, becoming right next to the frontlines. Moreover, the dung pile of a war had attracted thousands of flies to the city, the sort that leeched off the local populace while also sustaining the war effort. These went from prostitutes to scavengers to scholars to beggars to medical men, all gathered at the frontlines for one reason or another.
When Orion, Joiroa, and Kora had arrived at Yupker, things had taken another turn for the worse. Despite Joiroa’s claim that it would take Shrien and his gang a year to make the portal, Shrien had instead decided to one-up that estimate and do it in less than half the time. Following this, waves of foreigners had entered the Empire, eager to pillage and plunder.
The House of Piros had reacted quick, immediately rebasing their family from the capital, Petrosa, to the east, taking to the frontlines there. Due to this, the Cruorems had also been forced into the mess, half of them ordered to go south and stop the Horsemen while the other half ordered to fight against the Tribes in the west.
While these were all grand and daunting events, none of them had particularly personally affected Orion. Joiroa had left for the east ever since entering Yupker and hearing the news, and while Orion had argued for the man to stay, he had also instinctively known he had too much on his mind to truly care about Joiroa. Maybe in the future once he dealt with Eira and Yhaoli, but not now, not while his blood still roared for revenge.
As Orion mused over the events that had happened, so did Kora, only focusing on a different matter altogether. Over the course of the journey, in fact ever since Kasib had named Eira to be the murderer, Orion’s core values had changed. He had grown power-hungry and the rate he had gained power over the trip frightened Kora. Well, not so much his power leaps as much as his mentality; she had always known him to be chasing after the Zakari’s executioner but now that he was so close, he seemed addicted to the sweetness of revenge.
A series of knocks sounded on their door as they finished up. “Hello? Orion? Bian?” a muffled voice called.
Opening, Orion saw Kasib, quickly leading him in. The bald Seeker now looked haggard and his clothes were dirty and torn.
Kasib heavily breathed out while resting on a chair. “How long have you been here?”
“A month or so. We’ve just been gaining a better picture of the area and its happenings,” Kora said.
“And you didn’t run into it? Yhaoli?” Kasib said, calming a little.
“What?”
“It was a trick, anoth
er diversion. It’s here in the west, hiding somewhere here. I hurried as fast as I could but it seems no one has an exact clue of its location,” Kasib said. “But worst is what I just heard,” he continued, “They say it’s joined forces with the Tribes,”
A tense silence washed over the trio.
“With the Tribes? I thought they hated monsters, looked down on them like animals?” Kora asked.
“No, they do. But the three biggest tribes, the Cuthla, Zyn, and Sole, the ones driving this invasion are showing suspicions signs. Jowler says the large meetings they’re having and the sudden peace right now are temporary,” Kasib explained.
“Mm, that makes sense,” Orion said, “Eira has around 5 thousand troops here, you know, Kasib? But in the city, all signs are pointing towards her other forces across the frontlines taking the risk to leave their defences and charge here,” he said while glancing at Kora.
She nodded. “Yeah, there’s been a lot more baggage trains moving to the war camps in the last week. We thought she was planning an ambitious attack, but if Yhaoli has teamed up with the Tribes, it sounds more like a—”
“Risky defence. A desperate one,” Kasib ended.
“Mm, I’ve heard all the Metoles have come here now, and maybe it’s true now,” Orion said.
The other two nodded.
Following this, the tense silence between them returned. It was only seconds later Orion realised he was getting tense over nothing. Sure, if Yhaoli really had teamed up with the Tribes, then it meant all hell was about to break loose, including the possibility of the Imperial army being decimated. Still, this gave him the chance he had been waiting for the entire month: the opportunity to kill Eira.
“Let’s go to the markets, buy as many supplies, then leave for the warcamps. Yeah?” he said.
Kasib stared at the younger Seeker, considering the possibilities of what could happen, before nodding with a heavy heart. He guessed this was it.
48. War
* * *
It was tense, as if an electric bolt had zapped through the area. Limbs moved in laboured, stiff manners, breaths came out strained and as thorny clouds, and eyes jerked from side to side, every person on edge. The thick coal clouds of war had drifted above the war camps, and the fierce bullets they rained onto the ground below drenched spirits and souls as much as hair and boots.
The trio of Seekers stood in the Merchant’s circle, as it was called, although the messy formation of tents was far from that of a circle. Merchant’s circle was a leech on the warcamps and the only other camp allowed so near it. While there was an identification check at its gates, this wasn’t rigorous and the three Seekers had been allowed in without a second glance.
The trio spent a good deal of time walking around, not searching for anything in particular but taking in the mood, the stiffness of the air. After this, they left with haste, hiking up to the Black forest a few kilometres away from Yupker. Despite being infested by men of different factions, the trio easily sneaked past their notices, progressing deep into the forest while looking for a post high and hidden enough to scour the lands below.
The trees in the forest were large and alive, yet they didn’t seem such as they were all shades of rotten-black and had few leaves on their sickly branches. The foliage that grew around them were similarly dull in colour, making the landscape dark and bleary, instantly giving chills to anyone that entered. In the past, it had used to be a hotspot for particularly vile monsters but they had been cleaned up in a large Seeker’s expedition a couple years ago.
They came upon a massive hollowed tree eventually, obviously a watchtower created by someone else. Regardless, it was in an optimal spot and Orion took the lead slipping into the tree. With his head through the bark, he spotted the sentry, surprisingly a Metole. Luckily, the woman hadn’t seen him spying her, instead, her gaze stuck fast on the plateau below the Black forest. She was perched on a wooden post, looking out through a hole in the bark. She had brown skin and wore light armour over her heavily built frame. Her arms were sculpted and muscular, her body more that of a beast’s than that of a human’s.
Before Kasib or Kora had a say, Orion acted. He turned his left palm against the wooden post, sending out shockwaves which quickly toppled it. Simultaneously, thick tendrils of ice sprouted out of the ground, heading for the woman. As the post fell, the Metole swiftly reacted, though in shock. She leapt away and spun in mid-air to face her enemies. Unluckily, or luckily, this was all she had time to do as the tendrils wrapped around her limbs, pulling her to the ground with such force she crashed down.
Despite being dazed and confused, she reacted as any Metole would – through strength. She used Giah with Strengthening, her eyes turning snow-white and her skin sheening over, and cracks spread across the ice tendrils as she tensed and pulled away. It was such terrible strength she upturned the ground as she tore the tendrils off herself, her eyes twisted with fury. As Orion shot more Ice spears at her, she burst from her spot, moving so fast she was in front of the trio in two seconds.
Well, technically at least. Despite being in front of them, there was a spear of ice jutting out of her stomach. Blood seeped out of her wound as she snarled at the trio, figuring out their identities as more ice pierced her body. She fell in the following seconds.
“Why did you attack her?!” Kora asked, straining herself to not shout in the forest.
“There was no point in her being alive,” he responded.
“If she had been more than a greenhorn, she would have torn off your head,” Kasib said, walking past the corpse to erect another post near the hole in the bark. “Still, I’m surprised you’re this strong,”
“If she was more experienced, she would have died in a more gruesome manner. That’s all,” Orion said. While he knew his attack was too impulsive, he had lost control over his anger once he had seen it was a Metole, the same people who supported his cousin.
“Hubris will be the death of you if you don’t learn how to control your impulses. Remember, the Metoles are the physically strongest, fastest, and have the best defence out of all your Houses,” Kasib said, Kora immediately agreeing with him.
“Still, what’s a Metole doing scouting? I thought they were too high up the chain to be doing lowly grunt work like this,” she added.
“I’m sure they’ve got normal scouts in the forest as well. It seems they’re taking no chances with an ambush, so I guess we were right. It’s going to happen now,” Kasib answered.
Orion nodded, recovering from their scolding. “The atmosphere, the excessive guards and scouts: Eira knows it’s wartime,”
****
Several hours had passed since their journey to the Black forest. Below the forest was a large, sweeping plateau with frosted over ground and trampled plants. Close to them in the plateau, they could see the Imperial army hastily setting up formation. Eira had somewhere between 5 thousand and 10 thousand men, all nameless dots from their vantage. In the distance, the trio could see the Tribes marching towards them. Kora estimated the Tribes had roughly 10 thousand men in their army.
When about a kilometre away, when the trio expected the Tribes to set down their foundation and begin a short stare-off, the Tribes instead began their charge, the nameless dots now a tsunami as it swept towards the Imperial army.
While there was shaking in the Imperial army’s formation, there weren’t any shocks as the strongest mages stepped forward, these men and women the size of two dots from the Seeker’s vantage. These mages attacked, roaring fireballs crashing into the Tribes in a dreadful manner.
Still, before they hit, they clashed into an overarching golden barrier over the Tribes and fizzled out into nothing.
Orion widened his eyes at this. Sustaining something of that size would take at least tens, if not hundreds of mages and even then, it would drain them rapidly. It seemed the Imperial mages knew likewise and as they began shooting the elements with frantic abandon, fire and earth and wind and water barraging the golden ba
rrier, to little effect though.
Then came tree-sized icicles which battered the golden barrier to a point the ground shook. These were not only effective but apparently effortless as they continued decimating the shield at an exhausting pace, thunder sounding out every few seconds.
It wasn’t hard for Orion to figure out who was doing this as he found the shining gem on the battlefield. It hurt him to see Eira use Szu with such mastery, her ice sculptures forming so quickly and yet with such strength. Considering the fact she hadn’t set off any earthquakes to annihilate the Tribes’ army, he correctly guessed the Tribes had already set up a countermeasure. Still, they could do little but watch as she tore through their defence, her attacks puncturing through tens at once.
Then the two sides made contact, the clash both bone-crunching and grief-filled. The sounds of war - of agony and fury and murder - sounded out and continuously echoed without stop as grimy blades turned bloody and as the limbed became limbless and the alive became lifeless. The thrill of war was in the gamble, and thousands of soldiers gambled with their lives as they struck and struck and struck and fell like broken toys.
While the golden barrier had protected the Tribes for so long, they completely fell after the clash, liberating the men below to the catastrophic elements made by soft-handed mages. Regardless, the Tribes seemed not to care as their own mages turned their eyes towards the Imperial army, the Earth’s means of reckoning used artificially to reap lives by the tens, and sometimes even by the hundreds.
Orion trembled with anticipation and fear and bloodlust as he watched. Still, he kept his feet in place as he waited for the right moment. His eyes always gravitated back to Eira no matter what happened, always back to the woman of war which dominated the field with ease. He wondered if she had been similar during the Zakari’s reckoning, and he wondered deep inside whether he could kill her.