Daithi eyes his two companions-or should he say clients?-with a mixture of impatience and curiosity. The sun hadn’t yet crested over the horizon, but the two of them had been up before he had, which in itself was somewhat unusual. More unusual is what he had caught the two of them doing; tucked into an alcove to the side of the trio’s campsite, the two mares are huddled around a large, elaborate looking tome, seemingly discussing its contents.
It’s already strange enough that a servant and noble seem to be on such casual terms, from what Daithi had seen. Far more strange, is the subject of their conversation; though most of it goes clean over his own head, it sounds as though they are discussing magical theory. For his own part, he struggles to tune it out; Knowing such things could be dangerous for a commoner. Even so, to an analytical pony like Daithi, it's not possible to fully lock them out.
“...It’s important to remember that the magic imbued in an artifact builds off of the existing physical properties of the object, so picking a base which is appropriate reduces the strain it requires.” Seren was instructing Saoirse. “That’s particularly important for you, since you don’t have an internal reserve of magic to draw from.”
Saoirse winces at the reminder. Ritualcraft could, strictly speaking, be done by anypony, but it was certainly much easier for a unicorn who could use their own sorcery to expedite the process dramatically; for a blank like Saoirse, the only option was to find other sources of power. Disenchantment of magical items is generally the easiest route, but acquiring those magical items… That was difficult.
But, almost as if following Saoirse’s dismay at the concept, Seren unfolds another tome-a much older, and less elaborate seeming book. “Now, I know you’ve had difficulty with finding reagents for that, so I went and tracked this down in the archives. Take a look.” Blowing the dust off the cover, Seren hands the book to Saoirse, who raises one eyebrow in interest.
“‘Ambient magic: A study on the applications of atmospheric magic to Ritualcraft’...” Saoirse reads the title aloud, before flipping through a few of the pages and skimming the contents, quickly becoming engrossed.
“The techniques never caught on, since even for a pegasus or earth pony using their own magic was generally a faster methodology than trying to trap the radiant magic from the sun or moon or volcanoes or whatever else.” Seren explains, taking a sip from her flask. “But I figured they’d be useful to you. Nothing required to capture magic save a few ritual circles, only reagent needed is arcane chalk.”
Saoirse nods, becoming increasingly excited as she looks. “I looked for something like this, but I wasn’t able to find anything! Where did you find it?” The servant looks over at Seren with keen interest.
“I had it ordered special from Escratero.” Seren explains. “It was one of the few Hyperaustralan texts that survived the war, drifted around and ended up in a museum in some town up north. No clue how it came to be that far away, but I sent a request a few months back.”
Daithi clears his throat, standing up and getting the two’s attention. “Ahem. Whatever it is that you’re doing…” Daithi makes a point of seeming as though he hadn’t heard a word of it, despite having captured most of the conversation. “...You should leave it for later. Sun’s coming over the mountains now, we should get a move on.”
Seren and Saoirse glance at each other, sigh, and reluctantly nod their heads. “Very well. Hold onto that book, hopefully you’ll get a chance to read some of it later.” Seren instructs Saoirse, standing up and retrieving her enchanted saddlebags to begin packing their supplies back into them.
Saoirse grumbles as usual, but nods and places the books back in her own satchel. “Which way are we even going now? We got out of the city, so now what?”
Seren and Daithi both glance at eachother as if hoping the other knew; Seren of course hadn’t filled in Daithi on the exact specifics of their destination, and she certainly didn’t know exactly where to find it, so… Her horn ignites as she retrieves and unfolds the rough map she had been given.
Daithi can't help but snort at the crude drawing. “What, did a foal draw this?” He asks, sardonically while scanning the page. “Exactly what is it we’re looking for? Map or no, finding an arbitrary location in the forest isn’t going to be easy. I assume there must be something there you’re seeking?”
Seren hesitantly nods. She should be discrete, but a couple details surely wouldn't give away… whatever it is her father was afraid would be given away. “Brigand camp, should be right on the border with Escratero.”
Daithi peers up at Seren with some mixture of interest and suspicion. “Brigands? You came all the way out here, just to do a bounty hunter’s job..?”
Seren clenches her jaw in frustration, and shakes her head. “I don’t know much more than you about my task. All I know is I’d better get it done, so I can return to my own concerns.” Evander rarely sent her out on missions like this, and there was no telling how long it would take her; It should be easy to justify spending another few nights down here, poking around for opportunities. She’d made up her mind to seek her own destiny some time ago, but she still didn’t know exactly what her plan would be, and she wasn’t quite so reckless as to leave behind all of the family’s assets without even knowing where she was going.
Daithi studies her face for a long moment, before shrugging. Long as her coin’s good, I suppose that's all I need. “Alright then, well, if it's an encampment like you say it shouldn't be too hard to find. Let’s seek a higher vantage so I can get my bearings, then I’ll be able to tell you exactly which way to go. Should be able to see the landscape well enough from the mountain pass out east.” He affirms. They’d have to pass through the northern reaches of the Transaustralan mountains anyways, might as well take advantage of the altitude to see the terrain while up there.
Seren nods. “Lead away, then.”
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The journey the rest of the way to the pass is fairly easy; Although somewhat ill maintained, a road is still a road, and this region isn’t particularly wild anyways. The surroundings seem to almost randomly shift between wilderness, and tracts of land held by aristocratic estates, surrounded by castle towns and lowly farming dwellings. Seren notes the latter; A certain code of conduct was held by the aristocracy, and so if she ever found herself in dire need of shelter, any given one of the small castles would be a suitable place to rest.
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Having said that, it was better to avoid that if possible; both because her relatively high ranking amongst her peers and the isolation of her present position would invite unwanted questions regarding what she was up to precisely. Besides, she knows Saoirse would far rather camp in the woods than be stuck in yet another aristocratic estate.
The climb up the pass is certainly somewhat more arduous, but the path was built for wagons, and later cars, to traverse; One even drove past the trio as they walked. Silently, Seren has to wonder why there aren’t any train lines heading out this way, considering that the local authorities had clearly felt the need for some kind of infrastructure.
On the way up the hoofhills, Seren pauses to take a look back the way they’d come. Contrary to her initial impressions, the forest was certainly not a monolithic entity; rather, huge swathes of it had been cleared in web-like patterns for roads, logging camps, farms and squalid housing. Just before the pass even, there was a small Hyperaustralan town-always in the shadow of some looming manor, even if they were extremely simple in construction compared to a palace from back home.
It wasn’t exactly the picture of Hyperaustralis she’d gotten from history books, a forested frontier civilization; on the contrary, it was much more of an endless sprawl of hovels, farms, dirt paths, apartment blocks, and who knows what else. Shaking her head, Seren returns her attention to the mountain pass. Sooner she finished her mission, the sooner she could leave this trash heap of a duchy.
So it is that when the group reaches the highest point of the pass, and the landscape beyond comes into view, Seren finds herself both surprised and relieved. The scene ahead is a far cry from the one she had come from, as while a small number of farms are still visible most of the landscape is taken up by actual bona fide forest. A single road disappears into the brush leading forwards, while a coach house is stationed just off to the side overlooking the expanse.
Daithi pauses, and turns back to Seren. “This is as high as the road will take us. I’ll climb the mountain a ways to get a better view of the terrain. You don’t have to come with, if you’d rather rest.” The bounty hunter informs the noble matter of factly.
Seren eyes him slightly dubiously. Him wanting to go off on his own did seem slightly suspicious, but try as she might she can’t actually think of any particular skullduggery he could be up to; after all, it wasn’t like he even knew they were coming here until relatively recently. So, she nods her head. “Sure, go on ahead. Saoirse and I will see if we can’t get a bite to eat.” She pauses for a second, then tilts her head. “You want anything?”
Daithi blinks at the offer, taken off-guard. “Um, sure, I suppose. Anything will do, I assume they probably have hayburgers.” He remarks, slightly surprised. That wasn’t exactly how these assignments usually went; Seren was definitely an odd one, as far as aristocrats went. And that wasn’t even to mention how oddly casual she was with her servant, they were even on a first name basis. Shrugging it off, he turns towards the hill and climbs to seek a higher vantage.
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The journey into the wilderness, assisted only by the crude map supplied by Evander, progresses for almost a week before the trio catch any sight of their destination. On the horizon, poking above the canopy, is some manner of stone building; out here, any such structure was unusual, as the few signs of ponish inhabitation the group had seen largely consisted of farms along the roads. Hyperaustralans were not common here, as the Powell’s had not seen fit to relocate their conquered subjects near the undeveloped border regions near Escratero; rather, the natives of these parts are largely bicorns, relatively independent from civilization in their small villages or collections of farmsteads in the foothills and highlands.
No wonder the border is considered nebulous. Seren notes, looking around; the frontier lands here, not too far from the eastern wilderness, seem poorly distinguished from the rocky highlands of eastern Escratero, where Iweriuan civilization gives way to the untamed expanse beyond.
Mountains to the south and northwest probably demarcated the boundary between the duchies, but the broad swathe of forested lowlands in between would be harder to delineate. The only question then, is why that actually matters; just what ‘strategic value’ could there possibly be to this lightly populated hinterland? She supposes it was closer to the coastline than the normal route that went through the mountains and might make a faster route between Hyperaustralis and Luddas, but she had heard of no plans to develop it and even if she had, that wouldn’t explain why secrecy or the precise location of the border was so important.
So caught up in her thoughts regarding the problem was she, that Seren doesn’t even immediately notice Daithi trying to get her attention, until the bounty hunter stops directly in her path waving his hooves to try and get through to her. “O-oh, sorry. Is something the matter?” Seren asks, broken from her reverie.
Daithi points one hoof southeast, raising one brow in the most nonplussed expression she’d seen him wear yet. “...Did you forget why we’re out here or something? Just look.” When Seren follows where he was pointing, she finds the sight of some manner of stone structure poking above the forest canopy in the distance, maybe fifteen kilometers away. Concentric rings of stonework poke over the canopy, each one taller than the ones around it, like an architectural matryoshka doll in a vaguely conical shape. “Have to say, I don’t know if I’d call that a ‘tower’, but it seems to be roughly in the correct location anyways. I assume that’s what we’re looking for?” Daithi continues, looking over at Seren, who hesitantly nods.
“I can only assume so.” The unicorn frowns slightly, considering. Part of her wants to investigate the strange structure first, but with herself already in the area as the ruffians she’d been sent after it would likely be a better idea to pursue them first and investigate later. There would be time after her mission was complete, so she instead tilts her gaze northwards, into the foothills near the mountains; the valley right here was largely unoccupied, though farms were visible both to the west and east where the domain is more obviously Hyperaustralan or Escraterese. “Or more accurately, it should be north of there. Keep an eye out for tracks. There should be an encampment in the foothills somewhere.” Silently, Seren ponders that; would they even still be there? It had been some time since she was sent on this mission, and who knew how old the intelligence was. Hopefully the group wouldn’t end up having to track them through the forest, that would cost precious time, and her legs are already quite sore from days of continuous hiking.
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Thankfully for Seren and the rest of her companions, the targets of their search have neither moved on nor are they particularly well hidden. A series of woven tents was visible below the hill, easily enough found by the smoke trailing up from a hooffull of fires.
“To be clear.” Daithi interjects, frowning from where he was lying prone along with Seren and Saoirse on the rocky outcropping they were resting. “I was only paid for pathfinding. If you want me to help fight, then I’m going to need something more substantial.” Silently, Daithi adds that it would have to be quite the impressive payment, too; That encampment is not small, there are probably at least a dozen ponies living there presently judging by the tracks. He would not even consider going near it, on his own; with the aristocrat present, he might be able to be convinced for a substantial enough sum…
But there was no need for him to worry about that, as Seren simply stands up to her full height, raising her head high and stretching her forelimbs. “No need. Saoirse, with me. Daithi can wait here for our return.” The gryph unicorn announces, the flexible edges of her beak tilting up in a predatory smile. “Stay close, I’ll keep you safe.”
Saoirse nods, standing up, and glancing around a bit anxiously. Is there going to be fighting…? I don’t have a weapon, and I’ve never… The blank’s thoughts trail off as her gaze settles on her satchel. Combat was not exactly something she was experienced in, but, perhaps she could put all those lessons from Seren to good use. Staying with her was likely safer anyways; being alone off in the woods, if somepony came by and recognized her as a threat she could end up being shot without even seeing it coming.