Ill’irian
For over an hour, Ill’irian had been following Freya through the forest. It wasn’t hard to keep behind her, the woman didn’t seem to be very adept in avoiding tracking, and with a bird on her heel she never stood a chance
Ill’irian wondered where she was going exactly. First, he had expected her to move toward the Telios border, maybe to meet with someone, but then she had turned west. The druid wondered for a moment if his suspicion had been unfounded and if his gut feeling had been completely wrong.
This is why I haven’t accused her of anything, he thought. I will see where she goes and once, I have evidence of anything sinister I will apprehend her myself. No reason to destroy a promising young life without certainty, is there?
It took a little bit longer until Freya finally came to a halt in a little opening. A tall linden tree stood in its center with its voluptuous crown and pale green leaves. A white piece of cloth hung from one of the lower hanging branches, it looked like it had been there for a long time but now Freya was reaching up to it. Something was tied to the cloth, but Ill’irian couldn’t see it well from where he stood.
Ill’irian continued to watch from a hidden place between an oak and an especially large shrub. This all felt more like a meeting of secret lovers than a meeting of spies or criminals. He sincerely hoped that it was just that.
“You can come out, Ill’irian,” Freya said loudly while having her hand hover just below the white cloth. “I noticed you following me a while back.”
Hmm, maybe she is not as inadept as I thought, Ill’irian thought. There was little use trying to hide now if she even used his name.
“What a coincidence. I was gathering herbs and saw you sneaking through the forest. Can’t blame me for worrying,” the druid said as he stepped out into the open with a welcoming smile.
“Oh, that is what you saw?” Freya asked surprised. “You sure it wasn’t me reading this and then hurrying out of camp?” She held up a small piece of paper and blinked at him innocently.
“You lured me here,” Ill’irian realized and instantly became tense. The mana all around them began to shift as he flexed his power.
“To be honest, I was so sure that no one had caught on to me and Eydis. You were all so nice and welcoming. Sure, I had my suspicions about you, but I thought why would you just do nothing if you suspected me, you weren’t doing nothing though, were you?”
Ill’irian didn’t reply, he rather began to mutter a spell chant under his breath.
“Well, even if I wasn’t aware that you were onto me, you can’t fool the grandmaster. The grandmaster is really suspicious,” Freya continued rambling as if the mage wasn’t currently preparing a spell to throw at her.
Ill’irian held the spell in place and inspected the woman in front of him. “The grandmaster? Who is that? Aren’t you working for Lord Grim?”
“What? No, we do not work for Lord Grim. And about the grandmaster, why don’t you find out yourself?”
Ill’irian could feel multiple figures close in on them. Six in total with Freya added to the count. They were all wearing different kinds of animal masks.
He couldn’t sense too much mana from any of them and even if they had him surrounded, he was still a mage and six on one were good odds.
“So are you the grandmaster?” Ill’irian asked a woman with a fox mask. She was definitely the strongest of the assassins. The fox-masked woman cocked her head but didn’t reply.
“She is not,” Freya said and reached up to the object hanging from the white cloth. It turned out to be a mask and once she had donned it, he recognized it as a rat.
Fitting, he thought but focused mainly on identifying their leader.
“Why don’t you turn around and greet our master,” the rat-masked assassin suggested, her voice no longer jovial but frighteningly dull.
There is no one behind me, Ill’irian thought but still gave it a look. He could feel all the assassins so turning his eyes away from them would only invite them to be reckless.
Just as he turned, he froze in place. Behind him a few meters away stood a tall figure. Its body was covered in a long mantle to such an extent that Ill’irian couldn’t even discern if it was a man or a woman. A lynx mask hid its face, with the rest of its head being covered by a hood.
Its presence was completely hidden from Ill’irian, no not hidden, it didn’t exist. There was not a speck of life affinity mana anywhere in that creature. It might as well have been a crafted statue.
“You play with your prey too much, Rat. It is not necessary to share so much with our target, even if he is not going to return to his people,” the deep disconcerting voice echoed through the clearing.
“My apologies, grandmaster,” the assassin named Rat replied.
Sweat began to run down Ill’irian’s brow. He was confident that he could take on the six assassins he had initially noticed, but that man, that thing, scared him to the core.
I need to warn the others, he thought and sent an intent to his thrush companion who was sitting on a nearby branch.
The sound of a wet noise and then something hitting the ground drew his attention over to the tree line where he saw his thrush lying on the ground with a throwing knife firmly embedded in its center.
“You shouldn’t be so overt with your mana, druid. It betrays you,” the deep voice came again and Ill’irian looked back to the lynx mask. He had his arm raised in the direction of the thrush. Ill'irian hadn’t even noticed him move at all.
“I guess I will have to fight my way out then,” Ill’irian declared and let the spell he had been holding this whole time escape his grasp. Roots shot out from around him at the assassins in all directions.
“You may try,” the grandmaster said calmly before also blurring into motion.
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Eydis
Eydis lay awake on her blankets with Samira sleeping deeply right next to her. She was thinking about their conversations with the other clan members. It had been a sad affair for Eydis, most were totally ready to die for vengeance, and the few that didn’t have feelings that strong would be going with what the majority would do. It would take some time to convince anyone if it was even possible.
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Do I want to watch them all die? They will meet much stronger resistance than they have the faintest idea of, but would their plan change even if they knew?
If I stay, then I would basically either fight against Michael and the others or become part of a suicide pact. That is not the life that I want.
Her thoughts move on to her other family, the one she had left behind to come here.
It wasn’t a mistake to come, she decided. But maybe it is a mistake to stay.
This thought had come to her multiple times on this night already and it was always partially balanced out by her guilt and wish to belong with her people.
The important question is if I think I can change their minds, because if I can’t then I won’t be running into a senseless end with them.
A rustle broke her out of her pondering, and he noticed Freya return to their tent. Eydis frowned and pushed herself up on her elbow.
“Where have you been? It has been hours,” Eydis signed with one hand hoping that the other woman could see enough in the darkness.
It really had been long. So long in fact that sunrise would come in maybe an hour or two.
Freya crouched down next to her and began to sign quickly, “Follow me.”
“Where to?”
“Just come.”
Eydis could feel a change in the spy, so she got up but didn’t make any effort to follow her.
“Where?”
Freya pulled an annoyed expression, something that Eydis had never seen from the normally so controlled woman.
“We need to leave now. I don’t have time to discuss it, it is an order from the Radiant Soul,” Freya signed but this time waited for an answer.
Why would Michael call them away? Did something happen? Do I want to leave?
“Why? You are hiding something from me, I know it,” Eydis signed back. She had gotten at least a little bit familiar with the spy.
“Fuck,” Freya mumbled and then returned to using sign language. “They are gonna attack this camp, okay? Full-on assault and they do not want us to be here when that hits.”
Eydis stared at the spy in the dim light star and campfire light coming into the open tent.
They are gonna attack the camp? Hundreds will die. Her gaze wandered to the sleeping Samira and then to the other woman sleeping in the tent. They will die.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
Freya narrowed her eyes at Eydis. “Fine, I know but I am not gonna tell you.”
“We need to get them out,” Eydis signed and turned to the others.
“Wait,” Freya hissed quietly.
Eydis turned back.
“If you do that then the attack will be revealed.”
“I can’t just let them die!”
“And you are gonna sacrifice your friends for them? People you just met again after years? If you try to save them and reveal the attack, then it won’t be just Lord Grim and his men that you put in danger. It will be Michael, Geron, Sola, Kiran, Erhen, Lance, Silas, Zeke, and all those others that you know.
“The people that took you in and accepted you as part of their family. Are you ready to bury all of them for these people?” Freya looked at her with a disbelieving expression as she moved her hands.
“These people are my clan,” Eydis shot back angrily but she couldn’t deny that she was hesitant.
If I just get them to leave with me without revealing the attack then everything will be fine, she told herself knowing fully well how unrealistic that was.
“Fine, I guess we are doing this,” Freya signed and then theatrically threw her hand up. “They don’t give a shit about you, Eydis. Sure, they are happy that you are back, but they wouldn’t even hop over a puddle to save you if it risked their revenge.”
“What are you even talking about?” Eydis seemingly dismissed her, but she couldn't help but be curious.
“You really haven’t noticed? They never came looking for any of those abducted. They talked about fighting for that clan, making friends with that guy, earning the respect of that druid, but I never heard even one of them mentioning slipping over the border to look for survivors.”
“That ... They couldn’t it would have put them at too great of a risk,” Eydis argued.
“Right, the risk. You know I didn’t want to come here to get you,” Freya was visibly upset now. “I reported again and again that I expect you to turn on us, that you are a liability, that you could not be trusted. And you know what I got as a reply?”
She took out a piece of paper from her pocket and threw it at Eydis. She caught it easily and looked at it with strained eyes against the darkness.
‘Get her out before the attack. Tell her everything. I trust her.’ The handwriting was definitely Michael’s.
“Who would you rather belong to, the people that didn’t even look for you because it would risk something fleeting like revenge or those that would risk everything because they trust you?”
Eydis bit down on her lip. She knew what the right answer was.
“If I leave like this now, they will die,” Eydis signed slowly.
“And if you warn them then the others will probably all die. You need to decide who to save. You can’t have it both ways,” Freya looked at her with a sad expression. If that was honest or just meant to manipulate her Eydis had not the mental space to ponder right now.
Eydis stood there for a long while pondering.
“If you wake up before I return get them to safety, please,” Eydis finally signed.
“Wha-,” Freya said just before Eydis reached her and knocked her out cold.
She put the spy onto her bedroll before heading out of the tent.
I hope she makes it out in time, Eydis thought. Even if she thought the spy to be annoying, she had never done anything to Eydis that would cause her to wish death on the woman.
Eydis had to be fast, she guessed that the attack was close, if only to reduce the damage that Eydis’s betrayal could inflict should she choose the other side. Freya’s insistence to leave immediately only strengthened her suspicion.
It took her only a few moments to reach Sev’s tent. If she managed to convince him to leave right now, then she could get them all going before anything happened.
He wasn’t there.
Eydis hurried out of their section toward the main part of the camp. If he wasn’t in his tent, then he might be in the command post. If she couldn’t find him there then she would be screwed.
Hurrying through the still-sleeping camp she made sure to move quietly. Eydis didn’t intend to make a ruckus and wake everyone.
She reached the command tent quickly and barged in before the guards could stop her.
Sev was indeed here, and he wasn’t alone. Three other chieftains were with him, all of them looking up at her as the guards stormed in behind her.
It took only a moment for Sev to dismiss them and pull Eydis over to a corner of the tent.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Now was the moment that Eydis realized that she had no good way of communicating with him. Sure, he knew a couple of signs, but she actually needed to argue with him.
There was no time for anything else, so she simply pointed at herself and him and then at the exit.
“You want us to go outside?” Sev raised an eyebrow at her gesture.
Eydis pointed outside in a more pronounced movement to show that she meant farther than just outside.
“Is this about earlier again? I told you I can’t just leave this campaign,” Sev caught on fast. Eydis sent a quick thank you to the gods.
She tried to convey a feeling of safety and pleading with her mana and looked at him intently.
“Let’s not do this right now. We can talk later with Freya. This is senseless,” Sev shook his head.
He wanted to turn away, but Eydis grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to look her in the eyes.
A faraway noise reached her ears. A scream? Something else?
Sev seemingly heard it too as he cocked his head to better listen, but Eydis shook him to refocus him on her.
She pointed at herself and at him and then outside and put all the urgency into the movement as she could.
“What is wrong with you tonight?” Sev asked. He looked completely confused and Eydis couldn’t really blame him.
Out of sheer desperation, she did something that she hadn’t done for years. She opened her mouth and ever so slowly pushed out some words. They were muddied and mispronounced, everything people without tongues could manage but they were words.
“Please, we need to leave.”
Sev stared at her lost for words when a single blaring horn cut through the night, followed by a second blow just a moment later.
“Enemy attack?” one of the other chieftains exclaimed with an uncertain voice.
The other two seemed to grasp the situation more quickly and hurried to grab their weapons.
Sev on the other hand continued to stare into Eydis’s eyes. “You knew.”
Eydis couldn’t deny it. It wouldn’t even help if she did.
Sev fell back from her with a mortified expression. “Traitor!”
The other chiefs gave her a short glance but quickly seemed to decide that the enemy attack was much more pressing than whatever happened between the two clan mates.
Eydis wouldn’t let that happen though. She moved between them and the exit with preternatural speed pulling an ax from the weapons rack.
“You are betraying your people,” Sev yelled at her.
Eydis hesitated for a moment and then shook her head.
“I chose new people,” she said slowly. Eydis didn’t care if they could understand her drooling speech, it was more of a declaration of her decision than something anyone needed to know.