The Chaos Streams smashed against the Ebon Horizon’s Protective Field, though the kinetic impact still bled through which caused the turbulence that threatened to make Captain Lauretta’s attendant’s face turn green. The boy, who was barely out of his teens, tottered as he grabbed a support bar to the bridge’s side. Lauretta glanced at him with some concern, hoping that whatever comes out of his mouth wouldn’t paint the indoors brown.

As for the turbulent streams, they were to be expected.

“Hold on, Tiernan, try to keep it down,” she said to the boy, who clapped a hand to his mouth and nodded. Lauretta grunted then pointed at a door. “Go let it loose over there.”

“NO...I can…urp!”

“Just go.”

The boy staggered out of the bridge and into the hallway. Whatever mess he made now wouldn’t dirty the delicate controls of the Chaos ship.

“A hundred Sovies says he’ll paint the bulkhead,” Her First Mate, Marcus, laughed.

“That’s not a fair bet,” Lauretta snickered.

“Aye, ‘tis not. Well, we’ll be in the plane in a few minutes. Turbulence should ease soon.”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the view out to the deck changed from the Chaos Streams into snow-covered skies. They had arrived in Bella plane and the channel's entrance was high enough that the ice in the clouds hadn’t changed to rain yet.

“Deploying repulsion field,” Marcus said as he channelled his Animus into the appropriate crystal intake.

The Chaos ship shuddered as it fought the pull of the plane’s gravity and they slowly descended from the skies. Viterra City was nearly a longstride away. She always enjoyed looking at cities from above, and this channel was one of the few that emerged up in the clouds.

“Prepare docking procedures,” she ordered. “We’ve got a lot to unload and not a lot of time in our schedule.”

“Aye, ma’am.”

______

Riley exhaled slowly then breathed in deeply once they disembarked from the Ebon Horizon.

Viterra City, wasn’t it? The Chaos ship docks were set near the entrance of a valley that contained the city. The dwellings themselves were mostly stone houses set against a cliff face on the northern side. Early snow had dusted the city, though roads and walkways were cleared.

A contingent of the beastmen were already waiting for them by the docks, and from the eager look on their faces, the cargo they brought must have been much needed.

“What’ve we got on board?” he whispered to his aunt.

“Iron ingots, incense, and spices, I think,” Layla murmured. “Come on, I’ve been craving for weeks.”

“Hey, wait up!” Aidan yelled as he came out of the corridor. “Lucky us, huh? Not on guard duty, hehe.”

“Since when were we even on the rotation?” Riley rolled his eyes.

“Well, you came on as a Knight, but I entered while I was a Journeyman, so you don’t know how bad it was then.”

“Hie hie, come on kids, you can celebrate your privilege later.” Layla chuckled, “Come on, I’ve been aching for a pint in the Ghostly Viola.”

“Is their ale that good?” Riley asked.

“Duh.”

“What makes it so different from the other taverns?”

“It’s simple really, look at them.” She waved at the bear-kin. “See how big they are? Do you know how big their beer mugs are? Hie hie.”

Riley and Aiden exchanged glances then rolled their eyes in unison. Aunt Layla always had a weakness for the drink. Though she often claimed it made her much more creative.

As a Runeer, she often had to fix problems with the ship’s runescript patterns, which had a nasty habit of breaking or warping when they were in the Primordial Chaos Sea. Sometimes, she only had to rewrite the script but at other times, she had to create solutions on the fly when the wood grains distorted too much, or when the planks turned from wood to something else entirely. And when she drinks, she said that solutions that would never occur to her when she was sober, were so easy to grasp.

‘Course, that doesn’t excuse her being a drunkard.

“Come on! They’ve got a mean meat pie too!”

She grabbed each of them by the wrist and marched. Riley let her drag him along. The bearkin were much bigger than he or Aidan, towering a couple dozen inches higher. He nodded to the contingent when they passed by and they gave a cheery wave.

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The path from the docks wound up looking like a foot trail up a mountainside. It was barely wide enough for two people abreast, and he wondered what the bear-kin would do if they met each other going the opposite way. Then again, the docks were only used when a merchant’s ship came in, and maybe they had a different route for cargo. They probably didn’t just drop the crates down the side, right?

It took a few minutes to get down from the cliffside and arrive at Viterra’s foerign quarter. It was a small collection of stone buildings near the other end of the valley that Riley assumed led to the rest of the plane. Aunt Layla led them to one of the buildings that was in a block all by itself. The bottom half of the building was made of stone while the upper half looked like it was made of wood. A signboard with a rather faded viola hung just above the entrance.

Inside, the tavern was dimly lit by actual oil-burning lamps. There was a little light streaming through the small windows, but that only made the place cosier.

They took a seat near a corner and a serving-man came up to them and took their order.

“Ale, all around,” Layla declared, “and a platter of meat pies.”

“We’ve got chicken, beef, and lamb,” the serving-man said.

“Lamb,” Aidan replied.

“Beef,” Riley piped up at the same time as his aunt.

“Coming right up!”

A minute later, the man plopped down three wooden mugs the size of buckets.

“Ancestors,” Riley muttered. It took two hands for him to lift his mug and the foam top was so thick that after he took a swig, he had to wipe it off his nose and eyebrows while Aidan and Layla chuckled. “How do you drink this then?”

Layla chuckled and then tipped the bucket slightly over and started sucking up the foam. She let out a burp then continued. After a while, she finally got to the actual ale and she let out a satisfied sigh.

“Oh.”

The meat pies came next and they were about as wide as Riley’s head. He dug in, finding the pastry nice and crusty while the beef was peppered heavily. After they were done, they each paid ten Sovereigns and left.

“That was nice,” Riley admitted. “Even if the ale was too much.”

He had to run to relieve himself twice before he finished the bucket. He also had a nice buzz going and the cold air helped cool down his heated body.

“Knights Riley and Aidan!”

“Huh?” Riley turned towards the voice and found one of the crewmen running towards them.

“Captain Mitchell bids you two return to the ship,” he gasped when he came close.

“What’s this about?” Layla complained. “We’re on shore leave.”

“I don’t know ma’am, but the First Mate said it was urgent.”

“Oh, very well,” Layla harrumphed.

The two brothers glanced at each other over her head then simultaneously rolled their eyes. She wasn’t the one being summoned but even the crewman treated the lot of them as parts of the same whole.

Still, they walked slowly back to the docks, mostly since their legs were still a bit unsteady. When they got to the docks, the crewman directed them to the dockmaster’s office instead of back inside the ship.

“Oh, you’re here. Good,” Captain Mitchell grunted when they entered.

“What’s this about, Laurie?”

“Cut it out, Layla, we’re in public.”

“Right, so what is it?”

“Look at this.” The captain shoved a scroll over and Layla picked it up.

“A passenger request?”

“Yes, but she’s not here yet and under normal circumstances, if she isn’t here by the time we’re set for departure then we leave without.”

“We’re not under normal circumstances,” Layla said in a monotone.

“No. I thought I recognised the name and when I looked at the crystal log, I found out why. There’s a bounty for Yuriko Mishala Davar’s safe return.”

“Davar?” Riley yelped, but Aiden nudged him with a sharp elbow. “Sorry for the outburst,” he added sheepishly.

“Indeed.” Captain Mitchell grinned. “Anyway, that’s a ten million Sovereign bounty and it's more than worth delaying our departure for. Aaaand,” she slapped her table for emphasis, “I’m sending you two to go look for her.”

She pointed at Aidan and Riley.

Riley nodded, “I understand.”

“Wait, I’ll go too!” Layla yelped.

“It’ll be dangerous,” the captain said. “There’s trouble brewing between two of the other city-states, including the one where Yuriko Davar was.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Very well. The Ancestors watch over you three then.”

In short order, the three of them returned to the ship and brought with them their arms, armour, and supplies. And an hour later, they had bought a trio of horses and were well on their way down the road that would lead them to Vizugmon City.

_________

“Something’s wrong.”

Akko called an immediate halt. They were on the road to Lardel Keep, no more than a dozen longstrides away.

“We should have run into patrol already at this point.”

“You think something happened?” Yuriko asked warily.

“I hope not.”

“We’ll still have to continue anyway, right?”

“Right.”

They'd left Tanrill early in the morning and it was already just an hour before noon. They were in a forest that barely had any undergrowth. The trees were widely spaced apart, though the canopy still covered the road in shadows.

Akko had them walk at a slower pace and she sent a couple of scouts further ahead. They marched down the road in a tense silence. Even the forest felt their worries as it was absolutely quiet.

The silence was broken half an hour later when a forward scout came running back, with his face pale.

“Enemy behind!” he yelled. “Less than five hundred paces!”

The way the road curved, they couldn’t see more than a hundred paces ahead. And his shouting had probably alerted the enemy, though from how he was running, he had probably already been spotted. Worse, he wasn’t the forward scout.

“Where’s Brisz?” Akko asked. She frowned when the other scout shook his head. “How many?”

“More than a cohort. Cats plus humans.”

“Humans?” Akko’s eyebrow scales rose. “Tiath or Grieford?”

“I didn’t see the emblem. Mercenaries, maybe. They’ve spotted us. What action, Fang leader?”

“Where did they come from and why are they acting with impunity?” Akko shook her head, then looked at Yuriko. “Elder, can we count on you?”

Yuriko nodded slowly. “I’ll help.”

“Good. Then we pull back towards that rise and prepare for battle.”

With that, the entire Fang spun on their heels and ran back about a hundred paces. The gentle rise wasn’t much of an advantage, but that stretch of road was pretty straight. Once they were at the top, they formed into a double line and readied their crossbows.

Yuriko hung back and started to summon her sunblade. With the sun mostly behind the canopy, her reserves were lower than she wanted, especially with Damien yakking in the background. But she had enough. Ah, her Body Refinement was still progressing smoothly. Her heart still hasn’t absorbed as much as it could and she was beginning to suspect that it will never fill up considering the excess seeped to the rest of her. But Damien insisted that she focus there when infusing Radiant energy.

A minute later, the sunblade had formed properly. The brilliant glow distracted everyone but Rhox, this being the first time she created the weapon in front of them. Akko’s mouth worked but no sound came out and her scaly face clearly showed shock. But a light of hope started to burn behind her eyes.

A couple of minutes later and the enemy cohort came into view. Without hesitation, they rushed forward, and the battle was joined.