By dusk, Yuriko had reunited with her friends. Gwendith had two of the Federation warriors subdued, with their wrists bound together with ice. They’d settled next to a ridge, roughly a league away from the convoy. Heron and the twins were keeping watch, their eyes aglow with Enhanced Senses.

“Bad luck,” Sheamus said as soon as she arrived, his hand busy whittling a stick, “to think that these yokels would dare. I mean, they aren’t wrong, but still…”

Yuriko shrugged. “I suspect it would come down to a brawl anyway.” She glanced around, “Saki?”

“Scouting,” Gwendith answered. She nudged the two warriors, both young men, who were glaring fiercely at their jailor. “Are you going to zap these two with your love beam?”

Yuriko blinked. “My what now?”

Gwendith giggled and rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

Yuriko growled at Gwendith. “That’s not funny.” Then she sighed, “Yes, though, since it’s better and faster than torturing them.”

Suiting action for words, she walked in front of the two, pulled back her hood and enfolded them with her aura. Even her thin perception aura helped immensely with her control over her Mien, which, now that she thought of it, was probably why she still drew too much attention. Even if the light wasn’t visible, people around her could still feel her Mien working on them. To a weaker extent, at least. Focusing on a target magnified her Mien to such an extent that no one had been able to resist her commands.

“So, tell me where your convoy is going, who your prisoners are, and how strong the guard detail is?”

“Yes, mistress!” both of them said eagerly.

Spilling everything took only ten minutes. They were indeed going to Uaran City to deliver the prisoners. Their captives were those sentenced to death or exile, although their crimes weren’t listed. As for their guard forces…

“You have to watch out for Master Crow, mistress,” one of the men said worriedly. “Even if he’s a low master, he is still at that level. His techniques all involve subjugation and control, so please…” His face reddened and he gulped his saliva. Then, he stared at her face for a long moment, before his eyes flicked down to her body. “He would enjoy capturing you…” he continued in a whisper.

A wave of revulsion rose up to her throat, but before she could say anything, Gwendith smacked the man upside the head. “He will die,” she said grimly.

The two captives nodded.

So. A Master, and nearly a dozen Adepts. Twenty Intermediate and Beginner Spirit Binders and fifty unawakened guards. That was a pretty hefty number for the Federation, wasn’t it?

The force that they sent to Faron’s Crossing didn’t even contain that many Adepts much less a Master. Why?

When she posed the question, one of them said, “There are Adept level prisoners there, mistress.”

“Why would they waste their people like that?” Gwendith murmured in shock. Her emotion was mirrored by everyone else in the group.

“They aren’t Haveenians or Kadracki,” the captive said, “But…” he glanced at Sheamus.’

“Adventurers?” he growled, sounding incredibly outraged.

The captives nodded, and Yuriko saw Sheamus’ hand clenched at the twig he was whittling snapped.

“Dee?” Yuriko looked at her bound Chaos Lord.

Desire shook her head and said, “I don’t know. They would become Chaos Lords, at least barons, in full control of themselves if they allowed themselves to turn.”

“But wouldn’t that put them against the Federation?” Braden asked.

Desire shrugged. “Who knows what the Duke thinks.”

A shiver of fear…terror, ran up Yuriko’s spine. An emotion she hadn’t felt for herself in a long while.

A Chaos Duke. The hierarchies of Chaos Lords should have been taught to her in Sharom, and she would have gotten a nice little summary for the Highlords that basically said, avoid at all costs. While in Realmheart, however, the Mishala Clan taught her otherwise. Chaos Earls can be challenged by a Knight as long as a suitably powerful Colossi was used. Certus Colossi in groups of three or more. Marquess and Marchioness were different. A Colossi of the Evgenis Level in groups of five. If the pilot was a mere Knight then an entire Century of Colossi would be needed. As for Dukes and Duchesses, unless one was a Knight Dominus wearing a Vasi Colossus, the only chance was to run.

Thankfully, as long as they stayed within a plane in Equilibrium, Chaos Dukes, and Marquess had very limited power. Staying even a minute within the plane would drain them completely dry of Chaos.

Unfortunately, the source of the nameless was likely to be in the Chaos Sea.

“One step at a time,” she muttered. “We strike at night, give them time to calm down.”

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“Do you think they’ll ask for reinforcements?” Orrin said worriedly.

“They’d be fools not to,” Braden grumbled.

“But they have a Master with them already, what else can they send to make the convoy more secure?” Orrin pointed out, “Warriors have to come from somewhere. And where would they leave a hole in their defences?”

“It’s not as if the Empire is sending any assault battle groups,” Braden said bitterly. “So far, the city just kept hunkering down. Even in Faron’s Crossing and the Watchtower, we just kept defending.” He complained.

“We’re here now, aren’t we?” Heron said, clasping Braden’s shoulder. “They’ll ask for reinforcements. I saw a couple of horsemen headed back to Kadrac. And if they aren’t fools, they send another pair to Uaran. We probably have tonight to act, otherwise, we’ll be swimming in Kadracki and Haveenians.”

“Right.” Yuriko agreed. “Get dinner ready and we’ll go right after.”

It took a couple of hours, but night had well and truly fallen by the time they headed back south. The three days of the Dark Moon had already passed, but the Waxing Moon this close to Dark was still pretty dim. The Chaos Streams were muted due to the Seasonal variation, and Yuriko could only see shadowy silhouettes now. They left the horses back in camp. Way too noisy and, in the darkness, were likely to break a leg.

The caravan hadn’t stopped at dusk. Thankfully, Saki had returned just as they finished dinner to point out where they had camped, before vanishing again. More than three leagues away, the wagons had been parked into a circle, there was a large bonfire in the middle, and more than half of the unawakened and awakened warriors were on watch. Half.

“That’s troublesome.” Heron sighed. “We can expect reinforcements…” he cut off as Saki materialised from the shadows. Yuriko’s Shadow Guard did that often enough that the boys had finally stopped jumping whenever she popped out of nowhere.

“Riders from the north,” Saki said.

“Already?” Yuriko frowned when she saw Saki fidgeting. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure if they’re with those guys,” Saki pointed out. “And the way they’re pushing their horses…”

The sound of hoofbeats against the ground carried and she could see the caravan’s sentries grow disturbed.

The darkness hid the riders, especially when they stopped their horses’ galloping. Yuriko’s Enhanced Sight was barely enough to spot the silhouettes slinking off the heaving horses, not a longstride away. From their vantage point, she could just see them creeping on the ground, away from the horses and parallel to the camp. A moment later, they vanished behind the folds on the ground.

The camp’s sentries didn’t do anything, but something stirred within the wagon circle. More of the troops woke up and gathered on the north side of camp, which faced Kadrac City, where the horses probably came from.

“Young mistress,” Saki tugged at Yuriko’s sleeve. She pointed at an empty spot a few hundred paces away, and a few moments later, she spotted the crawling silhouettes. They saw her group too, as the shadows suddenly froze.

After a long moment, one of the silhouettes crawled towards them. Yuriko whispered through Asami’s Facet technique, “Hold.”

As the shadow came closer, Yuriko made out what it was. A quadrupedal form? A cat? A big cat! Yuriko’s heart fluttered as her mind suddenly flipped between being wary and wanting to pet the big floofer, at least until she bit her lip to focus. It was indeed a big cat, but why was it wearing leathers?

Then it spoke. “Who are you and why does it look like you’re getting ready to attack…them?” Feminine and sultry, with a strange rumbling purr near the end.

“What? Beastkin?” Yuriko asked instead.

The big cat’s features shifted. Her shoulders popped outwards, so did her hips, making her posture look like a human crouching rather than a cat standing still. The fur receded from her face, jaw shifted with silent pops. A few seconds later, a familiar-looking woman with cat ears and a tail crouched nearby, eyes burning bright and looking expectantly at Yuriko. Her nose quivered as she sniffed the air, then grinned.

“I smell blood. And yes, I am beastkin. Kassy of the Sha’kal tribe.”

“Yuriko Davar,” she answered back, “of the Eternal Empire of the Righteous Order.”

“Verdanians,” Kassy purred. “So, the enemy of my enemy?”

Yuriko’s eyes narrowed as she pointed to the caravan. “Your enemy? Why?”

“They took some of my tribesmen. Gambling debts, they said, hmph!” Kassy snorted, and Yuriko realised that she saw this woman and her wolfman partner yesterday in Kadrac. “And you?”

“They took a friend,” Yuriko admitted. “There is a Master Spirit Binder in the caravan.”

Kassy paled. “Oh no.”

Yuriko shook her head. “How many of you are there?”

“Just a few.”

“Adepts?”

Kassy grinned. “We don’t follow that labelling and method. But we can fight evenly against the Adepts. Do you wish to cooperate or would you rather move separately?”

“I don’t know your people,” Yuriko said. “I didn’t even realise there were beastkin tribes in Rumiga.”

“That’s because we’re not,” Kassy answered smoothly. “We’re nomads. We travel the Chaos Sea frequently on our longships. We just so happened to get stuck here when those Chaos Courts blockaded everything.”

“Yuri,” Asami’s voice whispered. “Let’s attack separately, but at the same time. Safer.”

“I agree,” Yuriko answered back in the same way, but she saw Kassy’s ears twitching. The cat-eared woman stared pointedly at her, then sniffed.

“I see you’d rather play it safe. No matter. We will strike from the east if you and yours strike from the south. In ten minutes?”

“I…yes,” Yuriko answered awkwardly and she saw Asami blushing a cute pink.

“That Master Binder will be trouble though,” Kassy continued, “and they must be guarding my tribesmen.”

“Why?” Yuriko asked, confused.

“We’re all at least at that level," Kassy answered. “I will have to trouble you to occupy the rest of their warriors.”

Yuriko shook her head, “No.”

Kassy stiffened.

“I will fight the Master Binder,” Yuriko said with a slow smile. The cat-kin woman shivered.

“Yuri…” Gwendith reached out to her.

“We know where they came from,” Yuriko said to her team, “which fulfils our objectives. We cannot hope to besiege a fortified Fysalli on our own. And to pinpoint its location, we have to hunt down more nameless or get it from them.”

“Don’t draw too much attention…” Gwendith said with a wince.

“It’s inevitable.” Yuriko muttered. “I feel my Anima quivering in protest.”

“If you say so.”

“Not to break this up, but are you sure you can fight the Master Binder?” Kassy asked worriedly, “You.. uhm, are you a… er, a Knight Captain?”

“No.” Yuriko said and Kassy’s face fell. “But I’m a Sorceress.”

The catkin’s eyes widened, and she grinned and a purring rumble came from her throat. “Excellent. But, er, don’t destroy everything.”

“I won’t.” Yuriko shook her head. “But we should begin soon.”

Kassy nodded. “Clear skies and fair winds.”

“Er, clear skies and fair winds to you, too?” Yuriko stuttered.

Kassy chuckled and crept back, morphing into her feline form as she did.

Yuriko focused on herself, and conjured several dozen sunshards, concealing them by digging a hollow under the ground and forming them there. Ten minutes later, she nodded at the others, and as one, they rushed out of hiding, and the battle was joined.