First Lieutenant Keagan stared at his notebook, flipping through it over and over again and reabsorbing the details. There was a heavy patter of rain against the roof of the wooden fort as he contemplated the many outcomes the revolt could have. It was a location in the middle of Boralis, east of the camp and a small stronghold for Arlin forces passing throughout the territory. It was originally a Boralin fort, but was claimed and partially rebuilt by the Arlin troops now habitating it.

It was also one of the few locations in Boralis which had a soundline.

Keagan’s head turned upwards as he heard the door open and Second Lieutenant Theodore stepped inside, his body soaked from the downpour. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and focused on his body. The water that had stuck to him started to coalesce together, removing itself and forming into one large ball of water which Theo quickly launched back outside into the rain. After patting himself down to make sure he got all of the moisture, he turned to look at Keagan with a smile.

“Showoff.” Keagan said, rolling his eyes. He’d seen this trick many times before, and Theo seemed to be proud of himself every time that he had done it. Despite his outward irritation, he was actually really glad that he’d come back to help him out. “I presume you already sent the reply?”

Theo nodded, taking off his military coat and sat next to him, leaning on his shoulder. “You should take a break. I know this is important to you, but you’re starting to worry me.”

I wish I had more to drink.

“You were just thinking about how much you’d like to get drunk weren’t you?”

Keagan turned to his second lieutenant and smiled. He knew him well, that was for sure. It was still bugging him that they’d been left with so little information outside of what he’d gathered at the camp, and the information he’d gathered at the camp was horrifying on its own. The simple concept of one of Arlin’s most legendary military figures and magore researchers wandering the continent with a grudge and a small army of slaves following him was a long list of horrifying scenarios. The civilian damage alone could be bad, let alone the damage to the empire’s forces. The entire camp being decimated was one thing, and he could only imagine the panic it would cause the Empire’s court. Most likely, he’d be dragged into it even further and he’d be the one focusing on this case.

“Theo, what response did you get?” He asked, flipping open another page of the notebook and lifting up his pencil.

“They seemed pretty unhappy about it and are sending the new information back to the capital. Most likely, this will make its way all up to the Emperor pretty soon. We can start dealing with it more afterwards. For now, we should just wait.”

But waiting was dangerous. Time was not on their side right now, and both of them knew that. Theo just didn’t want to admit it.

“Did they at least confirm that it was the right Elm Grayson?”

Theo nodded, pulling out his own piece of paper that he had stashed in his pocket, hidden away so it didn’t get soaked by the rain. “They came back with a full list of the people there, actually. Turns out that Aaron’s guess was correct about the Corithian funeral pyre. According to the list we got, there were 3 Corithians at the camp with one of them having arrived within less than a month. Was a really young one as well. Maybe she was the starting incident which inspired the revolt?”

That was a fair option. Seeing a young child end up in the camp would easily drive people to fight to protect her. It was something, but it didn’t make the whole story fit together. There had to be some form of inciting incident.

“There was one other weird thing relating to the Corithians. Apparently, the apprentice that Grayson had taken was one of them. His name was…” Theo took a moment to search through the paper. “North?”

There had to be some connection, but out of all the territories, Corith made the least sense. It was an unremarkable nation other than the fact that its forests were considered one of the most dangerous places on the continent. Why any group of people would choose to live their lives anywhere near that forest was something that Keagan could never understand. Still, this meant that there had to be some connection.

Keagan flipped the pencil around in his hands, trying to think of a strong connection.

“Could they be heading to Corith?” Keagan muttered, scratching down a few words onto the page.

“Why would a group of slaves want to go further into the empire? Wouldn’t that just increase their chances of getting caught or killed?”

That’s true. The only reason they’d go towards Corith would be to attack more of the empire.

“It’s possible that a group of them went in that direction. Possibly with the younger one? If the child was taken in a raid, that means that her parents might be alive.” Theo leaned in a bit further to look at the notes that he was writing down. They were more chaotic and harder to interpret than usual, only being sensical to the mind who created them.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Key, I still think we should focus on the Mylian angle. If I were in their position, that’s where I’d go.”

What would I do without you…

Keagan leaned his head against Theo, putting away the notebook. The shock of the camp was sticking with them both, and the worry for the future of Arlin was shared. Moments like this were helpful to both of them.

“Plus, it’s a lot harder to track them since they all probably went off road. All we can focus on doing is wait until they hit major landmarks.”

I guess that’s true.

“Did we get any new details on the timeline?”

“Not as much concrete information, but they did share some interesting information. They said a supply shipment went to the camp right around the time they stopped getting contact. They probably planned around that date so they’d have more supplies for their journey.”

Keagan’s head shot up as soon as he heard those words.

But where were the carts?

There were a lot of things that caught his attention and made him question his own sanity, but the supply shipment opened up another line of questions. One thing that Keagan had noted was that they had taken a lot of supplies. That made sense on its own, since they were going on a long journey in order to get to Mylia. Waiting for a supply shipment in order to have as much as possible made sense, but there weren’t any carts at the camp. Keagan was working off the assumption that they were being led by Grayson, a man who had led some impressive military charges during his time. Thus, he thought that they would be using military strategy. The best option for getting to their locations would be offroad, which meant that they would leave the carts at the camp.

Maybe they destroyed them?

“Key, what’s going on? That face tells me something is wrong.” Theo moved away from his lover and turned to him. He’d seen this face many times before, and he knew that it meant that Keagan was either onto something completely new or that he was reconsidering a previous theory.

“There weren’t any carts at the camp, correct? Nor any strigs?”

“Yes? Key, where are you going with this?”

“Why is that?”

Theo thought for a moment, placing his hand on his chin. It was an odd fact that they hadn’t left any of those things there.

“Maybe they destroyed them?”

That’s one option, but it doesn’t make sense. It’s too much effort.

“They wouldn’t do that. There’s no need. In fact, doing that would tell us that we aren’t going to be able to track them as easily. ”

“Does that mean that they’re using them?”

Theo nodded. If his theory was right, they were using both the carts and the strigs on their journey.

“But that doesn’t work if you’re going off roads. I’ve been on those carts, and they already shake enough when they’re on roads. They can’t just go through the woods with them, right?”

Keagan nodded, opening up his notebook again and reviewing the information.

“If they’re using the carts, that means that at least some of them have to be using the main roads to travel. Do we have a map of the roads and locations in Boralis?”

Theo quickly got up from the seat and walked to the door.

“I’ll go and ask. You stay here.”

***

“Oh…”

Both Keagan and Theo stared at the map in front of them, surrounded by several other guards who were stationed at the fort. Keagan’s hands shook as he struggled to try to get himself to write something down in his notebook.

“I- I need to send another message. Maybe we can do something. Get the word out to them, anything.” Second Lieutenant Theodore had traced the road over and over with his finger.

Both of their eyes were locked on one singular location on the map, a small red dot that marked out an important location for the Empire’s work throughout the territory. The magore refinery, the only location with a direct road to the camp.

How is this only getting worse?

“Key, what do we do? There has to be something we can do to sto-”

Theo stopped in the middle of his words. Keagan’s face of panic told him everything he needed to know.

“We can’t. We’re too late.”

Today was one of the few days in his life that First Lieutenant Keagan hoped that he was entirely wrong.

***

The sun sat at an almost perfect balance within the sky, shining directly above us through the trees. I took a moment to take a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for the role I would play in the fight to come.

Ruby came over and tapped me on the shoulder with his disfigured right hand.

“It’s just up ahead. There’s a good number of men outside of the place, but I couldn’t get a feel for inside the building.”

I nodded, placing down my bag and taking my igniter out of the cart, using the strap to place it on my back. I’d thought about it over and over again, the steps I would be taking in the upcoming battle but still felt worried. Something about this entire situation felt off, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“North, we ready?”

I turned back to Ruby with the best grin I could muster at the time.

“Yeah. Let’s tear this refinery to the fucking ground.”