First Lieutenant Keagan wanted to puke. Everyone following him wanted to puke. He had seen sights that no man should ever be forced to see. Acts of brutality committed against dead and alive alike. This… this was different. The smell was horrid, potentially worse than the camp.
Part of the reason he wanted to puke was because he was right. He was right that they would attack the refinery. He was right that they weren’t just trying to escape, but were going on a warpath. And most of all, he was right that they would win.
The pyre there proved there were some losses, but nothing near the amount of losses that the refinery experienced. They had won, and the empire had lost another important location.
There was one odd thing about this event in particular. The slaves didn’t take a single penal laborer, but let them run free into Boralis.
In fact, Keagan had captured one on the way here.
***
From the moment they came upon the man, screaming for someone to help him, he came across as extremely odd. They didn’t know what his real name was. When they asked him, he said his name was David Arlin. It was darkly comedic for several reasons, especially since First Lieutenant Keagan had met the emperor face to face. Even then, it didn’t take an investigator to figure that a half starved man with brown hair and green eyes was not in fact the leader of Arlin. Out of respect for the man, who was extremely delirious upon first contact, Keagan and his unit decided to call him Dave.
The man’s story was muddled. The effects of magore poisoning varied, and it was clear that he was suffering from them. Long term exposure with raw magore often hurt an individual’s ability to retain the nutrients of food, hence his gaunt appearance. Effects on the mind were rare, but not unheard of. Even knowing that fact, they fed him and treated him, hoping that he could act as a source for whatever was going on in Boralis. His story was not comforting, least of all that it was often extremely hard to comprehend. Keagan and Theo had sat down with the man to listen. While Keagan asked questions, Theodore had faithfully recorded the entire interrogation. Staring at the destruction of the refinery, Keagan decided to take another look at the transcript, wondering how insane ‘Dave’ actually was.
***
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Keagan: So what exactly did you commit to end up as a penal laborer?
Dave paused for a prolonged period before speaking.
Dave: If I tell you, you’re going to put me back in another refinery or some other camp.
Keagan: Depending on the information you give us, we could actually ease your sentence. We’re just trying to figure out what happened at the refinery and learn more about the group behind it. However, if you want to even get that chance, I need to know the full story.
Dave: Fine. I hooked up with some noble’s daughter in Peroa. That’s it, alright?
Keagan: That’s it?
Dave: Alright. I fucked a noble’s daughter, and it turns out she wasn’t just looking for a one night thing. She tried running off with me, and when they caught us I took all the blame. Said I kidnapped her. There. Can you stop asking?
Keagan: Sure. Tell me how long you were at the camp.
Dave: I don’t know. 3 months? 4… maybe 6? It’s hard to tell.
Keagan: What do you mean?
Dave: You ever try keeping track of time when you’re stuck in a single location, doing the same thing every single day? Everything starts to mix together like soup or…
Dave paused again for a prolonged period.
Keagan: Dave?
Dave: Sorry. Can we move onto something else?
Keagan: Alright. Tell me about what happened the day of the raid.
Dave: It’s all kind of a blur. We were doing our work as normal, and then we started to hear stuff happen outside. A few of the people looked out and saw the burner fire. One soldier, a really young one, ran inside. Started yelling at us, saying that he was going to figure out who caused it. And then- Oh this is going to sound insane.
Keagan: It’s fine. Keep going.
Dave: Well, when he was yelling, some person just sort of appeared out of nowhere and put… what are those long burners called?
Theodore: An igniter?
Dave: Yeah, that. And he shot the guy straight through the head. Nobody saw him come in. A few people said he just appeared out of thin air.
Keagan: That’s interesting. What did the man look like?
Dave: I didn’t get too good of a look. He was pretty small. Had brown hair like mine, but it was really scruffy. I couldn’t tell what his eye color was, since I didn’t get a good look. I think he was young. After the raid, he said his name was North. Once he showed up, he told all of us to run outside with our hands behind our head and run into the woods.
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Keagan: North… huh.
Dave expresses confusion.
Keagan: Don’t mind that. What did you see outside?
Dave: I didn’t look too much when I ran. I just didn’t want to get shot. I did look at a few of them, and the weirdest thing is that the people coming from the woods looked like they were wearing soldier’s outfits? I just kept running and hid in the woods. After that, I just huddled together with a few other penal laborers for a while until…
Dave takes a deep breath. Keagan motions for him to continue.
Dave: I don’t know how real it was. But they had the big machine thing running around. They had one stationed at the camp that day. It’s that thing that doesn’t need an animal to pull it.
Theodore: An iron chariot?
Dave: Yeah, that. It was driving around and took some shots at the people. I think most of them were hiding in the refinery where I was. I didn’t see much of what happened, but after a while a… god I hate how stupid this sounds. There was this massive shot. Like a burner, but scaled up to a hundred. I didn’t get a good view on it, but I could see it all the way from the woods. It was a massive blue light, and when I moved back to the edge of the woods, the chariot was completely gone. There was this massive part of the forest that just got completely erased behind it as well.
Keagan: You’re sure this happened?
Dave: I don’t have any other explanation.
Keagan: That’s fine. Would you tell me what they did afterwards?
Dave: Afterwards, they gathered us all up and had the North guy introduce himself to us. Looked half dead while he was talking. Said he was a freed slave of Arlin, and that he was giving us the same freedom. Told us to head our own ways, and they could follow him if we wanted. He mostly suggested we should head to Mylia, since it’s not part of the empire. After that, another guy offered to help us get copies of a map. I was kind of out of it at the time, so I think I missed a lot of information.
Keagan: That’s fine. Just tell us what you know.
Dave: Well, I got ready to go. Took one of the maps and some of the supplies. A few of the raiders said hi. Looked like a wide variety of people. Pretty sure I spotted a chick from Irebor. Actually, we had a guy from Irebor who was working at the refinery. Apparently, the two of them got into a fight, but I didn’t see it. Next day, everyone left. I went with 2 other people to Mylia. After a few days on the road, they said they couldn’t handle 3 people with the supplies and ditched me. Took everything I had. Only thing they left with me was my map and a half full canteen. I decided that if I wanted my best chances, I’d go to one of the main roads leading to somewhere and hope someone found me before I died.
Keagan: You got lucky.
Dave: That’s debatable.
Keagan: One final question. Did you hear about a man named Elm Grayson? He would have been an older gentleman. Has a stone attunement.
Dave: I think I did. I do remember seeing someone who looked older than the other slaves, and I think I heard that name.
Keagan: That will be all. Go rest. You’re going to join us on our trip to the refinery.
End Transcript
***
There were a lot of mumbling and pointless tangents that had been removed from that transcript. At one point, the man even began crying. Even with all of that, his information was extremely valuable. Keagan placed away the transcript and stared at the massive empty space that had been created in the forest. Even with how insane the story sounded, seeing the massive hole that had been carved out in the woods was enough to prove that his version was correct.
How in the hell did they pull that off?
Keagan was not a technician but even he understood the very basics of how a magore reaction worked. You needed a primer and a main piece, both given some form of protection in order to focus the energy. If you wanted a magore reaction that could cause this much destruction, you would need a large enough piece and a large primer. Magore cannons were in development back in the capital, but they wouldn’t be able to do this. This was something else. He’d assumed it may have been one of the many attunements the slaves held, but the way that the slave described it was a direct description of a magore reaction. Plus, he didn’t know any attunements that could erase an iron chariot from existence.
The rest of the refinery was also destroyed. The slaves had made sure that it wouldn’t be usable after they left. The only standing structures were a few tents, and even they looked like they had fabric torn from them.
And then there was that name again. North, the Corithian apprentice of Elm Grayson. The description from the penal laborer meant that the Major was still alive, yet the apprentice was giving the speech. Something about him had to mean something to that soldier.
***
“So, where are we at?” Theo asked while patiently watching his partner flip through his notebook.
“We know their plan. That’s the most important. But it just feels like I’m missing a part of this.” Keagan spent a moment scratching at the back of his neck. He’d run out of drink at this point and was thoroughly disappointed that they didn’t find any left over. “I can’t believe this North character only got more confusing.”
Theo sighed, taking another look at the transcript he had written from the interview.
“And that attunement of his. Key, I’ve been racking my brain for a while trying to think of anyone I knew back during training who could do anything like that, and no one is coming to mind. And I’m pretty sure I met people of all attunements.” Theodore took another sip, finishing off his tea. “Maybe he’s just naturally stealthy?”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking but… something about the way he said it is bugging me. Best guess is that the magore poisoning affected their perception, making it easier not to notice him. He did say he was out of it at the time.” Keagan nibbed a bit on his thumb as he pondered all of the options. There were a variety of potential attunements, but none of them let a person appear and disappear.
The two of them sat in silence for a while. Off in the distance, they could hear a few of their squad talking with the penal laborer. Neither of them expected the man to hit it off so well with the soldiers, yet he was conversing with them as if nothing was wrong. His stories of vagrancy and bizarre debauchery in Peroa was enough to make him a rather amusing companion. If they weren’t able to get him back his citizenship or position him elsewhere, they’d probably request that he be given as a support laborer for the squad.
“What do we do next?” Theo said, breaking the silence.
“We go directly to the Corith border crossing which is connected to the other mining camp.” Keagan replied, slightly exasperated.
“Why not go to the camp? Maybe we can do something?”
Keagan shook his head. “We can hope the camp can protect itself, but at this point, I’m starting to doubt that our current camps are prepared for a group of so many mages with such an accomplished leader. Instead, we meet them at the border. Get set up so we can stop them before they enter Corith and destroy more camps. I think I have a plan, but it’s going to piss off a lot of people at the top.”
Theodore placed a hand on his partner’s knee, giving him the best smile he could at the time. “When are your plans not good at pissing them off?”
You’re too good for me.
“That’s very true. Let’s get ready for the morning. We’ve got a rebellion to stop.”