Zalia and Faian stood in the dark room that served as Hidey’s prison. It was surprising to Zalia that Faian had allowed her to come here to mock the Astar in front of him so easily. She was also surprised that Faian had the authority to allow it without first speaking with the council, unless they had already agreed to grant Faian control over this.
It had taken a little bit of brainstorming before they had decided on the best course of action and Faian had insisted that she be here for it. Hildebrandt had agreed to help when they went outside the city to bait out the holder of Hidey’s true name.
“Hey Hidey, how are things?” Zalia started.
“A little cramped.”
Zalia snorted in amusement. He still had his sense of humour intact it seemed.
“I see that. I’ve come with some good news for you. We’ll be able to let you out soon.”
The surprise and hope in his voice was evident.
“You will? How?”
Faian stepped up.
“Zalia has found someone who will be able to discern your true name and we shall be transporting you there to be done with this shortly. We will be able to trust that you are with us once that is done.”
Zalia waited, her body relaxed but tense in her mind. This was the single lie that they would need to tell, the single thing that it was important for Hidey to believe and the reason Faian had come. Zalia wouldn’t have been able to tell it without giving everything away but Faian had a little more practice than she did.
“I see. When will we be leaving for this person, then?”
Faian smiled.
“We know better than to tell you that.”
Hoping it had worked, Zalia interrupted to begin her part.
“Though, I did want to talk to you about the Astar a little. I’ve been surprised recently to discover that they are all quite weak. Even those who are trained to fight are barely able to hold their own without their teleportation magic.”
Hidey remained impassive, though Zalia could only tell that the cube-like shade was such by the lack of reaction.
“Not much is known about the Astar.”
“Perhaps not previously but I’ve been learning and I’m thoroughly unimpressed.”
“You should take care in your words, Zalia.”
Zalia started. The way he emphasised the word was as if he were not only warning her to be careful with her words, but to take care in what she was doing as well.
“Don’t worry Hidey, I’m not scared of the Astar.”
“You should, perhaps, reconsider.”
Zalia shook her head.
“After everything I’ve been through, both at their hands and those of the demons, I don’t have space in my mind for that. They will feel what I have felt.”
With that, she left.
Faian came with her and once they reached the surface once more, Zalia turned to her.
“Was that too much?”
Faian shrugged.
“It was a little dramatic but if they’re as egotistical as you say, it should anger them a little. I would think they are already angry at you for the destruction you wrought in their town and the people you freed from their grasp.”
Zalia nodded her agreement. She really did suck at being believable.
“Well, I think he didn’t catch on to your lie at least. Though I’m not the greatest at telling, it sounded like he might have been worried for us.”
“I caught that as well, though whether it be because he caught on to what we were doing and was trying to warn us or because he thinks we are unprepared for an attack, I don’t know.”
“Nothing left other than to go ahead with it then, hey?”
Faian nodded.
“When should we do it?” Zalia asked.
“Immediately. I don’t want to give them time to break Hidey out before we take this out of the city, if they would do such a thing. Go and get Hildebrandt, I shall organise transport for Hidey.”
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Zalia gave an affirmative and ran off through the city towards Hildebrandt’s house. They were near the castle that loomed over the rest of the capital and so Hildebrandt’s house was close. It only took her a few minutes to reach her destination, knocking politely on the door.
Hildebrandt answered it shortly.
“Zalia, how are you? Would you like to come in?”
Zalia shook her head.
“Don’t have time, we’re starting the transport of Hidey right now. Faian’s idea, not mine. You ready to go?”
Hildebrandt’s armour, shield and large mace appeared.
“Always.”
They ran down the slight incline to where Hidey was hidden and waited. Faian wasn't there but a few soldiers joined them after their arrival. Ten minutes later, another group of soldiers came jogging down bringing their numbers from five to twelve. Two of these soldiers were Silver rank with the rest being Bronze.
Trailing the final group of soldiers was a large covered cart being pulled by an animal Zalia didn’t recognise. It was extremely muscled like a bison but in place of horns it had clumps of earth that floated about its head. Recognising the earth magic for what it was, Zalia also noticed that its steps landed with more weight than they should have, as if each step was a mini earthquake.
They were sure to be noticed now.
Faian was walking alongside the cart with another sat in the seat meant for the driver. Strangely, the man directing the bison-like creature wasn’t doing so via whip or reins, but communicated with the creature by manipulating the earth that floated around its head. She watched as he pulled back on the earth very slightly and the animal slowed to a stop.
Moving from the side of the cart, Faian gestured to the two Silver rank soldiers and Hildebrandt then made her way down into Hidey’s prison. There wasn’t a building attached to the underground room, just a door made from steel surrounded by even more steel. The grounds around them were unoccupied and bound by a fence with only a single gate.
It was only a moment before the four came back up with Faian gingerly holding the black cube that held Hidey. Zalia hadn’t ever asked where they had gotten the item and realised she probably should have. Something like that could be useful in future if she ever came up against shades or similar enemies. It was more than likely to happen when they went back to Cormaine.
One of the soldiers opened up the back of the cart for Faian and she stepped up into it, placing the cube on a small pedestal inside. She locked it in with a cage and then jumped back out.
“Alright, we’re set to go then. I unfortunately don’t think we can bring any more people than this and even then I wouldn’t want to put any more soldiers in danger. This is the least we can bring without it being suspicious. Hildebrandt, you’ll wait within the cart itself as it has some protections against perception of different types.”
Hildebrandt nodded her agreement and hopped inside.
“I can add some rituals to hide the inside of the cart of my own if you’d like?” Zalia suggested.
Faian agreed so Zalia cast two different rituals, one to protect against normal sight and another to protect against more magical means. They were both quite basic rituals and thus easy to maintain without loss of much mana.
“Excellent. I’ll have you two at the rear, four on each side and Zalia and you two at the front.”
Faian pointed in turn as she spoke, with the two Silver soldiers at the back. The general sat up next to the driver of the cart, settling in for the long drive.
Zalia went to her place as told, summoning her armour and bow which floated next to her. It was strange never firing the bow herself anymore as it took a life of its own. Even stranger still was how she didn’t see it as unusual at all. Had it been years ago when she first arrived in Endaria the sight would have caused her to think she was crazy.
They made their way out of the city and onto the road between the capital and Nature’s Reclaim. Their hope was that they would be attacked between the two cities by whomever knew Hidey’s true name. Zalia just had to hope that the Astar who did know the name hadn’t shared it with many others. She didn’t know the Astar society that well but knew enough to know that it was unlikely one of them would share an advantage like that with the others, especially if they were of high rank themselves.
So much of the plan relied on luck, in being lucky enough for the Astar to show themself, in being lucky that the Astar hadn’t shared the name, in being lucky enough that Hildebrandt could defeat them.
Zalia wasn’t concerned on that half, as even a Diamond rank Astar would have a very hard time killing Hildebrandt. She also had a trick that would stop that same Astar from killing any of the rest of them.
Was the plan reckless? Perhaps. That said, it would be a huge win to start off the war if it worked. A potential kill of a high rank Astar and Hidey freed from his constant servitude. Who knew what information the shade held already.
Many hours later, they were still trundling along the road as Zalia thought of the Gold rank Astar that had tried to kill her. It was unlikely that the few wounds she had managed to inflict on them had killed them. If it had been a normal person, perhaps, but not a Gold ranker.
It was even harder to kill anything of Emerald rank. Zalia had only seen Hildebrandt injured once, when she herself had shot her with an arrow that had sunk only the smallest amount into Hildebrandt’s shoulder. That had only happened because Hildebrandt had allowed it, holding back all her passives during the practice. If she hadn’t, Hildebrandt’s retaliation passive would have turned Zalia to dust.
The body became quite strange the higher rank you became and Zalia had started to notice the changes in herself as well. The body mattered less and less, able to recover from more injury. How could you die when your entire body could regenerate in the matter of seconds?
The answer, obviously, was damage to the soul that existed within the body. This, it appeared, was how fights were fought at higher ranks. The epitome of this was Ascendants, who had reached a point that bodies no longer mattered, with attacks being inflicted on the soul which was then reflected in the bodies created.
Hildebrandt was quickly reaching that point of existence, with her abilities being able to affect the soul, whether it be her incredible recovery or her Godly Strike.
Zalia was hoping that she and her family would be able to reach that point as people became considerably harder to kill. There were only a few more ranks to go for herself, Boreal and Ember, with Aylie quickly catching up and the young ones not far behind that. Zalia expected them to reach Bronze rank soon with Aylie not far to go to Silver. Boreal was also very quickly approaching Gold, ahead of Zalia by a good margin.
It had reached a point where the increased speed of her ranking up due to gaining magic so late in life had caught up and the slowing of her ranking up due to having three classes instead of two was becoming evident. Ember would also reach Gold before her and perhaps even Aylie would catch up sometime down the line, reaching Emerald before Zalia did.
She was shaken from her thoughts at Faian’s yelled alarm. Everyone around her burst into movement and she followed suit, looking up to see not one, but three Astar.