Excerpt From The Mad Scholar's Wall—

The centurions and tribunes tried to stop the spreading of the reality of our situation. They kept those manning the few walls we still held separated from those slogging through the trenches.

All they did was slow down the spread of the news. Everyone needed the few supplies we still had, and those delivering them would talk as much as anyone else. Word of the endless hoard spreading outside our feeble defenses was spread through that long night.

When morning came, everyone knew. Hearing the mutters of those nearby as numb shock caused them to whisper what they were told was common.

It did not matter, though. The news changed nothing.

In the back of our minds, from the first moment we saw what we were facing, we knew our end. No one would so much as whisper the words we all were thinking, but we knew.

The Gauntlet would be our graves.

So while we no longer fought with the hope of seeing the world outside of those blood-stained walls, we still fought. Even those of us who were of the first generation picked up weapons. Because we would not let those beasts kill us without a hefty price.

As hope died, a savage vengeance overtook us. Risky actions that no one would take for the risk of death become more and more common as we were pushed back over the bodies of the dead.

And then we were at the core of the Gauntlet, a series of seven walls with gates on opposite sides leading to a final fortress. A defense we did not have the legionaries to hold.

**********

The night was fully upon us as we silently passed under the boughs of the Northern Forest. And though the transition between the animals of the day and night was long since passed, the forest was eerily quiet.

Part of it was me running next to Kaneita and her silence… spell. She didn't tell me what the name of it was, but, really… what else could it be called?

The spell blocks the sound we make but anything around us as well. So being by her would inherently mean the forest was eerily quiet. But! But I went to the edge of the spell when I saw an open patch of ground I could pass on without making any noise, and there still wasn't any noise.

Something was happening, and the entire forest could feel it. And the decision to take the prudent actions of running away or staying in their homes, hoping that it just passed them by.

And I'm the idiot running towards it. I grumped to myself, feeling slightly uneasy.

Dropping into a readies stance, I silently scanned the area around us as my body tingled. Kaneita had stopped running and crouched down, causing adrenalin to be dumped into me as I readied for action.

Nothing happened. For long seconds I scanned the forest, my senses telling me something was out there. Eventually, I realized she wasn't preparing for an attack but looking at something on the ground.

Heart pounding in my chest, I took some deep breaths trying to calm down my twitchy nerves as I walked forward to crouch down next to her and see what she was looking at.

When I could look over her shoulder, all I saw was a patch of dirt with a few stones on it. Gathering my will, I sent out a weak pulse, going back to checking on our surroundings.

Kaneita whirled around, grabbing my wrist and looking up at me with intense eyes, "Don't do that!" She harshly hissed. "The barrier can react to your pulses and will alert those inside if it's too strong."

I nodded and raised my other hand, signaling I was stepping back and just watching. Even though I had no idea what she was talking about. This was, after all, her show. I was just an observer.

She gave a huff of annoyance as she turned and started poking at the ground again.

Minutes passed as I waited, trying to stay calm as I shifted on my feet, watching the surrounding bushes and trees for anything approaching with the light of the moon.

Then I saw Kaneita pull back sharply. Lifting her arms, I looked to see what she was doing, only to furrow my brows in surprise. A three feet long and one foot wide granite plate was lying on the ground right in front of Kanieta.

It wasn't there before. Right? Yeah… Umm, ok. It wasn't there before, but now it is… Yep. That makes sense.

"The fuck that come from?" I asked.

"It was there the whole time. It was just covered by an illusion I shifted to avoid it." Kaneita responded, pride filling her voice. I was startled that she answered. I hadn't actually expected her to hear me. Though, I hadn't tried to talk since we left the bowl.

Made sense as we were talking in the bowl, but… Fuck… I'm an idiot. I could have been getting so much more information.

"Illusion?" I asked, hoping that she would explain.

"It's a warping and rearranging of light to show what we want seen. Usually supported with other spells to make you subconsciously avoid studying the illusion." She explained.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I frowned, looking at the slab of rock and then at the encircling forest.

Slowly, I turned, focusing my mind inward, searching for the slightest ripple.

Eventually, I stopped.

I was looking at the forest past Kanieta and the stone plate. There was an ever so slight urging to skip looking in that direction. It made me feel uneasy and want to avoid moving in that direction.

It explained why I was feeling so anxious, waiting behind the beastkin as she did whatever she was doing.

I was just marking it up to being out here surrounded by enemies. But I had been in enemy territory dozens of times before, and I hadn't felt this anxious since I first became a scout.

Now that I noticed it, I blocked out the intrusive feelings with a thought.

Settling behind her, I calmly watched her hands hover above the intricately carved stone plate. Sometimes her fingers would twitch, or her hands would move to the side or up and down on occasion.

I had no idea what she was doing, and even if I used all of my power to try and sense what she was going, I doubt I would get anything more than something was happening.

Within a minute of me settling in, Kanieta let out a grunt of satisfaction as she dropped a rock onto the plate, and the forest in front of us was pulled apart.

Literally, the forest was pulled to the sides in a ragged triangle seven feet tall and four wide on the ground.

Head shifting towards me slightly, she spoke, "Hurry up and move through. Don't touch the sides or the plate."

Immediately moving forward after her words, I stepped to her right side and then took two quick steps forward before diving through the hole.

It seemed like the easiest and fastest way to get through.

Turning my dive into a roll, I popped to my feet with my sword drawn, looking for enemies.

All there was to be seen or heard was a quiet giggling behind me, no enemies in sight. "That was… dramatic."

The words caused my ears to redden, and I quickly sheathed my weapon and turned around.

She was crouched down, ensuring she was clear of the edges, then stepped forward before turning around and grabbing the rock.

The shimmering wall didn't snap shut. Instead, it slowly closed, leaving Kanieta plenty of time to pull back her arm.

With the gap shut, I was left looking at… I really couldn't say. I would guess a forest, but that was because I came from the other side and knew it was there.

All I could say for sure from looking at this side of the veil was that there were fuzzy blobs on the other side.

"Hey!" looking to the side, I saw an annoyed Kanieta twenty feet away, waving for me to join her.

I entered the clump of bushes that she was crouched down in, crouching next to her.

She leaned close to me, putting her lips right next to my ears, whispering, "From here on out, don't use any bursts of energy. They will detect anything but the most controlled usages of psy."

If I hadn't already been there, her words would have brought me to my highest level of alertness and readiness for danger.

"Can I use tendrils and a body shield?" I asked, moving my head to her ear to whisper into it.

"It should be fine," She replied, and I immediately covered my whole body except for small spots for my ears and nose instead of just my legs as I was doing when we traveled.

After a few seconds of the shield covering me, she suddenly leaned forward and sniffed at the air around me. Then gave me a nod of approval.

She looked at me for a moment, and I felt something brush against my shield, then she gave me an approving look. Then Kanieta mouthed the word, 'ready?'

I gave her a thumbs up, and she silently turned and started moving through the forest.

This wasn't the absolute silence of her spell. No, this was pure skill. Her body glided around the obstacles of the forest, sliding past the reaching branches and snaring roots. Her feet rolled her weight across the leaves and twigs scattered over the ground, leaving them undisturbed in her wake.

I followed behind her, using all my skills to keep pace. If I had to do it without using my mental powers, I would have never been able to. Not so long as I was meant to remain silent.

And even now, I was limiting my usage of mental powers to a bare minimum. If my shield was fine, then dampening any noise I made should be fine too, but I didn't want to push it.

Muffling any noise my skill couldn't prevent and pushing the hunting skills my father taught me to the limit, I kept up the fast walking pace we were traveling at for long minute after minute.

I was mainly focused on keeping up the pace, but a part of my mind never stopped sweeping the forest with my eyes. Looking for anything of potential danger.

At first, I saw nothing, but as we traveled, I started catching flashes of firelight through the trees. More of those flashes appeared until we topped a rise, and I looked down at a valley filled with campfires.

Campfires which lit up the walls of a stone fort. A fort securing this side of a bridge that arched over the Rush.

A bridge that, even now, had troops marching over it using the moonlight to see, as I saw no other light source. I felt my stomach fall to my feet.

On the other side of the river, I could see a number of campfires that outnumbered the number on this side several times over.

We're going to be overwh—

Looking down, I saw and felt Kanieta tugging on my arm and shaking her head. Leaning down, I heard the slightest of whispers, "Not that."

She turned me to the side, and I followed her along the outside edge of the slight rise from the fort until we were a couple hundred yards from the river.

When we stopped, we got a clear view of the river. Then Kanieta turned and pointed at a natural cove on the river.

Staying in a crouch, I moved over to her and looked down.

At first, I didn't know what I was looking at.

The cove was lit up with a few fires burning on the beach, with beastkin moving around the sand carrying wood planks to large rafts I would almost call barges beached on the shore. Most of the wood was being gathered on the deck, and they were constructing something in the decks center. But I just coul—

"Oh, shit…" I whispered in horror. It was fucking genius. Taking advantage of a flaw that, until now, had no reason to even be considered to be a weakness.

The beastkin had built barges with towers on them. Towers that could be used raised and connected to the bridges spanning the river between the forts of the Triad.

If we were drawn to the battlements and they come with those, cutting us in half, we won't stand a chance… They could slaughter us in hours.

Turning to Kanieta, I said one word, "Why." She was undermining a battle plan that was as close to a guaranteed victory as a battle can have.

She replied to me with a single word in turn that was more of a sigh of resentment, "Politics."