The hovercaravan carrying Lakan and his steam mates made it's way to Kanam, but it was so far away, the entire day their hover caravan only made it half way there, they camped at an Aku'andan village called Dogonu. It was very close to the border between the Aku'anda and Pirun Kingdoms.

The village was so small that it didn't even have an inn. There were less than five hundred people living there and they were all farmers that grew and raised their own foodstock, the entire village was surrounded by hills covered in wheat, corn, and millet crops, and each house, which was built with wood, had a fairly large garden adjacent to it. They were very surprised to see people from the city at all.

The Mayor of the village was very excited. He invited them all to his house and had his family start making them food.

the other villagers did the exact same thing, Although they couldn't host the newcomers, they still prepared food, and kept knocking on the door while the group was eating to give them food. Lakan was amazed at the variety and richness of the food.

"Wow this is the best food I've ever tasted." He said to Hark as he bit off another mouthful of delicious roasted chicken, spiced to the high heavens with fresh spice leaves.

"I'll bet there's a retired war mage living in this village." Hark commented.

Binko and Regar were on the other side of the table, engaged in their own discussion. The food kept rolling in until midnight. Lakan was so full that he had trouble staying awake.

They were tucked in for the night inside the Mayor's kids rooms, Lakan had no idea where the kids were moved, but he was grateful for the bed and dinner, and hopefully, breakfast.

---

While Lakan's team was having the time of their lives in Dogonu, Segi's team were camping in the cold night in the middle of nowhere. Navon was north of Akuanda, and the nearest town to Aku'anda in the direction of Navon, Hiyagara, was over two hundred miles away.

They had hoped to reach Hiyagara before nightfall, but they couldn't make it. When they were about eleven miles away from Hiyagara, Segi decided they should camp in the forest. because it was almost midnight and the Drivers were beginning to lose concentration due to sleepiness.

The coaches were parked in an arc slightly off the road, a fire was made in the center of that arc and they plopped down tents around it. Most of them went to sleep immediately, Segi and Mullam remained awake, they sat by the fire and talked.

"Royi got to Saymor." Segi said. "No sign of Ganz yet."

"Keri was probably telling the truth." Mullam said.

"Well, Keri wouldn't lie to me, I just thought she might be mistaken." Segi replied. "I'm tired of Ganz eluding our grasp. I just want us to catch him so we can get this over with."

---

The following morning, Lakan's group woke up to a massive breakfast with every bread and berry under the sun. All manner of spiced butters and grilled fish were present. There were steamed sweet potatoes and cheese and rice and sweet sauces.

"Oh my goodness!" Hark explained when he saw the breakfast table.

"Everyone in the village cooked breakfast for you!" The mayor quipped excitedly.

"Damn... guys I think I... I think I'll retire early." Binko said. The rest of the mages laughed.

"Can we move our warfare headquarters here, is what I wanna know." Regar said as he sat down and poured himself some milk. He sniffed the cup and exhaled.

"It's fresh milk." He said. The others gasped in surprise. Aku'anda City was so far from almost any farm that they never actually got fresh milk. Most of the affordable milk in Aku'anda was preprocessed in some way, mostly powdered, and they were sold in sacks. Fresh milk was expensive because they had a terrible shelf life and most Aku'andans preferred to use their precious time writing cooling spells for vegetables and meat, Not milk.

The group spent about half an hour at breakfast, and then continued their journey southwards. Lakan was very sorry to leave, but he consoled himself by packing a large bag filled with treats from Dogonu along for the rest of the journey.

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The next town was a very fairly large Pirunese town called Amandade, that was positioned right next to a fairly large river called the Ambo river. About five thousand people lived here and they even had double story buildings and a fairly large inn, but they didn't stay at all, they simply passed through and rode southwest for about another hundred and twenty miles, before Kanam rose out of the horizon, along with the great Chawbig river that flowed right next to it.

Kanam was close to sea level, so as they emerged from the highlands about five miles way, they saw the entire city. Just like they did Saymor. The sun was beginning to set behind Kanam, and it lit up the river, darkening the various ships and boats that moved up and downriver.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen." Lakan said, putting a piece of Dogonu dried papaya in his mouth. "This is it."

The rest of the group nodded and the Caravan began its descent, down to Kanam town.

---

At the same time, Segi and her crew made it to Hiyagara, from there, they rode northwest to a village called Veran, from there to a small town called Lahumari, before they made a final journey to Kamado. The capital. They got there at sunset and quickly found an inn to stay. As per usual, all the mages got a single room and had extra beds added to the room.

They had dinner and met in the room.

"The gala is tonight," Segi began. "You all have your formal dresses, meet me at the South Kam Jetcoach station in two hours."

They nodded.

"We'll infiltrate the party as Arabambi's." She continued. "Search for Ganz or any of his men." The crew nodded.

"Once you spot, do not engage. I repeat, do NOT engage." Segi warned. "We simply tag them, and follow them to their hiding place. We need to observe them for a while, before we launch an attack."

"Not to mention it would be a relations disaster if Aku'andan mages were caught causing trouble at a Navonic event." Mullam said.

"Exactly. So keep it low key." She finished.

---

Two hours later, as promised, Segi, Mullam, Deyion, Kalum, and Lara, met at South Kam. They boarded a Jetcoach that carried them to the gala at Lord Cepher's floater. Once they arrived at the dock, Segi introduced the group as Lufa Arabambi's family. He couldn't attend himself so they were representing him. they were let in.

Segi breathed a sigh of relief as they were escorted in from the dock, through the garden and into the great hall inside the house. The other mages dispersed amongst the crowd, as they began to search.

Segi's gaze darted across the group as she met and greeted people. She even ran into "uncle Longbeard" Who was actually just Lord Arabambi from Sungan. They talked briefly about her life, He asked her when she was getting married, as usual, and she came up with some excuse to brush it off.

Throughout the night, she ran into multiple Arabambis, most of them trying to get her to join in on some scheme, or reporting family drama to her, or trying to size her up and see if she was more or less of a failure than they currently were. After an entire hour of exhausting familial dynamics she decided to use the restroom.

She was washing her hands in the vanity when a hand, popped out of nowhere, and wrapped itself around her throat and squeezed, rendering her uncapable of speaking, or for that matter, deploying spells. The owner of the hand soon whispered, and the voice chilled her to the bone.

"hello there, princess. You remember me, don't you?"

It was Zeron.

"I'm going to release your throat now, but I swear, If you so much as utter the first syllable of an attack or defense spell, I will burn through your belly with my hotfist."

He brought his other hand right in front of her face to show her his glowing fist, then took it away, she felt the heat from the fist right next to her sides.

He released her throat, and there was a brief silence, both of them tense and desperately trying to predict the other's moves.

"We Identified your colleagues." Zeron said slowly. Watching her for any sudden moves. "We're taking them all out tonight."

"on a date?" Segi whispered. Zeron didn't laugh.

"We're killing them all." He said. "You know, you have some nerve coming after us, don't you, little princess?"

"I'm older than you, boy." Segi said quietly.

"Pretty sure that's the least of your worries right now." Zeron said. "Right now you should be asking me how you can possibly get out of this alive. I get to choose a single survivor from your crew to go tell the story. Why should I choose you?"

Segi gripped the vanity and glanced slightly to the side. She saw the hotfist right next to her stomach on the side. Could she deploy a shield fast enough? or perhaps quiet enough so he wouldn't hear her? But then if she was too quiet the spell wouldn't trigger. She cursed her luck.

He prodded her.

"Well? Fight for your life princess." Zeron said. "What do you have to offer me?"

"I won't bargain for my life over my comrades." Segi said, beginning to sweat. "Screw you, Zeron."

"Okay, that's fair. I suppose." Zeron replied, moving a finger close to her skin. The burning heat caused her to grimace. "So, say I kill you, who should I leave alive? I don't know their names, but you can just describe, no worries."

"I'm not playing this game with you, Zeron." Segi said with gritted teeth as the pain from the hot finger was starting to get excruciating.

"Oh you will..." Zeron said, moving the finger closer, her skin almost began to sizzle, she cried out in pain, failing to stifle herself. Before Zeron could react, there was a louder noise from the hall. For a split second, Zeron was distracted, Segi took the chance to deploy a shield, the puff of smoke from the paper drew Zeron's attention back, he realized a split second too late and as he tried to bury his fist in her stomach, it bounced off harmlessly off her skin tight, nigh invisible magical armor.

She deployed her speed and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him down on the vanity. His shielded body broke through the ornate porcelain and he landed on the ground as water spilled on him.

She activated her hotfist and lunged at him as the battle noises in the Hall surged, mixed with screams and gasps from a trapped audience.