“I am vice captain Iris, thank you for your help.” She introduced herself.

“I am Amaya, these are Lucy and the elemental lord is Shani.” I responded while pointing at my companions.

She only looked surprised at the mention of the elemental lord. I suspected she already knew about Lucy and myself without any introduction.

“While I am grateful for the assistance I was hoping you could tell me what is going on.” Iris said.

“We don’t really know and can only speculate. There are runes that have been placed on people. When activated they are consumed as a sacrifice that summons a demon. We saw those back in Iron Rock as part of the inquisition's plan to cause unrest.” She frowned at that accusation but did not comment. I continued: “Today we saw the same thing at a guard station, and with the disturbances all over the city it might have happened elsewhere as well. Shani found some rituals in the sewers and followed the demons here. That is all we know.”

“That is disturbing.” She answered. “It is hard to believe that the inquisition is involved. But they might have been infiltrated.” She looked around the devastation. “We certainly have been. Pulling that off can only work if the guards help to cover it up. This attack took some long term planning. After the guard tower incident a meeting was called and the captain left for the palace. Just after that a lot of smaller things happened. We kept sending out units and started mobilising the garrison. I was in my office when the fighting started. I did not have enough time to put on my armour. All I could do was grab my weapon and fight when they burst through the door.”

“Where are your mages?” Lucy asked.

“Some are out there investigating the disturbances but there should be a lot still here…” Iris frowned and looked around. “SERGEANT HARPER, WHERE ARE MY MAGES?” She shouted.

A man hurried over and saluted. “They eh… they left, vice captain.”

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“What do you mean, left?” She replied.

“They deployed before the demons arrived.”

“You are telling me, that a hundred mages walked out the front door and nobody informed me? Who ordered that?”

The sergeant became visibly paler. “I have no idea what orders they had ma’am. You would need to ask the guards at the gate. I assumed you were the one who gave the order.”

They both looked towards the gate. I saw a few dead bodies there. We would find no answers that way. Iris stared at her sergeant again. She seemed to lack the power to kill someone with her gaze, but she gave it a pretty good try.

She was cold and calm. “Find out where my mages are. And the next time a vital part of this garrison walks out the door you better tell me.” That she was not screaming made it even more menacing.

The man saluted and ran away.

“So your elite units are deployed all over the city. Your only way of communicating with them is magic but your mages are missing. They are also the only ones who could investigate the summonings in the sewer.” I summarised.

Iris winced. “You forgot that the captain is away so I will get the blame for everything…”

“We won't be able to finish our date it seems.” Lucy said telepathically.

“I am afraid so. This has gotten too big to ignore. As much as I want the Empire to suffer the consequences of their folly we can’t just walk away. There are still a lot of innocents in this city.”

“While I agree in principle, Unitera is big. We can’t be everywhere. Our options are basically to investigate the summoning in the sewers or go back to the palace. I have to say I am a bit worried about Loriel.”

I looked into the direction of the palace.

“There is no visible fighting so far. Obviously we don’t know what is happening inside. I would not be surprised if there was a large boring meeting with a lot of shouting. A lot of people in charge like to talk about doing things instead of doing things. With Unitera under attack the last thing the Empire would want is to provoke other nations. The delegations should be fine.” I concluded.

“I trust your judgement.” Lucy answered.

“Iris, we are going to investigate the sewers.” I said.

“While I appreciate the help you are guests in our city. Diplomats even. Your involvement will cause a lot of issues for me… Not that I could stop you.” She sighed.

“What is more important to you anyway, your career or your people?” Lucy asked.

Iris looked around. She took a deep breath. “You are right. Screw politics. I will send someone with you and tell them to follow your lead.”