Story so Far:

* The Whales battle a Lifebane Titan

* The mice intercept giant insects known as "crystoliths" trying to capitalize on the distraction. Seeing their numbers, the mice get straight to business and engage in chemical and guerrilla warfare,

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S03E09

Tales From The Redoubt

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Ingrid then was flung backwards, hundreds of feet away onto the opposite wall.

Everyone quickly scrambled away as the Lifebane Titan had risen once more. A violent maelstrom of aura wreathed its entire body like a golden flame.

"Viel!" Kvaris yelled. Viel was breathing heavily.

"It won't..." she was panting now. "It's beyond saving itself now." the ciltran girl said as she collapsed against Iohann's lap.

__

Ingrid slowly looked up from the Ingrid-shaped hole she made on the wall. The aura-clad titan looked in her eyes what she probably thought what sapient sauropods thought their deities might look like, its battered body notwithstanding. It was galloping at her with a speed that would have been thought impossible for a creature so massive. As it barreled its way towards her its back-sails let out a barrage of colossal bolts of energy.

"Starchaser, its rampaging on its last legs,finish that bastard off!" Philia yelled down the radio.

Ingrid leapt from one bolt of raw magic onto another, each one as big as a bus and faster than a speeding bullet. Time seemed to slow around Ingrid as she flowed her mana into her nervous system, perceiving everything around her moving so slowly. Each bus-sized bolt she leapt from collapsed onto itself, expanding into a sparkling nebula of ether before accelerating around her despite everything moving to a crawl.

Leaping from the last bolt, Ingrid launched herself at the titan, its ruined eyes replaced by glowing orbs that allowed it to see one last time, focusing on her as its sole enemy. Even with her moving so fast she could see the beast's expression slowly contort as it realized that she had closed the gap.

Ingrid twisted her body, performing one devastating mid-air kick after another. The Ether coalescing around her body created the image of a huge knight with a literal huge fiery mane of red hair armed with a massive sword. Each swing of his sword mimicked the arc of Ingrid's kicks, each attack releasing an even larger crescent shockwave that passed through the titan’s body.

“Excalibur!” Ingrid yelled, the majestic eidolon of the knight finishing the combo with a dramatic downward slash as Ingrid performed a mid-air bicycle kick.

The Lifebane Titan's aura dissipated as it crashed to the floor one last time. As its mana-generated eyes began to flicker and its vision began to fade, its colossal head was the last to hit the floor.

On its way down, it saw Cecil and Ralph.

"Hi!" the slime said one last time as Ralph pulled the trigger, the RPG round accelerating its final faceplant.

___

Elsewhere:

The courtyard of the Storm Gate Fortress of Teth-Odin was bustling with activity. Along the rows of restaurant stalls, a stoic rhinoceros and his boar companion were enjoying their meal of steamed noodles in a hearty broth.

They remained unfazed by the series of tremors that rumbled beneath them, attributing the disturbance to Siria and her entourage encountering a formidable creature or a pack of particularly powerful beasts. Without a doubt, monsters disgorged from some fell Riftworld that had been a thorn on the side of everyone ever since it had manifested after the Red Moon.

"It's been quiet for quite a while now." The boar said, slurping his noodles.

The rhino looked up from his steaming bowl, "Mm-hmm. You suppose that was the King Below?"

The boar loud an amused, porky snort "I wouldn’t be surprised."

The rhino nodded in agreement, holding up a finger. The gnu chef let out bovine grunt in approval before serving him a second helping.

"If that rabble kept up I was going to suggest we go down and silence that ruckus ourselves." The boar grumbled "these noodles are too delicious to spill a single drop of broth at."

The gnu chef chuckled in the background.

"Patience, Bart," the rhino said, gesturing at the walkie-talkie that Ingrid gave them. "We need to wait for the little fiend to give us the word. They found the rift."

Bart Smith grunted, eyeing the little black box with suspicion. "You better, fiend. Siria's life is at stake below."

"O-of course I will!" Neith snapped, changing her voice into one of a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Rather than reveal that the walkie-talkie was a technological device that facilitated distant communication, Ingrid had explained to them that it was a little box that contained "a nasty little fiend sealed within" and warned them to neither attempt to open the box or douse it with water, under the threat of releasing the vile entity. To keep up the facade, Neith spoke to them using that cartoon voice, occasionally uttering threats of what it would do once it had escaped.

Both men met the little imp's threats with levity; for when Ingrid introduced the device to them, Siria (playing along,) warned the imp to not betray them or it would face the rest of its existence inside that little box, forever imprisoned.

“Rhamad, Bart.” Neith said in her little imp voice. “The King Below is no more.”

The rhino shrugged and paid ten gold coins to his boar friend.

"The Rogue Rift has been found. it's right in the middle of the Titan Cage."

The boar let out an agitated growl "Finally, we will rid the dungeons of that detestable rift."

Rhamad however, remained cautious. "Let me speak to Siria."

___

In a redoubt near the Titan Cage, most of the Whales were sprawled on the floor, the massive fight with the Lifebane Titan and its impromptu crystolith allies, the strain of item boxing so much loot had worn everyone down. Ingrid was encased in a large formation of ice, the cold embrace slowly restoring her mana.

"We took quite a beating down here." Siria replied to Rhamad. "And yes, the Lifebane Titan, we killed it.."

Rhamad was quiet, digesting the information, Neith decided to spice things up as well as maintain the charade.

"Enough Siria! Release me already!"

"If we did, you'll just make that box explode with all your stored magic inside." Philia said, cryptically hinting at the Semtex she had crammed in every possible cavity of the device "Don't think we've forgotten your little schemes."

"Grrrr!" Neith growled.

"Anyway," Siria continued "Spread the word, and attack the Rift at your discretion. We on the other hand..." she paused to glance at her team. "We're going to need a few hours to recover."

"Take me back to Siria!" Neith hissed angrily "Our deal is done here!"

"Oh yeah..." Siria said, putting on the facade of disinterest as if taunting "the imp" about not upholding her bargain. "If you folks are coming over, do hand me back that imp. I need to reinforce the seal on that box..."

"We shall." Rhamad told her.

"No! Nooo!" Neith yelled, subtly altering her voice to sound almost like Eric Cartman. Philia chuckled, seeing how well Siria used some interesting reverse psychology to ensure their walkie-talkie would be returned to them without fail.

As the walkie-talkie made a beep sound to indicate that the lines were now closed. Philia and Cecil burst laughing.

"Dammit, Neith!" Cecil chortled "If I wasn't a slime my drink would've come out of my nose!"

"Well aren't you glad you are a slime!" Neith chided him, synthesizing from her speakers a perfect Eric Cartman impression.

All the mice but Ralph had entered Cecil's room, industriously cleaning their guns and refilling their ammo, preparing for the next battle. Cuddly was sprawled atop Viel, wheeking softly and happily as the ciltran girl petted her, while Peanut was being cuddled by Kvaris and Kinu who were napping together atop an inflatable mattress.

Johnny was wriggling happily as he wandered up and down the redoubt chamber, clambering up the walls and crawling upside-down the ceiling with ease.

Philia sighed "No hiding it now, this party killed a Titan. They're gonna know we pack quite a punch."

Cecil chuckled “What? Is some obnoxious aristocrat gonna ask us to join his entourage? Be his hired goons?”

Siria sighed “A possibility, yes. It wouldn’t be the first time I had to pay a visit to some local lord to be his errand girl in exchange for some status I don’t want.”

Philia waved her hand dismissively “Took care of it a long time ago.”

“How?” Cecil swivelled his portal to face her.

“Prime Minister Thalassar’s got Crows, his spies, busily collecting information up and down the kingdom. Your usual CIA outfit.” Philia began, finishing the last of her ale, delightfully chilled from sitting in Cecil’s refrigerator for hours. “It’s only a matter of time they start sniffing around, that Red Moon incident and how Ingrid basically carried the whole battle can’t remain a secret for too long, people are going to talk.”

Philia began removing the metal bits of her armor, so she could comfortably lie down on her own inflatable mattress.

“Therefore,” she continued, “the best way to shut down annoying nobles from making us their thugs is to nip the problem right in the bud, we’ll get the King to ask us to pay a visit.” She made a gun motion at Cecil for emphasis.

“And then what?” Cecil queried, hovering down to take her empty ale jug and cup “You know Ingrid’s not gonna like that. We're not gonna be royal errand boys, and we're definitely not gonna attend discount Hogwarts!"

"I don't know what that is, but it sounds horrible." Kvaris remarked, stirring from her sleep and cuddling Peanut. The little mushroom murmured in her sleep and hugged back, making cute sounds.

"We won't." Philia said reassuringly, reclining on her air mattress, "I've already taken steps to ensure that won't happen."

"How?" Cecil leaned forward curiously.

Philia stretched and wiggled her legs, yawning. "Because, prior to faking my death, I wasn't just king Raldia Elion-Nosco's daughter, I had an actual position as one of his higher ministers. You remember how Caligula made his horse a senator just to spite his ministers? Well, I wasn't just any horse, I was that kingdom's dark horse. Truth be told, I was neither trying to make Elion-Nosco a better place since that was utterly pointless, nor was I genuinely advancing that kingdom's ability to make itself stronger. I took that position just so I could do some good old money-laundering to enact Operation Runaway."

Philia shifted a little, yawning.

Gwen took over for her "Allow me to explain. Had Miss Philia not faked her death and simply defected here to Veles, king Raldia would use it as pretext for war. His gullible citizens would buy his story that she was a victim to some Velesian trickery and would clamor for conscription, demanding their 'beloved princess' back. That said, now that Miss Philia faked her death, if the King of Veles adds her to his court, it would only make him look like the mastermind behind the fire at the Old Palace of Elion-Nosco. Again, another pretext to war that Raldia would eagerly exploit."

The princess' smile got only wider, flashing her teeth like a predator showing its fangs.

"Keikaku Doori," she declared, "They can't take us."

“What if the King just hides you?” Cecil asked.

Philia laughed out loud. “The outcome will be unchanged," she asserted. “Plus, it’s bad PR hiding me from view like an embarrassing guest, His Majesty would be no different from Raldia.”

"Why don't we write a letter to the king now?" Cecil suggested, "That way we could head off some greasy nobleman's talent scouts."

"Oh Cecil," Philia scoffed, "if they were real talent scouts, I assure you, Ingrid would elbow her way for a bikini photoshoot, no questions asked. But yeah, let's have Ingrid write the letter since she's the leader after all. It's crucial that we impress on them that she is our head honcho, and not Siria, whom the Crows might mistakenly identify as such if they've noticed us."

Cecil glanced at Ingrid, still frozen in her rejuvenating ice. "Yeah, let's wait till she finishes stewing there." he said ironically.

"There's also the possibility they've already written a report to Thalassar or someone a few desks down the factually unnecessarily long bureaucracy conga line," Philia yawned. "But yes, it's a good idea to have Ingrid write one. Finally, we can make good use of that printer, and thank God for PDF formats."

“Alright then.” Cecil said, settling on a corner. Turning to the mice he called out to them “Guys! Hurry that up so you can take your siesta too, we’re Oscar-Mike in a few hours!”

The mice excitedly squeaked a reply and resumed their work.

Siria looked around, the rest of the party who were still awake were making themselves comfortable before they too settled into their siesta. Cecil has angled his indoor portal so it now had a patch of sunlight from his balcony shining on the floor, which Johnny and Selphie snuggled into, being plants.

A wall of sandbags shielded the party, taken from Cecil’s room just as a precaution in case something, or someone with ranged capabilities barged in and started assaulting the party from a distance. Rhamad had been warned that they needed to announce their presence before entering the Redoubt, citing it had been booby-trapped and required the Whales to disengage them.

Siria yawned and settled down as well, the elf smiling as Philia stirred in her sleep and glomped her.

___

Autumnhollow:

"Welp, this is going to be like watching paint dry." Zefir said wryly. "What sort of unnecessary protocols do we need to observe in the King's castle, Gwen?"

Gwen's ears wiggled as she jogged her memory.

"We could just have Ingrid go there herself." The ciltran maid responded, stretching. "The journey from Teth-Odin to the royal capital takes about two weeks by horse, the ATV would make it faster indeed, but if we can limit our presence to just Ingrid and Cecil and the rest of us stay here in Autumnhollow and use a computer, it'll lessen the pressure on us being part of his... as you say, royal lackeys."

"Hold on a sec, Gwen." Zefir said, waving his arms. "You're forgetting something. There's a limit to the range our ability to communicate goes. Either someone needs to enchant our devices or we have some infrastructure to carry that signal across such big distances..."

Gwen thought for a moment

“This might be a little technical, Glados, play me some Tchaikovsky.” she said.

“Conversation muted.” Neith replied.

Gwen turned around to face Zefir and took a deep breath.

"Miss Philia already answered that problem..."

___

Years Ago,in the palace of Elion-Nosco:

"No, we can't." A young Philia said, "We're not giving an inch of Elion-Nosco soil to Freid, that's final."

King Raldia grudgingly eyed his daughter with admiration, she had become his impromptu adviser since the previous one had betrayed him. She was young, but somehow she had wiped out a whole section of enemies without committing any soldiers in the field.

"I'll take care of it, I'll just take Aymon and a few merchants with me and in a few days the south-west border will be back to pruning their trees for fruit."

"You're the king's adviser, Philia!" snapped one minister "this isn't the time for you to play pretend-knight!"

Philia's wide grin was disturbing. For a moment everyone thought the human was going to become feral and pounce on them, but she remained seated. "I'm not playing knight, minister. I'm playing Philia. Besides..." she rose from her seat and saunted out of the room "...shouldn't you be arguing over who gets to take my place if I suddenly die?"

Raldia was impassive as his daughter sauntered the room, he remained unflappable as his ministers barraged him with questions regarding the invasion that was sure to come on their borders.

"Your grace!" said one minister, "bastard daughter or no, she is the princess, no Elion-Noscoite royal can afford to be taken prisoner!"

"But they can afford to be killed in battle, no?" Raldia said coldly, his eyes glinting, "Send some men to follow her and dispose of her if the situation becomes untenable..."

Outside the room, Philia continued to walk with a grin, the bickering inside the Raldia's war room carrying on perfectly through the bugged chandelier and into her concealed earpiece.

"King Fish to Maid One." Philia said softly as she made her way downstairs.

"Maid One here, Pointy-Ears is unresponsive... is he...?"

"Dead? No." Philia grinned as she waved past a few more ministers. They ignored her, but it was important to keep that "please love me" facade of hers. The more they ignored her, the more she could carry on her secret projects in peace.

"Increase the dosage on him and keep asking him who he gave the Scroll of Temblor to. His mind's frazzled right now, so be sure that recorder is on."

In Philia’s chamber, Aymon's eyes were glazed over as the drugs took effect, his mind racing through a whirlwind of confusion and pain. Gwen leaned over him, trying her best to see if he could reach deep within that jumble of memories to find the crucial information they needed. Despite lying on a daybed, he felt as though he were upright, floating a few inches above the floor, with his feet feeling unsteady despite their firm contact with the plush upholstery beneath him.

At a table behind his head, an imp imprisoned in a little box continued to utter banal chants in duress, yet every utterance felt like a veiled threat of what it would do once it was released.

“Five…Eighty-Four…Sixty-Seven…” the imp hissed menacingly.

"The city of Shihno, three years ago... you were there with us, you accompanied Miss Philia and me to obtain the Scroll of Temblor from that city. We went to the mayor’s house for a ball, it was in your possession then, what happened to it?"

"Yes..." the elf sighed in response "...we were giving the mayor a..."

"Aymon?" Philia asked, looking up at him curiously. She was covered in head-to-toe in black and wore an unsettling mask that made her look like an upright ant-eater covered in leather. "You looked like you dozed off for a second there." she said, her voice slightly muffled by her grotesque mask.

"Sorry, your grace!" The elf apologized, he nearly stumbled as he found himself standing.

"Tighten that mask, Aymon. We don't need you coughing up and dying so soon." Crotad said gruffy, tightening his own.

The four of them had stacked up by a pair of double doors leading to a ballroom beyond. The clinking of glasses, the excited chatter of guests, as well as the strings of a quartet played faintly in the background. "Keep your head on, Aymon." Philia said adjusting her mask "The Scroll of Temblor’s here somewhere, we’ll find it."

"Yes, your grace."

Gwen looked at him with a hint of concern then shrugged.

The door flew open with a hard kick by Crotad, the guests had barely enough time to act when the four of them opened fire at the assembly, screams of panic echoed as the bullets tore through the masquerade party.

Aymon's hands were steady as he fired his "Emm-Sixty" into the crowd, mowing them as easily as a scythe against dried wheat.

"[This noise is going to attract every city guard and knight from miles around!]" Crotad yelled in Velesian over the din, but the thrill of the destruction his machine gun wrought was undeniably exciting.

"[Good!]" Philia replied, "[Everyone's invited to the party!]"

The four of them made their way down the ballroom, in seemingly no hurry. Predictably the guards of the manor burst through but were no match for the quartet armed with heavy machine guns.

"[They'll get their mages soon, once they find steel to be of no use.]" Gwen warned Philia.

"[Perfect.]" Philia replied "[Spares us the trouble of looking for them.]"

The four of them heard footsteps stampeding down the corridor, a squad of guards and knights in full plate armor rushing to their aid. Philia wordlessly pointed and Gwen quickly turned to engage them, firing in controlled bursts, effortlessly taking them out wholesale.

The four of them stepped out into the grand hall of the mansion where it was utter pandemonium inside as people were scrambling away.

"[Pick them off with single shots.]" Philia said as they opened fire on the guests.

The carnage was unreal, blood painted the walls, chandeliers swung on their chains, their light glinting off the pools of crimson forming on the floor. The quartet moved methodically through the room, slaughtering everyone in their path. Would-be saviors drawing their swords or reaching for their staves were quickly shot in the head by Philia, stopping them cold.

"[Time to make everyone hurry up.]" Philia said, pointing at Aymon she ordered. "[Do it.]"

Automatically, Aymon dropped to one knee and took off his backpack, producing from it a big black switch box. Despite his efficient movements, his hands were uncontrollably shaking, and his legs felt like they would give away, yet they held. The bloodshed was unreal yet somehow his body was guided by the God of Courage itself. With trembling hands he flipped the switch.

Another chorus of screams rang out, this time from outside the mansion as explosions rocked the exterior of the mansion.

"[Veles says hello.]" Philia told the frightened survivors, before motioning for Crotad to kick the door.

A sickly yellow-green fog filled the air, causing everyone to cough and choke, before the deadly nerve gas introduced further symptoms. Only the quartet from Elion-Nosco were unaffected thanks to their hazmat suits and gas masks as they carefully made their way out of the mansion, the guards were rapidly succumbing to the toxic cloud, rapidly losing consciousness as their bodies twitched and spasmed.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The chaos outside was a symphony of panic as people ran away in fright, screaming.

"[Where to?]" Crotad asked as they slowed down to almost a leisurely pace,

"[Extraction.]" Philia said as the town's bells rang. "[We're about to lose our welcome.]"

As they headed down the Noble's District they once again encountered the city guard, but their fine armor was no match against high-caliber rounds, slaughtering them before they could make use of their finely-crafted swords.

Meanwhile, fires had spread from the mansion and were now engulfing the surrounding neighborhood.

"[Deploy]" Philia ordered, and Aymon once again reached into his pack and produced a canister. He unscrewed the lid and threw it on the floor, unleashing more of the vile nerve gas into the air.

"Tell me!" Gwen urged, getting up from her chair, a cold breeze blew through the parlor of the Old Palace. Shuddering, she quickly walked over to close the window.

"You were there with us.” Gwen said, sitting back on her plushy chair. “What was in that canister?"

The elf's eyes rolled at the back of his head, his limbs flailed a bit, finding himself back in Philia’s room, lying on the daybed.

"VX, Philia put VX in that canister as well as generic green mist so it was easy to see where it would spread."

"You put scrolls in a canister!" Gwen asked, shaking his shoulder "Where did you leave that Scroll of Temblor?"

"[Get up!]" Philia yelled, shaking him awake . "[On your feet, soldier, we are leaving!]"

Aymon shook himself and took the little girl's hand. Despite being the smallest of the group, Philia easily hauled him back on his feet. The wooden floor underneath them shook as the burning building took another hit.

“[Keep every pint of your blood in, Pointy-Ears!]” Philia shouted over the din, “[Only you can get that Scroll of Temblor working!]”

There was a rumbling below as the knights outside were smashing the door downstairs with a battering ram.

"[It won't take them long before they realize they can't smoke us out!]" Gwen said, peeking through the window, she quickly dodged as another magic missile streaked through the air and tore a hole through the ceiling, showering them with splinters. In retaliation, the cilran quickly peeked out and opened fire on the city guard below, catching them off guard as a storm of bullets shredded their bodies.

"[Chief!]" the orc yelled,"[I see a way out!]"

"[Pointy-Ears, get a feather fall on that back alley now! Move!]" Philia barked, elbowing Aymon in the ribs. The elf stumbled and quickly peeked out of the window, he needed to maintain visual contact as he began chanting.

"[Is it that high? Can't we just jump?]” Philia said, a gaggle of knights burst through their staircase below and Philia let loose another burst of gunfire at them. She threw a grenade down for good measure.

"It's a five storey drop!" Aymon protested, sitting up from his bed.

Gwen however, was pacing the parlor back and forth, the air was nice and clean again, not like the gas mask that was on his face earlier that put all the fruits of his exertions back at him. The maid was talking to nobody but had a finger behind one ear.

"No, he’s having trouble remembering the events of the brewery." Gwen said, looking at Aymon who had sat up in his bed. “He says we had to feather fall out of there, but you just jumped into a hay bale.”

"Hartpenny!" The elf shouted, disoriented at his sudden shift of surroundings. "What's going on here? What was I remembering? What did we do? Who were those people!? Th-they were speaking Freid..." the elf clutched his head. The visions were so vivid he could smell the smoke through his mask, and the weight of the masheen- what was he holding? It was heavy like a club, but he wasn’t swinging it around.

Seeing the elf having the telltale headaches, Gwen remembered Philia’s advice. Act Natural. Act angry.

"That's what I'm asking you!" Gwen said, hoping the unexpected anger would turn his thoughts elsewhere. "The Scroll of Temblor! Who did you give the scroll to?"

"I..." the elf stammered, trying to rack his brain for memories he wasn't sure he had... "I don't remember a scroll!"

There was a sigh somewhere in the room as Philia entered.

"My lord father's assigned me to take care of the incoming invasion by Freid." Philia said dejectedly as she slumped on a couch. "If they get that scroll, Aymon, there won't be an Elion-Nosco for us to be executed in..."

Gwen saw the elf's shoulders droop in defeat, in frustration, Philia got up and kicked a chair.

"What did you do, Aymon!?" Philia yelled, running up to him and shaking his shoulders "Who cast a spell on you that you can't remember!?"

"I-I don't know!" Aymon said, his eyes wide with fear, "I-I don't know what happened!"

“Ninety-Six, Twelve, Eight.” the little imp in the background hissed, as if taunting Aymon of his stolen memories.

“Silence imp!” Aymon cried “Stop speaking in numbers!”

“It’s helping us, Aymon.” Gwen said “And the longer you take to remember, the bigger the price we must pay to the imp.”

"What about Shihno?" Philia probed, Gwen rolled her eyes. “The Scroll was in Shihno! I gave it to you! What happened?”

"Your grace... I don't think he even remembers properly!" Gwen mock-protested.

"But we did!" The elf protested."You were there! Her grace was there! We..." he paused to clutch his head. "We were to assassinate the nobles of Freid and pin it to Veles. That was your..."

“Twenty-two, Forty-Two, Six-Hundred Fifty-Seven.” The imp growled in the background.

"No more of this weird kobold medicine. Gwen." Philia said with surprising calmness. "Whatever they did to him to Freid, ensured he can no longer tell us about the Scroll of Temblor..."

"No! I do remember! I can...!" Aymon said, standing up. He felt a hand grab his from behind.

He almost stumbled as he realized he was looking down a cliff somewhere in the Eastern Elion-Nosco badlands. Somehow he was standing.

"Aymon! What's gotten into you?" Philia shouted in surprise. “You can’t read the Scroll of Temblor if you’re dead!”

"Y-your grace! Pardon me!" Aymon apologized, quickly backing away.

He looked around, unsure of his surroundings. Why was he here again?

"You passed out." Gwen said "You did it, you launched the Satellites into the air!"

Satellites! Oh right! That's what Philia called those artifacts that would destroy Elion-Nosco. He used his telekinesis to send the whole accursed lot high into the air, the ordeal had knocked him out.

I should have been lying down then, he thought to himself. Why was I walking around?

Philia and Gwen huddled together, looking at a gray tile, it was rather large, like the ones one would see on a patio, they were looking at it like one would read a book.

"There we go! Houston, we've entered orbit!" Philia cried happily, jumping up and down and giddy like the young girl she was.

"One small step for Terragalia, One giant step for me! ME!!!!" Philia laughed, continuing to hop around happily. "Who won the space race? Me! Nyahahahaha!"

Aymon staggered over to see the side of the tile that Gwen was looking at, maybe it had some kind of strange riddle carved into it, or some enigmatic carving.

It took him several seconds to realize he was looking at a vantage point from high above the sky, the vantage point continued to climb and climb. He saw the red and tan soil of the badlands, steadily falling away to reveal vast expanses of green wilderness, blue rivers and grey cities, he saw the land continue to shrink until the ocean surrounded everything.

And then the ocean gave away and the world curved around, revealing a sphere that floated listlessly in a vast abyss.

Gwen's legs buckled at the sight of the world shrinking beneath them, the elf and the ciltran sat down to prevent themselves from falling over but their limbs were shaking.

"This... this...is the world?" Gwen said in disbelief and fright.

Philia continued to laugh and skip around, not bothering to look. "It sure is, Gwen!"

Aymon looked up at Philia with dread. "Wh-what are you?"

Philia stopped her childish celebration and looked at Gwen curiously. "What's wrong with Aymon?"

Gwen composed herself. "I think the drugs are starting to wear off. A lot quicker than I expected but that's the thing with elves."

"Oh, right." Philia, relaxing visibly. "I'm guessing it's going to take a while to remember everything... I'm Philia Elion-Nosco."

"I remember that!" Aymon said, gritting his teeth as his head started pounding with pain. "I'm your assistant, assigned to protect you! What drugs are you talking...unghhh..."

"Do you remember that thing I once said about me being reborn from another realm?" Philia said, calmly pacing around with her hands behind her back.

Aymon laughed as he rubbed his head. "Yes..." despite the headaches he found it funny that despite acting very mature for someone very young, Philia still had childish fantasies.

"Humor me on this," Philia said as she continued to pace in circles "Back in my old world, we’ve sent beyond the sky observers like those satellites, so we know what our world looks like from the outside. As a matter of fact, it’s common knowledge. Children younger than me know of it as fact. Also, we’ve long sent people to the moon, and we have probed even more distant planets beyond that dark abyss.”

The two listened to her in silence. Her tone didn’t look like she was lying.

“We call it outer space…and it’s not a pleasant realm to be in. It’s so cold, no air to breathe, and without the air this planet shields itself with… why the very rays of the sun would mutilate your body, like a mortal standing before the presence of a God.”

Philia lightly kicked away a rock that was in her path and continued pacing in circles with a playful childish gait.

“Now here’s something more pertinent, we had something called MK-Ultra, it was a method where they would rewrite someone's memories and even their personality, it had a lot of possible uses... for example, it allowed you to assist me in my little projects while keeping the whole thing secret from Raldia... even though you had to regularly report to him personally."

Aymon sat up straight. How did she know?

"Because you told me." Philia said, as if divining his thoughts. "To be honest, I originally planned to make you just tell Raldia one inane report after another. But..." Philia tapped her temple "You were also quite a brilliant mage... most people were under the impression I wanted to learn as much magic and become a wizard, but in reality, my interest in the matter wasn't that deep."

Philia paused to let the words sink in, brainwashing? Philia seems to imply that she had put him under some spell that had been tampering with his mind. If his mind was being tampered with some foul magic, then surely Raldia would have known. He goes to visit him regularly of course, as matter of fact. Even if the Old Palace was pitch black, all he needed to do was climb the Rose staircase three stories up, take the west wing and turn right on the third corridor five rooms down…

…into Philia’s bedroom.

The King’s chamber, or that of anyone important wasn’t in the Old Palace.

Eyes wide with panic, Aymon looked back up at Philia.

"I decided to put your skills as a wizard to better use. Today, you've launched my Satellites into orbit, now free of most of this world's gravity, they will ceaselessly patrol the heavens above."

Aymon felt something wrong with that statement.

"Patrol for what?"

"A bird's eye in the sky." Philia explained. "One of them's a spy satellite, so now I have a vast unblinking eye surveying all that is in this world, the others? Well, to simplify it... after I bring a few more things into this world, I can communicate with others no matter where they are. All thanks to you."

Aymon blinked, these artifacts she was talking about seemed too good to be true. She said she had tampered with his mind, was she planning to monopolize the power of these artifacts for herself?

Aymon, you fool! He chastised himself. What have you done? Why did you let Philia-

“Just a little more, work with me!” Philia said as they both channeled their mana. He and Philia unleashed a torrent of their mana into the portal. Aymon once again nearly lost his balance, but righted himself as he continued to channel his mana into the spell.

“Come on, Aymon!” Philia yelled, “The Scroll of Temblor is in one of them!”

The elf shook his head and yelled, he didn't know what was occupying his thoughts earlier. The portal was opening, the “Satellites” that Philia warned him about were now visible from the dark chamber of some unknown banal temple.

Slowly, with his telekinesis he carefully lifted all twenty of these horrible artifacts, out of their sanctuary and into the sunlight, out here in the badlands.

Even if they failed, Philia told him, Elion-Nosco will have plenty of time to prepare and stem the damage.

Suddenly, the whole chamber was flushed in a crimson light and a piercing shriek from some unknown creature echoed within.

“They’re trying to unleash the fiends in them!” Philia shouted, “We must take them out into the sunlight where they can’t harm anyone!”

The portal collapsed on itself with a loud crack of lightning, the impact shoving them backwards.

The elf, panting, quickly got up and helped Philia to her feet. The little princess casually dusted herself, ignoring the now dead men she had used to brunt the massive cost of summoning the satellites.

Their faces looked familiar, but Aymon’s sudden onset of a headache occupied his thoughts. Were these men bandits? When did he subdue them? Why did they have the royal livery of Elion-No-

“[Yeah, Baby!]” Philia exclaimed in an unknown language; though his interpretation spell translated it without issue, the princess raised her fists as she observed the huge metal objects in front of her. Basking in the sunlight, he could now see these “Satellites” clearly. They were a jumble of odd shapes, like odd decorative trinkets artisans would do to show off their ability to cut, mold, and weld metals back together. Some even had decorative frescoes over it, with Philia ogling the image of a human. There was an almost religious reverence as she suddenly knelt and prostrated herself before the image.

“[Woohoo! Alright, let’s take these babies into orbit!]” Philia said excitedly, padding over to their luggage and taking out rejuvenation potions. “Drink, Aymon! We got a job to do!”

The elf snapped himself out of his reverie. In horror he realized that he had pulled those accursed artifacts from Philia’s old world. He glanced at the bound, dead bodies that were sacrificed to enact her vile ambitions.

"What about Freid?" Aymon cried in panic. "Why did we waste time over some useless artifacts!? We need to stop..."

"We stopped them, Aymon." Philia replied, grinning. "We massacred a gathering of nobles, poisoned the air of the city and pinned the blame to Veles."

"That was three years ago!" Aymon protested "We were there with Cro-NNNGH!" he paused as he was racked with headaches again. He could hear the screams of the citizens as the vile mist mercilessly poisoned their bodies with no hope for a cure, he felt the heat of the flames that were spreading everywhere.

The voice of the imp was in his ear, taunting him with his vile incantations

“Eight, Sixty-Nine, Seven Hundred Seventy Four…”

A firm arm hooked around his, he was lying on cold hard cobblestone. His ribs still aching as he fumbled his roll in order to avoid a fireball.

"[C'mon! Get up! Get up!]" Crotad roared through his gas mask as he pulled up Aymon. The elf shook his head. The dark streets of Shihno was lit up with rampant fires and green poison mist suffused and reflected the light everywhere. The orc quickly picked him up and threw him into the wagon.

"[Hold on tight!]" yelled the wagon driver. The two steeds reared up defiantly and shot across the streets of Shihno.

Gwen peeked out and quickly darted back in.

"[They've closed the ga-]" she shrieked in panic as another explosion rocked the city. The wagon lurched and bumped along but continued to run, past the blown-up gates and taking them out of Shihno.

...

Philia halted the wagon some distance away, content that the darkness would shield them from view.

"What are we waiting for?" Crotad asked. "Shouldn't we head back to Elion-Nosc-"

Gwen yelled in fright as Philia shot the orc in the head.

"We need to make a message." Philia said flatly. Together, she and the sorian driver dragged the orc's body onto the grass and took off all his gear. Philia reached into her bag and dropped a Velesian badge near the man.

"The patrols will be coming to this area soon. When they find Cory's body, Freid will knock on Veles' door with swords." Philia explained, motioning for everyone to hop back into the wagon.

"W-why!?" Aymon demanded, suddenly finding himself back atop the bluffs in Eastern Elion-Nosco. "Why'd you kill Cro-I mean Cory?"

"Oh you do remember now, even his actual name." Philia remarked, looking pretty impressed. "He was a Velesian spy of course. He thought he could deceive us, well, you guys did, not me."

"You don't know that!" Aymon said. He tried to get up but his head was aching. "Are... are you going to kill me too?"

"No." Philia shrugged her shoulders. "Unless you're a Velesian spy, last I checked, the only one you're spying on is me under Raldia's orders. Unless you have other masters you’re whispering secrets to…"

"I'm... I'm of Elion-Nosco!" Aymon snapped. "If we've already stopped Freid... then why are we here?"

"To launch the satellites." Philia said.

"How are we here?" Aymon asked, "We should be in the capital while war is still going on!"

"King Raldia has yet to learn of our successful mission." Philia told him. "Also I needed to hunt down the last of his spies who were sent to assassinate me in case our mission failed. I manipulated you to use your magic to track them down. It's been about two days since we attacked Shihno."

Aymon felt his stomach twist into a knot.

"What else..." he began "What else have you made me do?"

Philia furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm only ten, Aymon! Not enough years for us to go on adventures worth a hundred episodes! MK Ultra takes time to work, and I just needed you to get those satellites up without you asking too many questions."

There was an awkward pause, that can't be right. He could remember... things. Just like that memory where he... Something felt wrong. It should be something he could recall, he had just pulled it out of the shelves of his mind but now in his mind's eye his hand grasped nothing.

He tried to recall the recent thing they were talking about, the... what was it again? He and Philia were dancing in a ballroom of course! In Veles!

Philia looked at Gwen as Aymon stared blankly.

"What's going on, Miss Philia?" the maid asked worriedly. “He hasn’t said anything besides asking you what else he has done.”

"Withdrawal symptoms." The little girl said flatly, straightening up as she got some water boiling. "His brain is all fried. Welp, time to put him out of his misery." With that, Philia pulled her pistol and shot the elf clean between the eyes.

Gwen watched as the little girl coldly executed someone she had known for years. Her stomach turned, she had to look away.

"Fortunately, since we just did something extremely difficult and foolhardy, Aymon's death won't be met with suspicion. As a matter of fact..." Philia laughed, twirling the pistol with her index finger "...let's just say old pointy-ears used himself as a shield to protect me, sounds like a good idea, what do you think Gwen?"

The maid nervously nodded, her hands shaking. "M-maybe we shouldn't do this Emm-Kay Ultra anymore... i-it sounds like it's too dangerous."

"Yup." Philia said, effortlessly holstering her pistol without looking, "I can't remember how many times I have to remind myself to say the magic words to help stir his mind back on track. I need something easier and less random, I mean..." the girl wiggled her arms around to indicate a jumble, "...what was I thinking using 'Scroll of Temblor' as his magic word? I mean if people overhear it, it just begs to be asked all sorts of awkward questions. I need something easier to work with, you know? Something you can say casually and people will just outright dismiss it."

"Are you...going to kill me one day too? Miss Philia?" the maid sniffled.

Philia quickly padded over and gave her maid a hug.

"I'll protect you."

___

The Present Day:

"Okay so if I understand correctly..." Zefir paused "...Philia drugged and did some MK Ultra on this guy Aymon, and because he's such a good wizard, she decided to use him to launch some satellites."

"Precisely." Gwen nodded "We were at war with Freid at the time, so Philia took the opportunity to stop the invasion by pinning the blame on Veles. “

Gwen paused to help herself to her cup of coffee “The idea was that Veles was using this incoming invasion to steal back some disputed artifacts. Freid held them and according to their history, it was gifted to them, not Veles, who incidentally believes it to be the other way around.”

“So in other words, they would buy Elion-Nosco’s excuse that they had nothing to do with that attack, and Veles had a motive and opportunity to strike unexpectedly.”

“Exactly, Miss Philia wasn’t given an army to march down to the border with Freid. So the Freidians had no reason to blame the Elion-Noscoites since there wasn’t an army camping outside of their country. It was just a small group. Aymon was trained in firearms and tactics of your world through the MK Ultra program, as well as to forget them when needed. I'm not sure of exactly how it worked but to put it succinctly, Aymon was becoming more and more unstable, in the end, even if she spared his life then, he would have just simply snapped one day."

"Still..." Zefir remarked, scowling "To think that just four of you managed to sneak into a city and gun everyone down. Why the dramatics? Why not just detonate the bombs from a distance? According to the story, all one needed to pin the blame on this country was to leave Cory with a Velesian badge."

Gwen's eyes widened as if a lightbulb went off in her head. "Oh right, I only gave you the plausible memory that Aymond had. You see..."

____

Shihno City, Freid, Several Years Ago:

"You with me still, Pointy-Ears?" Philia asked, lightly pushing Aymond who was having an episode of his mind blanking out.

"Y-yes your grace!" The elf said, steadying himself against one of the pole racks that stood in this vast cloakroom, like army of attentive valets.

Philia smiled, patting his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, we will find that Scroll of Temblor before morning."

"Heh, about time we do." Cory said, stuffing the Velesian relics in his bag. "You sure you want me to hold on to this?"

Philia held up her hands and shrugged her shoulders. "Unless we have someone who can item box, you're the only one who can carry it."

"They're waking up, King Fish!" Gwen said, pointing her gun at the stirring butlers.

"Maid One, no." Philia said, pulling a knife from belt. "Guns are too loud. Help us out, Allen." she added, referring to Cory's codename during this operation.

"With pleasure, boss. Pointy-Ears, watch the door." Cory said, drawing his knife.

As the butlers lay bleeding out, the squad quickly changed into their black hazmat suits. There was a collective chuckle as Gwen remarked everyone now looked like ant-eaters. Philia took from one bag a huge amount of thermite, rigged to a bomb that would explode in a few minutes.

"Once I press this switch, it's time to strike." Philia warned. "Check weapons."

Quickly and efficiently the three of them checked their guns were in working order.

"Let's go then." Philia said, activating the timer for the bomb.

The four of them swiftly moved along the dimly-lit corridors of the mansion, the muffled sounds from the party concealed their footsteps on the plush carpet, blending seamlessly with the typical cacophony of a large assembly.

Gwen pressed her ear to the double doors that led to the ballroom.

"Are you sure we have to shoot our way out of here, King Fish?" Gwen asked. "Won't it be much better if we just let the bomb and nerve gas do the killing?"

"No, they need to see us." Philia said, tightening her gas mask. "Otherwise, this will be mistaken for a cone hat party trick gone wrong. This is [Terrorism], it needs a face."

"Terrorism?" The rest echoed, parroting as best as they can the word Philia said in English.

Philia walked to the door, ignoring their confusion, she checked that a round was in the chamber of her gun.

"Ready?" Cory said excitedly.

“Ready.” Gwen exclaimed quietly.

“Ready.” Aymon nodded.

"S'nami Bog..." Philia said cryptically, turning to her team. "[Remember, No Noscoan…]"

Cory kicked the doors open, and together they opened fire on the unsuspecting guests.

…

"What are we waiting for?" Cory asked. "Shouldn't we head back to Elion-No-"

Gwen yelled in fright as Philia shot the orc. Arcs of lightning from her gun caused him to seize up and collapse to the ground.

"We need to make a message." Philia said flatly, reeling in the taser. Together, she and the sorian driver dragged the orc onto the grass.

“Almost a shame we can’t take those relics, boss.” The Sorian driver said as they laid the orc on the ground.

“They’re worth more in enemy hands than ours.” Philia explained as they removed all the modern equipment off of Cory. “To this day there would be many nobles in Veles who would pay good money to have those returned to their country.”

The sorian grinned, his chuckle like an alligator’s bellow as his scales flashed the color of amusement. “That’s quite a lot of people to implicate.”

“A lot…” Philia replied. She pulled the knapsack that contained the relics, opened it slightly so they were visible, then clenched the orc’s fingers around the pack straps. The orc’s fingers flexed lightly in response.

“He’s dead.” Philia lied, quickly taking out smelling salts and waving them over Cory’s nose. “He was Velesian, and he thought he could deceive us, now, Freid will knock on Veles’ door, with swords.”

As they finished throwing in the last of Cory’s equipment, Philia noticed that Aymond had gone pale again.

“What’s wrong with the elf?” The driver asked.

Philia quickly jumped back inside. “I think some of the poison gas got to him,”she lied. “He’ll make it.”

___

Autumnhollow, Present Day:

Zefir sat back on his chair, the Whales were still napping quietly.

"It's a little hard to believe we've got Philia working with people from kingdoms her family was at war with."

"It's too late to worry about that now..." Gwen sighed "She's announced her identity ever since we joined Ingrid. Kinu and Kvaris don't bear any enmity with her because Amaduscia by that time had long retired, also, Freid's conflict with Elion-Nosco was diverted towards Veles which to this day is widely believed to have been done by overzealous actors."

"Third parties, got it." Zefir said.

"As you say." Gwen continued "If it's of any relief, that act of Miss Philia's saved more lives because Veles was willing to deal and make compromises, and thus smooth out misunderstandings. By that time, sufficient forces had built up on the border that coming into a full-blown conflict was deemed ill-advised. An armistice was signed and since then, Elion-Nosco has been mired with the same territories with no new conquests for years."

Zefir sighed "I hope the Enthana girls don't think too badly of her."

Gwen's expression was troubled as well "I hope so too as well."

___

Elion-Nosco Palace, Several Years Ago, Days after:

Gwen waited nervously outside the council chamber as Philia gave her debriefing to the King and his ministers. As she sat on a divan and looked out the window, she could hear past the chirping of birds bits and pieces of Philia’s report.

“Yes, Shihno’s burned to the ground. My mercenaries took care of that, the war with Freid and the opportunity to sneak in and take their holy relics was an opportunity they could not afford to miss…”

“Unfortunately, yes. Aymon and Cory were Velesian spies all along, fortunately Freid did us a favor by eliminating them, so we don’t have to worry about angering Veles, since we didn’t execute them ourselves. I believe the Velesian throne will be satisfied using their deaths as a pretext for further conflict with them.”

“The invasion’s finished, we don’t need to send as many people to the southern border since Freid will be busy focusing on their other neighbor.”

“Yes, you could say that Veles is now relying on us to keep Freid restricted to just posturing and making threats. They can’t fight two enemies at once. Now, Veles will owe us a favor.”

“Yes, Lord Father, of course, I’ll keep the maesters informed.”

___

Velesian Palace, a few hours later:

The King of Veles sighed and stretched after finishing the day’s work at his desk. Letters were signed and agreements sealed. Replies were made, people bowed and scraped as they were introduced to his room to favors and petitions while ministers came to give news both good and bad, and sometimes causing the king to call over an aide to take back something he had written.

Today was a less frantic day, and he was looking forward to a few days of putting his royal status to good use by enjoying himself in the countryside. One more letter came up for the king to read, and this was delivered to him personally by the Prime Minister himself.

The King sighed but decided to take a few minutes to read, it was rather short, only one page. The Prime Minister was quiet as he handed the letter over, letting him know that whatever questions that would arise after reading were either too obvious or had no answers forthcoming.

> Cory’s accomplished his mission, the Sigil of the Dove and Icon of Saint Erythren should be on their way back to Velesian soil.

>

> With these holy relics restored, the Order of The Holy Fire and the Wings of Light will see a revival in Veles, these churches will now owe your kingdom debt they can never repay.

>

> The ones that have been restored to Freid are fake, there will be quite an uproar in the days to come once the spell wears off.

>

> That said, these two are only half of the relics that once graced Veles. The other half are probably still somewhere in Freid.

>

> Shihno has been severely devastated, the severity of the attack, the ineffectual attempt to halt it, and the attribution to Veles means we will minimize deaths because not only out of fear of the power of the attack, but they know your kingdom always has an ear for Reason.

>

> It’ll be difficult, but I’m sure you can convince them that your throne had nothing to do with this attack, and was probably motivated by miscreants here in Elion-Nosco.

>

> Incidentally, I’ve also taken the liberty of pilfering from Shihno something interesting, it’s a revolutionary advancement that I think all kingdoms regardless of outlook would benefit from. We have “Pointy-Ears” to thank for that, he helped uncover the secret to Freid’s once-exclusive magic.

>

> As for me, Elion-Nosco thinks I had Velesian-speaking mercenaries carry out the assault, financed by a few hard-liners in your kingdom.

>

> They still haven’t figured out that I’ve been undermining their attempts to gain new territories.

>

> The Elion-Nosco war with Freid will bogged down soon, and the war-hawks promoting this idea will be finished. It also seems those in power are promoting me to a higher position. I expect in the coming years we’ll have better opportunities working together to keep the peace.

>

> The enemy of your enemy,

>

> King Fish

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