Fort Defiance

Outpost of the 12th Jade Falcon Lancers

“I am telling you, we are all going to die. None of the nobles with the magical gear, and none of the cultivators with actual power are willing to leave the fort. The last six patrols we sent out, only two returned. They haven’t sent anyone higher than a Sgt, and you know they don’t like you.” Jenny “Bubbles” Chang bitched as she fingered her bow, eyeing the foothills suspiciously.

Her lover and Sgt, Li Sung Wan gripped his spear and tested its looseness in the saddle socket. He laughed loudly and answered her, not unfounded, concerns with his own observations.

“Relax Bubbles, if we make it back, then the odds of survival for patrols become almost one in two, way better than the one in three they are now. Plus, we don’t have any noble officers who want pretty ranks and brave displays, so we can sneak like a bandit’s ex wife looking for child support, we lack any proud sect cultivators, so if we see anything that looks like it can turn a patrol of Jade Falcons into a nice festive skull display, eat our souls, livers, or tender sexy bits, then we will ride away screaming leaving our dignity behind to trip the enemy!”

Bubbles and at least half the patrol laughed openly and began to relax. Their eyes never stopped scanning the hills and the old hands were visibly watching their horses for any sign the beasts felt, heard, or smelled anything that bothered them. After a while, Bubbles shuddered, then looked back over her shoulder at the twisted path to Fort Defiance. Sgt Sun Wan held up his hand, halting the column. For as much as he joked with his lover, and as much as she pushed insubordination with her bitching, not a single member of the platoon denied that she was a witch. Her herbal remedies were beyond the point of curing the diseases they got from camp followers, and all the way to heal an arrow wound to the chest in two days. For as much as she turned her back on her noble family and its political games, the power of her blood didn’t care that she had not taken the path of a cultivator and had continued to awaken itself to meet her needs. When a Witch shudders and looks back over her shoulder in fear, wise soldiers want to know why.

“What is it Bubbles?” Sgt Sung Won asked cautiously.

“I just got the feeling that we are the lucky ones.” Bubbles said, the rough mask of the solider girl falling away, and the ancient eyes of a seer staring back at him.

All through the patrol, soldiers checked their weapons were loose in the sheath, bows were strung, and helmet straps tightened. Event the horses no longer plodded, their heads were up, eyes and ears alert as the patrol rode into the hills that had become a death trap. As they rode, the spectre of doom grinned back from their every shadow, and the feel of the strings of fate drawing tight about them like a noose grew on all of them.

As night fell, the patrol set a heavy watch and pitched their tents close together. Bubbles snuck into Li Sung Wan’s tent and pressed against him with a smirk.

“We can’t Bubbles, the men will hear.” Sgt Sung Won protested.

“The men hear all the time, last payday they clapped and cheered when you broke the bed.” Bubbles protested.

“That was different, I was drunk.” Sung Won protested.

“I was sober. You weren’t that drunk, you are no good when you are drunk. I’m sure I can find wine if you need it.” Bubbles offered, wiggling in ways that were making his protests hard to believe, but he stayed strong.

“There are no officers with us, so I am in charge, I have to set a good example.” He replied piously.

Bubbles sighed and rested her head on his chest. “You were always so upright, when you were my father’s guard captain that is what made me seduce you in the first place. Plus you had such an amazing ass.”

Li Sung Won smiled and held her closer. “We got away by luck, the arrows from the guard almost killed us. He still has a bounty out on me, on both of us now.”

Bubbles giggled. “Oh please, they were your men. If they wanted to hit us, they would have hit us. Besides, its not a big enough bounty for anyone to come after a Jade Falcon Lancer, the Jade Falcon Sect would destroy anyone who dared, and whoever hired them. Besides, you took to corruption like a fish to water.” She gave up and decided to sleep. Her dreams were full of the screams of the dying, the vision of red eyed pale clawed things that used to be men, a black talisman hung about their necks, and the wounds of their first death gaped unclosed upon them. Behind them, a figures in the robes of ancient high ministers moved with stiff limbed unnatural bounds, a cold feeling of despair rolling off them like fog. As they passed the corpses of the defending soldiers, they dropped black talisman on each corpse, blood crawled from they dying man to form a chain that bound the talisman to the new corpse, and the corpses eyes flew open, red and burning.

Late the next day, the patrol was riding back to Fort Defiance, the Sgt arguing loudly with his lover and second in command.

“I can’t believe you broke discipline like that. I mean we lost half a day chasing that horse just because you wanted to go skinny dipping. I thought you were a soldier under military discipline?” Sgt Li Sung Won shouted angrily.

“It’s not my fault you failed to secure your horse. I tied my horse up properly and it never ran off. I even chased down and recovered your horse for you. It’s not my fault when I announced I was going skinny dipping you jumped off your horse so fast you forgot to secure it. Besides, if you hadn’t been so loud frolicking in the water, you might not have scared the horse off. I mean, she probably feared for his virtue. The mare wasn’t wrong, you were certainly storming the ramparts of my virtue like an all conquering army!” Bubbles cheered, several of the men gave loud cheers.

“It is bad for discipline! You ordered the men not to interfere, you LET the horse escape.” Sgt Li Sung Won complained.

“I like watching your ass when you run naked, it’s not like I get that many opportunities. Besides, I didn’t order them to not interfere. I just shouted ‘Twenty zhu on the horse!’ I mean, I knew how tired you were. I could barely walk. A girl has to think about her financial future. It’s Corporal Chang Qua’s fault that no one went after the horse.” Bubbles answered without any shame.

Sgt Li Sung Won turned to his second corporal and raged. “Chang Qua, why the hell did you ignore my orders? You are supposed to be my subordinate, not Bubbles. Remind me how the hell a supposed elite soldier got sentenced to Fort Defiance in the first place again?” The Sgt snarled.

“Gambling sir. And I did show support. I put twenty zhu on you to catch the horse. I mean, sure we all heard how much vigor you and Corporal Bubbles exerted in the spring, so I knew the men would despair you had no strength left, but I had faith in you sir. Now I have faith and a hundred and twenty zhu!” Corporal Chang Qua smiled like a fat tiger. “Besides, it is my duty as one of your loyal subordinates to punish lack of faith in their commanders vigor. Plus, if I interfered with a chance for Bubbles to watch your ass and manly bits as you ran after your horse, she would most certainly have done violence to my body, and you know that I am afraid of her.”

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Sgt Li Sung Won glared at his second corporal and muttered darkly. “What about your pride as a man and a warrior, do you feel no shame admitting to be terrified of Bubbles, even if she is the second best swordsman in the whole damned fort?”

Corporal Chang Qua offered a mocking bow from the saddle at his commander. “My pride as a man took as great a beating as Corporal Bubbles when I saw you running after the mare bare arsed naked. For a swordsman, your spear is quite intimidating. It quite unmanned me just looking at it. Plus the men didn’t think anyone could outrun a horse with that thing flopping half way to their knees, so getting others to bet on the horse was a lot easier.”

This time Bubbles led the cheers and his men began singing an obscene peasant song about a five legged bull, and the Sgt noted that he was not going to get to the fort before sundown. At least his men’s morale was high, even if all of them had suffered from terrifying dreams in the night the night before. Honestly, he was pretty sure it was to get rid of the chill of the grave that he let Bubbles seduce him into skinny dipping, and, well, frolicking, in the damned spring. He held himself a virtuous man, but Bubbles had decided to seduce him when he was captain of her father’s guard, and he had never had any ability to resist her. Honestly, since they had become lovers, they had both become so strong that he had taken most of his last years savings including bonuses for monster core’s killed to buy swords enchanted strong enough for the two of them to use, just so they wouldn’t shatter. Getting Bubbles a bow she could draw with her full strength had required him to kill a Demon Bull just for horn strong enough for the bowstaves, and sinews strong enough for the string. She was born from a cultivation family, and had become quite the witch to keep their platoon alive in Fort Defiance where getting mid tiered cultivators as healers was a pipe dream, and healing pills from alchemists were something only the officers could afford. He had no idea how he had grown even stronger than her, but given the rising tide of demons in the land, he thanked the Celestials and every single dragon for their blessings in this time of need.

As night fell, they approached Fort Defiance, and instead of cantering faster as horses did sensing the end of a long patrol, they became restive, fighting the reins and snorting in agitation. Sgt Li Sung Won raised his hand and whistled, causing the column to halt. Bubbles rode up beside him, an arrow nocked on her bow and all trace of joking lost.

“Something’s wrong.” Sgt Sung Won stated, rather than asking.

Bubbles slid off her horse, tossing her Sgt the reins as she muttered quietly. “I didn’t feel the wards on the road that should have come up when the sun fell. Now I don’t hear a single animal cry, not an owl, not one fucking monkey. The whole forest is quiet like it’s scared to breathe.”

Sgt Sung Won muttered quietly. “Get eyes on the walls and gate and get back to me. No heroics. I don’t like this.”

Bubbles ghosted off into the night, around him, his men dismounted and began to apply cloth wrapping to their horses hooves and tightening down any of their gear that might rattle or otherwise make noise. The preparations for a night assault making the men’s faces grow pale. They were riding back to their own fort, a fort of the Jade Falcon Lancers, who would dare to assail a fort of such a powerful sect? No bandit would dare, and there were no other sects that could get an army here except by the route they just patrolled. The other direction in the pass Fort Defiance held was Jade Falcon sect territory, and beyond that, their allies the alchemists of the Perfected Essence sect. They were a powerful sect economically and politically for their alchemy gave them control of the pills required to clear cultivation limits for all stages, created pills to counter magical and mortal poisons, pills to clear diseases, pills to raise your spirit and physical power for battle. While not a threat themselves, no sect would dare raise a hand against them for fear they would throw their support behind their enemies. The Jade Falcons patrolled the lands around both sects in return for a steady supply of the goods from their junior alchemists, and had grown stronger than rival sects in the area through this trade. There should be no threat from that side.

Should be.

Bubbles came back at the run, moving faster than a horse and straight at her Sgt like an arrow from her own bow.

“There are no fires on the walls, the gate is open. There are figures moving on the walls, again, no watch fires. Also, no weapons with the figures. Not a spear, not a bow. They walk funny, more like beasts than men.” Bubbles gave her report clearly and softly, for whispers carried far in the dark.

“Shit.” Offered Sgt Li Sung Won. There was no choice. He had to find out what had happened. He could not bring his platoon in, for they may well be the only force of the sect that knew Fort Defiance had fallen. He tossed his reins to Corporal Chang Qua. Slipping off his horse he drew his orders book from his saddle bags. He took his paint brush and ink pot. Using Bubbles hands as his drafting table, he drafted his report swiftly, then let her use her witches breath to call wind essence to softly dry the ink before folding and sealing the letter.

“Hold this, if we aren’t back by dawn, sneak into the mountains and use the smugglers trail to bypass the fort and ride to the sect. It is slow and shitty going for horses, but if we don’t make it back, assume both the fort is fallen and that riding near it won’t be survivable. If we can, Bubbles and I will infiltrate, find out who took the fort and how, and get back. If we can’t do it, then there is nothing the patrol could do.” Sgt Li Sung Won offered quietly, and saw the controlled fear in his subordinates. No one made a big deal about it, but both Sgt Li Sung Won and Corporal Jenny “Bubbles” Chang had both won duels with sect cultivators, lacking any of the chi powered spiritual abilities of the spiritual cultivators, but far exceeding the raw physical power in the ways that only body cultivators and magical beasts could. In terms of raw combat power, it was accepted as a fact that if both of them took on the rest of the platoon, they would win. If something in the fort could stop the Sgt and Bubbles from reporting back, nothing the rest of the platoon could do would make a difference.

Meanwhile, on the smuggler’s trail, two figures ran silently through the night. Those that looked at them would think they saw an illusion, for the two ghosted over the trail soundlessly, which should be impossible for figures running as fast as a galloping horse, but the figures moved like this was less than a light jog for them. One was tall, blood red horns and flaming red hair marked her as an Ogress from the Mountains of the Maiden, and her spear was sized for one of her stature and raw physical power. Beside her ran a squat figure that might have been taken for a dwarf had the Ogress height been only human. Since she topped seven feet, the squat figure was actually man sized, if a bit large for the breed, and his spear was likewise thicker and longer than the norm for humans, yet he held it like it was lighter than a willow switch.

They both took the air like hunting hounds. Their senses stretching out over the night. The chi here was tainted. There was the scent of demons in the wind, the scent of fresh death and corruption. The larger of the two hit the treeline and knelt, before going to her belly and low crawling to the edge of the treeline to observe.

The smaller crawled beside her. That would be me. It still took getting used to, being the smaller of the two of us. Not that I had size issues, but the god in my head always laughed when I had some residual ego issues when Astrella did things like pick me up and princess carry me when she accidentally lopped off a leg during sparring.

“So, this is your Fort Defiance, the Jade Falcon sects border post right?” I asked softly.

“Yes. The gate is open too. At night.” She said, not putting anything in her tone at all.

“Is that normal around here? A border fort not closing its doors at night. No posted sentries. No watch fires. Not even an archer on the walls?” I asked, pretty sure that I wasn’t going to like the answer.

“No. The humans are always killing each other over something. If you were stupid enough to not always be on your guard, someone who was more careful would have already cut their throats and now have their own guards patrolling the walls, and the gates would still be locked tight by nightfall.” Astrella said quietly.

“We could wait until morning to investigate.” I offered reasonably.

She turned to look at me and cocked her head, it made her look too cute for seven feet of horned killing machine, but I had a serious weakness for redheads. “Are we?”

I grinned. “Of course not. Entering behind brave banners and shouted challenges is a good way to find out how many archers they have, and if anyone inside can cast fireball. Lets sneak in like thieves and see if anyone objects!”

She grinned back at me. “What could possibly go wrong?” She asked rhetorically, then continued. “Mother was right Bolverk, you are not a nice man.”

Carefully worming our way over the crest of the hill before standing, making sure not to skyline ourselves in case the silent fort had unseen watchers, we kept to the shadows as we approached the walls of the fort, ready to get close to the gate only when in the shadow of the walls and safe from overhead observation. Nothing about that silent fort and the strange tainted chi leaking from it did anything but fill them both with a sick sense of wrong.