Meanwhile, back in Dellorim, Elaine was hard at work hunting down any clues as to her disciple's whereabouts.

"Dammit! Are you telling me we still don’t know what happened? Someone had to have talked!" yelled Elaine as she headed towards the Academy.

"I'm sorry ma'am, we’ve done all we can to find out how the information leaked but so far nothing has turned up," replied her subordinate Tyus. "There was undoubtedly a mole in our unit but who they could be and how they managed to avoid being discovered is still a mystery. For the time being, all the men involved in the raid are on house arrest and being questioned daily. As for those three kids… well, we have our best men working on finding them as soon as possible Master Mikorus!"

"Fine. Go then, I'll meet up with you and the others later," Elaine returned, and Tyus left to continue his work. She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose slowly. With a yawn, she continued towards the eastern tower of the castle to meet with her fellow Paladins. Somehow precious intel had been leaked and with no leads to go on, there was a very good chance that the mole was still at large.

Given the circumstances, every person involved in the raid was under suspicion. This left Elaine’s unit grossly undermanned and so getting anything done in the last few days had been more than a hassle. Still, given the sensitive nature of what the Radiant Corps did on the day-to-day, this was a better option than simply letting the mole run free.

As she reached the door, she could hear Fugue and Luth in a heated argument.

"How could this happen?!?" declared Fugue.

"Look, it was only a matter of time before something like this unfolded anyway, wasn't it? Besides, if they had found him, we'd know by now wouldn't we?" responded Luth.

"I don't know, would we? Besides, that's not the point Luth! We don't have the luxury of guessing anymore! You have to see that this has gotten out of hand!" screamed Fugue.

Elaine walked in and took her seat. She could already tell that this meeting would be nothing but bad news.

"Well, well, well," began Fugue. "It's about time you got here. How is it that you live closer than most of us here and yet you always manage to arrive late?" he raged.

"Shut the fuck up, I'm in no mood to deal with your shit today Fugue!" snapped Elaine.

"Oho? Then perhaps you shouldn't have let our last chance slip through your fingers!" he responded.

"Listen here Fugue, I don't care what you think that boy has more potential than you give him credit for! I'm sure he's doing fine right now. Our chance will come again to strike down the Order and when it does, we won't have to risk losing several promising Conductors in the process," Elaine said, her jaw clenched as she glared at Fugue.

Fugue sniffed sarcastically and said, "Oh, well, in that case, we can all rest easy now that Elaine is sure that ‘Order bait Ceraunus’ is just fine!"

"Eh?!? Order bait?! You fucking-" began Elaine.

"Enough all of you!" bellowed Sequinnen as he pounded his fist on the table with a loud bang. "What are we, children? Can we not attend to the matter at hand without you tearing at each other's throats?"

Elaine, Fugue, and Luth all looked a little embarrassed as Gradius and Abbot looked on silently. The three nodded and offered their apologies and Sequinnen continued.

"Good. Now, Elaine, please, if you don't mind can you tell us anything at all about how this happened?" finished the Headmaster.

Elaine stood up, took a deep breath, and, as formally as possible, she began.

"After Cypher left for the docks to save his friends, my team and I headed to the Slingate to wait for his signal. We had prepared a number of different plans, all of which you'll find in the folders in front of you. As I understand it, we were going with plan 12b, an idea of Cypher's own creation. You'll find the information for that plan on page 54 halfway down."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Elaine paused as the others flipped to the appropriate section and began going over the plan they had employed. Elaine let them read for a moment and only continued after that.

"After a few minutes passed we moved into position. At his signal, we went through the Slingate only to find Rel Yuxin and Alylynah Synex waiting for us with a few of their subordinates. My men and I, of course, charged into battle, but it was futile trying to fight them off. Rel and Aylynah are, as you all know, captains in the Order of Eternal Night. They just proved to be too powerful for us to handle with our limited numbers."

The others around the table nodded as she continued, even Fugue had to admit that the odds weren't great in that situation. Captains in the Order were all mostly fifth-rank Conductors, but a few were still only at the peak of the fourth rank.

"Then," continued Elaine. "About midway through the fight, Aylynah simply disappeared. I can only guess that she headed into the warehouse that Cypher had entered. I assume that she was summoned by what was going on in there. In any event, we continued our fighting and eventually forced Rel and his men to retreat. We immediately headed into the warehouse only to discover that Cypher and his friends were nowhere to be found."

At her beckoning, the others turned to the back of the folder in front of them and looked at the captured images available there. Looks of interest crossed their faces as they examined the evidence that Elaine's team had collected. She once again gave them time to collect their thoughts on the matter.

"As you can see, all that remained were four burnt shadows on the floor, and the bodies of the acolytes Cypher and his friends must have killed. I can only guess that the shadows were the afterburn of a powerful teleportation spell, or perhaps even a rift might have opened up there. The results for which of the two it was were inconclusive. In either event, we cannot say where they might have been transported to. The Warpscar had already dissipated long before we could investigate."

Elaine leaned forward on the table in front of her and pressed her hands flat against it, "I have my best men, basically my entire department, working on tracking him down and we may already have clues as to where he might be now, but given that someone among my unit could possibly be a traitor we haven’t been able to do as much as I would like," she said as she sat down, her report finished.

Abbot leaned forward and asked, "You said you found four shadows burnt into the floor, correct? Didn't Cypher only have two friends who were captured?"

Elaine nodded and replied, "That's right, and we noticed the same thing. But who could have been caught in the teleportation? Our initial investigation of the area indicated that Cypher and his friends had been inside his Duality Shield the entire time. Granted, at the time he was facing down stronger opponents, but there were no signs that his barrier failed. Quite the opposite actually, it seems as though it was somehow strengthened."

"Is there any chance that he might have brought someone along that we didn't know about?" asked Abbot.

"No," replied Elaine. "Cypher and I went over every aspect of those plans. All of our ponderings and considerations are in the folders before you now. Cypher wouldn't have brought someone else along. That was one of the things he was most adamant about in almost every course of action we designed."

"Could an Order member have been drawn into the Duality shield during the battle?" asked Gradius.

"No, that's simply impossible. If someone had gotten inside the barrier, it would have meant that it failed. Had that happened Cypher would either be dead or captured, not teleported away. He doesn't know how to use time-space spells on his own yet. I may have supplied him with the Duality Shield, but I didn't supply him with the diagram for a spell like that.”

Sequinnen rubbed his chin, "Hmm, then it would seem there is yet more to learn about this situation. Quite curious indeed." he said, frowning.

"I'm still baffled that we let the chance to strike down the Order slip away from us like this," Began Fugue. "Cypher was the perfect lure for their higher-ups. If he's missing now we have no way of luring them into another trap and thus, no way to finish them off quickly."

"Cypher isn't some pawn to be used as a lure for Order members Fugue!" replied Elaine. "He's a fucking person, not some trick we can employ whenever we feel like it!" growled Elaine from across the table.

"Setting those issues aside," interrupted Gradius, "we still have a problem."

Abbot was quick to follow up with "Indeed we do. The Order has apparently been attacking cities and villages all across the continent. Pelendia, Grine, and Dolmenga have all fallen or been taken by the Order in some capacity. It seems they're making their move."

Luth spoke up at that point, "Ah yes, I've seen the reports on those attacks as well. It seems to me like they're claiming territories in some kind of pattern, though what that pattern may be or what it means is still unknown."

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Gradius.

"At the moment? No sadly," began Sequinnen, "However, High Matriarch Omenril of Farnor isn't pleased one bit. She has already sent troops to fight off the Order but as you can imagine it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine where and when they will strike."

"Aye," added Luth. "Her soldiers either arrive too late or simply find that the Order simply isn't there. Furthermore, the fighting in the few cities that have been taken only continues to rage, and that’s to say nothing of the smaller cities and villages they’re hitting as well…"