Luce kicked away her attack and rolled onto a knee. She raised her rifle and aimed down the sight at the soldier in front of her. He flinched, but she held herself back from firing.

"Back off!" she exclaimed, slowly standing to her feet. "I'm not here to fight you. Just let me walk away."

For a moment, nobody did anything. Then, the sixth shouted, "Catch her!"

The solider charged with sword to swing. Adelle appeared in a puff of rust between Luce and the soldier, the latter ready to cut down the newcomer. Without thinking, she raised her gun and fired. The bullet whizzed pass Adelle's shoulder and slammed square between his eyes. When the man fell back and hit the ground, a flash of magic circuitry ran through the cloak as the protective magic dispersed with the soldier's death.

Luce was stunned in the moment, and apparently, so were all their enemies. But Adelle quickly grabbed her by the arm and teleported them into the air before reappearing in a spot within the tall fields. She placed a hand on Luce's head and pushed them down onto the ground.

"How 'ey do 'at? Where 'ey go?" the voice of the sixth sliced through the quiet. "Find 'em. I wanna 'em girls alive! Kill 'na man if you wan'."

They quietly stayed in their hiding spot as they listened to the soldiers spreading out to search. Luckily, it seemed they were moving apart from them.

Breaking out of her stunned silence, Luce stammered out, "W-where's Josh?"

"Damn it!" Adelle curse.

The elf took a forceful jump and teleported overhead. For a moment, her jump and gravity fought as she looked across the fields. The next second, she returned to the ground.

Whispering, she reported, "I can't find him. We need to trust he had gotten away."

"What?" Luce exclaimed while attempting to keep her worries quiet. "No. What if we leave and he gets caught?" she pleaded.

Adelle let out a growl through her teeth. "Argh... don't give me that look. Alright. Five minutes. If nothing happens, we take it he's safe and get out of here."

Luce nodded in agreement.

They waited, heads in the dirt with the bushelweeds stalk dancing around them, listening for any signs of distress.

There was a rustle in the bushes and Luce gripped her rifle tightly. The image of the soldier she shot falling back flashed across her mind. She took a ragged breath to shake the thought off and focused. Adelle must have seen her hesitation for the elf gently placed a hand on Luce's rifle and lowered it. Instead, Adelle reached into her quiver and pulled out an arrow, silently nocking it.

They watched at the bushels shifted and swayed with the wind. A crack of stalk underfoot from the approaching soldier had Adelle pulling her bow, ready to shoot. As the top of the soldier's forehead - short of the eyes - entered their vision, it stopped and looked around for a moment then moved away.

Luce let out sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the wheat before them parted and a soldier walked right through into Adelle's firing line.

All three of them froze, exchanging nervous glances. Even with the soldier's magic shelled cloak, a shot from the bow at what was basically point blank would still easily blow through the armour and the soldier seemed to know that given that he did not raise any alarms, simply staring and waiting like a deer in lamplight.

They waited there together, unmoving. Seconds passed into what seemed like minutes and hours.

"Hey!" someone shouted. "Lazlo. Any'ing?"

The man named Lazlo turned his head slightly. "Um... no'ing here."

Stolen story; please report.

"Wel', come sweep roun' back."

"Coming!"

Slowly the soldier turned away, his chest rising and falling heavily with anxiety as Adelle continued to train her sights on him.

Even after he disappeared into the the field, no one came after them, but she never stopped holding her weapon up. For another minute they waited, again in silence. It was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. From the corner of their eyes, they saw the bushelweeds to their left rustle unnaturally.

Adelle turned her aim there and fired. The arrow let out the sound of a punch as it hit a target. The flash of the armour cloak gave away the soldier's position and the group of three recruits up to attack, forgoing stealth.

Adelle grabbed Luce and exclaimed, "We're getting out of here!"

"Wait!"

But Adelle wasn't listening. Again, she teleported them into the air. But this time, she found a far off location to escape to and ported them there, landing behind a barn and out of sight of anyone.

"What about Josh?" Luce fought back, pulling her arm away from Adelle.

The elf nocked another arrow and turned around the corner of the barn. She fired, and from the distance, they could hear the soldier shouting at their direction.

"There," Adelle hastily added. "Now they're coming after us. Can we go now?"

Though uncertain, Luce finally took Adelle's hand and together, they made half a dozen more distant jumps away from the searching patrol until they reached a long dried up creak that separated two sections of farmlands. Despite panting from fatigue, Adelle pulled Luce along the path of the dried bed of dirt untill they reached a long stretch of empty crossroad. Climbing out, the elf finally dropped tired at a signpost, leaning against it as she huffed.

Luce knelt down beside her. "Are you okay?"

The elf was breathing heavily. "I'm fine. Just need to catch my breath." Adelle grabbed Luce's hand. "You... need to calm down."

Luce was surprised. "I'm... okay. I'm not tired or anything."

Without another word, Adelle pulled her hand up between their faces. It was trembling uncontrollably and in the silence of their beating hearts, Luce could hear her rifle rattling with each shake. Her kill was still weighing on her mind and body.

Luce pulled her hand away through gritted teeth. "It's nothing." Luce got to her feet and helped Adelle up, slinging the latter's arm over her shoulders. "We have to keep moving."

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Together, they walked slowly through the farmlands. At one point, they passed by a clothes rack where four cloaks had been hung out to air. Luce took them and left a pack of ration as payment. Adelle complained that it was not worth the food, as the cloak smelled of sweat and mold. But with their new disguises, they proceeded through East Ampyre without further resistance, though occasionally slowing to allow for patrols of guards to slip by with less suspicions. By the time they reached the outskirts, Adelle had recovered enough to walk unaided.

As they continued out on one of the many winding roads dug out by cart wheels, the day slowly ended. Being on the edge of the Taint clouds, they could still see the Twins faintly in the northwest, fading quickly behind the horizon. A single mule drawn cart was leaving on another road to their south.

"What now?" Adelle asked as they walked along. "Should we wait for Josh?"

Luce shook her head. "I doubt anything can travel faster than teleportation." She looked around, hoping for a sign. When none came, she sighed. "Let's head to the meeting point. We'll have to trust that he's fine. There's no real way for us to search for him now."

"So where's this Rushtae Tavern we're suppose to go to?"

"I have no idea."

Adelle groaned. "Well, how hard could it be? I mean, Ampyre can't be as large as Everwind."

They continued their long walk. Soon, they would have to find a spot to camp for the night before continuing their journey. Luce would like it a lot more if they were a longer distance away from the farmlands, and thus, out of sight. It seemed the night was going to be without the comfort of fire if they were to be stealthy. Though with the heat of the season and burn of the continent, warm flames seemed unneeded.

A streak of orange light cuts the sky as the Twins reached twilight. In the distance, the first roofs of the city of Ampyre appeared. Fortress Muspell. She had never seen the fortress with her own eyes. Merely within pictures and from tales of war. It was even more impressive in person. The large fortress was surrounded by the four guardian keeps; Towering stone castles that furthered strengthened its borders. The main fortress, unlike its guardians, was made of a metallic stone that sheened in the waning light like a sword hammered into the earth. It's eight arrow towers protruded from the ground. Winding walls around them made the ramparts looked like snakes, curling up each structure.

Within a few minutes and by the last light of day, the entire city's skyline, set atop a country sized plateau, was stretched out before them, silhouetted to the sky. Left to right, horizon to horizon, the city was more of a sprawl. Stone huts and rock buildings littered the landscape, all structure dwarfed by the fortress situated at its northern edge. Pebbles really, when compared to the boulder of a fort. It would take them days to cross the city on foot, let alone find the tavern.

"Wow..." Adelle let out. "That's a lot of walking. I don't think even I can teleport around that distance easily."

Luce agreed. "If we want to find Rushtae, we're going to need a better plan than simply walking around."

"Who do you ask for directions to a super secret underground tavern?"

"I don't know," Luce replied. "But I'm sure something will come up. It always does."