It was surprisingly easy to get out with all of the soldiers distracted in the fight. Lucas reunited with the others and they watched from afar for a little while. At first, it was hard to tell which side was winning; then, finally, they saw the townspeople triumphantly leaving the town. There wasn’t a single soldier in sight.
“Get someone down there to guide them,” Sidyn ordered. “With that kind of fighting spirit, it would be a waste to have them stay here.” One of the men nodded, took a horse, and rushed to meet up with the townspeople.
Takedon stared at all of them in disbelief. “They really beat the soldiers..? This truly is the cause we’re supposed to join… our time of oppression is nearly over.”
“I knew they could do it!” Lucas said victoriously. “All they needed was someone to give them that final push of confidence.”
“That same person should probably start moving, too,” Sidyn remarked casually. “While all of you were busy watching the battle, I saw a hawk fly out of the town. They’re bringing in reinforcements eventually; or at the very least, they’re telling the king of what happened to all of them.”
Lucas’s bubble of victory was immediately popped. “Oh… Where do we go now, though..?”
“Definitely not up north,” Missa decided. “Most of them are pretty loyal to the king and strongly against magic. No doubt all those who are a bit skeptical of his ruling will still rat us out in a heartbeat if they know what we’re doing.”
“They’ll be looking all over Tramos for the rebels once the king hears word of it…” Clari mumbled. “It’s not even safe to go back to Nixon.”
“Our goal is to gather as many magic users as we can before heading to the king,” Sidyn said. “Now that the king is going to learn what happened, we don’t have as much time as I had originally thought we would. So we should make sure, wherever we go, we make it count. No place in Seothia is going to give us a large guaranteed amount of magic users who are willing to join our case. Our best option will be to head to the border.”
“We’re staging a rebellion in Seothia, here, not Fleyw Bresh,” Lucas pointed out. “I agreed to use magic users but I’m not getting any closer to their nation than I have to be.” Honestly, he didn’t know if he said that out of respect for their land or because he just generally hated the idea. It was common knowledge at this point that magic users could bring all sorts of bad things with them. What could a whole nation of them do? It’s not like any other place had the reputation of literally never being its own, independent kingdom despite existing just as long as Seothia had.
“It’s only the border,” Sidyn responded. “Even if we tried to get past it, with the kind of motley group we have, we’re not going to be getting very far. Despite how much they’re struggling here, they’re doing a surprisingly good job at keeping large groups out… though I don’t think they’ve realized yet that small groups can do just as much damage.”
“Fine,” Lucas sighed. “I guess we’re heading towards the border.”
When the townspeople joined them, Sidyn distributed all of the people into two separate groups. One of them, overseen by Takedon and several others that he noted as trustworthy, would go around south of the capital. The other, which included Lucas, Sidyn, Clari, and Missa, would start heading north before going to the border. Takedon’s group would split up even further and visit several towns in order to get the supplies for the whole rebellion force. Lucas’s team would get to the border as soon as possible and gather information. When they reunited in about two months, they would hopefully have at least two hundred more people behind them and would march for the capital. If any one of those things went wrong, or if that wasn’t enough, well… they didn’t discuss what would happen then. They just hoped that it would be just as easy as it sounded when they came up with the plan.
Lucas’s group, at least, didn’t encounter any major difficulties on their way there. They almost ran into a group of soldiers every now and again, but they were always able to get out of it before it became a real problem. He had to stay hidden in one of the wagons, though, since he was the most easily recognizable out of all of them; Sidyn had insisted that they would be looking for him as the leader more than they would the townspeople who had fought.
The border, when they got there, was much more open than Lucas had imagined it. He’d thought of somewhere with a bunch of soldiers from either side, or at least a fort or two that they could use to defend their kingdom. There was nothing but a few trees, millions of wildflowers, and a lake he could hardly see across. They made camp in what they decided to be the best spot and started their search for magic users.
It would help if they knew exactly what they were supposed to be doing.
“Are magic users even going to be on this side of the border?” Lucas questioned. “It’s so close to their home that they can just stay there. They have no reason to leave Fleyw Bresh, do they? They definitely don’t leave because they think they’re going to be taken care of here, at least…”
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“Rumor has it there’s a group of children of Fleyw Bresh that are down beneath the earth somewhere,” Missa remarked. She didn’t sound like she believed it herself. “They say the entrance is around here somewhere, but they’ve got a beast watching over them and no Seothian’s ever gotten close to them while they’ve been down there.”
“I’m certain that, to some degree, they exist,” Sidyn said confidently. “But wherever they are, they’re good at keeping themselves hidden. There’s got to be someone around here who knows where that entrance is; even with magic, it can’t be possible to survive down there without any kind of outside interference. They have to have a supplier of some sort.”
“Great, so how do we find this supplier?” Lucas sighed. “At this rate Takedon’s going to be back and we’d have made no progress at all.”
“If they’re desperate enough to hide underground to escape oppression, then they’ll definitely be willing to see the end of it,” Sidyn began. “Their supplier should know that, too. As long as the right person catches on to why we’re here, then they should come to us.”
“This entire thing sounds like a bunch of ‘as long as everything goes to plan,’” Clari mumbled with a worried frown. “Are we sure there isn’t any way we can solve this definitively? I don’t think we should just wait around here any longer than we have to…”
“You’re welcome to try anything you think will help,” Sidyn returned. “You’ll just have to remember that we can’t draw too much attention to ourselves. At least, not any more attention than what a group of a hundred-some men all at the same camp is.”
“I mean, I’ve been around magic users long enough to be able to tell someone’s magical potential,” Missa offered. “Their supplier will definitely be a child of Fleyw Bresh like they are. There are some Seothians with that kind of power, but they’re so far and few between that I doubt any of them would be a soldier and stationed here. If we’re just going to be sitting here for a while, we might as well wander around and see if we can scope out the possibilities, right?”
Lucas nodded. “I think it sounds worth a shot, at least. It’s a better plan than just staying here.”
“I wanted to look around anyway,” Clari admitted quietly. “Even while I was traveling with my uncle, I’ve never seen a place like this. It’s got this serene feel to it…”
“We’ll go together,” Lucas decided. “That way you won’t be alone.” She smiled at the offer.
Missa stood up, too. “And as long as you two lovers don’t mind, I’ll join you. We’re kinda surrounded by enemies on all sides so it’s probably better to have a bit bigger groups.”
They both nodded their agreement and the three wandered out of camp. Eventually they ended up getting right next to the edge of the water and sat down.
Clari rested her head on Lucas’s shoulder. She carefully plucked one of the flowers and admired it. “These are so pretty… I wonder why I haven’t seen any of them in any shops…”
“It’s called ikretta,” Missa said, seeming to be pretty calm too. “It can grow anywhere, so really I don’t know why there aren't any in usual Seothian florists, but… I know they have a special purpose in what the Fleyw Bresh believe in.” She took one for herself but, instead of observing it, placed it in the water in front of them. “They say this is the lake where Orestis started His creation of the world. Then, when Thalis was tasked with creating a diversity of things throughout His creation, he made ikretta. Orestis liked it enough that He gave it the power to bloom anywhere, no matter the season, and made it the lifeblood of the gods—the key and quite frankly only ingredient of ambrosia.”
“What other stories do you have?” Clari asked thoughtfully. “Before, I had been under the impression that there wasn’t much beyond the base of what you believed in. I’m realizing now how kind of silly it was of me to assume that’s all there was. I don’t want to be ignorant of your way of life like so many others are… If Seothia and Fleyw Bresh are going to be working together after this, then we need to be able to understand and accept what makes us different. I’m willing to start that process, if that’s all it takes.”
Missa clearly looked impressed. “Despite how many stories I know, it’s kinda hard to just pick one or two that’ll make sense to you…” She thought of something after seeing a bug dart in and out of view. “Oh! Did you see that? We call that a dragonfly. They used to be messengers between Great Dragons—those are the ones that don’t have wings. Kinda just look like big lizards with whiskers. Of course, all of the Great Dragons were wiped out a long time ago by Eldrianna. They all stay near the lake now, wandering around and trying to find their old masters. I… guess that’s a sad one, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s fine,” Clari assured her. “Please, if you know any more, share them.”
“Well… wood thrushes are the messengers between the twin gods, Sokratas and Natasa. It’s also said that Natasa taught all the birds to sing, since she represents Music and the Arts. Then there’s this story about a dude who could turn things into gold. After he turned his daughter to gold, he went back to the thing that had gifted the power to him and was told to wash his hands in the river and everything will be reverted back to normal. His daughter didn’t turn back, though. The water goddess, Daphni, also didn’t like getting gold in her river so she created sirens. Now there’s these charming women who want to lure you into the sea and drown you. Isn’t that fun? They say there’s a bunch of ‘em around Qizar. It’s probably part of the reason humans can’t travel to their islands.”
Missa went on to talk about several more stories until the sun started to go down. When they started discussing heading back to camp, someone came up to them.
He wasn’t any of their men; he was short, a bit chubby, and looked like a wild animal surrounded by its hunters. “I couldn’t help but overhear… are you a child of Fleyw Bresh?”
“We’re the rebellion force,” Missa corrected matter-of-factly. “We’ve come here in hopes of getting the children of Fleyw Bresh to help is defeat the king.”
He paused for a moment and looked around before saying, “I know where you can find them, as long as you can assure me that you won’t tell the king where they are…”