Two days after arriving at the cottage, the rain finally passed. Now with food in their bellies and supplies restocked, the small squad of Cypress Alliance soldiers set off back to their mission.

Elucard marched ahead of the pack in silence. His thoughts collected at the surface of his mind. He had come a hair's breadth from death the other night. Had it not been for the miracle of runecloth, he would be a dead elf and walking alongside Jetta and Alanna. In those last moments—those last fleeting moments of his life, he only wanted to apologize to all he wronged. He did not lead a good life, but one of misery for both himself and those he affected around him. It took a dagger to the neck for him to realize it still wasn’t too late to change his ways, to redeem himself.

Elucard looked at Mave. Now was as good as anytime to start the change.

“Mave…” Elucard paused. The harekin gave him an odd look, but waited for him to continue. “Mave, I just want to say… that I am a jerk.”

Mave grew a wry smile. “I think that’s a bit obvious, mate.”

Elucard bit his lip and looked away. This was harder than he thought it would be. He turned back to her. “I’m a jerk and I’ve done you, your people, and my own wrong.” He said the last part louder for the rest to hear him. The whole squad stopped in their tracks to listen to Elucard.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that I will forever have to live with because they can’t be fixed. Mistakes that were passed down to me because of how I was raised and mistakes that I know I can mend if you all would allow me to work on them,” Elucard said. He walked to Essie and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for betraying your trust, Es. I’m sorry that I haven’t been the leader you deserve.”

She looked up at him. “You have a lot of work to do on yourself to regain my trust, Elucard.” She sighed. “But this is a start.”

He turned to Mave. “I wish I could start our relationship over again and prove to you that I’m so much more than some heartless creature.”

Mave offered her hand. “Mave Silvertail.”

Elucard looked at the hand. He hesitated before accepting it. “Elucard Freewind.”

Mave gripped his hand and crushed it in a firm shake. “Pleasure to meet you, Elucard. Now let’s get on with this mission.” Mave inspected the squad. “Is everyone in tip-top shape?”

Essie stood at attention. “Everyone is good to travel, captain. Timber’s shoulder will be sore for a couple more days, but she should be able to draw an arrow with little problem. Corso’s injury was shallow and has healed nicely. Elisa’s broken finger is more or less healed. I recommend keeping it taped for a few more days, just to be sure. And Quinn, well, he’s a trooper, he’ll be just fine.”

Mave nodded. “We took our fair share of bumps, it’s time we bump back!”

The squad let out an enthusiastic hooah!

Mave caught Quinn’s pouting face out of the corner of her eye. “Aw, why the long face, Quinn?”

Quinn kicked a pebble and lowered his eyes. “I lost all my explosives and weapons back at the town.”

Mave tapped her chin in thought. “Well, I’m sure one of us can spare you a dagger or two, but we’ll have to be on the lookout for some spare explosives.”

Elisa and Bruce donated Quinn a dagger each and Kyzo offered Quinn a pouch of shurikens.

The harekin pricked his finger on one of the iron stars. “Yowch! I tell you what, you keep the stars, lad! I think you could put them to far better use than I could.”

Kyzo shrugged and stowed them away.

The squad marched on until the forest turned into an arid ridge of boulders and small caves. They continued to climb the hilly terrain, heaving themselves over ledges and traversing hills with loose gravel.

Quinn made excellent use of the terrain by scouring for firkrann and other key components for crafting more explosives. Corso climbed to the highest point of the rocky features to scout for any more points of interest.

Mave began to sing an old SMO marching song to pass the time. Quinn soon joined in as he fell back into formation, followed by Bruce with his deep, bellowing voice.

Elucard had a thought to silence the fun and remind them of the importance of stealth, but shook his head and kept quiet instead. Elisa hummed the tune and Kyzo couldn’t help but join the merriment. Essie nudged Elucard.

“Show them that you are trying to change your ways, Elucard. Show them some levity,” Essie said.

Elucard rolled his eyes and began singing.

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“Wearing the black and blue

We plunge through wind and hail

Our aim is always true

And our arrows never fail

Angels in the sky

Flying high on a dragon’s back

Either kill or die

From above, we will attack

We are devils in the night

So bury us with a saddle

This song gives us might

So that we may end this battle!”

“Look ahead!” Corso shouted. He ran back to his squad.

Mave’s face turned serious. “What is your report, Corso?”

“Smoke from an encampment. Small though. Two tents. I spotted maybe three to five people.”

Elucard crossed his arms. “How far?”

Corso turned to Elucard. “A mile down the hill, just before a large, dense forest.”

Elucard took out his map and laid it on the ground. “Dense forest… dense forest…” He followed his finger from the town to where he believed they were and then to a large area just before Aric City labeled ‘Meric’s Morass’.

Mave bent over him with her hands on her hips as she tried to read the map upside down. “Find anything?”

Elucard tapped the large dark green colored area with his finger. “It’s called Meric’s Morass.” He folded up the map and tucked it into his armor. “And if I were them, I’d set up an ambush for our forces in that forest. Deadly enough to take out an entire invading army.”

“Then that encampment might have battle plans,” Mave said.

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Elucard said. He waved over his kanis marksman. “Timber, you and Corso set up a point where you can give us cover fire in the encampment up ahead. Corso will catch you up along the way.”

Timber nodded and stretched out her shoulder. “Consider it done, Elucard.”

“Okay Mave, time for our first assignment, again,” Elucard said with a wink.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were capable of humor!” laughed Mave.

“Consider me a very capable elf,” said Elucard with a smirk.

***

With Timber and Corso well hidden on a hill overlooking the small camp below, Elucard, Kyzo, and Elisa made their way stealthily through the camp. Mave, Bruce, and Quinn stayed behind to keep an eye on any signs of unexpected danger.

The team drew their weapons, and with the quiet grace of a pack of lions prowling the grasslands, the Anti-Rogue Ops dispatched unsuspecting Estinian soldiers until both tents and the campfire were clear of enemies. Elucard signaled for Mave to enter the camp.

“Well that was easier than expected,” Mave said as she popped her head in each tent. “Let’s sweep this campsite for intel on that ambush!”

The harekins and elves scoured for the secret plans, and scavenged for supplies and new weapons.

“Oh!” Quinn gasped while opening up a small barrel next to a detonator box.

Bruce looked over his friend’s shoulder. “Why is it dark red? I thought dragon powder was black?”

Quinn almost drooled. He let out a long whistle and shifted his hand into the coarse minerals. “It’s dragon powder alright, but it’s potent. Real powerful stuff. What these Estinians were planning—I haven’t the foggiest, but I’m not leaving it here to be used against our army, that’s for sure.”

Bruce gave him a nervous chuckle. “Don’t blow your limbs off.”

“You can bet I’m blowing someone’s limbs off!”

Mave called for the two harekins to come over to her. “I found something!” She waved a scroll in her hand.

Mave unraveled it and examined the contents.

“Well Elucard, your intuition was right on the money,” said Mave.

“What does it say?” asked Elucard.

Mave cleared off a table of food and placed the scroll onto it. She took out a pencil and circled three X’s found on a map of Meric’s Morass. Each mark had a name and title written off to the side.

Demetris: Hydro Mage

Gustav: Earth Mage

Ursula: Tuner

Mave looked back to Elucard. “Nine of us, three of them.”

Elucard stroked his chin. “Teams of three? Any ideas?”

Mave walked out of the tent. Corso and Timber had rejoined the group and each soldier stood in a half circle awaiting their next order.

“Alright, this will be how we do it," said Mave. She pointed at each soldier as she assigned their tasks. "Timber, Essie, and Quinn you’ll be going after Gustav. Elucard, Bruce, and Kyzo I think you should go after Ursula. And then Corso, Elisa, and myself will deal with Demetris.”

“I’m sorry, what now?” asked Corso. He scratched his head. “Who in the bloody Black Moon is Demetris?”

Mave handed him the scroll. “Alright chaps, Meric’s Morass is our next stop and our Estinian hosts are planning an ambush for our army. They situated three mages in the morass. A hydro mage, earth mage, and a bloomin’ Tuner.”

“Tuners… I hate Tuners!” growled Bruce.

“I know you do, mate! That's why you're out to take care of her!” Mave said to the large harekin with a pat on his shoulder

“I just want to squeeze their psychic heads until they pop!” grumbled Bruce, mainly to himself.

Mave shook her head and continued her briefing. “You’ve all been split up into teams of three to deal with your assigned mage. I’ll command my team, Elucard with your own, and Quinn—you hold rank over Timber and Es, so you’ll take charge of that team.”

Quinn took a deep breath and nodded.

Mave placed her hand on his shoulder. “You had one hiccup in your career. Take the hit and get back on that horse.”

“I’d rather get back on my drake,” Quinn said with a roguish grin.

“Yes, then get back on that drake!” laughed Mave.

Elucard pulled out a small whetstone and began sharpening his sword. “We’ll take an hour to rest then head into the Morass. Take advantage of that campfire to cook some food. This might be a difficult battle for us, but we have what it takes to come up on top!