Suugant was under strict martial law due to the sudden surge of new recruits for the ARA. Although Ashiron was able to push all the way to Suugant, they had met an iron wall of resistance after the Empire had diverted resources from the war against the Cevren Monarchy and towards keeping Suugant out of Ashiron’s hands. As such, the Eitrl was the main front of the conflict between the two. Though the Ghent Unified Army had split their forces and moved to encircle the Empire’s front at Suugant, they were only partially successful. With the GUA unable to complete their encirclement, the ARA was unable to make a dent in the Imperial forces.
Considering the great danger the ARA posed to Suugant, the GUA was bound to be crawling over the place. This meant Isil either had to invest a lot of effort into sneaking into the city, or simply blow up a large portion of Imperial soldiers to get where she needed to go. Forcing her way in would be easiest, but it didn’t sit well with her to take sides. Fallen Crescent had too much power and influence for its guildmaster to take a side due to convenience. A single helping hand could be twisted into looking like war support.
Her impatience urged her to destroy everything in her way, to mow through the common soldiery like a scythe through grass, but her conscience held her back. She could fly in, or use an invisibility spell instead, which would not be as quick, but would result in less deaths. The only reason she was paying a visit to the General was to thank him for the ride and give him a gift. She was certain he had brought her along for some sort of war assistance, but she wasn’t quite willing to give it.
“Halt!” A guard in front of the camp’s entrance called out. “Identify yourself!”
“I came here with General Maxim Invictus, I’m the mage he picked up on the way.” She stated, knowing they were more likely to know her circumstances than her name.
“One moment. Avus!” The guard called out to someone on the other side of the wall.
“Here,” A young man, presumably Avus, poked his head out of a nearby tent. “What do you need?”
“Send a message to General Invictus that the mage he wanted is here!”
“Right away!” He ran off towards another part of the came.
“Please wait here until Avus comes back.” The guard spoke to Isil.
“Sure, no problem.” She nodded, then moved off to the side and sat down on her knees at a nearby tree.
While she waited, she picked up a nearby pebble and placed it on her palm. Through the use of mana, it began to rise into the air, where it stopped a palm-length above her hand. The stone began to slowly spin around above her hand. This was one of her methods of training unstructured mana – mana that had not been made into a spell but was still used to generate phenomena. It had been hard to pick up, but it was a rather enjoyable training.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
After spinning the pebble above her hand for a while, she allowed it to fall back into her palm after stopping its momentum. She then tossed it aside. Adjusting her position slightly, she grabbed a glowing crystal out of her pack. This caught the attention of the camp guard, who immediately started paying closer attention to her. She could assume why. The stone she was holding was a mana crystal easily thousands of coins in any currency.
While practicing with an expensive mana crystal was just an asinine way of flaunting wealth, it did have a practical use. Using her mana to invigorate the crystal into a state of activity caused it to release a small field of disturbance, making it harder to use mana inside of its range. This time, lifting the crystal with her mana met more resistance. She was no longer competing with just gravity to lift the crystal. Now, she was fighting the crystal itself.
Isil closed her eyes and rested her hands on her legs as she lifted the crystal. Initially, she had needed to use a large amount of mana just to lift it slightly above the ground. But as she waited, it became easier and easier to lift it higher and higher. She was finally interrupted as the crystal reached the height of her chest. Avus had returned with the General’s reply. He would see her now.
Isil massaged the numbness from her legs and followed him to the General’s tent.
-_Time Passes_-
Isil left the strategy meeting with a sour face. She had intended to give the General some remuneration for her transport, but was denied and roped into a strategy meeting instead. She only managed to free herself after she loudly slammed her mana crystal onto the table and left. The value of a mana crystal was no joke, and it was also useful in powering magic tools. It was also a powerful focus for large-scale spells. She didn’t want to give them such a powerful item, but nothing else would catch their attention.
Thankfully, she had used a large portion of its mana during her training and did not fill it up again. While it might win Ashiron a victory, it would not win them the city. She brushed a few dangling strands of black hair out of her eyes and continued towards the river. She moved through the trees like a ghost, a steady application of an illusion spell helping to avert wandering eyes. Though invisibility and other illusion spells did not require camouflage algorithms, the caster still had to manipulate many variables to achieve a desired effect.
Not long later, Isil emerged from the copse of trees and began to take flight. Neither the Invisibility spell nor the Flight spell used up much of her mana, but both required significant focus on her part. This was the main reason why Isil did not wish to use the combination in the first place. She was at risk of falling from the sky or being seen by everyone.
Of course, the persistence of the ARA command had forced her to leave early. Soldiers from both sides were crawling over the battlefield, leaving her with little other option than to take flight and avoid detection. She flew for a couple minutes, always making sure to keep her hand in sight to determine if she ever lost her invisibility.
Thankfully, she was able to make it through without losing her stealth. As she approached Suugant, she carefully began to drift towards the ground. Annoyingly, there were magic cannons specifically designed to detect and shoot down any flying magicians. If she wanted to enter through the air, she would need to keep up her invisibility and hide her mana at the same time.
Isil landed near one of city gates opposite the Eitrl. As luck would have it, a caravan of wagons was approaching the gate. She quickly dropped down next to the road, just a few meters away from the gates. She waited for the caravan to approach, and when they finally stopped, she made her move. She turned herself sideways and rolled under the closest wagon. She crawled forward until she reached the drivers seat, where she grabbed onto an edge and pulled herself up.
Isil had to thank her past self for investing multiple stat points into strength. It came in handy now as she was able to remain off the ground with just her upper body strength. She waited for the inspection teams to check over the caravan, a nervous sweat dripping down her back. After what seemed like ages, the caravan was cleared, and began moving in. Isil breathed a sigh of relief.
Isil waited, listening to the sounds of the city. Unlike what she expected, the was no children playing in the streets, no loud gossip between wives, nor the noisiness from nearby pubs. Instead, there was a heavy silence that seemed to press down on the residents. She couldn’t see their faces, but she imagined that they weren’t smiling. It seemed the war had been harder for them than she expected.
When the caravan finally stopped, she dropped off of the cart and rolled out from under it. Isil picked herself up and dashed into the closest alleyway. She waited for a few moments to see if she had been noticed. A tense few moments passed, and Isil breathed a sigh of relief. She let her invisibility undo itself as she returned to normal.
With a quiet, but heavy voice, she spoke. “I’m in.”