***The morning of the raid***
Before even a single ray of light had permeated the Wei camp, Abrial was shaken awake gently.
“Grarghe,” she moaned, pulling the blankets over her head.
“Abrial,” Finley whispered softly. “We must get ready to leave; the sun will rise in an hour.”
“Merrhhh…” Abrial mumbled, rolling over. Tenderly, Finley separated her from the blankets and helped her sit up. She laid Abrial’s scarlet and black robes, along with the elegant fighting robe made of shadowy cloth from Shin Minyeo, out on the ground. Then she went to get a wooden cup and poured steaming barley tea inside, blew on it, then brought it to Abrial’s lips so she could sip it.
At the soothing sensation of warm tea sliding down her throat, Abrial blearily opened her eyes. Her throat felt sore, her ears hurt, her vision was blurry — all symptoms of having woken up too early for someone who always woke up late.
“...Thanks, Finley.” She groaned and clumsily took the tea from Finley, then downed it, thoroughly awake after finishing the last drop.
As her mind cleared, she remembered suddenly:
The raid!
Today was her very first raid! She was going to get to blade fight with imperial guards!
Excitement coursing through her limbs, she sprang to her feet and threw all of her robes on in a flash.
“It’s raiding day!”
Finley nodded. Abrial didn’t notice the worry in her expression. “It is.”
The two of them set off for the raiding hill, where all the raiders’ horses were gathered. It was a strange feeling, making their way through camp while the sky above was still a deep blue sparkling with diamond stars. Every tent they slipped past was quiet, some glowing mildly with the orange light of a lantern or two, others utterly dark. The entire Wei camp was sleeping, but for the few dozen raiders heading off to save fellow magicians in the dead of night, or rather the silence of morning.
As they grew close to the edge of camp, Abrial felt Finley’s hand slip into her own, pressing their palms together and sending an electric shock up her arm. With a tug, Finley pulled her to a stop.
Suddenly, Abrial was afraid to turn around. The hand that Finley held with her own cool fingers had quickly begun to sweat. Even though only their palms touched and their fingers were intertwined, Abrial couldn’t help but feel…
That’s too much skin! We’re touching too much!
No way did she want to get a flushed face and have Finley suspect the things she was feeling! No way! So she deftly slipped her hand out of Finley’s grip and turned around with a crooked smile.
“What’s up?”
Finley looked momentarily surprised by the removal of her hand, but then her expression cleared. Her hazel eyes bore into Abrial’s obsidian ones, a dead seriousness to them that differed from her typical sternness. It held Abrial in place, rooting her to the ground.
“Huh? Finley, what’s wrong?”
“Abrial, you have to promise me something.”
“Um…okay? But be quick, because we need to hurry and get to the hill!”
“This is more important.”
“...Okay…? What is it?”
“...”
“...”
Finley drew a deep breath. “Promise me two things. One, that you’ll stay near me during the raid.”
“Of course. I was already going to, silly! Did you forget we’re together in the formation?”
“Promise me.”
Abrial blinked, surprised by Finley’s sharp tone. She held up her hands in surrender. “Okay! I promise.”
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Finley nodded, seeming somewhat satisfied. “The second thing…Promise me that, if anyone else’s life is in danger and it would put you in direct danger to help them, you will prioritize your own life and run away.”
Abrial gaped. “...So you want me to not help someone if they’re in trouble? But…Finley, you know there’ll be imperial guards! And my blade fighting skills are better than most people in the regiment. If someone needs help, why should I run away? I’d be a cow — ”
“What I mean is, if you can realistically help another raider without getting badly hurt, then help them if you must. But if there is a chance of you being deeply harmed while trying, promise me you will not involve yourself and will focus on getting out of the raid safely. Promise me you will not endanger yourself more than necessary.”
Abrial frowned. Wasn’t that wording kind of confusing? What did “more than necessary” mean? Who decided that? But as they had been speaking, the bottom edges of the sky had begun to lighten with traces of pink, so she hurriedly agreed:
“All right, I promise, I promise! I promise to both: I’ll stay near you, and I won’t put myself in more danger than needed. Let’s go now!”
With that, she grabbed Finley’s wrist and pulled her along towards the edge of camp, headed for the hill. Behind her, Finley’s frown eased slightly, as though the promise had brought her some peace. But it didn’t fully fade away. A hint of tenseness remained in that small space between her honey eyebrows if one looked closely enough. Apprehension.
In contrast to Abrial’s excitement, Finley was filled with an ominous premonition.
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As the raiders mounted their horses, Niklas recounted the most important points of the plan to them. As if they needed him to remind them — he’d merrily drilled all of this into their heads every day during training until they couldn’t think of anything else!
Every time he shouted a question about the raiding strategy at them, he either opened his arms wide to gesture that they should all answer at once in a chorus, or stabbed his finger at a poor random individual to answer. Next to him, Instructor Wei sat tranquilly and gracefully atop a pure white stallion, his river blue robes flowing over its side like water.
“Which prison are we raiding?” Niklas threw open his arms.
“Hwayeom Prison in the East!” Everyone chorused exasperatedly. Like they needed to repeat the raiding location again! Such basic information!
“Great! Fantastic! Fabulous! You, Georgie, tell me what the current weaknesses of the Hwayeom Prison are!”
“Um…Hwayeom Prison is undergoing a changing of guards, Sir Niklas! This means that the number of imperial guards present at the prison is half of what it normally is, allowing us to breach their defenses! And Hwayeom is the farthest prison from the Imperial Capital, meaning that security is far lower than at most other magicians’ prisons, Sir Niklas! And — ”
“Fabulous! Wonderful! Gorgeous! Good, good, time is gold, let’s move on! Everyone, what teams will we split into upon arriving?”
“Rescue and Defense Teams!”
“Wonderful! Wonderful! Astounding! You, our lovely Ya Nam-gil, give us a rapid run-down of the procedure!”
Ya Nam-gil sighed, rolled her eyes, and grumbled: “The members of the Rescue Team adept at explosive techniques will forge holes in the back wall of the prison. The ones adept at sound techniques will contain the sound of blasting stone. We’ll take as many prisoners as we can. Then the Defense Team’ll come in to hold off the attacking imperial guards as the Rescue Team rides away with the rescued magicians. Etc, etc, etc.”
“Magnificent! The etc’s were particularly poignant, as expected of our legendary Nam-gil! That is exactly the procedure. Remember that a smaller prison like Hwayeom Prison will imprison generally only fifteen prisoners or so at a time, so they should all fit on the horses of the Rescue Team. The Defense Team will focus on holding off the guards before retreating with the Rescue Team. And remember — ” Niklas’s blue eyes flashed with that occasional sternness that flared within them, “ — do not hesitate to kill a guard who tries to kill you or a fellow raider. The Emperor's guards have killed countless magicians and made even more wish they were dead. They are not deserving of mercy.”
Abrial’s chest echoed strangely at these words, as it always did when Niklas reminded them during training that they should not hesitate to kill.
She’d never killed someone before. Obviously. At this reminder that they should be ready to kill, Abrial put a hand to her chest, as though that would abate the uncomfortable, heavy feeling that appeared there. Beneath her, Dal huffed a puff of air through his nose, as though agreeing that killing someone was a bigger deal than what Niklas was making it seem.
Finley watched Abrial from the side, hazel eyes glittering.
“All right!” Niklas was satisfied with their show of knowledge at last. All around, the pink streaks painting the base of the deep blue sky had crept their way up, turning a glowing hot orange at the base instead. The morning’s first light had arrived, bathing the valleys and hills in every direction in beautiful violet, pink, and orange colors.
“As for everything else, you have your orders and your training. You will all follow my every command once we leave this hill. Do not forget the value of your own life. Hold your reins tight; we will arrive at Hwayeom Prison by nightfall. Hyah!” With a squeeze of the knees, Niklas set his own golden-haired horse galloping forward down the hill. Next, Instructor Wei’s pearly white stallion sped off without a sound, catching up to Niklas’s side. All at once, as though drawn by some invisible force, all of the other horses set off in a torrent, galloping after the two leaders in their triangular formation with the sound of muffled grassy hoofbeats reverberating through the air.
Abrial gripped Dal’s leather reins. Her shadowy black robe flew around her like ink clouds, glittering silver, that dragon along the back of her robe glaring with its ruby eye in the mix of morning and night that permeated the air. Her black hair was tied back in a loose bun with that leather hair tie marked by a lotus charm, but the strands that had already fallen flowed behind her like ink rivers. Her obsidian eyes, black as the deepest part of the night sky, gazed forward with determination, and a crooked smile alighted on her jade-pale face.
This raid was going to be something awesomely exciting and unexpected.
She could feel it in her racing blood.