Nox leapt out of my arms. His eyes focused on something in the distant night as his fur stood on end. He arched his back, hissing angrily. I stood up from the cold ground and squinted. My hands curled into fists. In the distance, a pair of orange eyes were staring back at me.
“They’re back again,” General Arthur said as he stared back at the lone figure, “Those blasted things have been watching us since dusk. I can’t even send a team out to get rid of them. Every time I try, they just run away. The corpses are too fast for any normal soldiers to catch them, and too strong for any single man to take down.”
“Let her watch,” I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand, “That is all she can do right now.”
General Arthur nodded. “We should be prepared when we finally exit the mist though. I expect she will have another general From Novus waitin’ for us. These little scouts are probably here just to make sure ye stay with the army and do not run off in the middle of the night.”
My dad spoke up as he glared at the distant corpse. “I would rather not cause you to come into conflict with the Novus Kingdom. Do you think we can slip past them and escape without being seen? You have fought these creatures, what do you think our chances are if we break off on our own?”
General Arthur chuckled as he patted my dad on the back. “There is no need for that. If Irene wants to cause a scene, let her. Rather than tryin’ to escape the inevitable commotion, let’s make it bigger and cause a little chaos.” General Arthur grinned as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace. It was a small silver disc covered in runes and embedded with a purple crystal. General Arthur motioned for us to be quiet as the purple gem on the necklace lit up. The general cleared his throat before speaking in the most formal tone I had heard from him yet. “This is General Arthur of the Novus Kingdom branch, authorization one five one seven six nine. I am requesting an information leak to the six kingdoms from my previous report. Let them know about the rescued soldiers and civilians and give them our expected time and coordinates for when we exit the mist. Also, leak the information that a large number of Novus troops are already en route to that location.”
There were a few seconds of silence before the disembodied voice of a woman echoed from the small amulet. “Copy that general. There will be a service fee of six units. Do you agree to the charges?”
“Yes, I agree.” The general replied with a sigh.
“Excellent, your service will be carried out immediately. Please prepare payment before the next cycle. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No.”
The general said as the gem stopped shining. As soon as the gen fell dark the general started cursing worse than a drunken sailor.
“Greedy sons of… I am just spreadin’ a simple rumor, why do I have to pay six units for that? This is just straight up robbery!”
I just shrugged. “The Fourth Division never does anything for free. It is ingrained in their nature from over a thousand years of practice.”
“What did you just do?” my dad asked. His eyes were glued to the small amulet around General Arthur’s neck.
“Ye can look, but do not activate it. I am not payin’ another unit just because ye are curious,” General Arthur said, holding out the amulet and handing it to my dad. “Every member of the church carries an amulet like this one. Each of the runes works as a pair. When ye activate the glyph in one amulet, the runes in its partner are also activated. This allows me to speak to the church’s high temple at any time. They can then relay my messages to any other member of the church so long as I am willin’ to pay the price.”
“How much did you just pay? How much is a unit?” my dad asked without taking his eyes away from the amulet. His fingers traced the lines of the runes as if they were a priceless treasure.
“A single unit is about one hundred Demonkin corpses or other materials of similar value. If translated to Novus currency, a single unit is about the same as your yearly pay as a knight.”
My dad reacted as if the amulet was on fire. He nearly dropped it as he threw the amulet back at General Arthur. The general chuckled as he caught the amulet and tucked it back into his shirt.
My dad paused as he had a revelation. “Wait, I have donated hundreds of corpses to the church over the years and I was never paid for any of it.”
General Arthur just shrugged. “Told ye they are greedy. The church will only pay if ye sign a contract with them, but they never tell anyone they offer that service. Publicly, they just declare it a free cleanup service for dead Demonkin. Then the one in charge of that branch of the church pockets the money for themselves.”
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My dad grumbled angrily as he kicked a rock off into the distance. “What about now, we left thousands of Demonkin corpses back at Nebula Tower. There were enough corpses to fund my salary for the next hundred years.”
“Assumin’ that crone Irene left any there for us, I already informed the church.
They will send a team to collect whatever they can. If ye are goin’ to ask me to share your portion of the payment, the answer is no. I just spent six units because of your family. I have to recoup my losses somehow.”
My dad just sighed, shaking his head. “Speaking of, what exactly is your plan, how will six armies showing up prevent the Novus Kingdom from declaring us traitors and forcing you to hand us over?”
“Chaos brings opportunity,” General Arthur said with a casual shrug, “Worst case, it will buy us time to smuggle your family out when that crone’s eyes are not watching, but if everything goes how I expect, Novus will not dare to publicly declare you traitors. Just wait, I have a plan.”
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Night gave way to morning, and the soldiers began helping the civilians shuffle forward one step at a time. Every now and then, I would catch a pair of orange eyes peering at me from out of the mist. Being watched so intently made me uncomfortable, but now that the soldiers knew to keep watch for anything moving with orange eyes, none of Irene’s undead could approach without getting cut down. For now, all they could do was watch.
I was tempted to send Naga out on a rampage. She would be able to hunt down and slaughter all of the undead hiding out there with ease, but for now, I waited. Naga was my trump card. It was best that Irene did not learn about her just yet. Naga would be the perfect surprise for when she tried something big. A couple undead was not worth the price of ruining my fun.
Halfway through the day’s tedious and slow march, Donte stumbled out of the back of our wagon holding his head. I saw him stumble and look around in confusion for a moment. I smiled and ran over to greet him.
“Look who finally decided to wake up, did you enjoy your nap, showoff.”
Donte groaned as he held his head and massaged his temples. “What happened? Why does my head feel like it was caved in by a warhammer? Did we meet up with the civilians already?”
“You overused your talent, so you passed out. You have been sleeping for almost two days.”
“Two Days!”
I nodded, handing him one of the rations I had on me. I knew from experience he would be starving after two days asleep.
“You have to learn to limit how much energy you use when you unleash your talent. Otherwise, you will find yourself passing out a lot. If you are not careful, it can even happen in the middle of combat. I cannot even begin to count the number of rookies Aurielle has seen die that way.”
“I… will be careful,” Donte said while looking around, “If we caught up with the civilians, does that mean we are finally almost out of the mist?”
“Yep! The civilians are infuriatingly slow, but even with their imitation of a turtle, we should make it out of the mist in two days, three at most. I cannot wait! Three days and we can finally get a bath and some real food! I would rather starve than eat one more of these horrible rations the Romlas brought.”
“They are not that bad,” Donte replied with a shrug as he bit into the disgusting black bar that the soldiers called food, “I ate worse when I lived in Aktey… io. The grilled rat we ate there was especially bad.”
I blinked a few times as I looked at Donte in disbelieve. He grinned at me, shoving my arm playfully. “I’m kidding. I never had to eat rats, but we did eat some questionable things from time to time.
Compared to some of the dregs we were served in the lower city, these ration bars are great. Also… you should eat more. If you don’t, you will be stuck as a little midget for the rest of your life.”
“Who are you calling a midget!” I shouted furiously.
Donte grinned mischievously as he hopped away from the kick I had aimed at his shin. “If you are not a midget, then who is?
I have seen starving orphans with a more womanly figure.”
With slow measured steps, I walked over to the wagon and grabbed one of the wooden training swords hanging off the side. “Looks like someone has a big head now that they realized how powerful their talent is. I think I need to remind you who I am.”
Donte was unafraid with that stupid grin still on his face. “That was exactly what I wanted. I have wasted two days without training. I need to make up for lost time.”
I scowled at Donte as I leapt forward, striking out with my blade. He stumbled backward; his arms raised up over his head. “Wait, I do not have my sword yet.”
“And?”
Donte scrambled away in a panic as my sword swung towards him again. He howled in pain as the wooden sword struck his unprotected side. “How am I supposed to fight without a sword?”
“You will learn,” I growled with another swing of my sword.
For the next hour, I chased Donte from one side of the army to the other and back again. We quickly became the talk of the entire army and their entertainment in this monotonous journey. By the time Donte finally managed to grab a training blade, he was covered in bruises and completely exhausted.
Despite my annoyance at him, I did hold back and was careful not to hurt him too badly. I purposefully gave him time to respond to many of my attacks. By the time I finally let him grab a sword of his own to fight back with, he had picked up a dozen tricks on how to survive an attacker when unarmed.
That said, I was quick to punish any mistakes. If he did not get treatment from one of the healers, he would be feeling my lesson for days.
In the end, Donte collapsed to the ground, completely spent. My sword was at his neck as he raised his hands in defeat. “I surrender, I am sorry. I won’t say it again.”
I did not remove the blade at his throat as I gave him my best glare. “And?”
“And… um… you do not need to eat more because you are already really pretty… even when your clothes are filthy and you smell really bad.”
Donte scrambled for his blade as I swung at him again.
“Looks like you have not learned your lesson at all, but that is ok. I have nothing but time to beat it into you.”