Chapter 2

Have you seen the man from Eastwatch; the man so tall and brave?

Defender e’er defiant, ‘fore hell’s own steaming gate!

Cloaked in his rugged mantle, so boldly does he stand,

Ten thousand shining lances, arrayed at his command.

Liam adjusted his felt cap as the lilting strains of a Bard followed them through Phelegia’s streets. The city’s cobblestone lanes were swept clean, which only served to emphasise how empty they were.

According to the other Ijaniya agents, roughly one in six citizens remained between the fall of the city over a year previous, the predations of the Beastmen, and the redistribution of the citizens by the Draconic Kingdom’s restored administration. Now, with only the population of a large town, Phelegia was but a shell of its former self.

That idea seemed lost on the citizens, however, as they all seemed to cheerfully carry on. Or maybe they were used to it. Five times in the past, the city had fallen and the Beastmen had eaten everyone, so he guessed it could have been worse.

“We don’t have anything like this at home.”

“Like what?”

“You can’t feel it?” His sister said, “It’s everywhere.”

“What’s everywhere?”

Saye rolled her eyes.

“The atmosphere. The citizens don’t act like they just came out of being taken over by the Beastmen. There’s so much energy. Everyone’s moving like they’ve got places to go and people to see. That Bard over there is recruiting for the army and people are actually joining. None of this would ever happen back home.”

“I get it, I get it…”

They had spent the last little while in Phelegia and its surrounding territories, learning how to behave like the locals. Unlike their assignment in the Holy Kingdom, however, fitting in in the Draconic Kingdom was hard. People in the Holy Kingdom acted like they were supposed to. They had just been through a war and were trying to put the pieces of their lives back together. Some had no pieces left at all. It was a grim place where everyone struggled to survive. Plus, the weather sucked.

In the Draconic Kingdom, everything was way worse. The occupation had been three times longer than the invasion of the Holy Kingdom, and it was only one in a long line of them. They had suffered more. They died more and died more often. It even rained more. It rained so hard that Liam wondered if they were going to drown every time it did. Yet, the citizens of the Draconic Kingdom were somehow happier than the people of Rimun. Never mind that, they were happier than the people of E-Rantel.

He was supposed to learn how to act like them, but he couldn’t relate. They were crazy and he was stupid and he couldn’t wrap his stupid head around their crazy.

“Hey, is that your wife?”

“Ew?” Saye said.

Liam looked toward the voice on his right. A green-eyed girl with blonde hair and light freckles smiled at him.

“My name’s Gina,” she said. “You’re just my type. Want to get married?”

“But…but you just asked me if she’s my wife.”

“Oh, I don’t mind being second. I have two friends who would love to marry you, too.”

“…but I’m twelve.”

“Me too!” Gina’s smile grew, “That’s just perfect. The Temple of Bounty is marrying everyone for free, and the Kingdom grants a quarter hide of land to every couple. If you marry all of us, we’ll have a full hide! It’ll be great.”

“I, uh…”

His mind reeled at the girl’s relentless assault. It didn’t make sense. None of it did. He fished around for an excuse.

“A full hide of land is a lot to work…”

“All of us will help,” Gina told him, then blushed. “But it might be hard when the babies we make together get big inside. She can go first, of course.”

“I’m his sister,” Saye sneered.

“Ew?” Gina looked back in disgust for barely a moment, “Um…anyway, what do you think?”

Liam ran. He ran as if an entire pack of hungry Beastmen was hot on his heels. He only dared to slow down a kilometre beyond the city’s southeastern gate.

“That wasn’t nice running away like that,” Saye told him.

“Don’t tell me you’re siding with her.”

“It’s not about siding with anyone. You need to answer that sort of thing properly. Just because you’re not interested in someone doesn’t mean that their feelings don’t matter anymore.”

What about my feelings?!

“I don’t get these people,” Liam said.

Saye sighed. She was younger than him, but it always felt like he was the younger sibling.

“Haven’t you noticed how young everyone is here?” She told him, “That’s just how it is in the Draconic Kingdom. They get married as fast as they can because most of them get eaten before they reach thirty. If kids aren’t old enough by the time their parents get eaten, that’s a problem. Also, the Beastmen eat more men than women because one man can have babies with a lot of women, so polygamy is normal here. The girls all go after the guys before the guys go into some Beastman’s mouth. Even Kali would get that.”

“But how’s that my problem?”

Saye shook her head. Liam’s face screwed up in confusion. How was he at fault for any of that?

“Yo. Looks like you made it out in one piece.”

Beyond the sight of the city walls, Tira appeared from a copse near the road. The Grandmaster of Ijaniya strolled up to them with an easy air and a warm look in her eyes.

“Liam just ran from a girl who proposed to him,” Saye said.

The corner of Tira’s mouth turned down and her warm coral gaze turned cold.

“I knew you’d be a heartbreaker,” she said, “but that’s just mean.”

“How?!”

Tira exchanged a look with Saye.

“Is he doing this on purpose?”

“No, he’s always like this.”

“Hmm…gotta fix that. You’re letting a perfectly good weapon go to waste, kiddo. We can get around to that later, though – not like you need it right now.”

“What if one of the Beastmen likes him?” Saye asked.

“Then that would be funny.”

The next phase of their operations sent them to infiltrate the Beastman-occupied upper reaches of the Draconic Kingdom. There was something different about that part of the country, and the intelligence division was tasked with feeding information to the Royal Army so they could plan for it.

Most of Ijaniya was already out there, but they were collecting information in secret. Liam, Saye and Tira would be posing as locals and interacting with the Draconic Kingdom’s citizens to figure out the details that one couldn’t get from just watching and listening, as well as prepare the citizens for the Royal Army’s advance. A part of him worried over being caught by Beastmen and getting in trouble, but there was no point in complaining. They had a job to do.

“Will it be safe to let the citizens know what’s going on?” Saye asked.

“That’s something we’ll have to figure out when we get there,” Tira answered. “The people here have been insanely loyal to the Queen so far, but I think we might start seeing something different out there.”

“What do you mean?” Liam asked, “Are you two saying that Humans would betray us to Beastmen?”

“Some people cave in more easily than others,” Tira said. “Some try to get in cosy with the people in charge as soon as they can. I’ve seen people sell out for nothing more than a cut copper coin, but life’s gotta be damn shitty for that to happen. I’ve seen all sorts of things, and I’ve seen stuff like this fall apart before.”

It took them until evening to jog through the vacant strip of land between Phelegia and the Forst River. Liam marvelled over the fact that he and Saye even could. Back in Fassett Town, he couldn’t run from one gate to the other without getting winded, never mind go fifty kilometres through the pouring rain.

Along the way, a Bone Vulture swooped low overhead. An Elder Lich flew in from ahead a moment later. It loitered a hundred metres above them until Tira stopped and waved for it to come down.

“You have entered a restricted area,” it said. “Identify yourselves.”

“We’re with military intelligence,” Tira said. “You should already know about us, I think. I’m Tira. This is Liam and Saye.”

The Elder Lich raised a hand to the side of its skull. Half a minute passed before its crimson gaze settled on Liam.

“Who did Lady Zahradnik first introduce herself to you as?”

“Camilla,” Liam replied.

“What was your mission in Rimun?”

“Uh…what was that thing, Saye?”

“It was skin cream,” Saye said. “We were ordered to plant it and its formula in Viscount Santz’s manor in a plausible way.”

“You may proceed,” the Elder Lich lowered its hand. “Have a pleasant evening.”

“Wait a minute,” Tira raised her hand. “Could we get some intel on what’s ahead? Beastman patrols and such.”

“The western bank of the Forst River is secure. Beastmen patrol the opposite bank in pairs. Two hours separate each patrol.”

“Do you do anything to eliminate those patrols?”

“Orders to test their readiness are occasionally carried out. The patrols prioritise delivering information, so they will not fight to the death unless they deem it necessary.”

Tira’s hand went to her jaw, and she tapped her cheek with a finger.

“Could you ‘test their readiness’ a bit after we make the crossing?” She asked, “Just in case our infiltration needs to get a bit violent.”

“This one will deliver your request. Is there anything else?”

“Nope. Thanks. We’ll be on our way, now…”

The Elder Lich returned to the sky above. Tira resumed their journey east.

“Is it just me,” Tira said, “or are the Royal Army’s Elder Liches way more polite than the others?”

“What happens with the other ones?” Liam asked.

“Well, back when I first arrived in the Sorcerous Kingdom,” Tira answered, “I had to do some paperwork for my clan. The clerks in E-Rantel’s administrative office were super snooty. Was like dealing with a bunch of people who think they’re better than everyone else.”

“Kids don’t do paperwork,” Liam said. “We do homework. Miss Alpha is nice, but she’s a lot scarier than the Elder Liches at the same time.”

The orphanage director was some sort of Zombie, except she didn’t die when she lost her head. They watched it get stolen once.

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They crossed the Royal Army’s zone of control and stopped at the banks of the Forst River, where Tira scanned the surroundings before kneeling to the ground.

“Hop on, Saye,” she said. “We’re crossing here.”

Saye climbed onto Tira’s back.

“Am I waiting here?” Liam asked.

In response, Tira picked him up, cradling him in her arms. After shifting his weight around a bit, she dashed over the water. Her steps barely left any ripples over the river’s surface.

“Stop staring.”

Liam looked up, finding Saye glaring down at him. He squirmed a bit under her scrutiny.

“Stop moving,” Tira said.

Stop jiggling!

Since they were going to mingle with the citizens, Tira was in the flimsy garb that the local women commonly wore. She ran leaning forward as Ninjas did, and Liam couldn’t help but stare as her full breasts swayed and jiggled against the rain-soaked fabric containing them.

The world lurched as he was dumped into the water on the opposite shore. Another splash followed after his.

“Hey!” Saye cried.

“Too clean,” Tira said. “You barely even smell. We’re supposed to be travelling.”

He dragged himself out of the mud. It rained so much that he didn’t think it mattered.

The opposite shore of the Forst was just as quiet as the other side. If there were any signs of the skirmishes that were supposedly happening between the Beastmen and the Undead, the swollen river had washed them away. Liam shook the water off of his cap before slicking his hair back and putting it back on his head. They trudged up to the highway several hundred metres away, where he scraped his muddy boots against the pavement.

“If I was a Human,” Tira muttered as she peered through the rain, “where would I go…”

“Didn’t the army share their reports with you?” Liam said, “They’re the ones sending us on this mission.”

“I know where the Humans are,” Tira replied, “but we still need to get from here to there. If the Beastmen have patrols everywhere, their hunters might catch our trail if we try to sneak by.”

Liam scratched his head. Outdoorsy stuff was Ranger work. Not only could they sneak around as well as Rogues did, but good ones could also conceal their scent, leave no tracks, read the land and get through rough terrain like it was nothing. The thing was that their job as infiltrators involved getting into the villages, towns and cities of the occupied lands, where most Rangers lost their advantages and Rogues shone.

He wiped the rain out of his eyes, looking for the woodlots where Beastmen tribes supposedly lived. There was one every few kilometres, which was enough to force them to zig-zag through the countryside if they wanted to avoid them. Instead, Tira led them down the highway south, going east at the first rural road. After slipping in the mud a few times, he decided to walk on the grass alongside it.

“Anyway,” Tira said. “I figure we can just pose as a family. Our features are close enough that non-Humans would give it a pass.”

“That means you’re our mother?”

Tira gave him a whack.

“Sister,” she told him.

“Mother.”

“Sister.”

“In the Draconic Kingdom,” Liam said, “you’re old enough to be our mother. They get married when they’re twelve.”

Tira wrinkled her nose, but she didn’t seem to have an answer for that. They continued in silence, wary of any approaching Beastmen.

To Liam’s surprise, the lands east of the Forst River were in a much better condition than the western territories of the Draconic Kingdom. Before they arrived in Helama, he imagined the land to be filled with ravenous Demihumans chasing the screaming citizens everywhere, but, in hindsight, it was a silly idea. The current invasion started before the Battle of Katze Plains, and they wouldn’t be able to run and scream for that long. Still…

“This is weird,” Liam said. “Everything looks so normal.”

“What did you expect?” Tira asked.

“I dunno, but they’re getting eaten, right? Maybe people trying to run away or fight. But everything here is taken care of. What’s the point if they’re going to be eaten in the end?”

“That’s some nihilistic thinking for a twelve-year-old,” Tira said. “Do kids these days all think like that? Wait – I don’t want to know. Listen, there’s always a point to living; you’d do well to remember that. Shitty things happen to everyone. As one of us, you’ll probably see and experience a lot of shitty things. Maybe one day you’ll be captured by the enemy and they’ll torture you every day. But you should never, ever give up. Oh, speaking of getting captured…”

A pair of hulking figures appeared in the rain, coming up the road toward them.

“Wait, we’re getting captured?” Liam whispered.

“Well, I figure they’d just dump us wherever they’re putting the other Humans…”

“But what if they just decide to bring us to their homes to be eaten?”

The two figures resolved into a pair of Nar. An oppressive sensation washed over Liam. He could feel how dangerous they were. It wasn’t anywhere near the same as the civilian Beastmen that they had fought before. The civilians felt like dangerous animals; these warriors felt like death.

“Hey,” one of them called out as they approached, “what are you doing out here? It’s dangerous – you need to get to safety.”

Liam stared at the grass, quietly waiting for something to go wrong.

“W-we’re lost,” Tira fidgeted nervously.

“Lost?”

“Yeah,” she swallowed. “They said something about the Undead, so we left. But then the rain, and, uh…which way do we need to go?”

A dozen heartbeats passed with only the sounds of the deluge to accompany them. Beside Tira, Saye sneezed.

“This entire area is under the control of the warrior clans,” the Beastman said. “You need to go east about twenty kilometres before you reach the nearest occupied villages.”

“Twenty kilometres east,” Tira nodded. “Got it. That way, right?”

Tira pointed behind her. The warrior’s eyes narrowed.

“That’s west,” the warrior told her. “East is the way we came. No wonder you got lost: even a Nug drunk on fermented Khhsckla has a better sense of direction. You better get going. Stay safe, ya hear? And try to keep warm – I’d hate for the little one to get sick.”

Liam felt Tira’s fingers press against the small of his back. They shuffled by the two Nar.

“Wait.”

They froze.

“Where are your armbands?” The other warrior asked.

“Uh, we forgot them?”

“Forgot? There’s no way you–”

Tira’s blade sprouted from the Beastman’s throat. She smoothly pivoted from the motion to backhand the other Beastman’s head clean off of her shoulders. The two dead Nar crumpled to the ground. The head bounced once before rolling into the ditch.

“Well, that’s one detail that the Undead didn’t care to report,” Tira retrieved her dagger. “Did either of you hear anything about that before just now?”

Liam shook his head, as did Saye. There was nothing about armbands, as far as he could recall. Tira shook her head as she fished out a Message scroll and activated it, holding a hand up to her ear.

“We got two bodies for retrieval here. Sure.”

Tira went to the ditch to retrieve the disembodied head. A minute later, a black hole opened in the air over the road. The Ninja grabbed a corpse and tossed it through with her free hand. The next one followed and the head flew in after that.

The hole immediately closed, and Tira returned to stand in front of Liam and Saye.

“The one that ate the dagger was a Sneak Attack, by the way,” she told them. “The backhand was the Death Attack.”

“But you used the dagger first,” Liam frowned.

“The second target was the studied target, and a Sneak Attack’s a Sneak Attack. You can pull off a Sneak Attack any time your target is unaware of you as a threat, preoccupied or defenceless. Studying a target doesn’t require you to be hidden.”

“Doesn’t that mean we’d be super dangerous in regular combat?” Liam asked, “We could just go around hitting people that aren’t paying attention to us.”

“That’s what the Rogues here have been doing all this time, yeah? One catches a Beastman’s attention while six others come and stick ‘em fulla holes. They’re weak compared to the Beastmen, but those Sneak Attacks add up fast. Adventurer Rogues do the same thing, ‘cept they usually have a big meaty Fighter to work with.”

“So when I get stronger,” Liam said, “I can fight in the open like you did?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call what happened just now fighting in the open. We were standing there facing one another and all, but it was still a surprise attack. I also wouldn’t recommend extended open combat unless you outclass your opponents by a wide margin, and probably not even then if you can help it. We thief types can’t take a beating like those warrior types can, and drawing attention like that is usually bad in our line of work.”

“What’s Khhsckla?” Saye asked.

“No idea,” Tira said. “A Nug’s like a Nuk, so Khhsckla is probably a fruit that they can graze on.”

He had no idea how either of them could pronounce ‘Khhsckla’. It sounded like a cat coughing up a hairball.

They hurried east, taking shelter in the first abandoned village that they came across. Tira had them split up and search the place for anything useful, and they hid whenever a Nar patrol came by. The humble cottages were kept neat and tidy up to the point that they had been vacated, so they didn’t take long to go through.

“Find anything?” Tira asked when they gathered again in the village chief’s home. “Those armbands that they mentioned would be nice.”

“Nothing,” Liam said. “The only thing left behind was their heavy furniture. Only Humans live in the villages, so I don’t think we’d just find a pile of armbands lying around.”

“Hmm…well, rest up. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

They couldn’t light a fire to dry off with, but at least the Draconic Kingdom wasn’t a cold place. In the morning, they found a pair of yellow leather armbands on the dresser beside the bed. Tira was curled up on the floor between the dresser and the bed, and one of her eyes opened to look up at Liam the moment he moved.

“Where did you find them?” Liam asked.

“In the copse nearby,” Tira answered.

“Were there Beastmen there?”

“Yep. Not that they noticed me. Go on and get ready – our work is waiting for us.”

He swung his legs off of the bed and peeked out between the shutters. It was still raining. Everything he was wearing still felt damp, too.

“Tira, how much sleep did you get?” Saye asked from her side of the bed.

“Enough,” Tira yawned. “Don’t worry about me – I’ve gone days without sleep before.”

“Lady Zahradnik might have given you one of those rings if you asked.”

“A fancy-ass ring on a village girl?” The Ninja snorted, “That’s just asking for it. The toughest part about this type of job is that you can’t bring all of your stuff. You dress for the occasion and learn what you can. After that, it’s pure skill.”

They left the village after having a quick meal, continuing eastward through the morning gloom. The rain never let up, flooding the fields on both sides of the road.

“Maybe we shoulda brought a boat,” Tira muttered. “You two alright?”

“I’m fine,” Saye said, “but I’m going to be mad if we find out all of the villagers use umbrellas.”

They didn’t bring any as they didn’t want to look out of place. Tira was right about that part – the reconnaissance forces directed by the Undead didn’t care for details like that. They assessed geography, logistics and threats, but what infiltrators needed was information about culture, behaviour, and the countless other things that the Undead didn’t notice. They were things that would probably be fixed in the future…unless the Undead could never develop an eye for them.

An hour out of the village, they encountered another patrol – this time a pair of Gao. Liam glanced at his armband as they came within speaking distance.

“Where’d the three of you come from?” A golden-furred warrior with long, droopy ears asked.

“We got lost,” Tira answered. “A couple of warriors said to follow this road east.”

“Well it’s good that you got here safely,” the Gao warrior nodded. “Word is that the Undead are amassing near here again. Hmm…which way do we need to send them?”

“The civilian tribes are still shuffling them around,” the other warrior said. “Just send them to the main place nearby, yeah? They’ll sort them out there.”

“Right,” the golden-furred warrior turned back to them. “There’s a big road about five kilometres east of here. Go north from there and you’ll eventually get to the town where everyone is.”

Liam tensed as the warrior reached out toward him. A big paw patted him on the head.

“You two be good and listen to your mother, alright?”

“Sister,” Tira said.

“Sis…aren’t you too old to be their sister?”

“I’m not that old.”

The Gao stared at her for several seconds before shaking his head.

“Well, whatever. Move along.”

Why does she want to be the sister so much?

They started walking again.

“Wait,” one of the Gao said from behind them.

Liam froze.

“How come you’re not pregnant?”

“She’s a bit young for that, don’t you think?” Tira replied.

“Not her,” the Gao said, “you.”

“Uh…how do you know I’m not pregnant?”

“You don’t smell pregnant.”

“You can sme–look, I already have two kids here.”

“…but you said you were their sister.”

“Mix-ups happen all the time,” Tira raised her hands in a shrug. “I’m too old to be their sister, right?”

The two Gao exchanged looks.

“We should get her to the breeder anyway,” the floppy-eared warrior said. “She’s still young and healthy.”

“The breeder? And weren’t you calling me old just now?”

A paw reached out for Tira. Tira cut it off. A few seconds later, Tira held a hand to her ear.

“I got two bodies for retrieval. …whaddya mean ‘again’? Blame military intelligence for not noticing this crap. …I know I’m military intelligence, but we just got here!”

A minute later, two Gao corpses and one disembodied paw disappeared through the hole in the air. After the hole disappeared, Tira used a Trooper’s Towel to clean up the mess.

“I told you so,” Liam said.

“Don’t you want a sister?” Tira asked.

“I already have a sister.”

“A big sister. Aren’t I pretty much that already? Anyway…do either of you know how to smell pregnant?”

“How would we know that?” Liam frowned.

“Just checking,” Tira blew out a sigh. “Dogs are always trouble, but these dog Beastmen are even worse. Let’s get moving: the patrols are supposed to be two hours apart.”

Tira strolled off with her hands behind her head. Liam and Saye jogged to catch up to her.

“What are we going to do?” Saye asked.

“I’m thinking,” Tira answered.

“This place is crazy,” Liam grumbled. “Back on the Human side, everyone wants to have kids. On the Beastman side, they want you to have kids too.”

“Makes sense to me,” Tira said. “No kids, no future. Or future food. This is going to be a pain if every Gao and Lup sniffs me out. I think you two are gonna have to do all of the talking.”

Saye brightened, but Liam stopped in his tracks.

“Us? But what are you going to do?”

“Oh, I’ll be around. I just can’t be doing what we’re supposed to be doing with the way they’re sorting people out here.”

Tira lowered her arms, draping them over Liam and Saye’s shoulders.

“Looks like the fate of our mission is in your hands,” she grinned. “No pressure.”