Chapter 1: Chapter I

“What are you doing here? Don’t you have a war to be fighting?” Keeper Tiana Ialdi arched an eyebrow at me as I sauntered through the doors of the Peacekeeper station, heading for my normal desk.

“Yeah, I just left something,” I told her, opening one of my drawers to pull out a small dagger.

“You don’t have more of those?” Ialdi asked, a hint of wryness in her tone.

“Well, yes, but I was missing one.”

“You’re a little obsessive sometimes.”

“And more than a little the rest of the time,” I noted wryly, grinning at my boss.

She shook her head slightly. “You’re a good Peacekeeper, Captain,” she noted quietly and then met my eyes, “but we both know that’s not what you came here to do. Have fun.”

Ah, I appreciated this woman. She was the only one who was willing to tell me to go have fun when I was heading out to fight in a war; it offended everyone else’s sensibilities or something. I grinned at her. “Thanks, Keeper. I’ll see you later.”

“Hopefully soon.”

“Eh, it can take it’s time,” I said, turning around just to see her roll her eyes at me before walking backwards through the doors of the station.

The surprisingly fresh air of the massive capital of Ildanach hit me in the face as I turned around after stepping through the doors; the sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches that stood far, far above my head. I normally wasn’t fond of cities, but this one had a particular charm to it. Ildanach’s wealth came almost exclusively from the rare redwood trees that grew on its land; the city and the House itself had been built around them, both literally and figuratively.

There were trees growing everywhere, tangling in with the tallest buildings. A small forest even separated the upper class residential area from the rest of the outer city. They kept the air fresh, filled the dirt streets with the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. Ildanach was almost starting to make me think that maybe the Northern Territories were better than my home.

I smiled up at the gentle sounds of the trees, sharp eyes taking note of one very particular black bird perching in the branches, and then headed off on my way, moving towards the outer walls of the city.

The raven quietly followed me.

The main road was broad and dusty, so much so that hovercrafts were actively disallowed within the city walls. Most of the ground was dirt to encourage plant life, so even without the addition of propulsion within the city, I was still grateful for my coat to pull up over my face as wagons or riders moved by me a few times.

The pollution got even worse once I passed through into the outer ring, the dirt in the air joined by a fantastic amount of smoke from the factories. Even so, forests were growing next to the walls, both inside and outside of them. It was a clever defensive mechanism, particularly since anyone who was interested in conquering the Highcity would have no interest in burning the only valuable they really had.

The only clear paths through the forest were on the main road, leading either through the Southern or the Western Gates. Large metal vehicles with massive treads rolled out of both gates almost non-stop, the gigantic metal wagons loaded up with logs and boards of the famous redwood for trade.

I saw the lord of House Ennis standing outside directing some of the shipments today; he was very hands on with his work, the only noble of Ildanach who didn’t have their mansion in the inner ring. He stationed his next to the wall instead so that he could better manage his transportation business., even going so far as to be willing to place it almost uncomfortably close to the slum graveyard.

I nodded towards him, and he returned the gesture. More surprisingly, he followed it up with waving me over to him.

I knew he would recognize me; the white and gold mask that covered the top half of my face marked me as one of the very few Turyn within the walls of Ildanach, which wasn’t exactly known for its religious tolerance. Ennis and I had spoken before, on decent terms, but not enough that I thought it warranted an invitation.

I glanced briefly at the gate, knowing the Generals would be waiting for me, but decided they could wait a bit longer. I walked over to the Guild Lord.

“A fine morning, is it not, Captain?” Terrance greeted me as I approached, watching his men load up another of the massive tanks with wood for shipment.

“It is indeed,” I answered, scooting across the area in front of the hulking machine to stand next to him and out of the way. “How can I help you this fine morning?”

“I have a question for you, Leon.” Using a nickname for me was somewhat untraditional, but most did it on my request. Northerners seemed to have a particularly hard time with my full name, and I grew weary of people butchering it.

“Speak your mind,” I responded with a cocky grin.

Lord Ennis chuckled slightly; he was, fortunately, not the overly serious type. “I have many things on my mind,” he noted wryly, “but as for my question for you: how long, in your expert opinion, until the next ceasefire?”

I paused. I was just a Captain; that wasn’t normally the kind of question directed at me, particularly not since Lord Ennis had a direct line to the Highlord himself. “I’m hardly privy to the negotiations between–”

Lord Ennis interrupted me, “That’s not what I’m asking, Elyon, and you know it.”

He said my name very well, smoothly, with the right inflection despite the wrong accent, and I wondered if he had practiced. I sighed. “It depends on how many men they send. If they keep commissioning small strike forces, they might hold out a hope they can win by attrition even when we win the smaller battles.”

“And if they send out a larger force to try to overwhelm you?”

“Then when we kill them all, there will be a ceasefire.”

“Is there any way to… provoke such a larger attack?”

I frowned slightly at the Lord. “Potentially. Terrance,” he gave me a bit of a look for using his first name, but it was only a look, “what’s your interest in bringing about a ceasefire so soon? This Skirmish hasn’t been engaged for that long, and they haven’t even come close to disrupting your wagons. What’s the problem?”

The Guildmaster sighed somewhat heavily. “There have been some disappearances out here in the slums. Nothing terribly unusual, but last night one of mine didn’t return home. I have men searching for him now, but between my need for guards for the caravans and the fact that the normal Peacekeeper force is currently engaged, well.” He let his voice trail away, and I was more than capable of putting two and two together.

“You’re worried it’s going to be too long before there’s anyone who can do anything about it.”

“And then we both know it will be too late.”

I didn’t ask what station Ennis’ missing man held, and he didn’t provide it. It wasn’t relevant– a fact that separated Ennis from most. “I’ll see what I can do,” I promised the lord.

“And when a ceasefire is called and you’re returned to the Peacekeeping force, Captain?”

“I’ll see what I can do then, too,” I said with a faint smile. “Good day, Lord Ennis.”

“Good day, Captain,” Ennis echoed, gaze returning to watching his men work, though I wasn’t entirely sure he was seeing them today, a distant look in his eyes.

I broke into a bit of a jog as I moved towards the Southern Gate to meet with my team, arriving several minutes late and finding the other Captains and regular troops already in line. I sauntered up to the end of the line of Captains without a care in the world.

“I see you finally decided to grace us with your presence, Captain Chazeer,” General Chirone said gruffly.

I sighed very heavily, “General, how long have we known one another?”

“I fail to see how that’s–”

“Almost two years,” I interrupted. “My name is Kazere, General. Or you can call me Leon, like everyone else. But, by the Sisters, could you stop saying my name wrong?”

I ignored the couple of people who shifted uncomfortably at me mentioning “heretical gods” . It was like they would somehow forget that they were standing next to a man with the mark of a heretic right on his face.

“Just get a better name,” a new voice spoke up, and I grinned crookedly as General Garret Anders made his way over to us.

“I happen to like my name, thank you very much. It’s not my fault all you Northerners can’t speak,” I let my mild Western accent get just a little bit thicker.

Anders chuckled and then made a gesture at Chirone vaguely. “I’ll take my Captain now, thank you.”

Chirone scowled. “Ka-Cha-eer— That one was assigned to me,” he said, growing frustrated. 

“Kazere,” Garret said, not even attempting the proper accent, but at least getting the pronunciation down, “is mine. His men are in my battalion. His partner is in my battalion. He’s not fighting for you.”

I simply stood there, grinning. I would have done it myself, of course, but Garret was saving me a lot of hassle.

“The Highlord–”

“Likes to make my life difficult,” I muttered, and then simply started walking towards Anders’ section of the battlefield, ignoring Chrione’s impotent protests.

“You are horrible for the men’s discipline, you know that?” Garret asked me as he caught up.

“Well, you were taking too long. Besides, they love me.”

Garret simply shook his head, giving up. We walked over to his group, most of which were no longer there.

“Where’s every–”

“Unlike Chirone, I don’t make ninety percent of my troops stand around waiting for you when we both know you’re going to run off and do your own thing anyway. They have their orders.”

That was a spectacularly good point, and I shut up, nodding to the General and then going over to my squad.

“Captain,” Willow Moret, my second in command, greeted as I walked over, jumping off the back of the skiff she piloted and tugging on her linked gloves that glowed slightly with bluish purple light. “Took you long enough.”

“I was getting real bored,” Jehu agreed, the large, heavily built man in Lava Armor tromping over as he spoke. “Worried we were going to miss all the action.”

“I’d never let that happen,” I assured with a grin, turning as Jair and Ehud, in their much slimmer Rift-enhanced suits, stood up as well. “We good to go?”

“Now that we have a Captain,” Will said dryly, kicking Tola lightly in his leg, the slightly older man similarly in Lava Armor. He started getting to his feet, grumbling.

“Then let’s go.” I hopped in the copilot seat of the skiff, double checking my gear– two swords, slung over my back in their sheaths, the sniper rifle similarly placed and resting between them, all my daggers where they should be– as we took off like a shot across the open plains to catch up with the others.

“Just the two Generals?” I asked the skiff at large.

Ehud nodded, leaning up a bit closer behind me, “They’re not expecting too much. We got reports of Tirnaog crossing the Southwest border a few hours ago. All the farmsteads out there have already been cleared, so we just have to make sure they don’t make it any further in.”

“Any notes on size?”

“No. Any reason to think it won’t be just like the rest?”

“The fact that we keep winning, maybe?”

“To be fair, Captain,” Jehu spoke up with a grin and a smirk, “That happens regardless.”

I laughed.

We were approaching the force now, the battle already joined and the rest of the Ildanach Forces engaged. As we came up on them, I looked for some kind of perch, a place I could set up above the battlefield with my rifle. A gleam of violet flashed briefly on one of the hills, and then I saw the black raven land there, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

“Don’t bother slowing down,” I told them and then paused. “Try to piss them off for me, would you?”

My team looked at me oddly.

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“We got a secondary goal here, Captain?” Tola asked me directly.

“I’m doing someone a favor,” I confirmed, making up my mind on the spot. “We’re going to try to get a ceasefire called today.”

My team exchanged smiles.

“Sounds like fun,” Jehu said.

“I like a challenge,” Jair echoed.

That was why they were my team. I grinned back at them all and then unceremoniously jumped from the hovercraft, rolling to break my fall. It probably should have broken or at least severely bruised a rib or two, particularly with the amount of things I was wearing on my back, but a soft cushion of air met me where I fell, and I rolled off of that and onto the ground. It dissipated with a very faint color of violet as I got to my feet and started running for the perch on the outcropping, above and to the right of the battlefield.

The bird met me there. You’ve been awfully busy this morning.

I slung the rifle off my back and took aim. “I’m working, Teris.”

And I’m helping you not kill yourself while you work, my familiar agreed.

He remained silent for a few moments as I picked off more troops, looking for one of the other Captains, my partner in the Peacekeeping force between Skirmishes and long before we had even arrived at the city.

Hector wasn’t hard too find after a moment, blasting holes in people with his short-range laser discharger– a shotgun.

I smiled fondly and made sure I kept tabs to cover him as I continued firing.

You’re not going to get anyone to send reinforcements this way, Teris noted.

I sighed faintly and took another shot, but we both knew he was right.

“Did you have any suggestions?” I asked. I had a couple ideas myself, but I didn’t like any of them.

Lose.

I paused and simply stared down the barrel of my rifle for a moment. “You know, sometimes I could kiss you,” I told the bird cheerfully, returning the gun to my back and looking for the best way down from my perch.

You would get feathers in your mouth, Teris said sagely.

I laughed and then jumped off the cliff.

Instead of a cushion of air greeting me at the end of the fall, I slowed to a gentle and reasonable speed of descent when I was just a few feet above the ground, violet energy wrapping around my legs, still almost translucent. The magic would probably be noticed; the source wouldn’t be. Not that anyone was likely to care in this kind of chaos.

As soon as I hit the ground, I took off running towards the main conflict, drawing my blades and making my way over to Hector and the front of the skirmish. “Hector! Hector!”

He whirled towards me in the chaos, and I recoiled a bit as he unintentionally brought his gun with him, pointing it directly at my face. “Oops. Hey, Leon! What are you doing down here? Bored already?”

“No, Hector, we need to lose!” I shouted above the din of the battle.

The Knight turned to look at me blankly. “Could you repeat that?” Without looking, he blew the face off of a man running towards him at full speed.

“We need to lose. To draw out reinforcements.”

“Why do we want reinforcements? I thought you preferred the war to the peacetime.”

“I do, but Lord Ennis asked me for a favor this morning,” I said, even though I probably shouldn’t have. I had to be upfront with Hector though; he was my partner.

Hector, predictably, scowled immediately. “I don’t trust those lords, Leon. Why are we doing favors for them?”

“Because there are people going missing, and we need to help them. We can’t do that out here.” I blocked an attack and raked my blade through the Tirnaog soldier’s armor like it was made of butter, the edge of my sword crackling with a deeper and more visible purple energy than my normal magic.

Hector met my eyes for a moment and then sighed heavily. “Fine. Fine. How do you suggest we start losing without innocent people dying for no reason?”

“We withdraw.”

“We’re not generals, and even if you can get to Garret, he only has half the forces here.”

The Generals were stationed a short distance away with a few reserves of our own, as there was no point for us all to be on the battlefield right now.

I glanced back at them and then turned to Hector. “Yeah, I know.” I thought for a moment and then gave him a smile that was half grimace. “You trust me?”

“.... I hate it when you ask me that,” Hector sighed heavily before nodding.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing,” I told him, and then started cutting my way through the crowd to my men. It was a lot harder to see where everyone was from down here, and I was grateful when Teris whispered into the back of my mind,

To your right.

Sure enough, there were Jehu and Tola, grouped together and laughing as they easily demolished the enemy in the melee.

“Tola!” I yelled as I got closer, ducking as Jehu shot directly over my head.

“How can I help you, Captain?” Tola said, still blasting away as he spoke.

“I need to make some explosives.”

“Seems like a waste since we’re already winning?” Jehu noted.

“I don’t want to use them against the enemy,” I said, and both of them stopped shooting to stare at me for a short beat before the cacophony of the fight forced them to give it their attention again. “We always win. Winning isn’t going to draw out reinforcements. But losing might.”

I watched the understanding cross their face, and then Tola laughed. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Captain.”

“Me too,” I said before merging back into the fight, letting my team fade away in the mess of bodies.

Energy shields were effective against most medium range laser guns, effective to such an extent that melee was almost exclusively the only way to make a dent against enemy forces. Normally this was done using Rift-powered, short range blasts, like Tola and Jehu were using, even shorter range and higher powered laser bolts, like Hector’s shotgun, or energy spears.

My swords were not visibly enhanced and took training to use effectively, meaning that they were a rarity on the battlefield. Rift energy made them slice through the shields; practice made me competent. Snipers were another thing of some rarity; the charges would lose power the further they traveled, which meant extreme accuracy was necessary to make use of them. They just weren’t efficient, normally. But I’d been shooting them since I was ten.

I’d been using these blades almost as long, and I lost myself in the dance, the flow of the battle, letting the adrenaline run through me. Nothing ever felt quite like this.

“Captain!”

I paused in my dance, my sudden ceasing of movement causing my current opponent to go flying directly past me and giving me an extremely easy kill before I went on the defensive to look for Tola.

I saw his hand then, waving at me above the battlefield, covered in the bronze-colored Lava Armor that had seams of orange Lava Energy running throughout it. He was ready.

“Tola! Thirty seconds!” I yelled back and prayed that he heard me as I took off running towards Hector. I grabbed him by the arm as he was mid-shot, dragging him backwards as he yelped.

“What in Khane’s name are you doing?”

“Fifteen,” I counted out loud in response and then waited five more seconds before yelling, “Mines!”

It wasn’t an impossibility, though it was extremely unlikely. Sometimes, particularly when things got rough and the chain of command broke down in longer, more closely matched Skirmishes, fields were boobytrapped with mines or just about anything else. When things were particularly bad, that trapping didn’t get logged. Of course, that wasn’t what had happened here, but my warning– echoed on the other side of the battlefield by Jehu and then Ehud again a moment later– was enough for us to get down as explosions started going off in the middle of the battle.

Tola had placed them well. They didn’t pack too much of a punch, they weren’t in the middle of any particularly heavy areas, but they were loud and they sure looked dangerous.

“Withdraw!” I yelled as the noise continued to fill the air, rocks raining down on us.

“Withdraw!” Hector echoed, giving me a look that told me we were going to be having a talk about my strategy here later.

Enough Captains echoed the sentiment that nobody tracked who had and who hadn’t; everyone just pulled back.

We started heading up to the reinforcements and the Generals on the hill, but Chirone wasn’t going to let that happen. He immediately started marching down to meet us, to tell us to get back in there, rage written all over his face.

I looked at him, looked back at the Tirnaog troops who were also disoriented, still trying to figure out that they were winning.

“Come on,” I muttered, the words a prayer. “Figure it out. You’re winning. Come after us; the mines have stopped. They weren’t even dangerous. Come on.”

Chirone had almost reached us now– and then he tripped.

He tripped and started falling down the hill.

We all stared in shock until he came to a stop a few yards away from us, a couple of his soldiers snapping out of it to go help him.

I looked around and saw Ehud standing parallel to where the General had been, some distance away. There was a glint of something in his hand, something silver and a bit like wire.

He grinned at me, inclining his head.

“Sometimes I could kiss him too,” I said wryly to no one in particular, inclining my head back.

It was enough.

The Tirnaog troops started to pursue, reinforcements following moments later.

Our backup forces shifted, but weren’t sure what to do.

“Leave them there!” I yelled up to Garret. “Everyone just stay there!”

And then I started running back down the hill.

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