AN: Hello my fellow FanFictioners, welcome to the next chapter of this story. So I've realized a couple of things. One was I missed so many opportunities last chapter. I could have done more with Kent and Sain, or Florina, or Wil, or Lyn, or even Eliwood.

The other thing I noticed was that the review I ranted on last chapter was from the second prologue, so I kinda doubt the person read that and I kinda feel stupid now.

Now, To Battle!

-Chapter 8: Vortex of Strategy-

(Mark)

After a few days ride (they had rented some horses from Kathelet and each horse they had held two passengers) they arrived at the Caelin border, there were two large hills with a small valley in between.

"Look Mark," Lyn's voice dragged him away from the landscape, "the mountains seem so far away now. We've come such a long way…"

"Milady Lyndis, Mark," Kent called to them, "we've arrived at the Caelin border."

"At this rate I'd say we'll be at Castle Caelin within two days," Sain said cheerily.

"Sain!" Mark said in frustration, "How many times have I told you to quit jinxing us?!"

"Ah," Nils suddenly called out, "Lady Lyn, don't move!" The four of them turned back to look at the boy, before what looked like a giant arrow imbedded itself into the ground right where Lyn was about to step.

"What in- Where did this bolt come from?" Lyn asked in shock. From the angle of the bolt, Mark estimated that it came from directly behind the eastern hill.

"No!" Kent shouted in fear, "they have a ballista!"

"Lundgren is getting serious," Sain said, "if he is deploying siege weapons."

"Dorcas, Matthew, Nils, Erk, Lyn," Mark began, "dismount for now. You're better off on the ground. Florina, can you ride your pegasus on the ground like a normal horse?"

"I think so," Florina answered.

"Do you think you can keep up with the other riders?"

"Yes, I should be able to," she responded.

"Then Kent, Sain, Florina, and I will meet the enemy at the valley, where we will be able to bottleneck them, Rath and Wil, you will ride directly behind us, shoot any enemy you can, the rest of you will have to catch up. Matthew and Lucius, I need you to sneak around the eastern hill and take out that ballista, we don't have time to set up Terepashi so once you do, Lucius send up a flare as a signal. Once we see it, Florina I want you to take Lyn and Dorcas around to behind the enemy lines. We're going to surround them. Serra, Nils, heal and play at your discretion. Kill only if you have too."

The members of Lyndis's Legion all nodded, as the riders charged to the valley. Just as planned, they met the enemy troops, Mark estimated that there were about 25 of them, at the valley, limiting the amount of enemies they would have to fight at once and the ballista would have a much more difficult time aiming at them. Once the legion's foot troops arrived, they began to switch the front lines, the riders allowed the others to pass them and get healed by Serra, who was being boosted by Nils. Before long, they saw Lucius's signal in the air. Florina took to the air, grabbing Lyn and Dorcas and dropping them off behind the enemy. Now surrounded and outnumbered, the leader of the enemy forces surrendered.

"What should we do with them, Mark?" Kent asked, "We won't be able to watch over this many prisoners and still be able to fight against Lundgren's forces."

He had a point. Up until now they had only fought bandits and hadn't needed to worry about prisoners. Mark had been so worried about making it to Caelin central that he hadn't thought about taking prisoners. Thankfully an idea came to him.

"How many of you knew who you were fighting?" Mark asked the prisoners. Slowly, each of the still conscious soldiers raised their hands.

"Who do you think you were fighting?" Mark continued.

Everyone was quiet until the leader spoke up, "We were fighting against Lyndis, granddaughter of Marquess Caelin and rightful heir to the throne. We've known that Lundgren has been lying from the start, but there is little we could do. He has spies everywhere and is threatening all of our families."

Everyone was outraged when they heard than. Lyn shouted, "That blackheart! Resorting to blackmail! May he never know Mother Earth's sweet embrace!"

"We will make sure your families are safe," Mark assured the soldiers, "For now, until we defeat Lundgren, no one will be allowed to send any messages. And if you betray us," Mark's took a darker tone, "I can guarantee you will spend the rest of your life behind bars."

With that said, Mark left to prepare a strategy to take the nearby fort. With many of the soldiers from said fort now on his side, they might be able to siege it, but that would take precious time that they didn't have and Mark wasn't sure how many more soldiers were in the fort. They couldn't go around the fortress because the forces inside would just follow them and surround them when they reached Castle Caelin, or sooner. But then it hit him, the troops at the fort wouldn't know that the others had joined them. The plan he had in mind was risky, but if they could pull it off… he searched for the leader of the soldiers. He found him tending for the wounded.

"Ah, Sir Mark," the man greeted, "I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name is Michael; I trained with Kent and Sain."

"Oh, really?" Mark asked, surprised.

"Yes," Michael confirmed, "I was the top of our class, with Kent and Sain close behind me, though they have definitely gotten better since then."

"That's probably from all the fighting we've done on the way here," Mark explained, "I have a plan, and you are probably the best person here to talk to about what I have in mind." Mark told the soldier the details of his plan.

"That might work, but there are some things that I should tell you before we go through with this. One is that Captain Yogi, the man in charge of the fort, is loyal to Lundgren, and he ordered us to kill you."

"Hm, that complicates things…" Mark pondered the new problem for a moment, "Ah, I got it!" Mark told Michael his idea.

"Yes, that could work," the soldier said, "Though you're probably going to want to tell the others your plan though first."

"Right," Mark said. He was not looking forward to Kent's reaction.

"What!" Kent yelled at the tactician moments later.

"Trust me Kent," Mark said, "this plan will work."

"And what would happen if the soldiers betray us inside the fort? What then?!"

"We won't," Michael defended his men, "my men are loyal to Marquess Caelin."

"And why are you so sure about that?" Kent questioned.

"Because it was us who told the villagers Lundgren's plan," Michael stated, "He had thought that he had covered up his tracks, but I noticed him poison the Marquess's drink, so I dug a little deeper and found that Marquess was plotting to take over Caelin by killing the Marquess and Lady Lyndis. Me and my men were able to tell the people, but the Lundgren found out and started to threaten our families. That's not the worst part though."

"What else is there?" Mark asked, worried.

"He's working with someone. I think the man's name is Ephidel. Apparently, there is some big conspiracy going on to over-through Ostia. I'm not sure how many other territories are in on it though."

"How did you find this out?" Mark asked.

"I was on guard duty when I saw Lundgren leave his chambers," Michael's face darkened considerably, "My family died years ago, so I thought Lundgren didn't have anything he could threaten me with, because I would gladly give my life for Lord Hausen, but I was made, and he started threatening my soldiers and their families to keep me in line."

"What?" Kent asked, shocked.

"This isn't looking too great," Mark bemoaned. Why couldn't anything be simple? First he woke up with amnesia, then Lyn ended up being heiress to Caelin, then Ninian and Nils started giving him strange looks like they know something about him that he himself doesn't, and now there is some big conspiracy going on in Lycia. Well, one thing at a time, he supposed. Right now, they had a fort to deal with.

Mark now stood, bound, before Captain Yogi, one of Lundgren's most trusted men.

"Lieutenant Michael," the man spoke, "did I not order you to kill Lyndis and her allies?"

"Yes, captain," Michael answered, "But I-"

"Then why," Yogi cut him off, "did you bring me this… Sacaean mongrel," Lyn growled at the name, "these two traitorous knights," was he really going to keep up the charade, "and a nobody before me?"

"Sir, I thought-" Michael was cut off again.

"Don't think!" Yogi roared, "That is not your job! Your job is to follow orders! Which, as of lately, you haven't done a very good job at!"

"Sir, wouldn't it be better if we were to publicly execute them," the soldier suggested, though he seemed to struggle to say it, "It would be a great show of force as to what will happen, should anyone try to cross Marquess Lundgren."

Yogi seemed to ponder the idea for a moment, before saying, "Since you brought them to me, we will publicly execute them as a great show of force. No one will dare cross Marquess Lundgren after that. And I will get a promotion, a Commander- no, General Yogi. That has a nice ring to it."

"Of course, sir," Michael sighed, like he'd been expecting Yogi to say something like that. Mark just inwardly scoffed at Yogi's behavior. Seriously, how clichéd could he get.

"Everyone in position?" Mark transmitted. He winced as his head was filled with their responses, one of the downsides of Terepashi, only the caster could hear the others thoughts.

"On my mark"

"You just had to use that phrase, didn't you" Sain joked, but Mark ignored him.

"3" Mark saw the members of Lyn's Legions in the room tense.

"2" Mark prepared to summon his Levin Sword to his hands.

"Now!" Mark, Lyn, Kent, and Sain all broke out of their loosely tied bonds. Mark summoned his Levin sword as the others were tossed their own weapons. Mark pointed his blade at the enemy leader.

"Surrender, Captain Yogi," Mark demanded, "Right now we have troops all-throughout your base. You are surrounded and outmatched, and quite possibly outnumbered. If Lieutenant Michael is anything to go by, few soldiers are as loyal to Lundgren as you think. Surrender and we will spare your life."

To Mark's, and everyone else's, surprise, Captain Yogi just laughed at Mark's demands, "You think you've won, boy? I suspected that Lieutenant Michael and his troops would turncoat, so I kept the troops loyal to Marquess Lundgren here in the fort. Instead of being surrounded like you said, we have you surrounded. And as for being outmatched, we will just see about that won't be."

Mark's blood ran cold. He fired a blast of lighting from his Levin Sword, which was block by Yogi's lance.

"Everyone, status report, now!" Mark transmitted. For a few spine-chilling seconds, no one responded.

Until Rath replied "We are fine. Some enemy forces caught us off-guard, but we have it under control now."

Similar reports started to fill his head. He began blasting enemies with electricity whenever there was an opportunity.

That is until Nils transmitted "I need help, we're being overwhelmed!"

"Just perfect…" Mark muttered sarcastically "Can anyone go help Nils? He's in the southwest corner of the fort"

"I'm on my way" Dorcas replied. Sighing in relief, Mark turned back to the battlefield to find it was almost over. He saw Lyn decapitate a tiring Captain Yogi as Michael, his men, Kent, and Sain defeated the rest of the enemy forces.

"We're okay" Mark sighed in relief once again when he heard Nils's transmission "though I'm not sure if we would have made it if Dorcas hadn't shown up in time."

The other members of the Lyn's Legion reported that they were okay, but many of the Caelin knights fighting with them had died. Mark's spirit dropped, people, good people who had trusted him with their lives, were now dead because he hadn't thought of what if the troops in the fort were loyal to Lundgren. He thought back to the Bern mountains, when they met Dorcas, he said that he had resorted to the bandits because it was "the only way to make a living" in that area. How many of the bandits there were like Dorcas? How many people who were just trying to survive died by Mark's orders?

"We did it," Mark told them, "we took the fort."

"Mark," Kent said, "there is something troubling me."

"Yes?" Mark asked.

"Our opponents," Kent started, "most of them were newer soldiers. We" he gestured to Sain and Michael, "trained with many of them."

"They were traitors who joined Lundgren," Sain said, "They deserved what they got."

"No!" Mark snapped, "Never speak that way, Sain! Life is precious. Any death is a waste." Mark stormed off before Sain could say anything.

(Lyn)

Lyn was shocked by Mark's sudden outburst, and judging by the looks on everyone else's faces, they all were.

"I'll go talk to him," she told the others. She ran after him.

"Mark, wait!" Lyn called out.

"What is it, Lyn," Mark sighed, "I just want to be alone right now."

"What's going on?" Lyn asked, "It's not like you to snap at someone like that."

Mark sighed again, "The other members of the legion are fine, but about half of Michael's men died because I didn't think that the troops at the fort would be loyal to Lundgren."

"Don't blame yourself for that, "Lyn chided, playfully hitting his arm, "You couldn't have known that. There probably would have been more people dead without your plan."

"Thanks Lyn," Mark said, "I needed that."

"Anytime Mark," Lyn told him, "Let's get back to the others."

"Yeah," he agreed.

(Lundgren)

Lundgren was outraged. How was that… that Sacaean mongrel beating him? She should have died long before she crossed the Lycian border.

"Ephidel!" Lundgren yelled, "How could you let that girl and those two pathetic excuses for knights get this far!"

"Ah, milord," Ephidel said in that monotone voice of his, "I have only underestimated them. It won't happen again."

"It better not," Lundgren threatened, "Or the deal is off and you won't have my support in overthrowing Ostia. If you can't kill just one girl you have no chance against Ostia."

"Of course sir," Ephidel said, before teleporting away.

AN: Another longer chapter and considering that I used over half of this chapter's original dialogue last time, I think I did a pretty good job with it. I decided to have some of Caelin's knights fight with Lyn because, those rumors (well it's not really rumors, but you know what I mean) about the Marquess being poisoned had to have started somewhere and you can't tell me that the people are against Lundgren yet all of Caelin's knights are with him.

Anyways, until next time, go out there, be great, and keep it simple.