A trio of conscripts formed the front line of the next wave of Order soldiers, with a Cynas captain behind them barking out orders. The captain had seen what transpired while they were approaching, but didn't realize the Cherem Company leader had been healed when he ordered his men to concentrate their attacks on him. The first conscript charged Fret, weaving his broadsword in a figure 8 pattern to gain momentum for his attack. He brought it down in a heavy chop towards his enemy's head, but Fret braced and raised both his swords, crossing them to form an 'X' up and out in front of him to catch the attacking blade. The muscles in his arms and chest rippled beneath his armor as he resisted the forceful blow. The frustrated conscript used the shield on his left arm to bash Fret in the right arm and shoulder, knocking him sideways and breaking the blade lock.

The conscript overplayed his hand at this point, thinking he had an advantage to exploit. And against a lesser opponent he might have. But Fret was far from average. He anticipated the conscript's follow up attack and ducked it in a spinning evasive maneuver that enabled him to immediately counterattack, slashing back with both of his swords. He caught the overextended conscript out of position, splitting open his side and thigh. The conscript gasped and attempted to backpedal in retreat, but his bad leg gave out and he fell. Fret pounced, kicking the shield away and thrusting a sword through his chest. He then used that counter as a springboard to launch his own attack against the conscript in the center of the Order formation.

Fret made quick work of the soldier. Hyperfocused, his skill and speed were too much for the less experienced conscript. For a brief moment he hesitated as he considered pressing his attack further against the Cynas captain, but opted against it and retreated to his starting position. Like the previous battle, the combination of Marica, Nova, and Sphiel finished off the remaining conscript, with Marica and Sphiel both using spear torrent marks that left the captain badly injured as well. The captain limped to the front line in preparation of attacking, but Fret fired a flame vortex mark that cut off his life before he had a chance.

Scanning the horizon, Fret determined that there were no more threats in sight. He quickly and quietly cleaned and resheathed his blades before resuming the northern progress along the road, with the unspoken expectation for the others to follow.


"I-I see what you meant before about him trying to do too much," commented Erin as the group marched. "Darn impressive though…"

Marica nodded grimly. "Yup… aren't you glad you got Jale instead?"

Erin smiled slightly at her friend's attempt to lighten the mood. "Don't worry, Marica, I'll be ready to help you catch him if he falls."

Marica returned Erin's smile with a weak one of her own. "I know… I couldn't ask for a better friend."


Chrodechild's team caught up with Fret's team about the same time they were arriving at the second gate blocking the road north. He was leaning forward with his forehead resting against the wooden barricade when she called out to them. As the two groups rejoined, she easily noticed his atypical behavior, and pulled Marica aside to ask if something was wrong with him. While Marica was giving her the 'highlights' of what happened and the rest of the team was comparing experiences in the fort, the gate suddenly began to open.

"The others must have reached the gate lever!" exclaimed Nimni. The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

"I want my team to keep the point," stated Fret. "Chrodechild's team will lag about a minute behind us, ready to provide reinforcement if necessary. I also want you guys to keep an eye out for anything approaching from behind us. I don't want any surprises."


"Old man!" shouted Fret. "What are you guys doing here?" The Cherem Company team had cleared the second gate, and shortly thereafter ran into the Auster folk Vaslof and Resno, along with two other Auster he hadn't seen before.

Vaslof roared with laughter. "My young friend, I should have known you would be able to get this far. Come to challenge yourself against me once again?" Vaslof respected Fret, but he was completely confident in his ability to defeat the young man's team. He'd done it a few times already in previous encounters.

"I don't get you, old man. You're such a nice guy, how can you possibly keep working for that evil kook Valfred?"

Vaslof smiled. "I do not make such decisions for my people, but I can tell you that we support the Order of the One True Way because our beliefs are compatible."

"You mean you guys believe in all that predetermined future crap too?"

"Not exactly. But we believe all things have their place in life, and things will happen according to the will of our ancestors. The Order believes that the future will come as it will and that we should not attempt to influence a different outcome. We support that belief."

"How can you claim the Order doesn't attempt influence the future!" asked Fret incredulously. "How do you explain Valfred manipulating where other worlds fuse to this one, and using that to wipe out their enemies?"

Vaslof looked at him like he had grown a second head. "What nonsense do you speak of? I know of no such thing."

Fret smacked his head in frustration. "Of course! You have no memory of the Magedom of Janam either, you probably think that desert world that recently appeared was always there."

"What desert? The only one on the continent I know of is the one south of Mt. Svatgol. And that has been on this world for far more seasons than I have."

Fret shook his head. "That's the thing, it hasn't. Until recently that desert didn't exist. It was another world, and that old kook Valfred used it to wipe out the biggest threat to the Order and its millions of people."

"You expect us to believe such a fairy tale?" interjected Resno. "Worlds appearing and disappearing, and conveniently only Cherem Company sees anything different?"

"I know to you guys it doesn't make sense," countered Fret. "I've got this book with me, I want-"

"Enough!" declared Vaslof. "Words are worthless. Let your weapons speak for you. If you defeat us, it is the will of the ancestors that we listen more to what you have to say. If not, it will only prove that what you say is false."

Fret gritted his teeth. "Fine, old man. You're going down!" Reaching cross-handed across his body, he snared the hilts of his scale swords and withdrew them from their sheaths, twirling them in his hands as he settled into a fighting stance.

"Oh, ho!" laughed Vaslof. "We will see. Maybe there is a first time for everything."

Activating his masterpiece mark, Fret attacked first. He launched himself into Vaslof, hitting him hard with both swords and knocking him back. As Fret returned to his starting position, Vaslof remarked in surprise, "You have grown quite powerful since our last meeting. A worthy challenge indeed!"

Marica and Sphiel both fired spear torrent marks, with the double dose of heavy water scoring major damage on the quartet of Auster folk. Nova charged forward towards Resno, winding up to strike with his greatsword. The Auster female ignored the incoming attack and simply countered with her Great Hammer. Her attitude was that she was going to hurt her enemy far more than she got hurt. And she was right. Even as Nova brought his sword forward to bear, Resno's hammer came forward and drilled him in the chest. She grimaced from the pain of being hit, but her attack crushed Nova's chest plate and threw him back in the direction he came from, causing him to lose his weapon in the process. Vaslof jumped forward and stomped Nova while he was down, killing him. The other Auster on the front line charged Fret, who stepped back to avoid the incoming hammer before executing a spinning attack that brought both of his blades across the neck of his overextended foe. Fret wasn't strong enough to decapitate the thick necked Auster, but the blades penetrated more than deep enough to kill him.

"Damn!" shouted Fret. "Marica, get a revival statue going! Sphiel, bring the snow!"

Sphiel threw her trademark sleep frost mark at the lone Auster on the back row, who was already in bad shape from the previous round of spear torrents. The secondary sleep effect was made moot as the primary attack buried him under an avalanche of ice that he couldn't withstand. Fret covered for Nova, who Marica had just raised, engaging Resno. He learned from Nova's mistake and didn't leap right into her counterattack. Instead, he unleashed a flurry of sweeps and slashes that forced her to defend as much as she could with the handle of her great hammer. She blocked some of the blows, but the weight of the hammer combined with the Auster propensity towards strength over dexterity worked against her. Fret back flipped out of the way after cutting her half a dozen times and further reducing her health to a critical level.

Vaslof charged forward again towards Nova, who had gotten back up but was trying to locate his sword and didn't immediately see the incoming attack. Fret dove across and shoved Nova out of the way of the attack, but in doing so he himself couldn't avoid Vaslof's hammer. The force of the bludgeoning blow broke ribs on his left side and sent him reeling. He spit up blood as he hit the ground with the wind knocked out of him. Resno stepped forward and attempted to crush Fret with a powerful blow from her hammer, but greatly weakened her attack was even slower than usual and through sheer will he rolled out of the way, screaming as the move caused the pain to flare even more. Erin quickly sent healing his way. It was nowhere near enough to get him to 100%, but it was enough mend the broken ribs and get him back on his feet.

Panting, Vaslof gestured towards Nova, who had recovered his greatsword, and asked Fret, "Why do you intervene for someone too weak to defend himself, taking the blow meant for him?"

"Protecting others is what I do, it's what Cherem Company does," the young leader replied matter-of-factly.

"I am impressed, you've come quite far. But do you have enough to finish it?"

Fret glared at the older Auster male. "Oh yeah I do, and you're about get more power thrown at you than you can handle!"

Marica's eyes grew wide. "No, Fret! Don't use that mark! It's too dangerous!" she pleaded.

Not looking back, he replied, "I've got an even better idea, Marica, our unite attack!"

She stepped forward to his side on the front row. Setting down his sword, he took her left hand in his right. The husband and wife exchanged brief glances before focusing their attention on Vaslof. They raised their held hands forward, their wedding rings beginning to glow. A series of balls of blue flame burst out, carpet bombing the ground in front of Vaslof in rapid fire succession until they reached and blasted into him.

Vaslof fell to one knee gripping his chest, in shock both from the force of the attack and the actual technique of the attack itself. "H-how…" he muttered painfully.

"I don't want to kill you old man," stated Fret, "but if you won't concede then all I have to do is give the word and my mage will finish you off. I suggest you don't call my bluff," he warned.

Shoulders slumping, Vaslof raised his hand in front of him for Fret to halt the attack. "Y-you h-have done well," he grunted. "W-we concede, we w-will hear you out."

Fret grabbed his equipment pack and produced a pair of mega medicines. Handing the bottles to Vaslof and Resno, he said, "I'd heal you myself, but since you're not allies it won't work." To prove his point, he activated his healing tide mark, which fully recovered his own health but did nothing for the two Auster.

"Marica, let's use revival statues on these other two."

She shook her head in response. "We don't have any more. They're not exactly easy to come by, you know?" He nodded solemnly.


Fret reached back into his equipment pack and dug out the Chronicle of Noble Steel that he had brought with him. It was habit at this point to carry a Chronicle anywhere he went, he never knew when he'd potentially run into another Starbearer. "Put your hand on this book," he explained to the Auster folk. "Your memories might kick in."

Nodding skeptically, Vaslof and Resno complied. As Fret hoped, a white light flashed and the Auster received the vision and were revealed to be Starbearers, their memories flooding back. Fret began to explain in more detail what was going on with the Order and answering the Auster questions. While they were talking, the remaining 10 Cherem Company members from the other two teams came up to join them.

"Aha!" exclaimed Vaslof suddenly, interrupting Fret. "That explains it!"

"Explains what?" asked Fret, confused.

Vaslof smiled. "The unite attack you and… I think Marica is her name… were able to perform. That attack is called 'Husband and Wife', and until today I didn't know of anyone besides Resno and myself who could perform it. Now I know why…"

"Brave Vaslof, my old friend!" boomed Gorno, stepping forward to greet his fellow Auster. "Have you finally come to your senses and stopped being a hired goon for the Order?"

Laughing, Vaslof replied, "Gorno, as opinionated as always, I see! Yes, our young friend here has shown us the truth. We would be happy to join you in your struggle."

Fret's eyes grew wide in excitement. "Really? Sweet! This is awesome!"

Vaslof and Resno both laughed, it was hard not to at the young leader's infectious enthusiasm.

"Oh! Wait!" exclaimed Fret, still giddy. "You said you and Resno can do that unite attack? Gorno, this is the 'other couple' you told us about at our wedding reception?"

Gorno laughed heartily. "Yes! And it seems you already knew them!"

"This was the first time we've used it," said Marica. "Thanks again Gorno, it was amazing."

"Yeah!" agreed Fret. "It was like pow, pow, pow, wham!" He waved his hands demonstrably while eagerly trying to describe the action, drawing laughter from everyone around. Marica was especially relieved to see him back to his usual self. She and Erin made eye contact and smiled in acknowledgment of what each other was thinking.

"Before we leave with you guys, there is something you need to know," warned Vaslof. "Just north of here is an Order Archivist, a young girl by the name of Sophia if I am not mistaken. She is quite powerful."

"Sophia!" exclaimed Nova. "We have to go rescue her!"

"Rescue?" asked Resno, perplexed.

"Long story…" answered Fret. "You guys hang back here, we'll be back. My team, let's go!"


The Cherem Company group ran into the next area, finding Sophia waiting. "Sophia!" shouted Nova. "You must come with us!" he pleaded.

Sophia scoffed. "Spare me your plea, father should have killed you for your treason."

"Sophia, no! Listen! Valfred is using you! It's all a bunch of lies!"

"No! You listen!" screamed Sophia. "Father has made me more powerful than you can imagine! And now you will see with your own eyes!" With that she summoned a group of dust minions, horrible creatures composed almost entirely of sand. Almost immediately the dust minions began to attack the party.

"What the heck are these things?" shouted Fret as his swords cut through one of the dust minions but seemingly did no damage. "It's like we're fighting a bunch of blobs of sand!"

"Our attacks aren't having any effect!" added Marica. Even Sphiel's spear torrent failed to score any significant damage.

"We'll get them!" shouted Vaslof as he led the Auster folk into the fray. He smashed one on top of its head with his hammer, pounding it into the ground and causing it to dissipate. He and Resno repeated the same process with the remaining four dust minions, quickly disposing of them.

Sophia growled in anger at them, summoning 8 more dust minions and using the Chronicle that Valfred had embedded in her to transform herself into a sort of 6 meter tall dust minion queen.

"Nooooooo!" yelled Nova in horror. "Sophiaaaaaaa!"

"We can't fight all these and whatever she turned into!" exclaimed Fret. "We've got to get out of here and regroup!"

Nova continued to shout out. "We have to save her! We can't leave now!"

Marica grabbed him by the shoulders, getting his attention and sternly saying, "Nova, we will save Sophia, but we can't right now. We have no way of dealing with this sand monster she transformed into. We've got to get back to the castle and figure out a plan. You need to be strong and hold it together, for Sophia's sake."

The older man looked at Marica. Still shaken up, he took one last long look at the dust minion Sophia before nodding sadly in resignation. The Cherem Company team quickly fled back to the south until they exited Fort Arc, then began to make the trek back to Castle Starcache to figure out what the next step would be.