It was a cheerful group that sat around a campfire a week after the Ockkuam raid. Similar raids had been undertaken in the time since, but they didn't want to push their luck and had decided to lay low for a time. As such, Faldio, Eleanor, Largo, Welkin, Alicia, Isara and Cordelia were sitting around a campfire in the late evening swapping amusing stories. It was currently Alicia's turn and Faldio had fallen off his log laughing so hard. "You mean that Welkin had stopped to draw some fish when the Empire was hours away from Bruhl?" he asked in between breaths.

Alicia smirked and nodded, Welkin couldn't see as he was trying to bury his head into his hands. But what really set the group off was Isara mentioning, "And as Welks was being escorted by the Town Watch, I had set out to try and find him and got him back, only by mentioning that I was waiting for my brother to help me finish packing, but that was going to be awhile unless they wanted to give him to me."

At this, even Cordelia laughed. However, their laugher was cut short when a pained bird's call drew their attention.

It was a raven, one that was entirely familiar to the group. "Isn't that your communication bird to your contact in Wessel, Faldio?" Welkin asked.

Faldio frowned. "Yes. She said she wouldn't be sending anything for a few days to allay suspicions, so for her to break that must mean something's happened," he replied, offering his arm to the bird.

The raven barely made it to him, nursing a wing that looked broken and was covered in blood. Faldio passed the poor bird off to Welkin, hoping that he would be able to heal him whilst he read the message that had come with the bird. His face paled rapidly as he read it. "Oh no…" he whispered before seeing all eyes on him. "The Federation backed Puppet-State has activated a new organisation that they are calling the "Inquisitorial" and it is as bad as it sounds. Their only job is to root out Resistance members and sympathisers by any means necessary."

No one wondered what means would get the most use or even if the accused would get a fair trial. They only wondered how many dead bodies would be hushed up. But Faldio's eyes widened at the hurried scribbles at the end of the note. "She's been suspected. She needs to be extracted!"

While everyone was all for it, surprisingly, the raven called out, as if to say no. Confused, everyone turned to Welkin who himself looked green around the gills. "Welkin?" Isara asked.

Welkin looked at Faldio, the concern in his eyes clear for all to see. "There are no wounds on this bird. The broken wing can be fixed with some rest."

Faldio was confused. "If there are no wounds," he said, "then where did all the blood come from?"

The raven gave a sort of mournful call as Welkin looked at his longtime friend. "I can only assume that the blood came from your contact."

Faldio slumped against his log as he fell to the ground. Welkin got the sense that this contact of his was more than just a stream of information to his friend. Finally, Faldio spoke again. "Then I need to go and get her," he said before standing and heading to his new tent to change into something that wouldn't look out of place in the civilian world.

Welkin pinched the bridge of his nose and Alicia noticed his expression. "Go with him?" she asked.

Welkin nodded, "If it's alright with you. He'll get himself killed if he goes alone." he replied before motioning her over to him.

Curious, Alicia raised an eyebrow as she walked over, only to be surprised when Welkin put the raven in one of her arm pockets. "He'll need to let us know when he's away safely and that raven is the best chance of that there is," he revealed. "After all, he did so with a broken wing this time."

The raven, showing off his intelligence, puffed up his chest as if to say: "That's right"

Welkin and Alicia smiled at the raven's antics and Alicia nodded before heading off to change herself and catching up to Faldio.

Welkin watched as the two of them headed off, his head spinning and wishing for simpler times. But Cordelia spoke up, bringing his mind back to the present sharply. "Surely we're not going to just let them do this on their own?" she asked.

Welkin sighed, "The actual rescue will be handled by them, but I think we can cause a distraction that can draw out much of the defenders." he said before standing. "Be ready, more information will come as soon as we get a plan ready."

In a cold, dark cell, a woman sat chained up to her bed. She only hoped her raven got to its destination without giving up the ghost.

The rattle of her cell's door opening drew her from her introspection. "So the Traitor is alive. How… unfortunate for her."

Patriotic zeal rose in her before she realized what she was saying. "The only traitor in this cell is you. Brother."

Her interrogator snarled. "Silence!" he shouted. "You lost all right to be my sister when you consorted with criminals and terrorists."

She hardened her will, knowing it would be necessary to survive. "I only spoke with Gallians. True Gallians. Though I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, Inquisitor Gassenarl."

Baldren Gassenarl snarled. "Let's see how you hold up to the Inquisitorial's methods." he snapped and turned to one of his subordinates. "Begin with level five and move up every hour of questioning."

The lower-ranked Inquisitor may have been masked, but it could not disguise the glee in his voice. "Yes, High Inquisitor."

Audrey Gassenarl grimaced, knowing that her life was about to get rough. Baldren didn't even bother to stay to watch as his former sister was interrogated, he had bigger fish to fry for now.

Welkin peered through his binoculars at the enemy base. It was close enough to Wessel that they should draw some of the garrisons yet was far enough away that Welkin didn't think that the Federation puppets would connect the dots. Lowering the binoculars and nodding to Largo and Isara, he waited a few moments before he put his hands to his mouth and whistled.

Twenty miles away, Faldio started at hearing the distant rumble of artillery fire. Fortunately, everyone else on the street flinched and paused, keeping their cover intact. A rumble emanating from the ground drew their attention to the main east-west road through the town. The rumble turned out to be a column of Federation soldiers rolling out to reinforce whatever was under attack.

Alicia looked at Faldio curiously, wondering what was going through his mind to head on this frankly insane mission. Their feathered friend in one of her pouches wriggled as if to agree with her.

Faldio looked westwards and gestured with his head towards an old castle. "The Inquisitorial works out of the old Wessel Castle." the unspoken "That's where we're going" wasn't needed as she got that. Faldio sighed and turned towards the castle. "Ironic," he murmured. "In the twelfth century, it was used as a refuge for victims of the Darcsen Inquisition and now it is used by inquisitors to persecute."

Alicia looked around and saw no one around them. "And how do you propose we get in, and importantly, get out?"

Faldio smirked as he turned down an alley. "You probably won't like it," he remarked, pulling open a hatch in the ground.

Alicia looked down into the hole and saw that Faldio's plan was to use the sewer system to enter the castle. Gaining a pinched look, she opened her pouch and held the raven in her hands. "Meet us here before we send off the completion message?"

The raven, displaying its intellect again, nodded and flew to a building roof to take up a watch position. Alicia glared at Faldio, "You'll pay for this later." she growled before jumping in.

In the back of his mind, Faldio was mildly concerned about what her vengeance would entail, but he leapt down and joined her in the sewer. He didn't even pause as he began leading Alicia through the tunnels.

Alicia was impressed that Faldio seemed to know the network like the back of his hand and commented on it. Faldio smirked at that. "My family came to Wessel when I was a kid and, being as interested in history as I was, I practically mapped out the sewer system after finding a connection in the castle."

Alicia raised an eyebrow, completely bemused that anyone, let alone a child, would willingly slog through the sewers of a town. But a worry soon entered her mind. "And you're sure that the entrance won't be guarded?"

Faldio snorted, "I doubt anyone outside of the two of us even know of it. It is pretty well hidden and only my curiosity as a child found it in the first place."

Alicia really hoped that he was right, but readied her pistol just in case.

As it happened, Faldio was right as they entered the castle through a sewage room. It turned out that the dungeons were nearby and, shockingly, there were no guards. Though perhaps that should have been their first warning.

By the time that they reached the only occupied cell, they were getting unnerved by the lack of response from their excursion. What they saw next horrified them.

Laying on a medieval-inspired rack, Audrey Gassenarl had managed to free one of her hands and was trying to free the other, but her consciousness was waning. Her "interrogator" laid dead on the floor in a pool of his own blood. However, Faldio's primary concern was getting Audrey out of there. "Audrey!" he called out, opening the door further from the crack it was open to enter the cell.

Audrey turned to face him, revealing the bloody mess of her left eye socket. "Faldio!" she breathed before leaning back. "Are you real?"

Faldio began to untie her from the rack and brushed her cheek with a gloved hand. "I'm here Audrey. I'm here."

Audrey leaned into his touch and sighed. "Sorry about the inconvenience. I was hoping that I could get out of here and try to link up with you and the Resistance."

Alicia looked around, anxiously expecting enemy guards any moment. "Rescue now, flirt later." she pressed.

Faldio flushed but finished freeing Audrey and scooped her up into his arms when it was clear that she couldn't walk fast or far. Recognising that it wouldn't be a good idea for someone as wounded as her to trudge through a sewer system, Faldio and Alicia ran through the castle until they found a low hanging window and slid down to the ground just below. Barely pausing to catch a breath, they ran as hard as they could, Alicia running to collect the raven while Faldio hurried to the cover of the Kloden woodlands.

Ten minutes after they parted, Alicia met up with them. "No movement from Wessel. I think we got away with it," she said.

Audrey sighed. "How far from your base?" she asked. By this point, since speed was no longer a concern, she was walking with Faldio's assistance.

Faldio thought for a moment, "About a day if we push it. Though I don't want to mess up your leg any further than it already is."

Audrey waved his concerns off. "That happened when they captured me. I just need someone to keep me upright."

Alicia bit her lip, choosing not to comment on her glance towards Faldio when she said that. "Regardless," he remarked, "We should send our feathered friend to the camp to let them know we're safe."

Alicia nodded, "I'll handle that, you two get started and I'll catch up."

Faldio and Audrey nodded and started off while Alicia wrote her note and sent the raven on its way.

Back at the camp, Welkin helped tend to what wounded they had. Thankfully for them, the enemy had been utterly unprepared and if they received reinforcements, they had arrived long after they had left. As such, the worse injuries had been some minor grazes and Largo stepping in a gopher hole on the way home and twisting his ankle. He was just finishing up wrapping Largo's ankle in some Ginger extract when Susie Evans, a fellow Bruhl native, came in. "Our raven friend came back with a note for you Welkin."

Welkin hummed and took the note from her offered hand and read it to himself.

W-

Rescued F's friend, didn't even spark interest in the locals. Worse thing we had to deal with was the smell of Wessel's sewers. F's friend on the other hand is missing an eye and their leg is messed up. More could be wrong.

Sidenote, when we arrive in a day or so, could you get out my baking supplies. F and his friend are making doe-eyes at each other. 20 Ducats says they're hitched by the end of this whole thing.

-A

Welkin chuckled as he finished reading. The unwritten "I am surrounded by "Romantics" and am suffering from their terrible flirting." was received clearly by him. He had been around Faldio sometimes when he had been flirting with someone and Welkin could only mentally roll his eyes at his friend. Though with that said, he paused in thought, trying to remember who could have been around Wessel and would bring out Faldio's sliver-tongue.

Susie noticed this and raised an eyebrow at him. "Faldio is being Faldio." Welkin replied, "I'm just trying to figure out who his friend is."

Susie rolled her eyes, she had been on the receiving end of Faldio's charms once before and hadn't really been impressed. "Poor Alicia. She has to be around them until they get back." she commiserated.

Welkin grunted, "I know, she's asked that I ready her baking supplies when she gets back."

Susie sighed and shook her head. "Oh dear," she murmured.

Welkin nodded before waving over one of the medic triplets. "Faldio's contact is coming in and is wounded. The bare minimum is a missing eye and probably broken or bruised leg."

Gina nodded and set about preparing for their arrival. She could only hope that things wouldn't be too bad.

Things were, in fact, quite bad. On top of the gouged out eye and the sprained knee that Audrey was sporting, the medics counted three broken ribs, a shattered hand and some nerve damage that would have been consistent with grabbing an electric fence and holding firmly for a while.

There was an unease in the camp, after all, her father was hell-bent on destroying them while her brother had a disturbing helping of glee in making every suspected rebel suffer. But Faldio was vouching for her and that was good enough for most everyone.

Welkin, Eleanor, Cordelia and Faldio sat around Audrey's cot. As she finished pointing things out on a map of Gallia, she sighed. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more help," she said. "Gilbert was rather tight-lipped on everything. It took a bit of work to find out anything, even for those that are loyal to him fanatically."

Eleanor waved her off, "You've given us a great deal more than we could have ever found out by ourselves." she remarked before she, Welkin and Faldio left the tent.

Cordelia stayed behind, wanting to ask her a few questions herself. "What made you decide to change sides and feed information to Faldio?" she asked

Audrey pursed her lips in deep thought. "To be honest, Your Highness, I think it would be more correct to say that I never betrayed Gallia. My loyalties have always been with you and the Royal House," she replied before leaning back. "As for sending information to Faldio? It was more of a hunch, hoping that he would be actively working on restoring our country and that I would be able to sow enough chaos in Gilbert's camp that it would become a nonentity compared to the monumental task of throwing the Empire out."

Cordelia raised an eyebrow, "You've referred to your father as Gilbert consistently, why?"

Audrey shut her eyes in pain. "A father wouldn't order his own daughter to be tortured. Or capture her himself and deal the most damage out of everyone sent to capture me," she replied quietly. "He stopped being my father then. Just as Baldren stopped being my brother as he ordered my interrogation be started at the level where mutilation is used."

Cordelia had an idle thought that she must be getting desensitised to the pains of war as she only grimaced at her pronouncement rather than retch. She stood up though and gripped Audrey's shoulder. "It's time for us to do our part. Focus on healing and I'm sure you'll be up and about in short order."

Audrey gave a small smile to the Princess, not quite sure if she believed her but not wanting to say anything out loud. Cordelia left the injured Gassenarl in the tent and looked over the camp. Everywhere she looked, Gallians milled about, ready to fight and try and push back the invaders. A thought came over her and she resolved to speak with Welkin and Eleanor in the morning about her idea.

And like a Phoenix, a new Gallia would rise from the ashes of the old.

"How much farther do you think we need to go?" a brown-haired woman asked.

The man frowned. "I'm not sure, but Minerva said that we should find them in this forest somewhere. We just need to find them."

The Darcsen man scoffed. "Do you really think that the Federation's intelligence network would have found their general area but not moved against them? I still think the Desert is where they're at."

The man didn't get a chance to reply. "Hands in the air and drop the weapons!" a female voice shouted. "You! Step away from the tank!"

Everyone complied with the woman and they soon found themselves surrounded. The woman looked at the man. "I assume you're looking for the Gallian Resistance. Who are you?"

The man took a breath and straightened his back. "Claude Wallace, formerly of the Edinburgh Army's 101st Division, 1st Battle Brigade, 32nd Armored Ranger Battalion, 2nd Regiment, Platoon E. Now, me and my former squad look to free our homeland."

The woman looked skeptical, "If you are here to help free Gallia from the Federation and Empire, we'll get along fine. But until the bosses clear you all, I'll be keeping an eye on you." she said before motioning for one of the other unknowns to her side. "Tell Welkin to expect company."

The redhead nodded. "On it Alicia."

Alicia looked over the new arrivals and hoped that they were truly on their side. She knew that Welkin and Eleanor wanted a big win to sway the international community to side with them and the more they had on their side, the better the odds were that they would actually win.