They get to the edge of the Iron Flail Fort, and find its filled with soldiers and attack dogs and siege weapons. Cera spends a good five minutes quietly searching through the minds of the soldiers, and pieces together what happened.
The delegates arrived a week ago, said they wanted to negotiate with one Commander Adaryc - and they didn't do a good job. Whatever was said, they never left the tent and Adaryc's been in a fury ever since. Some background info about the commander: all the soldiers look up to him, he's plagued by visions apparently, and one of those visions drove him all the way out here to take the Battery and use it to defend Raedceras from the Dyrwoods impending assault.
Cera whispers "I can distract the guards, keep them from noticing us. But somebody else will have to lead me to the tent, as I'll be completely focused on keeping them from noticing us."
Pallegina nods, and asks "Where's the right tent?"
"Right near this front gate here. Biggest one, round, should only have about five people inside."
They nod, and Cera closes her eyes. After a minute, they head towards the gate - the guards blankly open it, their looks completely glazed over. Nobody seems to notice them, their gazes passing right over them with blank stares and eyes.
Cera, on the other hand, has a trickle of sweat running down her forehead and a look of extreme concentration on her face - this isn't easy, this is so not easy. She must be controlling fifty people easily, all to keep a group of six people from being noticed and having to fight to the death. Fortunately, the tent really is close to the entrance - a hundred feet or so - and nobody gets in their way - likely Cera's doing - and they make it inside in a matter of maybe two minutes, having had to go at a walking pace so Cera could maintain her concentration.
As soon as they get inside, one man who must be Adaryc immediately whips out a well-made sword and demands "Who are you, what do you want, and how did you get in here?"
Cera, instead of answering, lets out a breathe she must've been holding in her feet and starts rubbing her forehead while stumbling. "Ok, I couldn't hold onto them all any longer. Did we make it?"
Edér says "Yeah, we made it. Don't suppose you could convince him to lower his sword?"
She focuses on the five people on the other side of a grate in the ground, looks at the grate for a minute, then raises an eyebrow at Adaryc but doesn't comment on it - and then both their expressions turn to shock. Adaryc claps a hand to his own head, just as Cera asks "What did you just do to me?"
"That's…that's never happened before." These damned soul-seeing powers never turned on me before, why with her?!
Cera's eyes widen, and she says "You're a Watcher. Like me."
Adaryc goes still, and says "Indeed. None outside these walls know that secret. And not all the memories I saw could belong to this life. Your Awakened, aren't you?"
Cera smiles tiredly, and says "Yes. Are you as tired of seeing dead people as I am? Because I could sleep for a month straight and still wake up tired at this point."
Eder and Kana both snort in amusement, and even Adaryc gives a pained smile and his sword point drops a few inches.
Cera says "Now that people are a little less tense around here, what exactly happened to make you throw a group of diplomats in a pit down there?"
His face hardens for an instant, and he says "Stalwart sent soothsayers, not diplomats. Thinking we'll be scared into letting the Dyrwood crush us like ants with some monstrous army."
A voice floats up from the pit, yelling "It's true! The waves will take us all!"
Cera's eyebrow rises towards her hairline, and she mutters "That's…an interesting thing to say. Especially considering we're nowhere near the ocean. I'm going to guess someone likes Ondra down there. Wait, the Dyrwoodans have the army?" That sounds too much like the dream vision she got for comfort.
"Yes, that's why we came to seize the Battery! Because I refuse to let the Dyrwoodans crush Raedceras without a fight!"
"Would this army big large enough to make the ground shake, destroy anything in their path, and the dream end with a hundred eyes watching you?"
"How could you know that?"
Adaryc's gone sheet white, and Cera says "Because I've seen the same thing. Except they destroy Caed Nua, Defiance Bay, and all the Dyrwood. And I wake up with the image of a hundred different eyes staring at me every time I get the dream. Sound familiar?"
"Spot-on perfect! Why would the Dyrwoodans turn on themselves?"
"I don't think its Kith at all, Adaryc. I think we've both been searching blindly for answers. And I think it has to do with the Forge."
He nods slowly, saying "A few days after word of the White Forge spread to Raedceras, I started getting these damned visions. The pounding, the avalanche, the eyes, all of it. I thought it came from the Dyrwood, you came in here thinking it was us. It must be from somewhere in the White March." He looks at his sword once more, looking defeated somehow. "I bound my soul to this sword as proof of my commitment - it's useless to me now." There's a ripple of energy across the blade - another one?! - and then it's gone and the sword is just a sword once more. "May it serve you well, Lady Cera."
She smiles and nods, the group making way for the Commander and the others as he walks out after handing her the sword. Cera looks at the sword, then at Eder, then finally asks "Eder, you want a sword?"
He sputters out a laugh, then takes it willingly enough - another ripple of energy, and now he has another special weapon. They then get the grate off the floor and help the group of diplomats out - three of whom seem furious at the fourth. Apparently the Commander was more than willing to listen, right up until she started shouting nonsense about waves and omens, and such - she sabotaged the negotiations with disastrous results.
Instead of attempting to explain herself, the woman runs over to the weapons rack and cuts her own throat.
All the diplomats are shocked, and Eder says "Now that definitely means she had something to hide."
Cera stifles a yawn and says "Still does. Too bad she can't anymore." She walks over to the woman's body and zones out for a moment. When she blinks and looks around, she says "She was a fanatical Ondra follower. There's some kind of abbey up in the mountains past here full of them. She was sent to get the Raedcerans to leave, and then they'll call off whatever army they summoned."
They suddenly hear a massive crashing sound, and Kana says "I think we're about to see this army they sent."
When they get outside the tent, there's two massive Maegfolc-like creatures attacking the camp. Cera immediately shoots at one, her arrow getting embedded in the thing's flesh but not bothering it in the least - it does, however, alert it to their presence.
Oh shoot.
Aloth asks "I don't suppose you could try your new ability on this thing, Cera?"
"Not yet! It takes a certain level of focus I haven't reached yet!"
"Well, I highly advise you to reach it!"
Another purple arrow into these things, which seems to be as effective against it as a fly is against Kith. Three more arrows on her part, and then it seems she's built enough concentration or focus - whatever she uses - to practice her new ability on the constructs. One starts glowing from within, and then it to explodes - even more dramatically than the skuldrak, and they didn't even think that was possible. The other follows suit in maybe a minute.
Adaryc walks over, making his way around the constructs' large metal limbs, and says "The creatures from my dreams! The diplomats - no, you - were right! Thank you, you just saved my men. I have to go make sure they're alright. Thank you again, both for showing me the true threat and for stopping it for now."
Cera nods, and Adaryc hurries over to see how many of his men are left alive. They hear a whining from close by, and Cera kneels down near a wooden kennel-like construction and finds a small puppy wearing a collar with spikes. "Oh, it's so cute!" The puppy stares at her for a moment, then runs over and jumps her, starting to lick her face eagerly. "Aw, aren't you so sweet!"
Cera laughs as the puppy starts climbing on her to get a better position, and Sagani says "You've already got five dogs back at Caed Nua! And as many cats!"
Cera shrugs and says "You didn't see the mice problem the place had at first."
Eder chuckles and says "She's not wrong there, Sagani. Besides, how could you say no to that adorable face?"
Cera gives her best pout, which is completely ruined by the puppy proceeding to lick her face some more. "Let's get this collar off you, little guy." Cera's fingers work at the spiked collar, and soon enough its off and the puppy looks like it couldn't and wouldn't hurt anybody.
That night, Aloth looks over when he sees a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye - the puppy took his hood!
Cera is laughing softly, and beckons her new pet over and scratches it behind the ears - and gets his hood out of the dog's teeth. Its intact, if slightly slobbery, and he sits next to her and takes it back with a not-at-all serious glare at the dog.
The dog, in response, jumps on his legs, puts its front paws on his chest, and gives him a series of puppy-kisses on his face.
Cera's voice is full of laughter, though she's not laughing at him, and says "I think he likes you." She picks the brown puppy up and settles him on her legs, where he immediately stretches out and rolls over.
Cera scratches his belly, making the small dog go limp, and Aloth says "I think you're stuck doing that forever now, you know."
"Am I? I wouldn't know, never had a pet before coming to the Dyrwood."
"And now you've got plenty. About eleven now. Why didn't you have a pet?"
"My parents. They felt I had far more important things to do than make a fool of myself over a creature." There's bitterness in her voice now, along with long-suppressed longing. The puppy, as if sensing her worsening mood, rolls back over and nudges at her hand with his head and whines. Cera obliges, starting to give the puppy an ear rub, and quietly says "I asked for a dozen things easily. A puppy, a kitten, a highly exotic bird once - I thought that if I asked for something rare, they'd relent because it'd be something a commoner wouldn't have. Still no. Always no."
He can just imagine her at around the elf equivalent of a human child at five years old, chasing after a puppy like this one and picking it up so that it would be as tall as her. Rather adorable. "Why'd you want a pet? To have a partner in crime around the house?" His voice is teasing, trying to draw her out of the mood he inadvertently put her in, but she shakes her head despondently.
"No, I just…I just wanted something to love me. To love something and have it return the feeling somehow. My father was cold at best, furious at worst, and distant as the moon most of the time. My mother, well, she was always obsessing over my appearance rather than considering that maybe I liked not having my hair up or being in a ridiculously decorated dress. The servants were either afraid of me or had been ordered not to interact with me beyond the necessary times and reasons of getting me presentable." She lays down, shifting her new puppy - the so overdue puppy - so its lying next to her face with her arms around it protectively. The puppy licks her face and then moves over so he's cuddled even closer to her body heat.
Aloth can feel Iselmyr practically going wild inside him, so he's prepared for her voice to sound in his head.
Lad, ye jus' passed up the bes' opportunity to tell the lass. Ye know tha', right?
Iselmyr, just don't.
Ye need to grow a spine, lad.
He looks over and sees Cera is sleeping - time to switch crossbows then.
AN: I'm finally finished with schoolwork! Now, I'm starting to pack up stuff to go back. As for the story, I know I'm stringing it out between Cera and Aloth - they'll get together, eventually. Promise! I just had to put in something about the puppy you can find in the Iron Flail Fort, I'm a complete sucker for puppies and kittens and such. As for how Cera could control them, it's sort of like how she planted the suggestion of going home to the drunks back in Gilded Vale. She just put everybody into a trance-like state so they wouldn't notice them and all attack the six of them. Because killing an entire army isn't really the best way to get on their leader's good side. Anyway, enjoy the story! Please review if you've got suggestions!