Chapter 13: War Ends, Death Begins

9th Axe, 704 A.S.

I can't stand this damn fog. Fighting on the Isles wouldn't be as bad—still uncomfortable and miserable, but not as bad—without it. We're supposed to meet with one of Caledonia's leaders to parlay, but it's so damn foggy we're not even sure if he's here yet. It was like this when we lost Icarus, too. I hope this doesn't turn out the same way…

When a flash of light glowed off in the distance, Kain knew it probably would.

"Is that them?" laughed Jann, handing off a few gold pieces to Deckham after he'd lost their game of dice. "Knew they'd be here soon enough!"

"I…I'm not sure," said Kain. That was the light of an Elfire spell in the fog, not a torch. But it should have been a torch…

The entire Red Shoulder force had been sent to meet with a large army made up of Bern-friendly clansmen led by one of the chiefs who had been the first to throw his lot in with the foreigners. Together, they were to crush two of the remaining obstreperous clans which had not yet acceded to an alliance with Bern. It should have gone easily enough, but today, the day on which the two forces were supposed to have met, a heavy fog had fallen on the area, making it nearly impossible to see. And for the Red Shoulders, fog was even worse than night: They had many spells to help them see in the dark, but climate conditions such as fog could still render them blind, as mist cast no shadows for them to peer into.

Even so, this was a safe area well within the control of friendly natives, so there shouldn't have been any trouble. What happened?

He got his answer when he heard someone scream in the distance, and when, a moment after that, an arrow thudded into the ground nearby.

"We're under attack," shouted one man—Kain couldn't make out who it was or recognize the voice. It was clearly a Red Shoulder, though, which Kain figured out as he saw shapes forming in the mist ahead of him. He recognized the axemen of the Iceaxe clan he was supposed to negotiate with, clad in the blue-tinted rags which indicated their allegiance, charging towards him with bloodlust in their eyes.

"Wait! WAIT!" he yelled. "We're your allies! We came here to parley!"

They were having none of it. Kain swore as the first two reached him, and jumped back to avoid their swinging axes. All around him, his fellow Red Shoulders had been attacked by the seemingly berserk natives, and several had already fallen—the rest were responding to the onslaught in kind, which was a very bad thing.

"Stop," Kain yelled, desperately trying to regain control of the situation, "STOP!"

"You killed our Chief!" screamed one of the warriors. "Damned traitors, you killed our Chief!"

He attempted to take another swing at Kain, but stopped in his tracks as an orb of shadow materialized over his upper body and turned it to dust.

"'S all wrong! Somethin' went wrong!" yelled Leitner, his Flux tome still glowing faintly. "Kain, call a retreat! We gotta get outta here! Our meetin's nothing but ashes, now!"

"Damn it," growled Kain, "Damn it!" As much as he hated to admit it, his best friend was right. "Everyone, fall back!" he screamed, and gripping his own Fenrir tome, conjured up a huge purple sigil in the sky above him, glowing brightly enough to be visible through the fog. It was the signal for retreat, which his men should have been able to understand. But battle had already been joined, and it seemed as if the natives they were supposed to help had completely lost their minds. At this point, peaceful disengagement was impossible—already Kain could hear the terrifying howls of dark magic all around him, indicating that his soldiers were defending themselves. He couldn't blame them—they didn't want to just stand there and die, after all—but he also knew it signaled the failure of one of the most important missions he had been given here.

He had no time to give his unfortunate situation any more thought—another axeman had turned towards him and charged. As he summoned his own field of dark energy to protect himself, all Kain could think of was survival.

-X-

The letter was not at all unexpected, and Kain knew what it would contain.

It had been written by Zedal Gustav on the 12th Axe, which was two days ago, and had been delivered by a solitary, stone-faced Wyvern Knight just today. Kain had been trying to lead the Red Shoulders back to Castle Idina, fleeing from the battleground where they had so recently slaughtered virtually all of one of the largest clans on the Western Isles, one which should have been their ally. To Kain's great relief, there had been no ambushes or contacts with any of the natives since then—that clan was the only one in the area, and it would probably take some time for word of the Red Shoulder's "betrayal" to reach them. By this time, their army had been able to make some decent ground, and was currently camping for the night on some fields about halfway to Idina. This allowed Zedal's messenger to find them and reach them without any problems.

The Bernite gave no comment to Kain, who had come out to meet him. He simply asked to see the leader of the Red Soldiers stationed here, handed Kain the letter, and then left as swiftly as he could.

Kain himself then headed to his commander's tent, where his friends were waiting for him. They all wore the same expression he had on his face. Without wasting any time, he untied and unfurled the bound scroll and began to read from it.

You have failed in your mission, Zedal began, catastrophically. I've already received reports from my agents about the destruction you wrought upon what were supposed to be our allies. I don't care about your reasons. All that matters is that you've ruined any chance Bern had of winning over the natives peacefully. Even the clans which had already allied with us have joined forces against us, all claiming that your betrayal means Bern has betrayed them as well.

If we've any hope of regaining their trust, it will not be realized while you remain allied to me. On the other hand, I also have no desire to waste resources on needless battle. That, along with what little respect I have for the service you rendered to me previously, are the only reasons I am willing to refrain from ordering my men to hunt you down. If you wish to live, you will head straight back to Asfer and return to Fibernia. If you come within sight of Castle Idina, we will launch a non-stop assault and present your heads to the remaining clansmen as proof of our goodwill.

"Well, what else c'd we expect," asked Leitner sarcastically when Kain was finished. "Much as I hate t' admit it, I can't blame Zedal for this. I'd do th' same in his position."

"Wonder if he regrets using Kain as much as I regret serving under him," said Zalf coldly. As usual, Kessler admonished him: "It wasn't Kain's fault. Nobody knows what happened back there, or who killed the chief."

"Do we have any ideas?" asked Deckham. "Maybe if we solved this mystery, we could redeem ourselves in the eyes of both the Bernese and the islanders."

"I doubt it," said Kassa glumly. "The natives just went crazy in that last battle. It was either us or them—they wouldn't let us retreat, and we were forced to kill nearly all of them before we could disengage. They aren't going to forgive us, no matter what we do."

"They gave as well as they got, too. Fightin' in that fog was hell!" Even Jann couldn't maintain his normally-jovial demeanor. "Seems that as many of ours were down as that whole tribe when it was all over."

"We lost enough men that facing off against both Bern and the islanders is not feasible." Kain looked at his friends. "Jann's right. Does anyone have any ideas? Our only hope of achieving victory here is to make up for what we've done. For all we know, the Royalists, the Church, or some outside agent might have provoked those natives into attacking us. If we can find proof of that, we could get all of them back on our side. Were any of you able to find any clues as to how their chief died? Have you heard anything?"

"We've been asking the soldiers for days and gotten nothing," said Zalf. "The clansmen weren't talkative. It seemed like they were consumed by anger…they just lost their minds and went at us, and we weren't able to take any prisoners. The ones who survived just killed themselves. We could only figure out that their chief was assassinated. He met some woman in his tent and she did him over." He glared at Kassa, who'd remained silent all this time. "Maybe someone's been doing a little stepping out?"

She didn't take his bait, but Kain did. Only Leitner, grabbing his best friend's arm, was able to keep him from throwing himself at the Sniper. "Listen, Zalf, I've had enough of this garbage. Don't like me? Fine! But insult Kassa and—"

"What, you'll run away?" Zalf sneered. "Be fitting for how well you've led us so far. I—"

He was cut off by a mailed fist colliding with the side of his face.

"Jann!"

The big, usually good-natured General wore nothing but a cold, flat expression as he watched the smaller man fly backwards from the force of his punch. Heedless of how surprised everyone else was, he focused entirely on Zalf:

"Enough."

Zalf, no less astonished than his companions at Jann's sudden outburst, coughed and sputtered as he lay on the ground. "The hell's this, aye? Our Silent General's found 'is spine? Why're you facing me rather than Kain? I'm not the one who got us into this mess!"

"Neither is he," said Jann resolutely. "Nobody could have foreseen this. You wouldn't have been able to stop it if you were in charge, either. Kessler already told you: It's not his fault."

"So whose fault is it?" Again, he glared at Kassa, who said nothing. "There was some woman there, that's all we know. She had a tattoo on her back. There aren't that many women in our army. Who else could have killed that chief aside from her? Just take off your clothes, Kassa. Show us your bare back. Then we can see who's really to blame."

"Zalf, stop being an idiot," Deckham admonished. "Even if Kassa wanted to seduce that tribe's chief, why the hell would she kill him afterwards? Besides, she's been nothing but loyal to us and our cause from day 1. She doesn't need to strip to prove that.

"Now shut the hell up. Attacking each other is never going to get us out of here alive."

"You're exactly right, Deckham." Kain looked at all his companions, even Zalf, and including Kassa, who still hadn't said a word. "Look, I know how trying things are for us…and how hard they've been for a while. But we don't have any choice but to keep moving forward. If any of you want to desert now, you can do so. I won't blame any of you. Not even you, Zalf. But just keep in mind you'll always be Red Shoulders. Nobody's gonna forget that, especially not the people of the Isles.

"It won't be easy to go it alone. As far as I'm concerned, the best course of action is to do what we've already been doing: Stick together and support each other. We may not have much hope, but that's the only hope we have.

"I'm taking the Red Shoulders back to Asfer and then back to Fibernia. Anyone who wants to come can follow me. Anyone who doesn't can stay here, or flee, or do whatever you like. I hope you survive, but I doubt it. All I know is that I'm still not ready to abandon our cause."

That was the end of Kain's little speech. He stared at each one of his friends patiently, not pressuring them one way or another.

Deckham was the first to speak up. "Once you start something, you oughta see it through. I'm with you, commander."

"Where Deckham goes, I go," Jann laughed, his good cheer returning.

"You're all the closest thing I have to family," Kessler smiled. "I'm not leaving you now."

"Me neither," said Leitner. "We've been t'gether so long, I'm not bailin' out."

Zalf glared at Kain for a moment longer…then shrugged. "I'm gonna die anyways. I'd rather be able to see you die too. My life is yours 'til it ends, Kain."

The only one who hadn't spoken up yet was Kassa, and everyone looked at her, waiting for her answer.

"I'm not running away," she whispered, quietly but resolutely.

Kain took a deep breath—both in satisfaction and resignation. "Well, those are our answers. I'm grateful for it, and to all of you. The rest of the Red Shoulders will make their own decisions, but I'd wager not many of them will choose differently.

"That means we make for Asfer and commandeer some ships to get us back to Fibernia as soon as possible. So let's get a good night's rest, and then start our march."

His men obeyed, as they always had.

What they didn't realize, though, was that this trip would be their last.

::Linear Notes::

Not much to say here, either, except that the next chapter is gonna have a LOT of stuff goin down. D: