"My Lord," the servant nervously bowed, as she stepped into the room full of people with very high ranks. "Lady Lumiel requests your presence. She's... very angry."
"She has to wait. I have more important matters right now," Kaisinel dismissed her and when the door closed behind her, he turned to his generals. "Yulia, continue."
"Yes, my Lord," the general pointed at the map near the main entrance to the Silentera canyon. "The Balaur presence in this area has considerably decreased over the last few days. We don't know their motives behind these actions, but something strange might be happening in Gelkmaros. We only got rumors and secondhand accounts, so I sent scouts to investigate."
"What rumors?" general Versetti asked.
"The barrier left by Lord Marchutan is either damaged or gone. If they have a weapon capable of breaking that, we need to be ready. My Lord, may I have an unusual suggestion?"
"Go ahead," Kaisinel nodded. This kind of news was highly alarming.
"The Asmodians, as a nation, pretty much don't exist anymore. If you managed to convince Lady Lumiel to help us fight the Balaur, she would be a great asset."
"You want to fight alongside a Shedim lord?" Outremus grimaced in disgust.
"We can't trust her," general Versetti agreed.
"She has nowhere else to go," Yulia objected. "I'm not suggesting to let her loose right now. She's broken, we can fix her, our way, before removing the chains."
"Enough of this," Kaisinel slightly raised his voice. "I can consider this suggestion, but for now, Lumiel is not in the state to fight. We cannot count with her support. Make sure the soldiers are ready for anything and let me know immediately, when your scouts return."
A knock on the door interrupted them again. A soldier cautiously entered.
"My Lord, I bring very urgent news," he said. "Lord Vaizel's Agent Lorsa and... uh... former Agent Ylrian just appeared at the teleporter. They're injured and also have a very badly injured daeva with them. Centurion Pucio arranged for a healer, but they requested an audience with you."
"What's Ylrian's health status?" Kaisinel asked.
"He has only minor injuries, but he's disoriented and has slight trouble with movement coordination."
"Bring him here as soon as possible. And if Lorsa is capable of debriefing, bring her too. Who is the other daeva?"
"I don't know, my lord. They didn't say anything about her identity."
"Alright, now go."
"Yes, my Lord," the soldier bowed and left the room.
Kaisinel looked at the map on the table, studying it for several long seconds. Keeping Elysea from falling into chaos was already taking too much from his resources he needed for the defense from the Balaur. Was it a coincidence that Vaizel's Wings showed up right after he found Lumiel?
"Generals, the information from those two can mess up everything, we'll continue this discussion after that."
"My Lord, but isn't Ylrian the traitor?" Yulia asked. "He defected and joined the Asmodians."
"I am aware of that. And I'm also aware he came here willingly. If he has anything important to share, I want to know what it is. If he'll just waste our time, I'll deal with him accordingly."
"Yes, my Lord, of course."
After a very short while the guard returned, this time with the two of Vaizel's Wings. Ylrian looked disturbed, but otherwise uninjured. Lorsa's right arm was covered with bandages.
"Lord Kaisinel," she slightly bowed her head. "Thank you for seeing us."
"What is the reason of your visit?"
"Your seal was broken, Lord Kaisinel," Ylrian said. "And we were in eh, not really great situation with Lepharists shooting at us, so using a scroll back here was our only reasonable option."
"What seal?" Lorsa and Outremus asked simultaneously.
Kaisinel took a deep breath.
"Ylrian was on a mission to spy on the rebels for me. I sealed his memories and replaced them with the urge to join them."
Lorsa halted her breath for a few seconds and her eyes moved between him and Ylrian several times. The generals frowned.
"What did you find out?" the Lord said.
"Yeah, well, it's a bit complicated," Ylrian scratched his head. "I'll start from the beginning. Or, well, the relevant beginning. So, it was about two or so weeks ago, when a daeva came to the Shelter. She was an Elyos, sort of, and she brought a recently Ascended Asmodian girl with her. And by recently I mean, she Ascended and the next day they ran away from Morheim. But the Lightshade infiltrated the Shelter and killed a few people, before Lady Triniel stopped them. She decided the Shelter was no longer safe and took everyone to Gelkmaros. We took the fortress and, well, remember the recently Ascended girl? Yeah, she somehow absorbed the barrier left by Lord Marchutan and became the new Lady of Fate."
"What? That's braxshit!" general Versetti raised his voice.
"So it's true, the barrier is gone?" Yulia asked.
"Yeah, the barrier is gone and Lady of Fate is a young girl," Ylrian continued. "Well, it's not the end, so I'll continue. Lady Triniel sent us to Heiron, to break into a Lepharist lab. In short, it was madness. They were forcing powerful women to give birth to babies and then taking the babies away from them, supposedly to raise an army. Among others, there were Shairun, Idora and Lady Yustiel."
"Now you're making this up!" Versetti grunted. "If they really were there, why didn't they come with you?"
"About that, well, we kind of split up and then the Lepharists attacked us. They had some device to suck aether from the entire place and we were overrun and that's when the seal broke and well, we used the scroll to get here."
"So you left Lady Yustiel there?" Yulia frowned.
"There wasn't really a choice. We were out of aether and the Lepharists, who had their own supplies, were between us and them. I think she got out with the Asmodians. Send a spy to Gelkmaros fortress to see if she's there."
"Of course we will do that," Yulia said. "And you should pray to Aion we'll find her unharmed."
"Are there any more important surprises?" Kaisinel asked.
"No, not really, my Lord," Ylrian said.
"Well then, Ylrian, go with Outremus and give him all the details about your mission. Lorsa, I would appreciate it, if you could also share your information about the laboratory. That's all for now, dismissed."
~ o ~
The larger part of travel from the laboratory in north Heiron to its equivalent in Eltnen was through the jungle. They walked for a few hours, before Lonewolf found a place hidden enough and declared a rest. The three of them sat under a rocky overhang covered partially by vines, partially by trees and bushes nearby. They were far enough from any used paths, the risk of being accidentally spotted was minimal.
The Asmodian spiritmaster they saved from the lab was Tatran, one of Lady Lumiel's Wings. Although he had a higher rank, his knowledge of Heiron or their current situation in general was lacking, so he let Lonewolf lead. They agreed it would be too risky to go to the Shugo camp, now that the Lepharists knew they were here. And since they had to find another way, it wasn't difficult to convince him to go explore the lab in Eltnen.
"It's almost noon," Lonewolf said. "We'll wait here until the brightest part of the day passes, so we're not completely blind once we're out of the jungle. It should be three to four hours to the Kuriullu mountains. How are your feet?"
"I'll manage," Tatran grunted, as he took off his boots. Since he was imprisoned only in his underwear, he had to take the boots of the dead Lepharists. They were better than just fabric wraps, but they were just slightly smaller than what would be comfortable and walking wasn't easy. And being tied and experimented on for so long didn't do any favors to his constitution.
"We can try New Heiron Gate to see if they have better shoes for sale?" Aielyn suggested.
"And how do you expect us to go to New Heiron Gate?" Tatran rolled his eyes.
"I can take measurements of your feet and do the shopping myself. They won't suspect me of anything."
"And then by accident the guards will follow you to us."
"No, I can be careful!"
"Alright, enough," Lonewolf stopped them before they got into another argument. "It's true we need to get you new shoes, but New Heiron Gate is too big of a detour and too risky. Most importantly, we have to get to the lab unnoticed. You'll have plenty of shoes to choose from there."
"How many guards do you expect there?" the spiritmaster asked.
"No idea. But since the aether trap in this lab didn't work, I'd say a lot."
"We need an aether-enhancing jewel. Without it I'm only slightly more useful than her."
Aielyn opened her mouth to say something, but held her breath and clenched her fist instead.
"We can take a small detour in Eltnen to see if there's anything left in the Kuriullu outpost," Lonewolf sighed. It was true the mages needed specifically crafted items to focus their spells. It was also quite impressive Tatran was able to keep the small earth spirit around without it.
"We don't need the detour," Aielyn said quietly. "I..."
"Cut it," Tatran rolled his eyes. "No one cares about how you want to lead us into a trap."
"I'm not. Going. To betray you. Why do you want it so much?"
"You're an Elyos! There's no way you would stay with us, if you weren't spying on us."
"I said, enough," Lonewolf interrupted them. "Until we get to Gelkmaros, we have to cooperate. Tatran, I get it. I hate the Elyos too. I've been fighting them for most of my life. But Lyn has proven we can trust her."
"Not to me," Tatran grunted.
"Fine, keep hating me," Aielyn shrugged and tapped her cube. A polished dragon-shaped jewel in a metal casing appeared in her hand and she gave it to Tatran.
He stared at her for several seconds, then he carefully took it.
"How did you get this?"
"It's... from someone I knew," she turned away from them and petted the little earth spirit. "He's dead."
Tatran looked as if he wanted to say something, but Lonewolf shook his head.
"Will it work?" the ranger asked.
"It looks undamaged," the spiritmaster put the jewel around his wrist. "And the aether flow conducting is stable. Yes, it should work."
"Good, that increases our chances."
"What's our target?"
"Same as here," Lonewolf replied. "Get in, see who's imprisoned there, free them if possible and get out. And ruin whatever experiments they have."
And find my wife, if she's there.
~ o ~
From the meeting with the Vaizel's Wings Kaisinel headed to Lumiel's room. She was a wildcard he didn't want to deal with, but he had to. And if the Asmodians indeed had Yustiel, he could convince them to an exchange. But neither Lumiel nor Yustiel were mere soldiers. They were both the Empyrean lords and he had to treat them as such. He nodded at the guards and entered. Her room was spacious, with a few pieces of quality furniture, the window was large with dimmed glass and enabled view at the beautiful landscape of Inggison without blinding the Asmodian Lady.
"You're finally here, good," she stopped pacing back and forth and pointed at the aether-cuffs on her ankles. "Remove that. You said I'm not a prisoner and I don't have any reason to blast my way out of here."
"I have already removed all the aether-cuffs that were safe," he sighed. "You're still not in full control of yourself. When you stop burning things during your nightmares, I'll remove these too."
"I can't get better, if I don't have full access to aether!"
"And I can't allow you to destroy my fortress. Many Elyos people relocated here in the last year and they need to feel safe."
"Is that why you locked up the girls you brought from Beluslan into a small room at the edge of the fortress? Because they are a danger to the Elyos here?"
"That was also for their own safety. But if you want, I can send them to Gelkmaros," he paused, as Lumiel glared at him. "I just received a report that Triniel recaptured the Gelkmaros fortress."
"Will you send me there too?" Lumiel chuckled.
"After I receive detailed information about the situation there, I will send a messenger to request a meeting with Triniel." And Yustiel, if she's there and the new Lady of Fate. "From there, you can go either with her, or back here."
"That sounds too good to be true," she frowned. "What are you not telling me?"
"I also got some interesting documents from Israphel's lab."
"And?"
"I'll allow you to take a look at them and share your findings with my scholars."
"The word please wouldn't kill you, Kaisinel," she walked over to the window. "Alright, I'll check them out."
~ o ~
Ylrian was sitting at the terraced main plaza of the Inggison Illusion fortress. It was a beautiful place filled with people, more of them than usual. After giving Outremus all the details he could remember, he was dismissed and wasn't given other orders. He tried to sort his memories and emotions and wasn't sure which ones were real. This confusion was the side effect of Lord Kaisinel's spell and he knew about it ahead, but he didn't realise how exactly would it feel.
"So, you didn't betray us after all," Lorsa quietly walked up to him from behind.
"Mhm," he nodded.
"But you still did," she sat down next to him.
"Mhm."
"Mhm? That's all you're going to say?"
"I don't know. I also thought I betrayed you and I thought it was the right thing. But it wasn't real and instead I betrayed... them."
"Why do you care? We are your family! You can come back with me and explain everything to Vai and the others..."
"Do you really think he would believe me? Or do anything sensible? His... madness and total lack of any self-reflection was the reason I came here in the first place!"
Lorsa didn't respond.
"Look, Lor, I'm... sorry. I didn't want to hurt you, but I did and I knew it was gonna happen. And... well... sorry."
"You're an idiot, Ylrian," she shook her head. "And I'm still mad at you. But I'm also not, because I understand why you did it. But we were heartbroken, when you left, especially Aiden. You know he looked up to you, right? And you can't erase that."
"Yeah... you can tell Aiden I'm just a half of the villain he thought I was. That's the good news."
"True. But I'm not letting you off the hook. You have to fix what you broke."
"If there's anything left to fix."
"Ylrian..." she hugged him.
"Can I ask you for a favor, Lor?"
"Depends."
"The people I met in the Shelter, they are... good people. Mostly. If you meet them again, could you... not kill them?"
"I'll think about it," she got up and stretched her legs. "I'm leaving, I still have a job to do in Elysea. I hope I can see you again."
"Yeah, take care," he smiled.
"You too."
He watched as his friend gracefully walked towards the teleporter and disappeared in a swirl of aether.
~ o ~
The Kuriullu mountains were a dry and hot place. The sun was lower above the horizon and at this time of the day there were enough shadows to shield themselves. But the movement around the mountains was tricky, as without much vegetation around they could be easily spotted, if they stepped into the wrong place. Lonewolf was able to sneak around unnoticed even here, but that couldn't be said about his companions. Aielyn was decent, she had the skills, but she lacked the necessary experience. Tatran, on the other hand, was slowing them down significantly. The jewel helped him with controlling aether, but had little to no effect on his physique. Lonewolf didn't blame him. After so long in the lab they were lucky he was able to walk for this long, even if it was with breaks.
Lonewolf left his companions in an out-of-sight cavern and scouted ahead. The lab was well hidden in a deep canyon and almost invisible, unless one was right atop of it. And that area was guarded. The ranger circled half of the canyon, almost to the slopes leading to Geroch Caldera. The almost impassable terrain of the volcanic area also meant less guards, but something was off. If this was his solo mission, he would have waited for hours, or even days if needed, to see through the patterns and discern weak spots. But the chance for his less stealthy companions to be discovered increased with every minute he spent here. He looked over the slopes and spotted a small guard post. It was quite far above the main lab, but it was still close enough to potentially have a tunnel connecting to it. He crept closer.
~ o ~
The cave was more like a crack in the rock hidden behind another rock, but it provided enough shade to stay in relative comfort for a few hours. Aielyn sat near the entrance and kept watch. Occasionally she scratched the head of the small earth spirit that was on guard with her. Tatran was resting and talked only if necessary. Outside the cave the sun felt much hotter than in the jungle and the heat was rising from the bare stones too. Aielyn tried to focus, but her eyes kept closing and she struggled to stay awake. Something moved. Was it a creature or a mirage? The movement happened again. Aielyn squinted and was suddenly fully awake. Two people walked the path between the tall rocks towards their cave. Lepharists.
"Tatran," she threw a tiny pebble at him. "Wake up, we have to move!"
The spiritmaster jolted awake.
"The Lepharists are here! We have to leave!"
He got up and walked over to her.
"Quickly!" she whispered and moved towards the rocks away from the guards. Tatran caught her hand.
"Are you insane? They're too close!" he quietly growled.
"If we keep to the shadows, we can make it..."
"Maybe you, in your properly fitted gear... But maybe that's your plan?"
"Why would I... whatever, fine," she shrugged, "do you have a better idea?"
"Yes."
He sent the earth spirit to meld into the rocks right before the entrance and returned to the back of the cave, where he sat down.
"Come here and sit."
Aielyn glared at him, but obeyed.
"When they come, keep quiet and don't move."
She adjusted her sitting to be comfortable on the ground and put her bow on her lap. Few seconds later she felt a curtain of aether covering her entire body, holding her in place. She could still see and hear normally and suspected she could break it with only a little effort. When the Lepharists came to the cave, they sat down on the stones and shared a bottle of water, snacks and casual chat. They didn't notice the two daevas at the back. Aielyn turned just her eyes to see if she could glimpse Tatran's expression, but he wasn't there. The veil was hiding him from everyone. She didn't dare to relax, though. The spell could break, especially if the Lepharists decided to stay here a little longer.
"Honestly, I don't wanna go back," one of the guards sighed. "Issalla's gonna be mad about Heiron and I heard they didn't catch anyone, so she'll take her anger on us."
"Are you deserting?" the other raised her eyebrows.
"What? No!" the first guard shook his head. "Of course I'm going back. I'm just not looking forward to it."
"Look, we just have to show her we have tight security. No one will get in or out without the boss's approval."
"Wasn't it like that in Heiron too?"
"Clearly not," the second guard laughed and drank from her bottle. "Let's go, we won't do much patrolling from here."
The guards packed their food and left the cave. The aether cloak around Aielyn held for a few minutes more before it dissipated. Tatran, when he appeared, had streaks of sweat on his face and was breathing heavily.
"Are you alright?" she whispered.
"Obviously not," he grunted.
"We should go. But if you need a moment..."
"Give me water," he reached his hand towards her and called the earth spirit. When she gave him the bottle, he plucked a few leaves from the spirit, threw them into the bottle and weaved some aether into it.
"You're making a spiritea?" Aielyn was surprised.
Tatran froze in the middle of movement. After a second or so he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Are you alright?" she asked, confused.
"I will be, after I drink this," he retorted.
After he returned the now almost empty bottle to her, they left the cave and carefully walked between the tall rocky walls. Aielyn led them around the huge canyon in the direction Lonewolf went earlier. They stopped, several times, as Aielyn sneaked into the shadows and investigated the possible paths ahead. During one such scouting she noticed a mechanized suit piloted by a person with aether-enhanced goggles going in their direction.
"Their security is too good," she whispered when she returned to Tatran and the spirit. "So we'll have to split."
"Are you stupid?"
"Sure," she shrugged. "I'll get their attention, you'll go this way and try to find Lonewolf. He said he'll keep close to the canyon. Then you two can do whatever he wants to do here and I'll either meet you later, or won't."
"How can I know you're not going to sell us out?"
"You don't. But if I don't distract them, they'll find us both," she looked at the little earth spirit. "All three of us."
She patted the spirit's head and ran around the rock to lead the mechanized guard away.
~ o ~
Lonewolf stared at the tunnel opened before him and the two unconscious and tied guards at his feet. Should he go ahead and search the facility alone? It was tempting, but he shook his head, double checked the ropes of the guards and turned around. He slowly backtracked his path, keeping an eye on the patrols. They were quite rare in this part, though, they relied mostly on the guard post. Something moved at his peripheral field of vision. He aimed his bow at it. The small earth spirit stopped and waved at him with its leaves. Heavily breathing Tatran emerged from behind the rocks after it.
"There's... trouble..." he said.
"Where's Aielyn?"
"Who? Ah, the Elyos," the spiritmaster was still trying to catch his breath. "We encountered a mech as a patrol, she said she'll distract them. And then ran in the other way."
Lonewolf closed his eyes and shook his head. She was always reckless, but this was a whole new level.
"Alright, let's go. There's a tunnel over there, that should lead to the lab."
They went back to the guard post. The tied guards started to wake up, so Tatran sucked the air away from them and let them pass out again. With the guards safely out of commission, they entered the tunnel and began their descent. They were getting close. His wife had to be here, he felt it in his bones. Or at least records about her. She disappeared during the war...
"Are you always this nervous on the job?" Tatran suddenly asked.
"I'm not nervous," Lonewolf tried to keep his tone as calm as possible.
"Funny, how everyone tries to lie to a spiritmaser."
"My wife might be here. And I am still concentrating and still in full control of myself. Don't worry."
"I see. So it's not about ruining their experiments."
"We can do both."
"Sure."
"Do you have a family, Tatran?" Lonewolf asked quietly after a brief awkward silence.
"A daughter. She..."
"Shh," Lonewolf raised his hands and stopped in his tracks. They both fell silent and listened to the sound of steps echoing in the tunnel. After several long seconds the echoes became quieter and quieter until they ceased completely. Slowly they continued and reached an intersection. Both hallways looked identical, so Lonewolf chose one randomly. Soon they came to a series of doors on both sides of the hallway. As he opened the first one, a loud, piercing sound echoed all around.
~ o ~
Aielyn ran away from the spiritmaster to engage the guard from the other direction. I can't just start shooting, that would be suspicious. She stepped into the shadows. She was almost sure the guard's goggles would see through it, but that was the point. She took a deep breath and stepped into the plain view. As expected, the guard focused on her and aimed his aether-charged gun at her. She looked at him, pretended surprise and barely evaded the shot. Out of her pocket she pulled a seed from the tripeed plant, that grows only in southern Morheim, infused it with aether and threw it on the ground between her and the guard. As he got closer, the seed sprouted several thorny vines and bound the mech's legs. She shot a few aetheric arrows and ran away. To no surprise to her, the mech easily broke free from the vines and started pursuit. She didn't waste her energy on hiding in shadows and instead tried to maneuver between the rocks to get behind the guard, but without him even glancing in the direction, where she left Tatran and his spirit. Her heart was pounding, more with a mix of fear and excitement than with physical stress. The mech still thumped behind her. Alright, just one more turn and then... The path suddenly ended with a steep slope. And deep in the canyon under her was the lab. And a lot of guards. As her pursuer stopped and aimed at her again, she jumped.
~ o ~
A few seconds passed and Lonewolf realised the alarm wasn't caused by him. Lyn's taking this distraction seriously. He entered the room, there were shelves full of various tools and devices.
"Do you know any of these?" he asked Tatran.
The spiritmaster looked around.
"Can't say without spending some time here."
"Let's go then."
The next room was a cleaning cabinet and the next one storage of linen and spare clothes and the last in this hallway contained flasks, bottles and boxes full of various substances. They briefly checked the labels and Lonewolf took a few vials of a sleeping drug and a painkiller. Tatran found two pieces of aether jelly. One Lepharist in a lab coat came into view just as they were exiting the room. Tatran promptly sucked the air out of his lungs and the scientist fell to the ground unconscious. They dragged him to the medicine storage and put a cloth soaked in sleeping drug over his face.
The following part of the lab was almost a maze. Fortunately, the fire evacuation plans were clearly visible on major intersections, so Lonewolf could get the overall lay of the land. Unfortunately, those plans didn't have other descriptions than escape routes, so he had to guess the location of the testing subjects by the room shapes. They met three more Lepharists roaming through the halls. Two of them they evaded using Tatran's invisible veil, but the third one was carrying a heavy device and stumbled into them, breaking the spell. In such a close range Lonewolf had to wrestle with him, until he deprived the Lepharist of consciousness by hitting the wall with his head.
"Guess we won't stay secret for long," he said as he unsuccessfully tried to arrange the unconscious guy as if he tripped and hit his head himself.
"We should look for their power source and sabotage that," Tatran suggested.
"Yes, but the prisoners first."
"I disagree."
"We don't know what kind of machines they're attached to. If we remove the power, we could kill them. And we don't know if they can reach any obelisk from here."
"That's an acceptable risk."
"What? No, my wife is not an acceptable risk. And what if one of them is your daughter?"
"I already mourned my daughter many years ago, when she made her choice to... leave. But that doesn't matter. Asmodae needs a fighting chance."
"Asmodae needs its people. And we don't leave our people behind."
"I disagree with your strategy, but I agreed you're in charge. I will follow."
"Thank you."
They hastily continued through the hallways. Since their discovery was now imminent, they dealt with the passing Lepharists swiftly and didn't bother hiding the bodies. Some of them died and if an obelisk starts reviving them, so be it. After a few more turns they reached the part where they assumed the test subjects were held. The doors had locks on them, but some Lepharists they met had keys. They entered the first room. Inside was an Elyos man tied to a clean table. A few of his organs were pulled out of his body and held by metallic wires. He was still alive. His eyes were open in shock and a drool was dripping from his mouth. Tatran swiftly commanded the aether and sucked the air out of him, killing him in several seconds.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Lonewolf tore his gaze away from the horror.
"He was dead already. His body just didn't know it yet," Tatran objected. "He wouldn't tell us anything important anyway. Something might be in those papers, take them and let's go."
As the one who had a cube, Lonewolf took the papers on the side table and stored them.
In the next room was a similar table, but this time there was an Asmodian woman strapped to it. Both her legs were cut, the left one under the knee, the right one in the middle of her thigh. Her left arm was missing from her elbow. All three limbs were replaced with shiny metallic prostheses embedded with crystals. Lonewolf froze at the door, staring at her in horror.
"S-Sigwyn..."