Jason

"Where next?" The mage with the frizzy hair kicked Jason in the back, sending him tumbling down to the mud. Jason glared back at the boy, Thero as one of the Empyrean scout soldiers pulled him back up. Thero laughed. The seemingly Serian girl, with white hair and golden eyes, stood back. 

"Don't bully our guide. I'm sure he'd lead us straight into a trap if you kept that up." She yanked the rope that was attached to Jason's wrists. "Which, is something I'm sure you're trying anyways?"

"Nonsense." Jason said, snarkily. "Why would I be interested in losing my head?"

This wasn't a normal recon team. Dayan had ordered his elite light infantry scouts to survey the land, and in the name of gaining experience, as well as prisoner control, had assigned the three mages to them. Being the high ranking mages they were of course, ended up rapidly overtaking the team leader, to the detriment of unit cohesion. Jason wasn't sure if this was good or bad for his deal.

"You have a good poker face." Niria, the Serian looking girl, said. "But I see right through you. Shouldn't you be more panicked at my accusation?" It was bad.

"Wait...huh?"

"Anyhow, I can tell when someone is lying, you know." Niria flashed her eye at him. "I can discern when someone is telling the truth, and someone is lying." Jason's eyes widened as the two men besides her drew their blades to Jason's throat. "My eye of truth sees your heart, Serian. I can tell the deceptive intent hidden in your words."

"What can I say, I fancy myself a patriot." The Empyrean scouts kicked him to the ground and placed their boot on Jason's chest as he struggled to breathe. "You're a Serian as well, aren't you? Why are you working with the Empyrean?" Jason said as one of the guards ran his halberd against his neck.

Jason internally cursed his own weakness as a slow trickle of blood ran down his throat, but it had been his plan to lead the Empyrean strike team in circles and waste their time, wasn't it? He sighed at his own lack of ability to distract them for longer. Thero's eyes narrowed.

"You're not very bright, I can see your plan all the way through. You just wanted to waste our time, didn't you?"

"Well, it worked, didn't it? Who's the idiot now?" Jason shot back. It was a nice life, Jason reasoned as he tried to get his throat away from the sharp halberd tip that poked at his neck. Maybe if he was lucky he could become like Iwen and get born into a new one. Despite his bluster, his voice shook as he noticed the gruff scouts holding their swords to his neck, their faces rapidly souring. The boot on his chest pressed down even harder.

"Let him live," Thero ordered the guards. Jason bristled at the humiliation as the soldiers lowered their blades. "He's learned his lesson by now."

"I bet he's still plotting something." Mayran, the blonde mage, said. "I knew we shouldn't have chosen him to guide us." He looked at Jason, who now looked back at the Empyreans defiantly as their halberds were off his throat. Jason looked away from Mayran. He couldn't deny it, he would attack them the moment he got his hands on anything that could serve as a weapon. Unfortunately for him, Niria and Mayran were smart enough to make sure that didn't happen. At least he still had his armor on, they had permitted that much.

"Don't blame me, blame the captain for ordering the leaders be killed first. If we'd killed their underlings and captured the leaders, we might have more choices between who leads us." Niria said as some of the Empyrean scouts bickered about 'incompetent leadership.'

"Bold of you to assume any of their squadron leaders would be more cooperative. Serians are a stubborn, if not stupid bunch." Niria glared at Thero, who shrugged. "What, did I say something wrong?" A few of the scouts groaned.

"I'll rip your guts out." Niria said, taking a knife and pointing it at him. "Watch your mouth, Thero."

"Ha! Now that would be fun to watch." Jason said. One of the Empyrean scouts walked up and kneed Jason in the stomach, sending him crumbling down into the dirt.

"Quiet you two." Mayran raised his fist, and the entire strike team ducked into cover. Up ahead lay cluster of Serian soldiers. The Empyrean scouting team ducked behind a cluster of hay bales, as the soldiers entered a defensive combat stance, bows and crossbows at the ready. Jason was last, as Mayran dragged him down behind cover.

"Who's there?" The Serian soldier yelled out.

Thero looked at Jason. "You. Go talk to them." Thero pointed a wheellock pistol at Jason. "If you blow our cover, you croak." Thero tossed a small lizard onto Jason, which quickly turned invisible. "I'm listening to you. Lead them away from here." The lizard spoke, using Thero's voice. Jason glared at the lizard, but went forth.

"Halt!" The Serian soldier shouted as Jason emerged from the hay bales.

"Relax soldier, I'm friendly!" Jason looked around, trying to somehow find a way out of his situation. As he did, he noticed a strong grip around his ankles, immobilizing him. The invisible lizard stuck it's tongue out, sticking it onto Jason's neck. Almost as if it was being transmitted to his head, Jason could see Niria ordering the archers to aim at the soldier as well.

"Who...who are you, precisely?" The soldier asked. Jason could hear the winding of bows from behind the hay bales where the Empyrean soldiers were. This was bad. He wasn't the only one in danger any more. Jason blinked his eyes, trying to communicate with the soldier somehow, who tilted his head at him. "Hey, talk you weirdo! You look rich. What are you? A spy?"

"Hold trooper, he's one of us!" A young Serian woman strode up to the two. She looked over at Jason in with a smile. "Jason." She smiled. Eliza. Jason looked over at her, and then at the soldier. An idea struck his head.

"Princess Eliza, is that you?" Jason noticed more bows and crossbows being aimed in their direction. "My lady!" He tried to give her a formal kneel, but his immobilized ankles prevented him, and he fell over, sideways. He looked over at the hay bales where the Empyrean strike force was sitting. Thero rolled his eyes, and let go of Jason for a moment, but just enough so that he could properly get up and kneel before Eliza.

"Princess? What?" The lizard asked Jason. Mayran looked over at Niria. "The Emperor is childless. He's up to something." 

"Fool." Thero aimed the pistol at Jason. "Soldiers, prepare for c-"

"He's not lying." Niria said as she looked at Jason, one of her eyes glowing. 

"What?" Thero withdrew his pistol.

"Well, apparently Seria has a mystery princess we don't know about." Mayan put his hand on his chin. "Either that or he's lost it."

"Jason, what are you talking about?" Eliza had a flustered look on her face. "You don't need to call me a princess, I thought -"

"My lady, we're in public. I know it embarrasses you so, but I...I have to pay my respects when we're in front of a crowd." 

"Crowd? And are your weapons?" Eliza inquired. More sounds could be heard coming from a distance as Aeneas, alongside a few soldiers came running over..

"Jason! I'm so glad you're okay. I overheard your conversation, what are you..."

"I uh, came over here for safety! Definitely not deserting, haha!" A pitifully obvious lie. Except for the the fact that it was true, he was no deserter, but if Jason's calculations were correct, it was enough to scramble Niria.

"What are you doing?" Thero whispered to Jason through his lizard. "What is your plan?"

"I uh, don't know which part of that was a lie..." Niria said, twisting her face. Jason smirked as the lizard gave him a live feed.

"You're deserting? Jason..." Eliza looked at him with a face of utter confusion which turned to concern as she looked at the Serian trooper who now looked at him with fresh rage. Only Aeneas looked at him unjudgingly, his eyebrow raised.

"Coward. Traitor!" The first soldier ran over and wrapped his arms around his throat, attempting to throw him to the ground and choke him, but Thero's ankle binding magic on his legs, as well as the lizard on his neck got in the way. "What the..." Jason laughed as the Serian soldier divided his attention between the invisible lizard and Jason's ironclad feet.

"He's lying to them. Wait-" Niria opened her eyes. From what she knew, Jason hadn't deserted, he was captured. She looked up to see Thero already standing up. "Thero, wait-"

"Open fire!" Thero stood up from the hay bales, and aimed his pistol at the group. With Thero's concentration upon his immobilization magic being broken, Jason quickly grabbed the soldier and Eliza, tackling them both to the ground behind a hay bale. Aeneas and the armored soldiers took cover, bullets and arrows ricocheting off of their armor as they ducked behind cover. 

"For the record, I genuinely am not a deserter. But please, feel free to thank me for putting myself through that, it was for your sakes." Jason snatched the lizard out of the Serian soldier's hand and crushed it. "Now if you'll excuse me, I will take your sword as compensation."

"You're...welcome sir?" The Serian soldier said, but Jason was already dashing off towards the Empyrean troops.

Thero screamed as the lizard got squished, clutching his eyes. Jason weaved past a few arrows, and took cover closer to the Empyrean troops as he noticed several Serian guards rushing down to see what all the commotion was about.

"Dammit Thero, why did you have to shout?" Mayran put his crossbow away and pulled out a wheellock pistol, firing it at towards the oncoming Serians. A soldier fell, but others took his place. Several Serians fired back, bows, crossbows, and arquebuses, causing the scouts to duck behind cover. With a swift move, as soon as one of the scouts popped up to fire his bow, Jason grabbed the man and pulled him over onto his side. The scout produced a knife, which Jason dodged before he was able to stab him with his own sword and take the bow. He drew the bow, popped up, and fired it point blank range into the next Empyrean scout who popped his head over.

"Retreat! We've been found!" The scouts fell backwards, neatly withdrawing as they shot their arrows at the enemy as they covered the retreat of the mages. Only Thero maintained his stance, clutching his eyes as he screamed.

"Don't let them get away!" Eliza said, as she aimed her sword at the scouts. "Kill or capture as many as you can!"

"Damn you!" Thero angrily picked up a clod of dirt and shaped it into an array of spears and flung them towards the Serian soldiers, knocking multiple off their feet. "I'll kill you, I'll kill all of you!" Jason sidestepped the earthen blades, and landed onto the hay bale close to Thero.

"Thero! Shit, what are you doing?" One of the scouts tried to turn back for Thero, but stopped as he saw Jason landing on the hay bale, just one leap away from him.

"Oh god, wait, wait!" Thero fired one final blast of stone at Jason, who stepped over the rock and somersaulted onto Thero, driving the sword into him.

"Thero!" Niria tried to run back, but one of the scouts grabbed her.

"Just leave him!" The scout was hit by an arquebus ball, and fell over as Mayran grabbed her and ran over alongside the others. "We'll get them later!" As the Serian knights rode out of their stables, they arrived to find nothing but a pile of dead Empyreans.

"Knight squadron, hold. We got them all." The knights nodded and dismounted as they began to help the infantry drag the bodies away. Jason yanked the sword out of Thero's chest as he lay dead on the ground, blood pooling from the wound. He planted his boot onto Thero's chest.

"That's for the kick." He wiped the blood off of the sword and tossed it over to the Serian soldier he had taken it from. A few of the Serian soldiers applauded as Jason gave them a cinematic bow. Eliza laughed, as the tension from her body slipped away.

"Oh Jason, never change." She rolled her eyes.

"Men, we'll have to keep moving." Aeneas said. "I appreciate the victory, but they know we're here now."

~~*~~

Dayan sighed as he looked at his now two mages. The elite scouting light infantry he had sent with them had been shattered. Dayan hadn’t expected much cohesion from the unit, but he had trusted the scouts to maintain discipline. The campfire around their temporary fort flickered as he sat down and listened.

"General, sir." Mayran started. "We would not have lost as many men if Thero had not-"

"No matter." Dayan shook his head. Losses happened in war, and he couldn't let this keep him down. "I have no need for excuses, nor do I have a reason to know. We march to Eldingenau."