Intrusion

Tiria, four hours earlier

Mercer sat behind his desk with Dirk and Malia beside him, while Commander Vance faced them from across the room. 

“Here I thought I understood you, Mercer, when you said you didn’t know. Fort Avelorn has been allied with the Kingdom of Orienne for more than twenty-two years.”

“In every discussion leading up to our operation against Avelorn, why didn’t you make that clear?”

"I had no intention of dragging Orienne into our mess, and your threats themselves made me assume your government knew what invading Fort Avelorn meant.

"A week after our conflict, Orienne heard about our defeat from traders moving along the eastern trade road."

“Are you here to give us a warning?” Dirk asked.

“Not at all. I’m actually here to give Tiria some relief.

“The Kingdom of Orienne recently heard about your situation.”

“Our administration?” Mercer asked. “The Army?”

"No, we know nothing about that, and judging by your faces, I’d rather not.”

“Then what situation?”

"They know about your soldier, Mercer. The one capable of manifesting an object resembling a sword out of thin air."

“And what about him makes you speak as though Orienne is interested?”

“They aren’t. They want nothing to do with him. On their behalf, keep that soldier hidden and protected.”

“Do they know something about him?” Malia asked.

“Although we’re allies, there’s plenty Orienne keeps hidden from Fort Avelorn.”

Dirk exhaled. “You can’t possibly leave us with something that vague.”

"Watching how Orienne has conducted itself over the last two years, it’s clear they’re preparing for conflict. With Avelorn still recovering, it’s unlikely we’ll be dragged into whatever they’re preparing for."

Mercer's thoughts had moved elsewhere. "If our administration didn’t even know Avelorn was allied with Orienne, then that wasn’t what delayed the operation. Why did they take so long to authorize the Fort Avelorn operation? Our main objective was to screen-test the children who had crossed the border and taken shelter there.”

"We’ve been screening children here in Tiria for nearly four years," Malia said.

"Orienne made that explicit to me. If you already had the soldier with that strange ability during the Avelorn operation… why did you keep screen-testing the Tirian children?"

Ruined buildings, cabins, people, and campfires.

Nash walked through the settlement with Yuri, Khyrie, and Chena. "Chena, who's a better shot? You or Sarah?"

“Nobody’s a better shot than her.”

Khyrie smiled. “Chena gets close when they compete.”

“Ooh. If you want to beat her, I know a few tricks.”

Yuri didn’t even look at Nash. "There aren't any tricks. Sarah gets tunnel vision once she has a target."

"Khyrie, do you shoot?”

"Cutlass is my thing, but I probably still shoot better than you, Nash."

"We'll see when we—"

"Okay, keep it down now," Yuri said.

“Sorry. Where's Warui and Kiel?”

"Looks like we woke up too late. Micah probably dragged them off somewhere. We’ll wait for them."

Sarah and River made their way down the prison’s long underground corridor, their footsteps carrying through the confined stone passage. “I didn’t know this place was so huge.”

“Only Captain Zay and the officials are being held here.”

“Is all this really necessary?”

“Whatever the reason, at least the Captain is in the East Wing and the officials are all the way in the West. He—he deserves some peace of mind.”

"Better question... why are we doing a warden job? I don’t mind coming back to the capital, but we were just here."

“Sarah, Commander Dirk already said—”

They rounded the corner and halted. Rubble lay scattered across the corridor ahead. One of the cells had been torn open, its entrance broken apart beneath a jagged hole punched through the ceiling above. They ran and Sarah found the words first.  “The officials broke out?”

“We’re underground!”

“What could even make a hole like—” Sarah's question died when they reached the cell. Mico, Harold, and Hank lay severed at the waist across the stone floor.

“Sarah, g—go.”

“Y—yeah.” 

Sarah headed for the staircase, but River stayed behind staring at the shattered bars, then the narrow shaft bored through several meters of stone overhead. “How is this possible?”

Callineth

"I’ll get a basket!"

“Don’t be in too much of a hurry, Micah!” Kiel stood beside Warui at the edge of a patch of raspberry bushes.

“I’ll slow down!”

“Jeez. This kid has been nonstop since we got here. He brings us all the way out here, surprises us with raspberry picking, then forgets the basket.”

“Reminds me of me when I was younger.”

“What’d you say?”

“Why’d you get up so early?”

“I could ask you the same thing... Khyrie’s snoring got to me. She needs to keep that in the girls’ dorms back at base.”

“Khyrie’s snoring has to be a medical problem.”

Kiel chuckled, then his mind went elsewhere. “I was curious about something yesterday. I understand why you stare at the buildings, but the well seemed kind of random."

Warui went quiet, the settlement drawing his focus. Kiel gave him a moment. “That’s the same well everyone used to get water from. Not that exact well. I’m sure it got destr—”

Kiel looked back toward the bushes.

“Destroyed.” The word came out quietly. "Like everything else... but it’s in the same spot."

Neither spoke.

“Excuse me! You two!” a voice called from farther down the path. Warui and Kiel turned to find a man hauling a wagon loaded with crates.

"You’re the people stopping by for a while, right? You mind lending me a hand?"

Warui and Kiel met the wagon halfway, and the three got it moving together. "What’s your name, sir? I'm Kiel."

“Collin.”

“Warui.”

"Nice to meet you folks. Where’s the rest of your crew?"

“We woke up before them,” Kiel said, “and little old Micah wanted to take us here to pick raspberries.”

"That kid. Where’d he go?"

"He forgot the basket."

"Sounds like him to abandon his guests."

“What’s in these crates?” Kiel asked.

“Ammunition. Some firearms.”

Warui and Kiel exchanged a quick glance behind Collin’s back. Collin kept pulling, none the wiser. “I met up with some of our people who still live in Orienne. They happened to have more ammunition and guns than they needed, so I figured I’d bring some home.”

“Everybody here knows how to shoot?”

"Ah, no. Only the people who used to be soldiers back in Orienne."

"I got it! Oh. Hi, Mr. Collin.”

“There’s the little culprit.”

“Micah, I know I told you not to rush, but you took a while.”

“Don’t be so forgetful next time. You left these two with no choice but to help me.”

“Forgive me, Mr. Collin.”

“Ease up, kid. You all go pick your raspberries. I can make it the rest of the way. I haven’t worked out much lately anyway.”

Warui, Kiel, and Micah waved as he continued away.

“Bye, Mr. Collin! Okay, now we can start.”

Thirty minutes later, Micah returned to the settlement between Warui and Kiel, proudly holding up the basket. “Look what we got.”

“Strawberries?”

“Nash, they’re raspberries you idiot.”

Nash slowly side-eyed Yuri.

Warui and Kiel both glanced at Khyrie, and she caught it. “They look tasty, Micah. Did you already wash them?”

“Not yet.” Micah turned at once and took off. “I’m going to do that right now! You all wait for me!”

Chena called after him. “You sure you don’t want help?”

“No. What kind of host would I be?!”

Kiel waited until he was out of earshot. “There are civilians here who used to serve in Orienne’s military.”

"They have firearms," Warui added quietly.

“That means they could retaliate.” Concern crept into Yuri’s voice. “Unnecessary blood could be shed.”

“But we could reason with them,” Chena said. “Tiria could make this place nicer—”

"This might be enough for the interim administration to decide. Tiria should—” Warui stopped at the sight of Micah kneeling beside the well, rinsing raspberries in a bucket.

The same place.

Different child.

Chena noticed and looked toward the well too.

“Tiria wouldn’t be using force either.” Nash considered that for a moment. “I think Chena’s right.”

“Warui, what should Tiria do?” Khyrie asked.

“Sorry. I lost my train of thought.”

"You were on the right track," Yuri said. "We have enough information to report back. The interim administration can decide what happens next."

“I’m not sure reasoning with them as a six-person squad is the right call, so I think we should return.”

“I don’t think bringing an entire army is the best way to reason either,” Chena said.

“No, but that isn’t the decision we were entrusted to make.

“We leave tomorrow before sunrise. We’ll head west first, then circle back toward Tiria once we’re out of sight. Got it?”

“Yeah,” Khyrie and Kiel said while Warui, Chena, and Nash agreed quietly.

Tiria

“My wardens have the entrance under constant surveillance.”

“Dirk, any explosion reports?”

"None, but I doubt explosives could make a hole that precise, and nobody could have dug through nearly ten meters of stone that quickly without being detected."

"And if they could, that doesn’t explain the steel bars being cut open, or the strength and precision it would take to cut a human body cleanly in half. River, did they appear to have been dead long?"

"The most I’d give it is two days. Maybe three at the absolute most. There wasn't much visible decomposition."

"And I have wardens inspect the isolated wings every two days. Someone knew. Duncan, do we bring this to Garrick Vance?"

“He’s probably already out of the country. Besides, Avelorn has its hands full...

“We learn the previous administration likely delayed the Avelorn operation while waiting for some kind of external authorization, and the screening tests we conducted on children born in year five-fifty-one may have been intended to find someone like Warui, or Warui specifically.

“Then the former officials are brutally murdered.”

“You think whoever pressured them into carrying out those orders killed them?”

"I think somebody knew what those officials could tell us, but we have nobody to point at.

"River, your ability to observe even small details in situations like this has been valuable. Thank you."

“Yes, sir!”

The reconnaissance squad sat along a wooden fence with Micah, passing raspberries back and forth between them.

“Mmm.” Yuri turned the berry between her fingers. “These are the juiciest raspberries I’ve ever eaten. Are they wild, or did everyone grow them?”

"We grew them here. Almost everything grows well. Especially the apple trees."

Chena stopped with a raspberry near her mouth. “You’re right.”

Warui looked toward the trees. “We noticed…”

“Honestly, strawberries are the only berries—”

"That explains earlier."

"Can you let me finish my sentences?”

Yuri gestured grandly. “The floor is yours.”

“They’re the only berries I like, but these aren’t bad.”

“Wow, Nash. That was profound,” Yuri said.

Kiel nodded solemnly. “We appreciate your opinion.”

Nobody spoke after that. The only sound was chewing.

Children chased one another between the cabins while four men salvaged planks from the remains of an old house. Nearby, an old man passed with a goat on a lead.

“After you leave tomorrow, do you think you’ll come back sometime?”

“Why not? Right, guys?” Nash asked.

Khyrie nodded, Kiel raised a thumb, and Yuri gave a quiet hum of agreement, while Warui and Chena said nothing.