"Ho!" A man's voice called out - the clack of hooves quickly approached their party of six. He rode swiftly and stopped a few feet away, giving Noone and company room to breathe. The man quickly looked the party up and down and noticed that most of this party was wearing the insignias of the Order of Life. His gaze lingered on Noone for a moment longer, eyebrows narrowing for a moment before shaking his head.
"What business do you all have here. This is an army camp for the forces of Cinapul." The man said roughly, he spoke with intent and made it clear he was quite busy.
Behind the man a large camp had been cleared and was filled with countless tents and the voices of several hundreds of people all blurred together.
"I am Tobias Brighton, a tenth level paladin of the Order of Life. We come on business to help with the subjugation of Stone-Eye. Here is our letter from the grand-priest." Tobias easily pulled a rolled parchment from his pack and handed it to the man on the horse.
The man quickly unrolled and read through the document. After rolling it back up, he used it to smack his horse's backside causing it to rear up slightly and turn around. "Follow me. I will take you to the captain." The horse walked slowly enough that their party had no problem following.
As soon as they entered within distance of the tents it was like walking into an entirely new world. Endless noise came from all directions and people bustled back and forth out of one tent and into another. Amidst the bustle, their party was pretty much ignored.
The exception of course were the people who noticed Noone, and seeing how he towered over the rest of the party except for Tobias, he was very noticeable.
Wherever they went Noone caused a small stir, causing the man on the horse to bark out orders and sending these people – soldiers, Noone assumed – scrambling back to work. Once again, the man on the horse gave Noone a deep look.
After a few minutes their group came to an especially tall tent buried within the middle of the camp. Many high-ranking officers rushed about handling their separate affairs and doing what needed to be done to keep a force this large moving efficiently.
The man on the horse easily hopped off and walked it to the front of the largest tent before handing the reigns to a nearby servant for them to tie it up.
Standing in front of the flaps that made up the entrance to the tent stood a well-muscled and chisel-faced man with his arms cross, obviously acting as a guard.
"Johnson." The guard said, nodding to the man who had received Noone and his party.
"Johnson." The man nodded back, handing over the parchment and quickly explaining the circumstances of the party's arrival.
"Johnson and Johnson?" Noone couldn't help but think incredulously. How did that not get confusing? Not just Noone, but Sarah, Feylin, and even Raelith struggled to keep a straight face during the exchange. Sally and Tobias merely ignored it.
"I'm sorry, but we may need to have you wait outside for a bit. The general is currently busy, however I will let him know you arrived." The guard – Johnson - said, slipping inside the tent with the parchment.
Out of curiosity Noone began to extend his divine sense into the tent.
A small magic barrier was set up within the tent, however the barrier was only meant to keep prying eyes and ears from sensing anything that occurred inside. Noone had realized this almost immediately, that the large tent seemed to have no sound coming from it.
However, the magic barrier did nothing against Noone's divine sense.
At level six, Noone's divine sense stretched over six whole meters with ease, more if he focused it, allowing him a good view of the inside of the tent. However, the influx of stimulus was a lot on Noone's mind. Noone had begun to realize that the larger his divine sense got, the less he was able to properly utilize its full strength. His mind was not advancing at the same rate and thus the stream of a full 360 degrees of information was too much for him.
However, for simply observing and listening to these minor affairs, Noone was still able to easily do so.
Inside the tent there were various desks on one side, each one stacked high with parchment and paper and information of all sorts. However, there was no one working at these desks at the moment. Instead, everyone in the tent – including an intensely armed man who Noone assumed was the General – were gathered around a single point.
A cage.
Noone honed in his divine sense, watching the scene play out.
"What's she saying?" The intense man asked.
"Something about a disease or sickness. Or maybe a faction split between their community? I don't know General Armuu… She's not making any sense." An old looking halfling dressed in a unique uniform spoke with the large general. The halfling shook his head, scratching his scalp. A very clear scowl was painted on his face.
Inside the cage was a race Noone had never seen before. It was a woman with looks very similar to Raelith. She had long ears and a thin lithe frame. However, unlike Rae her disposition was extremely dark. Her skin and what little armor she had left were both grey bordering black. Dark gray-purple skin and black clothing.
Her hair was stark white, and her eyes reflected purple hues.
"This must be a dark elf?" Noone thought silently.
The female dark elf was curled into a ball on the far side of the cage, trying to get as far from everyone as she could. Her body trembled from exhaustion, and Noone was able to see old and new bruises painted across her body. Dried blood crusted on the floor of the cage.
"How can you not know? Your whole purpose is here as a translator." The general growled at the small halfling.
"Don't you talk like that to me Armuu, you might be a general, but you'd do well to remember you don't outrank me. I am here on loan, and I can leave when I damn well please." Despite his small height, he did his best to glare down the general.
The general was about to say something in return, but instead chose to grit his teeth and stare daggers at the prisoner.
"Look." The halfling said. "I am translating perfectly, but she's just not making any sense. What I can tell you though, is that they would never leave their homes down south unless it was life or death, and right now, she is more scared of going back than she is from you. Her words don't make any sense in her tongue, let alone ours." The halfling scoffed.
"Fine." Armuu retorted. "Just leave her here to rot until she decides to make more sense. Soon it won't matter anyways. We will have completely decimated whatever remaining dark-elves are held up here within a few days. In the meantime…" Armuu retrieved the parchment from the guard – Johnson – who had been waiting patiently behind him. He quickly scanned through the letter.
On the outside Noone had been standing silently with the party but a small frowned had formed on his lips as he watched the exchange.
"Ugh. More healers, as if we have a use for more healers. They're obviously just here to make use of the teleportation array after we finish taking back Stone-Eye." Armuu groaned, rubbing his temple with a thick meaty finger. "Fine, bring them in. We will have them join the rest at the back to heal stomach-ache's and the shits." He finally said, chuckling to himself.
Armuu had always felt that healers were too self-righteous or immature to handle doing anything else, so he looked down on them in principle. Of course, he understood the need for healers – especially as a general – but he would rather have more fighters than healers any day.
Soon Tobias, Raelith, Sally, Feylin, Sarah, and Noone all stepped into the large tent at the behest of Johnson – The guard – who then dismissed Johnson – the messenger – and allowed them to pass through.
The party of six came to stand face to face with General Armuu.
General Armuu was a lifetime military recruit, and he looked it too. His body was dense with muscles forged from years in the army and he walked with a stalwartness that made him stick out in any room.
He wasn't overly tall like Tobias or Noone. But what he lacked in stature he made up for in presence.
As he looked the party up and down, a small smile began to form on his lips.
"When I read through the letter I had assumed that you would be a party of clerics, but correct me if I'm wrong in assuming that's not the case?" In his voice there was no small amount of malice.
Tobias frowned, but he wasn't unused to dealing with these types. "As you can see." He spoke evenly, casually looking down on the general. "I am a level ten paladin of the order. She is a vengeance paladin, and he is a… fighter." Tobias casually clicked his tongue. "And also, who we are escorting at the command of the grand-priest of Cinapul." Like this, Tobias managed to tie everyone in the party together, and even reference their backer.
However, Armuu was not one to be swayed easily. "Well. For now, you are under me as well as the subjugation army. You see Tobias, because of the presence of the teleport here, many organizations have thrown small militia's our way to pad out the numbers as a sign of goodwill."
"General Armuu." Suddenly the old halfling Noone had seen earlier called out for the general.
"One moment." He said back before returning to their party. He chuckled. "I have no problems putting the proper clerics with the rest of the healers. However, we should be making use of every power we can, to reduce our losses." General Armuu began filling out forms of assignment for each person there.
"Since you two look exceptionally strong, I am sure you will have no problem joining our front lines?" He smiled at Tobias, his rough skin making it look especially malevolent. Then he handed a piece of paper to Tobias and Noone.
"Since you are still too weak, I will put you with the middle forces. A vengeance paladin huh...? If you look around, you should be able to find one or two of you wandering around somewhere."
"General Armuu sir!" The halfling again. "I said one moment." The general scowled. "You three can head to the healing camp. When you see a bunch of people standing around with sticks up their asses and their noses pointed in the air, you're in the right place." He shoved three sheets of paper at the three clerics.
Feylin's eyes narrowed and he was on the verge of saying something back, but Sally quickly put a hand on his shoulder, shaking her head.
Not just Feylin, but even Noone was beginning to tire of the general's attitude. He quietly wondered what level this Armuu person was at. And whether or not he had any defense against divine sense.
"General Armuu Sir! Will you please pay attention!" The halfling, finally seeing the general finish up handing out assignments, gave up on being polite and shouted for attention.
"What. Is. It?" Armuu barked back, annoyed at being interrupted.
"The prisoner… sir." The halfling responded, looking back at the cage.
Everyone's eyes travelled across the tent, and to the corner where a female dark elf had been trembling and curled up in a cage only moments before.
As Noone laid eyes on the woman now, a subtle chill ran up his spine.
No… not just Noone. But everyone present.
She was no longer trembling… instead she stood completely straight in the cage. She wasn't even bothering to cover herself as her shredded clothes fell from her body. Her bruises split and cracked as she moved, causing blood to trickle down her body.
But even this was not the most uncanny thing though.
Her eyes stared coolly out from the cage – unblinking and uncaring of the pain she should be in.
On her face, a smile so wide it threatened to split her lips open had formed.
Everyone presents who saw this smile shuddered. That was not the smile of a human being. It was cold and full of uncaring malice. It was completely and utterly indifferent and void to everything warm in the world.
No one was able to take their eyes away.