Kadrac City was vastly different from the other cities Yuriko had been to. Rumiga City was tiered and built on a mountainside, Lucenti City in Bella plane, the capital of the snake-kin, was built atop a swamp, on the trunks of humongous trees. Realmheart was arguably a planar metropolis, with striations of structures and natural preserves encircling the palace, which was itself, larger than Haveena City two or three times over.
Kadrac City, from what she could see even across several leagues away, wasn't so much as one with stone or wooden constructions, and was instead, a glorified cattle run. There were a few buildings, but it was in the centre of a sea of brown-coloured tents. There were wide roads arranged radially, and a cloud of dust perpetually hovering just above it. When the wind blew from Kadrac, it carried with it the rank smell of cow dung.
Yuriko wrinkled her nose and thanked the Ancestors that their quarry hadn't been headed directly to Kadrac City, and was, instead moving further south and east, before her team caught up with it. The only question now is if they struck now, within sight of Kadrac, or waited for night.
"We should wait," Gwendith answered when Yuriko posed the question. "Less chance for a mishap."
"But what if they head into the city?" Heron asked. "It would be impossible for us then."
"It's clear that they're not," Gwendith said. "They're angled away. Mayhap they're heading for a different fort."
"Desire?" Yuriko asked. "Do you sense the nameless?"
The Chaos Lord frowned, bit her lip, then nodded. "Yes. Straight ahead, but quite faint."
Yuriko exchanged glances with Gwendith and Heron. "Let's see where they go. Anyway, their destination is Uaran, er possibly." She gestured to Saki. "Please trail them, we'll have to pull back so we aren't too obvious."
"As you command, young mistress."
Saki grinned as she jumped off her horse, tossing the reins to Bradin. As soon as she landed, shadows rose up around her and she disappeared from sight.
Yuriko pulled on the reins gently which further slowed down her horse. Not that they were going particularly fast. As it were, they were going barely faster than the wagons up front. She stared at the convoy as they rode. The distance between them was nearly a longstride, within easy reach of her Enhanced Sight technique.
Three of the wagons were enclosed and probably locked. Where the prisoners were kept, she assumed. The trailing wagon looked like it carried supplies, while the lead wagon also held passengers. The ones on the front wagon didn't look like warriors though.
The fifty horsemen around the caravan were clearly competent and professional armsmen. She just wasn't sure if they were part of the Haveenian military or of the greater Federation. She was sure they weren't sellswords though, a profession that Sheamus assured her was quite common in Coalition territory. Almost as common as adventurers.
The sun would set soon and she hoped the caravan stopped to camp, but, as she half feared, they continued past dusk and pressed on. Kadrac City, in the distance, lit up with thousands of lights, and with the Dark Moon this night, it made the city seem all the brighter.
As she feared, the convoy reached a small fort a couple of hours after dusk. Yuriko and the others went off the road and established a camp in a hollow. They would be out of immediate sight from the road, but a campfire would be obvious for longstrides away, given how flat and clear the terrain was. For that matter, several campfires bloomed across the horizon at dusk, so it wasn't as if they were the only ones there.
They ate and did their evening ablutions, and rested in shifts. Yuriko paced around the perimeter, nervously awaiting word from Saki.
"The nameless, their presence grows stronger," Desire murmured.
"How many?" Yuriko asked.
"I don't know."
"Are they in that fort?"
Desire nodded and Yuriko cursed. Then, thought better of it and nodded. The rescue wasn't their mission. The goal was to find the source of the nameless and, if possible, try to wipe them out.
An hour later, Saki returned from her reconnaissance. The fort was less than two longstrides away and was probably less than a league from Kadrac City. It was either a military training camp, or a garrison, or perhaps, a logistics supply point.
It turned out to be the last one. Saki drew the layout on the sandy ground with a twig.
"The fort is a basic military square," Saki began, "with four watchtowers at the corners. Each side is about three hundred paces. The walls are a simple palisade, barely even there." She scoffed, "Clearly meant to be a demarcation rather than a barrier. I managed to sneak inside. The prisoners were allowed to walk around, eat, and do their ablutions, but were herded back into their wagons."
"Did you see Izna?" Braden asked anxiously.
"Yes. He's in the third wagon." Saki drew three rectangles near the centre of the square. The buildings were in two rows on the western side, with a quadrangle on the east. Support buildings were arrayed on the perimeter, but there was at least a twenty-pace clearing between the palisade and the structures. "There are patrols, but they are more of a formality than anything else."
"Did you get an accurate count of their strength?" Yuriko asked.
"There are nearly two dozen Chaos Lords, nameless, housed here." Saki pointed at a building on the southern edge. "There are nearly a thousand armsmen. At least ten Adepts, and I'm sure I felt a Master Spirit Binder there too."
"Attacking this would be suicide," Gwendith said grimly.
"I agree," Yuriko sighed. If the objective was to destroy the camp, then all she would need to do was cast her Radiant Lance. But it was a fact-finding mission with a rescue mission tacked onto it.
"The way I see it," Heron said, "We can either sneak in and free Izna. Or we can follow them as they move on from this camp. This isn't the final point after all. The presence of the nameless suggests that this is on their route. No doubt those nameless are headed up to Haveena. We can follow the convoy to where they intend to deliver them and pinpoint the target."
"But the second one means we leave our friend to Chaos," Orrin protested.
Heron nodded. "We can simply take Izna away. Alternatively, we can ambush the convoy once they leave."
"If the nameless head north, we have to kill them," Yuriko said grimly. "They will only trouble our home."
"So which would it be, oh great leader?" Asami said in a joking tone. "Will we sneak in, wait to ambush, or would you rather destroy the entire fortress?"
Yuriko stared at the map. A thousand armsmen, twenty nameless, a dozen Adepts, and a single Master. She glanced at the twins who were both in deep thought. Izna had helped her and Dee during the riot and had given crucial intelligence.
The Federation, or at least, the city of Haveena, wasn't as harmonious as she expected. If they could apply more pressure, the city would probably implode. How true was it for the rest of the city-states though?
Shaking her head, she focused on the now. Attacking the fort would be a foolish risk, as was infiltrating and rescuing a single captive. As grateful as she was for his help, Izna was ultimately a single person weighed against the wellbeing of her family back home. Rescuing him would also tip off the fort to their presence.
The best choice was to wait for them to disembark, trail them until they reach their destination, and then enact the rescue. As for the nameless…
Or, you could absorb those nameless within Fri'Avgi and ask her to parse their memories. You can find out where they came from that way. No more of this boring journey. Damien said out of the blue. Yuriko stiffened.
'How do I get Fri'Avgi to do that?'
Just ask.
Feeling elated, Yuriko grinned and laid out her plans. "We'll wait for the convoy to leave, and rescue Izna and the rest of the prisoners. As for the nameless and the objective…" Yuriko called Fri'Avgi and laid her greatsword across her lap. "I'll handle them with this. If I do it right, I can get a…uh, a resonance and we'll know where they came from."
Gwendith, Desire, Heron, and the twins, all stared at her flatly.
"What?"
"A resonance? Really?" Heron snorted with amusement. "Why didn't you do that before?"'
'Yeah, why didn't you tell me before?' Yuriko directed the thought at Damien, 'I've been fighting the nameless for weeks!'
You have? I don't remember…
'You've been asleep the entire time?'
I guess. His tone grew sheepish, But it looks like I should be able to stay awake for now. Did you miss me?
Yuriko, in fact, had. And when she said, er, thought to him, as much, he chuckled.
"I learned a new way to use my artefact," Yuriko answered Heron. He stared at her eyes for a good long while, then nodded.
Since it was already quite late, they went to sleep, except for the watch of course. The next day, after breakfast and morning ablutions, she sent Braden, Orrin, and Sheamus to Kadrac City to purchase supplies. Gwendith and Asami watched the fort. But it didn't look like the prisoner convoy would leave today. Izna and the others were let out of their wagons, allowed to exercise, go to the latrines, eat breakfast, and then returned to their prisons.
At least it was still the Season of Water and the sun didn't heat up the air too much. But still, how hot and humid would the insides of those wagons be? There were at least a dozen and a half bodies stuck in each one. There was little she could do, unfortunately.
Right after breakfast, even as she was doing her ablutions, Desire came up to her bush and said, "The nameless are moving."
"Ah, hold on a minute." Yuriko hastily said. Once she was done, she and Desire informed the others. "I'll go and kill the nameless. Where are they heading?" she asked Desire.
"They are circling around the other side of the city, I think." Desire answered.
"Let's go," Yuriko said.
The sky was clear blue, and the breeze picked up and blew dust all over the place. A couple of whirling dervishes formed and spun around for a few minutes. She and Desire ran northwards. Dust plumed behind her as she hauled Desire along with her kinesis. She kept her light concealed and only condensed it as armour. The rest of her capacity, she used to increase her physical prowess. The result was that she was just as fast as if she had used boost, but without consuming Animus. Unfortunately, using Boost technique didn't work in conjunction with what she currently did. That Animus technique enhanced her in the same way as her Anima now did but to a much lesser extent.
It took them an hour to circle around the city, and another hour to catch up. Unlike them, the nameless weren't running but had proceeded at a sustainable pace. They noticed her, of course, if only because of the dust plume. And just like that, the battle was joined.
She called Fri'Avgi to hand and charged into their midst even before they could react to her presence. She flared her Radiant aura, investing as much free energy as she could convert from the surroundings. As a result, her light burned then. Their skin sizzled and smoked, and each nameless flinched and jerked away.
The distraction was more than enough. She bisected one at the hip, then stabbed Fri'Avgi's point into his torso.
'I need their memories.' Yuriko thought to the artefact, and she felt a reluctant assent. Fri'Avgi wanted to consume them to refill her reserves, not hold their consciousness prisoner! That took distilled Chaos!
'You can devour them afterwards,' Yuriko said placatingly, and the artefact hummed happily.
At the back of Yuriko's mind though, was the thought that these nameless were once human, and it wasn't as if they chose to be Chaos Lords, they were probably forced. Guilt clawed at her heart, but she firmed her Will and pushed it away. She could half-feel tendrils of Fate seeking to entangle her Anima, but the truth of the matter was, these people were weapons of a hostile nation. It wasn't she who made them this way, and what she was doing would bring them out of their misery.
Twenty fresh Chaos Lords, below the baron level, weren't a match for her. All Desire needed to do was prevent the others from running away. None of them attempted to, however, so she finished them all off. Fri'Avgi's gem glowed bright red, but there were dull spots within.
The bodies disintegrated into green motes of ambient Chaos, and there was little evidence of the fight other than the scuffed-up ground. But a couple of hours with this wind meant that even those traces would be gone soon. She flattened the ground with her kinesis though, evening it up a bit. Then, she moved a few longstrides away and sheltered under a scraggly tree. She brought herself to the dreamscape, and from there, pulled the nameless' Anima and began to sort them out.