The days after I got the really dangerous mission from Raven were strangely calm, hunting someone who's probably been running and hiding almost daily and complicated, even with the location of countless small and medium stashes.
It turned out to be a pretty tiring chase for everyone, the advantage our mounts gave us didn't seem to help much anymore the night terrors are really effective at traveling at night which get bigger and bigger as winter comes to this realm.
Cold and a great friend to necromancers, but not so much to those who pursue them, with each passing night the biting cold wind was increasingly unpleasant for some members of the party. I can only say that I am very lucky to have the fire element to warm me up without drawing attention.
During that time, I not only continued to practice my role of tracker and scout, I still had enough time to focus on my secondary target. Little Flame has done nothing but eat and ride her horse, not a word or suspicious movement.
It seems she has a lot more patience than she has shown before, not listening to a single comment that could be considered rude or rude to the church, her aura has been steady, the few moments I've seen her aura move a little faster it's been in the evening.
I suspected she was using some magical tool to communicate with her supervisor, but I couldn't see a single trace left by a magical tool, perhaps a divine artifact, but using something like that to communicate doesn't seem appropriate.
Temples have a lot of godly power to spend, but I doubt they would spend it on something like that or maybe it's a really good idea. A method of communication that church members can sweat is not a bad idea, but it would probably be too flashy for other users of divine power.
I'm almost blind to godly power but to a cultist goddess Helena god power would be like a huge golden torch in my dark but all my info on that comes from books and little Raven and Mia commentary, it doesn't exactly exist a class about divine power.
Maybe there are in temples, but they would only be taught to future priests and trusted temples. Nor would a church teach the properties of divine power to someone who could use that knowledge against them, most of the 'public' knowledge was gained by studying or destroying cults.
The realms keep their libraries on this subject very secret, but thanks to my current occupation I've barely gotten permission to read some of the core tomes, where only some information on how the divine priest power is used, but even then, I can only read them inside a high-level base, so apart from the time we were in the capital I didn't get another chance to read about divine power.
But my mission is not to find out whether or not Little Flame is communicating with her superiors, but to prevent her from being able to use the beacon.
While clearing out several hideouts the group ended up killing a lot of cultists and unfortunately slaves, even if no one speaks I know most of us felt that every dead slave is one less slave who could have died killing a soldier from the kingdom of Mirue .
Really a waste, but there's nothing for us to do to stop it, when we enter a base where the slaves are they attack us with the fury and savagery that only someone who is mad to keep his newfound freedom can have.
During combat I saw more than one slave warrior jumping in a suicidal move to try to hurt team members who are behind the front lines, and it really took a lot of courage or madness to throw yourself to your death this way.
"Wolf, lead the cumin to the base near the pine forest that is near the abandoned coal mine."
"Okay, but why are we skipping the other three bases that get in the way?"
"It is very unlikely that our target is there, they are no different from the last small bases we have attacked in the last few days. I prefer to kill fewer slaves, although I don't even have detailed information on the base near the pine forest, I believe the chances of it being a big cult base are big."
"Because of the mine?"
"Yes, to be precise and because of the mine and the forest. The cult would not make a base in an abandoned clove mine because it is a very rudimentary structure and prone to having multiple entrances, but an underground base in mine of a dense forest and a more classic location for this cult, the necromancers of this cult are smart choosing a place full of life where its presence would be easy to detect, to deceive the soldiers of the kingdom."
"Then why is the mine important?"
"Because we're not just looking for the cult, we're after the slaves and the cult. While the mine might not be a good place for a cult to stay, it can be a reasonable place for a band of slaves to hide."
"Especially when you think they won't have the time or mages with good construction skills, because of that the mine becomes a great option for their base as a lot of the structure is done and no one has much reason to go there. Rebel slaves don't have the ability to make a central base, but there's a good chance this mine will be the biggest base for the resistance."
"I see, the mine would also be a good distance away from the cults' base in the forest, close enough for them to be able to communicate, but not close enough for them to get too close and be watched by the cult. They may be allies, but I doubt either side has the intention of actually being allies of the other."
"Yes, rebel slaves may be desperate, but to join in public with them is a complete suicide. So, we have a great chance to change their allegiance, Lobo, with a new sponsor the cult will blow its cover and we can sell all the information the slaves have about the cult to the church of the goddess Helena."
"The bishop will be very pissed at losing the artifact, but because of church policy he won't be able to refuse the 'truth' when exposed in this way. He might even gain the advantage of escalating the war so that it comes to an end more quickly or we can stall the war, depending on how the negotiations are done."
"Both would be good options."
"Is stopping the war a good thing?"
"Of course, this would give all sides time to prepare even more, this might not sound so good as it doesn't seem to change much for the realms, but when you consider the rebel group as one of the 'sides' the pause has much more impact on the war. With time and support from our country, the ragtag group of rebellious slaves may be able to organize and spread their influence in the slave camps in Mirue's kingdom."
"The stronger and more organized they are, the more trouble they can cause, just as their existence would already hamper relations between the kingdoms of Mirue, Kavenus, and Palarnos. The alliance of these slave kingdoms will have to be very careful with trade and resource allocation, since almost all the logistics of these kingdoms are done involving slave labor, the two kingdoms without rebel slaves will treat Mirue like a patient who has contracted a plague, this bad situation affecting the slave alliance will only help us."
"While a scenario that rebel, slaves have set up rebel cells across all slave alliance realms is beautiful, it is also very unlikely to be possible. Green core down slaves cannot truly overthrow or resist if one of the royal families focuses their efforts on exterminating them, they are only existing because the kingdom's military might be focused on a more important and dangerous enemy."
"But that doesn't change the fact that they can be useful to us, but that's just current reality. Depending on who their leader is I'm hopeful we can be able to complete an even more ambitious plan, although the royal family doesn't say it out loud, they want to destroy the current slave system."
"Not because they are defenders of liberty but because the founder of the kingdom was, the royal family cannot choose an attitude different from his, so they developed the ambition to 'liberate' neighboring kingdoms and become the leader of an alliance huge, but to start something like this you need a figure who can unite the slaves and lead them against the royal family that controls that slave kingdom."
"Are you buying the swordsman who wields the light of destruction with the founder of our kingdom?"
"The real difference between them is that one has already succeeded and the other is still on my journey, Lobo, remember that it all depends on how competent that swordsman is. Even if it's impossible to do something like this over the next decade, it's still possible to do it three or five decades from now."
"But that depends on whether the swordsman is able to understand and accept to sacrifice the slaves of now to free the slaves in the future. Not all people are able to basically abandon those who have sworn allegiance to him, and watch them die in an unwinnable battle as he flees the realm so he can have the freedom to grow strong enough to be a real threat."
"I think finding someone like that is difficult, but considering he hasn't refused help from cultists he might end up having what it takes to do that."
"Maybe, but to find out we have to find him. The templars shouldn't be that far from the realm, we would have already failed if the bishop wasn't so wary of using the region's templars and not his men to retrieve the artifact. Lead the way into the pine forest, Wolf."
"And be careful the cultists don't notice us."