Chapter 416: Chapter 416 - The Motion In Which Things Have Been Set
A/N: Thanks for your patience, lovely readers. And for the well wishes on that Chapter a bit back despite my cryptic vagaries~ ...I get quiet when I’m ’moved’, sorry I didn’t reply more *individually*.
I’m still in limbo a bit on the life/relative things, but rest assured that I’m personally okay - and still thinking about getting our story moved along when I can!
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The acrid scents of distant acid rain hung in the air even here, miles from the Saltfire Storm Alliance’s territory border. Qatrand... er Yecine, for now - paperwork took time - surveyed the makeshift refugee camp that had sprouted along the main trade route. The canvas shelters, a few hastily constructed corrals for strange assortments of livestock, and the chaos of a concerned population in flight.
"Larger than the initial reports suggested it would be. Either more people fled than expected, or..."
"Or we weren’t given accurate numbers to begin with."
Qat’s response toward her second in command’s observation of the situation carried the tone of someone who’d learned to question all the ’convenient’ coincidences. Months of independent command had taught her to look for what wasn’t being said by people. Leysah and her both checked their weapons by habit, as they continued to count out the visible security arrangements.
’Lacking is a word for it.’
Approaching from where she’d been coordinating with the Alliance’s logistics coordinator, Nysoi waved at them. Her merchant-trained eye having cataloged their supplies and transportation needs quite quickly... and she would also call it lacking. As a member of the Opal Scale Guild, she had put in a request to observe the hero’s operations firsthand.
So, rather easily, she had been assigned to the strikeforce as support just like the three from the Void Defense Society. Ostensibly just for the later trade route security assessments, though the heavy blade wielder suspected that the woman’s Clairvoyance abilities were the real reason she’d been so easily maneuvered to join this mission.
Qat really didn’t give her own approval of it, after letters had been exchanged with the other teenager and sent in along with the request enough weight. Without beating around the bush, the reddish-blonde spoke with the certainty of someone who’d helped build her families fortune a little further by reading situations accurately.
"The numbers don’t add up. They’re claiming sixteen hundred will be displaced, but the supply requests only cover a bit over a thousand at most. Either they’ve hoarded extra resources to cover themselves or-"
"Some of those people aren’t just refugees."
A quiet voice interrupted the Valmenf girl as the Empath of the strikeforce strutted out from between two supply wagons. Zonnel’s expression was troubled in a way it got when the emotional currents in peoples spirits didn’t flow as expected. A sort of tell or tick that her Commander had learned to pay attention to when dealing with new people.
"The desperation is real enough in the outer camps. Families with children, elderly who can barely travel. But the closer you get to the Saltfire cultivator tents, the more questionable it is."
She gestured toward the center of the encampment around a cluster of more permanent-looking structures that had been erected on the roadway some time ago. From this distance, Qat could easily see the armed figures moving with purpose that were clearly soldiers or warriors. Different than the aimless motion of civilians brought from where they called home.
"There are groups with different emotional signatures than they should have?
Nysoi asked the other woman as instincts began to connect dots. She was used to contemplating on possibilities, especially based on what her Astralism showed her. And her eyes hazed with the look she got when she was using it.
"Some anxiety, but not the kind that comes from losing your home to environmental disaster. More like... the anxiety of waiting for an important business deal to conclude? Anticipation. Calculation."
Zonnel’s fingers drummed against her leg as all of them felt their own suspicions spiking. The Saltfire Storm Alliance had requested specifically for her strikeforce to help them, citing the need for someone who could coordinate a militarized evacuation with defensive movements over a large distance.
A reasonable request that had passed through all the proper channels quickly. Too reasonable and too quick, perhaps.
"Leysah, how many of their ’security personnel’ have you counted moving through the thousand or so actual noncombatants?"
"About fifty were visible in the perimeter, probably fifteen more positioned out of sight based on the patrol patterns I can see."
The curved blade wielder’s assessment was delivered quickly. Though she knew that Qat had counted these same figures with her - and that her answer was just a matching opinion so that two people had verified if they were asked in the future.
"That’s light for keeping order and protection from sudden assaults, even this far into the Descent. Extremely light for their territorial defense, considering there must be well over a hundred cultivators just in that central encampment."
"But it’s right in the range you’d want for a group like ours to take over a mobile operation while they maintain the majority of their offensive capability."
Pigeon blues hardened as she voiced her thought to her core group. The secret of her gender was still being kept from the public. Even her hair was kept raven-black in these instances of working as warrior and leader... and not just because she was yet to officially be a ’former’ Yecine.
Though she had been spending more time as blonde when resting than ever before... just like the male patterned suits she decided she actually liked more than feminine wear, she’d also come to the conclusion that she preferred things to be divided this way. A clear, defining signal to those around her.
When she was relaxing and thinking of more personal things... versus when she was absolutely serious about her duty and position. She liked how clear-cut it was. It also made her smile to think that Elua would absolutely be using that quality to manipulate people if they had such thoughts of her.
’I miss my little schemer at times like these. She would already know what’s wrong, what to do about it... and probably nothing would be too different. Because unless I was in direct danger, she’d let me try things my way first.’
"Nysoi, those supply discrepancies - what specifically doesn’t match?"
"Food stores were calculated for the march to fill the thousand, but medical supplies are incoming for for almost two thousand. The timescale doesn’t seem to account for water collection for all involved. Almost minimal request for pack animals."
All of that sounded a little out of the norm, but definitely could be explained by the Guild having rationed well throughout the war - and that the cultivators themselves were carrying a lot of the supplies instead of requesting fresh animals even at such an emergency. The merchant’s voice dropped to deliver something she’d heard outside of the camp, well before she joined up.
"And the strangest thing... they’ve been buying specific rare metal components for the past months. Expensive components that aren’t listed in the evacuation logistics and would very much be vulnerable to the acid rain they say will start ruining their settlement soon."
Their claim - aside from the needy civilians - was the main reason the swordswoman who led them had instantly agreed. She knew quite well that it was her wife that had provided them the schematics for their unique city-scale ritual... though done through some false identity of an old woman. Qat also knew that the failure would be caused by running out of the ’keyshards’ that the heiress had been selling them.
’It wouldn’t have turned out like this if she’d done the permanent version she claimed she could do. But... even if she’d been here, I’m not sure I could admonish her for the choice. I didn’t back when she explained it to me, either.’
Their healer suddenly went rigid at the same time their Commander turned her head in a seemingly random direction. Her Empath abilities caught something that made her take an involuntary step backward. While the Primalist’s spirit had touched something almost opposing - a reason to take a step forward in warning as she held the hilt of her blade.
"There’s a really strong spike of... triumph? Success? It’s coming from the central coordination tent. Like someone just received very good news."
Spiritual tendrils honed by months of combat and leadership, stretched out instinctively as they moved forward. She could feel the underlying tension toward the main structures. The way conversations seemed to pause when her team moved through, the glances that lingered at their backs.
Too long on their equipment. Too long on the sense of their capabilities. All in all, it was expected that the group arriving to reinforce them would be appraised - but having had that happen numerous enough times in these months, the walking ’fortress’ could tell that this was not that.
"We’re not here solely for an evacuation, even if that’s what we’re going to do. We’re here for because someone in their leadership wanted to see what I looked like up close."
’...Because it has leaked that I’m being named hero and they want something... or they wanted to see what my wife’s husband looked like now. There could be more than one reason they are focusing on me... and they have a connection to El.’
"Trap?"
Leysah’s hands didn’t have to move far to shift her weapons. Her hands usually hovered at all times in a way that they could reach for them in a smooth motion... when they weren’t just holding them already. Encounter after encounter with Voidling hordes had turned her even more battle-ready than she had been when arriving for the competition.
"My Cynosure was just tested."
"You mean... someone aimed an intent to kill at you?"
Qat nodded calmly enough for such an admission with pigeon blues not shaking in the slightest. While she could soon no longer call herself a Yecine, exactly, she was still trained by them. Catching criminals and patrolling with caravans was most of what the Ironclad Order did in between Descent cycles.
"Reconnaissance of my ability. At least that’s what someone will claim. Whoever Zonnel felt was... happy that I reacted."
Of course, the teenager and her subordinates had no idea of knowing why that was right now. Or that a certain group’s target had been changed... just as one leader of the rogue elements in the Saltfire had been saying *should* happen for months.