042.003

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Tether

Highwaymen

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Accelero was not the best spell to use in a situation like the one Alyssa found herself in.

To begin with, casting a spell that required physical touch wasn’t the easiest thing when she needed to be touching a half-dozen people. Three draken—Red was on Musca at the moment—a hellhound, and a cursed sword all had to gather around and make sure they were touching some part of Alyssa when she cast the spell lest they be left behind in ‘real’ time. All them crowding around hadn’t been that much of an issue.

When Alyssa told Red to take her hand, however, things got a bit dangerous. It was only thanks to an unsettling wariness that came with being next to the cursed sword that Alyssa hadn’t lost her hand. Since then, Alyssa decided to be extremely careful in how she phrased things around a sword that seemed to want nothing more out of life than to cut things.

But besides all the casting issues of Accelero, it apparently played havoc on the draken and hellhound’s sense of smell. Even Alyssa had noticed it this time around. The smell around the cave was strong enough that its absence became all the more jarring. She hadn’t asked Irulon as she had only thought it up as they were traveling, but she had to wonder if the spell was providing fresh air to those under its effect.

Luckily, Red was able to direct them well enough to where the actual ambush had taken place. It happened yesterday. Red had walked for nearly eighteen hours to find Alyssa, though at least one or two of those hours had been narrowing down exactly where the cave entrance was. Eighteen hours of walking on foot translated to only a few hours of draken sprinting. Combined with the effects of Accelero, Alyssa suspected they arrived in a matter of minutes.

Alyssa didn’t need Red to let them know when they arrived. The cursed sword had told her about slicing and cutting. Red had not told her about turning a few people into a mess of red jelly. Based on the number of torsos, there were only five people that she had ended up killing. Yet there were one too many arms lying off to the side of the main road that led into Illuna for the amount of bodies around. Though even that was a bit hard to count. Several of the bodies had likely bled out thanks to missing arms. In addition to the extra arms, there was a scattering of fingers that didn’t look like it belonged on the bodies of anyone present.

Alyssa looked around for a few more minutes. She inspected all their clothes and weapons for any insignia that might lead to who they were or who hired them. Unfortunately, like the last group of mangled bodies she had come across, they did not advertise their allegiances. They didn’t even carry a convenient slip of paper detailing their orders. Their attire and weapons were not at all similar to the group of bounty hunters. That didn’t mean they weren’t bounty hunters, just that they were a different group, maybe from somewhere else in the land. Or they could be legitimate highwaymen. For as legitimate as a highwayman could be, anyway.

She considered using a Retrograde Cognition spell—a full day was a fairly long time, but she might have been able to spot something. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like any of their companions had come back for the bodies and the trackers in their group should be able to find out where they were going without needing to spot them coming or going with that spell.

Once she was satisfied that she wasn’t going to learn anything from looking over the bodies, Alyssa deactivated Accelero. The draken and Fela wouldn’t be able to follow the trail otherwise.

Some hound or coyote-like animal yelped at their presence, scampering off. It had likely been about ready to have a little feast.

Fela and the draken immediately set to their duties with no prompting needed. Each split apart, going to different bodies for a few quick sniffs. They prowled around, sniffing at the air and occasionally sniffing at other bodies. After a brief meeting of the four, which mostly had Fela talking and the draken nodding along, Fela announced that they were ready. Red with Musca, Fela with Dasca, and Alyssa with Izsha, they took off. Although Irulon had feared there would be some backtracking involved, they mostly headed off in a straight line directly away from the direction from where they had arrived.

The trail was old, but the situation wasn’t nearly as bad as tracking the apophis had been. The land here wasn’t marshy or otherwise wet. It hadn’t rained to dampen lingering trails of the horses they had made off with either. The area they were in was fairly close to the Plains of the Dead, which didn’t receive much water at all, so that was likely to be expected.

Just how far they had to go was, sadly enough, not a question that could be asked of a scent.

Alyssa kept her eyes peeled, though she doubted she would see anything. If this kidnapping had been done by highwaymen, they wouldn’t have their hideout obvious. It would be, much like the cave Alyssa and Irulon had commandeered, something that looked entirely natural from the outside. No neon signposts or even exterior stables. Even the water well at their cave didn’t look like what most people pictured when they thought of a well. It was more of a hole in the ground.

If this wasn’t simple brigands, they might have had a camp. That would have been more obvious, most likely. At the same time, it would probably be packed up at this point. Assuming Volta had been their objective the whole time. If they accomplished their objective, there was no need to stick around. But a camp, even a small one, took time to pack up. It involved gear that had to be carried. A large group couldn’t move as fast as a small group or an individual. And even a small group couldn’t outrun draken unless they had their own monsters.

They would catch up. One way or another, she would find Volta.

It took four hours of riding at near top speed before Alyssa saw anything. They had left the main road behind a while back, not long after finding the ambush point, to follow a faint trail in the dirt that had to have been left behind by the group. A few more days and there likely wouldn’t have been anything left of it. Even just a particularly breezy hour would have destroyed it. But it did act as a suitable backup in case the scents left behind had thinned too much. And, when it came time to leave, it could help them find the road again. Though so long as they headed directly south, they would eventually find it anyway.

The scene they happened upon was a camp, much like the one Alyssa pictured when she theorized on the possible abductors. It was not, however, torn up with the assailants moving on because their objective had been complete. Rather, it looked like a temporarily permanent dwelling, much like what the monsters had erected just outside Illuna. It was even about as large, which had Alyssa worried. That meant there were a few dozen of them in there. At least.

Closing her eyes, Alyssa concentrated a bit. She didn’t count, just made a rough estimate, but she guessed that the lower limit was a hundred at least. A hundred people could probably overwhelm her. She didn’t have that many Spectral Chains spells in her inventory. Obviously an Annihilator would make short work of them, but Volta might still be down there—she couldn’t tell just through soul-sight alone at the moment.

Alyssa glanced to the side. Red sat atop Dasca, staring down with an inscrutable look on her face. Eagerness, perhaps? The fingers clutching her sword twitched, tightening. She was clearly itching for a fight.

Could Red take them all? She was strong. The bodies they had left behind were evidence of that. But she had already been overwhelmed. The sword had been separated from the body. If they did that again… A sword was useless without someone to wield it.

Fela was strong. As were the draken. With all six of them, they could probably fight a hundred armed men. Probably. And that assumed that Red didn’t get too… enthusiastic and harm anyone on her side. Something that Alyssa could not guarantee wouldn’t happen.

Of course, while Red might want to charge down there and start slashing away at anything that moved, it wasn’t the most intelligent way of going about things. Alyssa was an arcanist. She had spells. A little invisibility would get her into the camp. She could attempt to locate Volta and maybe even extract her without anyone noticing. Anyone with a working brain wouldn’t want to charge into a group of a hundred people and start a fight.

Still looking at Red, Alyssa had to wonder just how well a sword’s brain really worked.

“Alright,” Alyssa said from beside Izsha. As soon as they spotted the camp, they all quickly got off the draken in order to make themselves less visible on the horizon. The terrain here wasn’t flat, though it was much flatter than the area around the cave this close to the Plains of the Dead. But it was flat enough that they could probably be spotted without too much trouble from a fairly large distance. Nobody in this world had something like binoculars though, which was how Alyssa had spotted the camp. An arcanist might be able to use something like Tineye to spot them from afar. Maybe even something less irritating to use that only affected sight. Because of that, Alyssa felt the need to take some precautions, but not to dive to the ground and cover herself with brush like a ghillie suit.

“Red,” Alyssa said, looking the cursed sword directly in the eye before wondering if she shouldn’t actually be staring at the actual sword. It probably didn’t matter. “You stay here. Izsha, Musca, Dasca, you—”

“Stay. Stay? But—”

“Fela and I are going to find Volta. If Volta is there.” There was always a possibility that Volta had been taken away by only a few of the number here, which would heavily complicate matters. But that was something they would have to deal with if it came up. “If we just rush down there, they might hurt Volta.” True. “Remember, we’re here to protect. Not to cut and stab.”

It looked as if Alyssa had just called off Christmas. Red probably didn’t even know what Christmas was—no one in this world would know—but the look on Red’s face was abject horror mixed with disappointment. Probably the only real emoting that the cursed sword had managed to do. Most of Red’s default expressions involved something between vacant staring and vacant grinning.

But she doubted that Red could be subtle even if absolutely necessary in order to get to stab and cut even more later on. As such, she needed Red to not follow her into the camp. Not that she had any sympathy at all for kidnappers and likely murderers. It was simply about pragmatics.

Glancing toward Izsha, Alyssa dropped the volume of her voice. “Try to keep her here, but don’t get hurt doing it. Can you let the others know that?” Dasca and Musca were well on the opposite side of Red and Fela.

Izsha nodded though. It just reminded Alyssa that she wanted to come up with a proper way to talk with the draken. Just being able to talk to someone she had long considered a friend sounded worth the effort on its own. She could probably do something about it now… if she understood language a little better. The draken communicated using scents, body language, and a few other nuances such as the way they looked at each other. That was about as deep as Alyssa’s draken-language knowledge went. And she felt like she barely understood English half the time.

She could try a request to Tenebrael like she had done every time she manifested Tenebrael’s power the last time they had been connected, but…

It just didn’t feel right.

Doing things herself was harder. There was no doubt about that. But it felt more accurate. More natural. Like knowing how the world worked in order to make changes to it was how the power was supposed to be used in the first place. Besides that, it felt a lot less like she was relying on Tenebrael when she did everything on her own. They were still connected. The source of that power was still Tenebrael. But it was more like Tenebrael had just left the phone off the hook, letting Alyssa shout requests directly to the cook instead of having Tenebrael relay the message while probably changing her words around because she was lazy. Or something.

That was probably a horrible analogy, but who was counting.

Alyssa slowly started walking, motioning for Fela to follow. The entire time she moved, she kept an eye on Red. Just in case. She didn’t know how well the draken would be able to handle an angry cursed sword. Maybe the sword would have a hard time cutting their scales. Maybe they were completely outmatched. Hard to say.

Thankfully, Red didn’t move to try to follow. The cursed sword just stood, staring into the distance with that same canceled-Christmas look on her face. Probably mentally warring with herself about her desire to do what a sword was designed to do and her goal to protect Volta. Alyssa had a sinking feeling that the sword would charge straight into the camp if left staring at it for too long. She could only hope that they would be able to find Volta before then.

As they got further from the draken and Red, Alyssa pulled out her spell cards and cast a quick invisibility spell that would cover both herself and Fela. Empty Mirror was just a bit out of Fela’s ability to cast. They wouldn’t be able to split up while keeping Fela in stealth, but Alyssa was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary. Between Fela tracking and Alyssa’s sense of souls, they could probably find Volta without too much issue.

Invisibility really made it almost too easy. It took just over a half hour to walk to the camp—it had been a bit further away than Alyssa had thought. Once they did finally arrive, Alyssa just waltzed in with Fela at her side. The camp was occupied and it did have lookouts… for a given value of the word lookout. It was more like they had a handful of gambling groups going on along the edges of their camp who might occasionally, out of the corners of their eyes, spot something approaching the camp. They were all playing that card game that Alyssa had seen around various taverns. At least the ones she passed were. Perhaps there were some actually alert guards on the opposite side of the camp.

She doubted it, but still…

There were an array of tents set out in the place. Large sheep-herder’s tents made from some kind of animal leather by the looks of things. Some were smaller, big enough to fit maybe six cots with a reasonable distance between them. Others were larger. The three biggest could have fit a good six of the smallest tents inside them. Peeking her head inside one, Alyssa found it to be a barracks of sorts. Lots of cots. Eight rows of five. Forty. If the other large tents had the same, that was one hundred twenty beds. And at least some of the smaller tents also had cots in them.

She might have underestimated how many people were active in this camp.

And that also assumed that each cot was personal and not shared between two or three people. Something Alyssa knew wasn’t uncommon.

She had no idea how they transported it all. She hadn’t spotted any wagons or even all that many horses. Perhaps they were under one of the tents.

There weren’t over a hundred people around at the moment however. Whether they were off kidnapping more innocent monsters or raiding traveling merchants was yet to be decided. Still, this looked like a much larger operation than she had expected. If this were Yora, they committed a great deal of resources into this. Which seemed silly. As much as Alyssa hated to admit it, it probably wasn’t that difficult to get a hold of monsters. The group camping on Illuna’s doorstep was not the only such group. She knew that for a fact. If Yora really wanted monsters for any reason, they could probably find more around their land that they could acquire with far less opposition.

Not only that, but if Volta’s kidnapping could be tied back to Yora, it would surely raise tensions. Maybe Yora didn’t care, but Alyssa still thought it was stupid to make unnecessary enemies when they could just go find another group of monsters to harass.

Unless there was something specific about this group of monsters that they wanted. Lueta came to mind. Really, Lueta was the only thing that came to mind. Rokien and Fezzik were strong, yes. But not strong enough to be considered all that special, in Alyssa’s inexpert opinion. The rest of the monsters in the camp went downhill from there—in terms of interest to outside parties, not in personality or anything Alyssa would disparage them for.

Using her sense of souls, Alyssa tried to find Volta. Fela was constantly sniffing at the air as well, but had yet to drag Alyssa off in any one direction. Figuring that Volta would be chained down somewhere—tents likely didn’t have permanent holding cells, though she supposed there could be some wooden crate that they shoved prisoners into—Alyssa went around to the tents that didn’t have a lot of people in them. One to five people at most. That left one soul for Volta and a few for guards.

Most were more barracks. Not much to see in any of them aside from what Alyssa assumed to be a night shift taking a break during the day. One, however, was not.

A man lounged on a wicker seat, slouching as if he owned the place. Which he might, for all Alyssa knew. In his hand, he held a dagger with a little ring at the end of the hilt. Finger in the ring, he spun it and caught it. Spun it and caught it. Spun it and caught it.

Another man stood in front of the first.

Most of the people that Alyssa had seen around the camp were dressed for a fight. Lots of studded leather, weapons at their hips, armor pieces covering vital areas. A few had scaled equipment while others looked like they were in regular old cowhide leather. Nothing quite so fancy as the dragon-hide armor that Alyssa and Irulon had, but serviceable nonetheless. Even the slouching man in the chair wore somewhat dirty brown leathers.

This man did not dress like any of them. He wore cloth. Comfortable cloth, by the looks of things. And it was far cleaner than any of the people around. He didn’t have even a little dirt smeared on his face, let alone his clothes. While he didn’t have a weapon, he did have a number of cards dangling from a ring at his hip.

Alyssa had to wonder if she had walked into some kind of stand-off. Slouching-man stared up as he spun his dagger, irritation mixed with boredom set into his features. The arcanist stood, back straight with a smile on his face. Out of context, he would have looked just like any well-to-do passing someone on the street while offering a polite smile. In the situation, it looked far more like he had just said something that he knew was offensive yet knew that the man on the chair could do nothing about.

She wanted to keep watching, to find out what was going on, but Fela started tugging on the sleeve of her tunic. Glancing at the hellhound, Alyssa found Fela pointing at her nose then pointing off in the direction of a tent they had yet to visit. A quick check of the souls found five inside.

One of those souls was ever so slightly different than the definitely human souls around.

With one last look at the stand-off, Alyssa turned away.

Volta was waiting.

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