PreCursive

  Three days ter, I stood on familiar ground, surrounded both by familiar and unfamiliar people.

  After our little meeting back in the Order encampment where I had wrangled a handful of concessions out of Shacklock, we’d all packed up rapidly. As per my agreement with Shurenga, Sena had stayed behind with I and my party while she rapidly transported herself back to her home volcano in order to make preparations for what I’d asked. The Shurengan that I had rescued back in the bunker had slunk out of the shadows, looking suitably chastened as she watched her vanish with an almost relieved cast to her furry face.

  Turns out, I needn’t have asked. Sena was going to remain behind anyway.

  Permanently, it turned out.

  I learned that part of Azarus’s pact with Tarus was that he needed an advisor in order to fulfill his duties as an Envoy. The Great Spirit of the Sun had no other real agents on the face of Vereden other than some scattered priests on the mainnd, and the greater, more politically powerful priesthood in Hinaga. None of them were suitable, so he had decided that his oldest granddaughter would suit the position just fine.

  In other words, Sena. Apparently, an amused Shurenga had agreed with her father, citing that it would count as a good punishment for the wayward saber-tooth. Thus, Sena was now Azarus’s companion in much the same way that Fade was meant to be mine.

  Soon, buddy.

  Honestly, Azarus and Sena were amusedly awkward together, for two people who were meant to be spending the next decades or even centuries fighting together.

  But what I had wanted her for was as a mount for Aveline. Frankly, I was still too weak from my injury to be carrying her around, and it’s not like the little girl was capable of traversing a deadly mountain range all by herself. Thankfully, Sena had no problems with that.

  I think she actually liked it.

  Just as thankfully, it seemed like most of the monsters had cleared out from not only the central mountain range of the isnd, but the whole of Goryuen as well. With the true death of Tatsugan, there were no more Wyrmkin to infest these shores, and there was nothing drawing in the Oni in literal droves. That meant the Aether of the isnd was thrown all out of whack, and thus there were no naturally occurring monsters currently forming on the shores of the ‘Garden’.

  It would take time for the natural Aether of Goryuen to reach equilibrium and start spawning a new breed of monster once more. But until then, this was probably one of the safest patches of nd on the face of Vereden.

  An odd flip, from being one of the densest Aether zones on the pnet.

  When everything was ready, we all departed from the encampment, and the encampment followed with us.

  Under Shacklock’s command, the Order of Solstice’s Fme had packed up and followed us to where we were now.

  Mt. Umetsuji, the volcano home of the Shurengan people.

  Part of the pn that I had cooked up with the help of Shurenga and Shacklock had to do with presenting a united front. Such a thing would work better if did that from a pce of power, and now that Tatsugan was sin, and Mt. Gorenzan was literally gone, the volcano was likely the best pce to do so on the isnd. Plus, it was closer to the coast than the now glowing crater that resided at the heart of Goryuen.

  I’d…had a look, before we left. There, at least, the Aether wasn’t as diminished as the rest of the isnd. It was so thick in the air from the destabilization of the Core that if I got close enough, the small hairs on the back of my arm started to sizzle. Plus, I wasn’t joking about the glow.

  The caldera that used to house the roost of Tatsugan had been gssed by the force of the explosion. Thin spires of smooth, alternatingly green and blue stone were all that remained of the once great mountain, and deep in the heart where the Core had fallen with the bunker pulsed a slow star of rainbow Aether. It…remained to be seen what would result from such a thing, but Shacklock seemed to think it was a good thing.

  Before we’d left, the greedy old monster had said something about mining rights.

  Anyway.

  The point was, the entirety of the Order of Solstice’s fme was now camped out on the surrounding banks of Mt. Umetsuji, with Shurenga’s welcome. Scores of adult Shurengans lingered and watched from atop every crag and boulder, out in the open and openly curious about the strange people who had come to visit them. While the Order had been given leave by the mistress of the mount to pitch their tents, part of our pn wasn’t to construct fortifications for a battle.

  As previous guests, my friends and I were allowed to stay inside of the volcano itself, residing in the very same obsidian room that we’d spent the night in before. For the most part, the rest of my friends had little to do with the current goings-on with the Order of Solstice’s Fme. Azarus was busy learning from Sena about his duties and new abilities as an Envoy, while Liora was…disinclined to become involved in another nation’s politics, shall we say. Venix, as usual these days, was watching Kazuma like a hawk, almost acting like the younger samurai’s bodyguard in all the meetings between him, Shacklock, Shurenga, and myself. Bel, meanwhile, was a pirate.

  Excuse me, privateer currently.

  From what she’d told me in the few, brief moments we had to ourselves, she thought it was best to stay out of sight during all of this. Something I had…noticed, though, was that Bel was somewhat…

  Wel, to be frank, she was avoiding Aveline. I’m not sure my erstwhile lover had said more than two words to the little girl in the entire time since we’d come back from the bunker. It was almost like Aveline made her uncomfortable or something. I didn’t have time to unpack whatever was going on with her right now, so I just left the Captain be.

  Meanwhile, Renauld was keeping an eye on Aveline for me, for which I was thankful. I had noticed that she was a little overwhelmed with everything going on, and I was taking the time to reassure her, I swear I was. I wasn’t just pawning Aveline off on the first person to come along, no matter if he was a Healer and I trusted him implicitly. I made whatever time possible I could for the Netherim child. I was still determined to…to…well…

  Raise her, I suppose.

  It was just a chaotic time right now, and Renauld was happy to be my babysitter when the situation arose. It just made sense for a backline Healer to stay in the backline and watch someone important to me. It wasn’t likely to come to open battle with the Kawamaran’s, but better safe than sorry.

  We were trying to avoid such a thing. Luckily, even Shacklock grudgingly admitted that we were likely to pull it off.

  Which was good, because two days past, just a day after we’d reached the volcano, we’d received word that the subjugation fleet had nded on the shores of Goryuen. Hundreds of hardened Kawamaran csser-level soldiers had spilled from those transports, and they’d wasted no time at all. From what the Order scouts told us, they didn’t even bother to set up a main base camp on the beach.

  They’d just immediately started marching innd, almost unnervingly making a beeline towards our position. Somehow, it was like they knew exactly where we were.

  Shacklock suspected a spy in our midst, possibly lurking in the rank and file of the Order, possibly slinking around the edges of the encampment, entirely unseen. I was inclined to agree with the assessment, as was Liora.

  We were likely being watched. But that suited us just fine.

  We wanted the Kawamarans to come to us.

  Shortly thereafter, the Shurengans informed us that they spotted additional, much less skilled scouts lurking just along the edges of the jungle tree line, watching us. The advance force reached us in record time, now that the isnd was essentially empty of everything but our two forces. It may have taken my party a week to trek through the jungle, but that had been when every few feet we were in danger of being jumped by Wyrmkin.

  Without monsters getting in their way, the Kawamaran subjugation force reached us in two days. On the dawn of the third, they appeared at the delineation point between the stony pins and the thick jungle. It almost seemed like they were melting out of the brush, announced by high banners bearing the standard of the Imperial house. The golden lotus of the Kawatsuyo dynasty stood out proudly from the riverine blue rippled disc that it y upon, all on a pure white banner.

  But one was different and familiar to me.

  “Six banners,” Kazuma said quietly to my right. The two of us stood alone at a high vantage point on the fnk of Mt. Umetsuji. The Kawamaran forces had arrived right at the green period of the morning and stopped just after leaving the tree line. It was our belief that they were surveying the situation and possibly observing us with far-eyes now that they’d reached us. “Look, five are of the Imperial house, but one is not. Bck and yellow, depicting crossed stalks of wheat. I’m…not up to date on heraldry. I don’t know who that is.”

  I observed the additional banner silently for a moment, pondering its implications. “I do,” I finally said. “It belongs to the Master of Ceremonies for the court. Lord Ashiwara.”

  So.

  Masayuki was here. I hadn’t expected that. It made me wonder if he had brought his son along with him, and the sword I’d forged for the young Lord.

  “An…odd choice for a force such as this,” Kazuma said slowly. I remained quiet, even though I suspected why Masayuki had come along. “Either way, each banner represents a company, and each company holds one hundred men. Which means the Emperor has sent six hundred of his finest soldiers to root us out of his Garden.”

  I hummed in response, watching those six banners wave in the wind across the distance. “And how many can the Order field, future Grand Marshall?” I asked, letting my gaze drift down to said soldiers as I asked. Shacklock had assembled them in neat, orderly ranks facing the gathered Kawamaras across the field. His own banners bearing the fming spear of the Order fpped in the volcanic wind as well.

  Kazuma sighed. “Four hundred and thirty-two,” He said tiredly. At my raised eyebrow, he chuckled mirthlessly. “From what Shacklock told me, they suffered many desertions upon their exile from Herztal, which isn’t even counting the casualties they suffered fighting for the losing side in the war. They’re much diminished from what they used to be.”

  I’ll say. To my understanding as a former member, the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn had nearly three times that many soldiers it could field, before I’d resigned. There was a noticeable gap in numbers between our two forces.

  Luckily, we weren’t after an open battle.

  Movement on the far side of the stony pin caught my eye, and I watched as five armored warriors atop fine steeds separated from the bulk of the Kawamaran army and began to gallop toward the neat frontlines of the Order. Two of them appeared to just be standard bearers for both the Imperial throne and the Ashiwara cn, while the other three looked to be the movers and shakers. Two Imperials…

  And one man that I think I recognized, even from this distance. He’d been very tall, after all.

  I nudged Kazuma in the ribs at the sight. “Look alive. It’s time to get this show on the road.” I exchanged a nod with the other man, and the two of us took off sprinting down the slight steps carved into the face of the volcano, quickly reaching the backlines. We pushed through the armor-cd cssers until we had reached the front, and found three people waiting for us. One looked to be a familiar Order officer, the Lieutenant who had first greeted I and my companions out on the waves. Salzen, I think he was named. The Lieutenant must have noticed me as well, because I saw one brown eye wink at me briefly before he turned back around to watch the oncoming Kawamarans. The fully armored man was carrying the banner of the Order of Solstice’s Fme, standing next to Shacklock. The madman looked the same as he always did, in his oddly colored coat and cowboy hat over a Herztalian officer’s uniform. He barely spared Kazuma and I a brief gnce before he returned to leaning on his overside greatword.

  The st person waiting for us was Shurenga herself. The daughter of Tarus wasn’t quite as small as I sometimes saw her as, but she hadn’t assumed her full, massive form. Instead, she was about the same height as a man from her haunches to the tips of her ears. She spared the two of us a brief smile and nodded to a position to her right. Kazuma took it, while I stood to his right.

  The four of us waited patiently there, some distance in front of the Orders battle lines, while the Kawamarans approached our position. As they drew closer, I was able to make them out better. I paid no mind to the standard bearers, as I didn’t recognize them through their open-faced helmets. There appeared to be two Imperial officers, to my understanding, and both of them were in full pte in the Kawamaran style, white with gold trimmings. One was a younger man, with seemingly fewer accodes and embellishments on his armor. The other, though, was a much older man with long, steel grey hair trailing behind him in the wind, while an equally impressive, bushy mustache lurked on his upper lip.

  Meanwhile, I’d been correct about the other person. Masayuki Ashiwara himself had accompanied the subjugation fleet, and the man looked…much fiercer than he had st we’d met.

  Masayuki’s tall, lithe frame was covered from head to toe in pitch-bck Kawamaran pte with yellow accents. To my eyes, his armor was visibly thicker than that of the Imperials, and much less embellished. This wasn’t pte meant to be used in a parade, like I almost thought the Imperials was.

  This was the accouterments of war.

  Slung over Masayuki’s p was a long halberd of a particur regional variant I had seen sometimes in Hinaga. Naginata, I believe they called them. The broad-bded spear looked to have been darkened in an…almost familiar way.

  If I didn’t know any better, I would say that was Oninite.

  Hah. I wonder where he got it.

  His face paint was…different, too, I noticed. Where before it had looked like something you would see in a py, now it was fiercer, with sharper lines, deeper shadows, and crimson edging. Masayuki was now done up in proper war paint, to my eyes. He must have noticed my inspection, as he and the rest of the retinue came to a stop before us, because my former benefactor gave me a decidedly cool look. I suppose he wasn’t impressed to see me among the people he was meant to help root out when he had secured my presence on this isnd in the first pce.

  Hopefully, that sentiment wouldn’t st through the talks ahead.

  Our two groups stood perhaps twenty feet across from each other for several minutes, visibly sizing each other up. Eventually, though, the older Imperial gave a slight nod to thin air, and his standard bearer trotted forward and unfurled a scroll to read from it.

  “Hear this sacred procmation from the River Throne of his Imperial Majesty Seimei of the Kawatsuyo dynasty, long may he reign!” The message bearer cried, his voice echoing out across the silent, stony pins around us. “To those who trespass upon this sacred, forbidden nd of Goryuen heed these words: You stand in defiance of divine w, profaning the very soil beneath you with your presence. You taint the sanctity of every sacrifice that has been lost in noble struggle with the Dread Wyrm with your every breath!”

  Okay, that was…a bit harsh. I saw Kazuma wince to my left, while Shacklock audibly snorted down the line.

  The messenger continued, undaunted. “By decree of His Imperial Majesty, you are ordered to vacate all nds that belong to his Grace, Emperor Seimei! Failure to comply shall render you criminals before the court, and your fate shall be sealed! Those who resist shall suffer a swift death! Submit yourself to the judgment of the River Throne, or risk being met with righteous vengeance!”

  In return, Shacklock straightened up from leaning on his sword and audibly cracked his aged neck, back and forth. This time, I was the one who winced at the sound. The old madman took a deep, deep breath before speaking, and repeated the word we’d all agreed upon.

  “No.”