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A diminutive figure swaddled in stark imperial black inched its way down from the carriage, having been forced out simply by virtue of sitting closest to the door. His heart pounded, every beat circulating Saint Noa's blood faster and faster as it resonated its bearer's apprehension with the long-dead geas of its progenitor. By all means, Rudolf should've been itching to climb back in the carriage and hunker down until the fighting had passed, but he didn't. He simply stood at attention, adjusted the sword at his hip that presented more of an illusion of safety than actual combat advantage, and tugged his cowl down to hide the dread on his face while the reality of his surroundings sunk in.

His tutor had once told him that a dark mage should never be frightened, even in the gloomiest forest, for he should be absolutely sure that the most fearsome thing lurking in the shadows was himself. Rudolf had dismissed it as the self-assured bravado of a man far more capable than he, but as he stood in Magdred, for the first time, he almost believed. In this fog, he was less a man and more an ephemerality - a hooded wraith straddling the boundary between existence and fairy tale. He was barely real to the world around him on the best of conditions; here, where everyone else was a mere silhouette in the mist, he was lucky to even be a fleeting shadow in the corner of a paranoid man's eye. The only danger he'd find himself in here was that which he willingly subjected himself to.

It was as comforting as it was horrifying. He could leave them all to die and no one could stop him.

[color=b300b3]"We're walking into a trap,"[/color] Rudolf assessed without invitation, [color=b300b3]"No local to the area would be unaware of Magdred Way's tendency to hold fog, and the advance unit's passage would've tipped off even the most incompetent sentry anyway. There's no way we got lucky and snuck in due to the weather."[/color] The words came out flatly, with the same analytical cadence his father might've taken when discussing tactics with his officers. It horrified him. Rudolf hadn't willed the words to come out, they just spilled along with memories of mocked up invasion plans for the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus that had been drawn up and shown to him partially as a theoretical exercise and partially as preparation for any future conflict. It was a shock that he even remembered any of it, as he certainly never intended to use any of it.

[color=b300b3]"Since they didn't bother to use the fog to ambush us, they're probably hunkered down in the most defensible position they can find, or they intended to flank us once we're boxed in the heart of town."[/color] Reinforcements obviously wouldn't come from Arianrhod like in the lesson, but the theory held. They'd just arrive sooner. [color=b300b3]"There's also the question of which villagers have aligned themselves with the dissidents and how we're to tell them apart."[/color] Militias levied against an invading Imperial army would work much the same way as an angry mob of heretics, Rudolf surmised. The lack of any signs of conflict certainly implied that at least [i]some[/i] of the town was complying with their occupiers, or they'd never have been taken hostage to begin with.

[color=b300b3]"Professor, the plea for help itself could've been a trap. Is this really the kind of thing you send [i]students[/i] to do?"[/color] Rudolf whined in a last ditch effort to extricate himself - or more importantly, his classmates - from the mission. He could slip off without a word, but then he'd have to hear them dying in the distance as he hitchhiked his way to County Bergliez and probably every night after that in his dreams.

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