---

The information she received from the ship’s captain was unfortunately not heartening. To Éliane, it was increasingly looking like Command was running around with its head cut off without input from the main administrative core. It was still unfathomable to her that even with an inside job the capital could be taken without a fight from the active Skaelan military. The fact that nearly everything that mattered coming down to her own actions and the rest of the Kirins was getting ridiculous. It was certainly a far cry from the initial diplomatic mission she had been on.

The information at Falcon’s Nest, and from Kayliss herself wasn’t that much better, although the presence of hot coffee did go some way to tide her mood over. The moment she mentioned Solitude, Éliane leaned in, already jumping at the bit to return to the capital. The situation with the Blighted dragons was unfortunate, but she really didn’t care about some jumped up blighted wildlife right now.

Her interest in the city was obvious enough that she didn’t even mention it, ignoring Esben’s prompting as she immediately launched into adding to the conversation on the tactical situation around Solitude. “Not just the locations of the outposts; we’re going to need the status of the existing friendly bases, depots, and installations on the outskirts as well. Any units in the area? Risks of being shot at from the city itself?" Her grip tightened around her mug.

"We’ve heard little more than rumors about anything around Solitude now, and going in with outdated or just plain incorrect information is worse than going in blind.”

She was intimately familiar with the lay of the land here, but she was not looking forward to having to assume that everything in the area was going to be hostile.

Rudolf grunted, shaking his head doubtfully. ”With Solitude having gone as dark as we’re hearing and the need for longer-range scouting bands to even develop this information picture, I think we can move with an initial assumption that it’s dead on friendly ground out there at best. Otherwise they would have established contact to tell us about before turning questions over to us.”

A tinny sound called the rhythm of his thoughts as his finger rapped against the crown of his helm. His frown and furrowed brow deepened— for a change an encouraging sign, after Esben had acquiesced to leaning on the younger man’s own education in the broader arts of war before they shipped off. To be honest, he was still a little sour about Zacharias brushing him off in Brightlam after noting it… but there were more important reasons to throw his head at the problem.

“Still, another head that knows the terrain better’s going to be a windfall in the planning stage. I like fields and forests and hills more than snowdrift. I’ll be cross-referencing topography with you whenever I get to plotting out potential staging areas. Airships and technological advantage or not, Valheim’s got their own physical and logistical limitations to field— Can’t just pop a whole landing force out of thin air. Plus, if we need to bound into the city later, that could just as easily determine sites we’ll use. Granted.”

He took another pull of coffee. Keep thinking. Keep thinking. He may have been hasty, bleary, and not completely bloodless in making that promise to become the Cadons’ sworn sword, but it was not an oath he meant to break easily, in any respect. He had filled well up on missing standards for twenty years.

“In the aftermath of Garuda, I assume winds are like as not to be more capricious than usual. One blizzard blows through between then and now and so much goes out the window I might just cry.” he drily quipped. “No visibility, no continuity in terrain development, shaping actions are a guessing game, I’ll have to tell Anders I lost my charge two feet in front of me. Terrible. I almost want the lizard culling.”

Yeah, really quick question. What’s the math on these divisions look like before you’ve been drafted, exactly?

…

A narrow-eyed, suspicious look fell upon the junior of the two SEEDs in the room.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Izayoi silently listened to the byplay between Esben and Rudolf, as well as Galahad's brief explanation of dragons to Miina. There was no small portion of the latter that she was already aware of: her master had taken her to the Midgari mountains once upon a time to use the beasts as a test for her. Regardless, it was only after everyone else had said their piece that she deigned to open her mouth.

"Then the matter is decided," She looked to Kayliss, who nodded back. "Galahad, Miina, and I will intercept the dragons. The remainder will deal with the Valheimr forward camps."

"Good." Kayliss responded, a mug of coffee in her hands where there had been nothing before. "Then we'll discuss your support. An airship and crew for both parties, with a section of a dozen men for support, each. I would've liked to give you a platoon a piece, but we don't have enough available men on standby for that. I'll be rerouting all returning forces down towards Solitude, so we're on a strict timetable to deal with both situations as soon as possible." She snapped her fingers, and two soldiers entered the room, saluting.

"They'll lead you to your respective airship docks, and I've already had maps and any tactical reports available sent ahead to the ships. Good luck and godspeed to all of you, Ithar willing. Move out as soon as you're ready."

Izayoi nodded back, turning towards the still-assembled Kirins. "Galahad, I will go fetch Miina. The rest of you, do stay safe." Her expression passed over Elly, Chisato, Rudolf, and Esben, softening slightly. "Esben, keep them in line." With that said, she turned and left the room, presumably searching for Miina.

___



The voyage towards the Alenmier mountain range last reported to be assailed by dragons was quick, taking mere hours. With an hour left until sunset, the first of the mountains began to come into view. No visible dragons as of yet, but the skies were eerily calm.

The dozen men Kayliss had assigned to them gathered up on deck, standing at parade rest as their sergeant nodded respectfully to the three Warriors of Light.

"Sir, ma'ams, we'll be coming up on the target area shortly. Where do you want us to set down? Alenmiers're usually more treacherous by air this time of year, but looks like we're having an easy time of it today."

___



At the same time, the airship the other half-and-more of the Kirins had taken set down some miles from the farthest reported Valheimr camp, its attached skirmishers already disembarking.

"Sir!" A woman in heavy riding furs saluted as the remainder of her men touched down on the ground. "Orders? Last report estimates four camps in total within the area."

---

...¹

---

As the Kirins touched down and began to disembark, Rudolf brought up the rear on the gangplank, savoring the relative warmth of ground-level air coated in propellant friction. Between Eliane and Esben, once he'd had his fill of trying to outline his initial analysis of what they'd been flying into he had meant to fall relatively silent, stepping back out of their way. They were the ones on their home turf, after all, preexisting within Skaeller command structure. Naturally, the woman that seemed to be the head of the skirmishers attached to their deployment was already reporting to the latter. It was a cool evening, the same as many they'd seen this far south. Snows were present, but thankfully not so heavy as to occlude visibility— not yet, at any rate. Eliane knew the rises beneath the drifts from what she'd mentioned in the past— they'd be able to lean on that rather than try to account for wild shifts in elevation at the hands of Saint Shiva's whims.²

He busied himself instead with mulling over his mission estimation. Starting with order of battle and task analysis: The four Kirins, and their attached dozen riflemen, were to raid and destroy the four detected Valheimr outposts no later than ten hours from this point in order to deny Valheim their control of the northern approach to Solitude, and seize potential staging areas to enable subsequent operations to retake the city from the unknown threats within. This necessitated a total end to the enemy's presence— taking out whatever infrastructure they had set in place as well as inflicting heavy loss to the manpower they could muster. "Erased", in his mind, meant to leave nothing standing. Put the men to the sword, put the motte to the torch.³

It was a tall ask for a force this small, even when headed by people as battle-hardened to impossible situations as them— in his estimation, their lynchpin was going to be the element of surprise once night fell. Esben and Chisato were highly-trained at covert operations of all breeds. By virtue of his demonic pact, Rudolf himself moved with an unnaturally muffled step, and his black armor would melt into shadow.⁴ Even Eliane, for all she disagreed with the method, had received some of the Garden's training.

After their information picture cleared up, the four of them would be able to coordinate an assault apiece to simultaneously raze these outer toeholds, minimizing the enemy's chance to raise alarm, muster defence, and communicate with the larger occupational force presumably stationed nearby. Alone, each of the Kirins possessed ample fighting strength to tear into standard Valheimr infantry quickly— their expertise combined with the force projection of their attached skirmishers' reinforcement would carry them through the average squad, provided they weren't charging into a full stockade of mounted guns and reserve troops. He had to hope that there was no way they'd entrench that hard and that quickly. What else. Quality of command, terrain familiarity, simultaneous assault coordinated by shortwave... hopefully, information overmatch. It wouldn't do if their landing zone had already been pinpointed, or if they were spotted on the way into position. Any good raid relied on infiltration into, investigation regarding, and isolation of your key targets before you put spur to bird.

He glanced at their assembled forces. No birds. Already, a diversion from what he'd been brough up in. A foot approach would in all fairness be likely quieter, leave less evidence of their movement pattern, and remove extra failure points to manage... but it meant that once kickoff hit, their final approach would be slower, and demand they get right under each outpost's nose. Their egress would be slower, too.

So, critical factors: They needed secure, stealthy routes of infiltration to get eyes on these things and place their forces down. They needed the ability to sustain communications between eachother— he had a feeling this would come as a combination of radios and a familiar pair of green and purple lights in the night air. As raiders, it would be paramount to maintain tempo— catch your enemy before he's ready, crush him before he can ready himself. To do any of that, this scouting period was going to be crucial. They needed an accurate picture of how each outpost was laid out, lest they felt like charging into trenches for a machine gun to pick off. The cover of nighttime would be their best friend here. If any of them were still fighting by daybreak, the mission had gone horribly wrong.

They were short on manpower, had a lot of gaps ISR would need to fill, and early compromise would likely damn the whole thing to mission creep well out of "raid". Already, they weren't geared to sustain the control they would win in the event of success if necessary. For vulnerabilities, each one was pretty rough. Margins of error were never something you should allow to broaden, sure, but having these so narrow at the outset would put any aspiring tactician ill at ease.

Maybe I was on the right track when I pretended I started and stopped at the humble sabretooth. he mused wryly, looking down to see how deep his sabatons sank into the accumulated snow beneath. I'm practically cooking myself trying to attack this. Esben must be having a great time in the driver's seat.

"How current are those reports?"

One question to help frame things, that was it. The rest the SEED and Dame-Commander could handle. No doubt they'd already considered most of the same things Rudolf had.⁵

---

---

• _{1. Here, let me chuck this bit in a hider. I can feel everything below it glazing my eyes over already, the last thing you all need is to sit through flavor text. Don't say I do nothing for you guys.}
• _{2. Unless, y'know, Garland.}
• _{2. Hey, you know who that sounds like?}
• _{4. You're welcome, by the way. I seem to keep saying that.}
• _{5. Does He Know?}

Miina had taken the trip as a time for a cat-nap – again, parked alarmingly close to the edge, but was it her fault that watching the world drift by below was relaxing? Either way, as they arrived at their destination, she was at least rested – and certainly more ready to fight. Given the opposition they were going to be facing…

"Mmm… m-might not stay th-that way," she noted, thinking about Galahad's suggestion again. If they planned to ground dragons… well, it was a magical effect; it shouldn't last long, but all the snow that would be kicked up had to go somewhere. It probably wasn't a threat to the ship but she doubted they could be moored that sturdily, "If we're g-g-grounding the dragons… how g-g-good is this with sudden storms?"

---

Galahad stood at the fore of the deck, looking out over the edge at the mountain range ahead. He was back in his full armor, the halberd in his hand. Strangely enough, he felt a sort of calm about him, perhaps it was the mountain ranges being a bit like home- as far away as they currently were. Their crew was small, three of them and some dozen soldiers of Skael. Galahad raised an eyebrow at Izayoi- though the gesture itself was hidden beneath the visor of his helmet. "You know a thing about hunting dragons? Well, color me surprised." he remarked, "Though it's not as though Edreni have a monopoly on dragon slaying."

The helmet lifted, looking at the dark orange horizon. Only an hour before sunset, which meant perhaps two or three hours at most of light. "Timing is less than ideal- I would've preferred to hunt in the daytime when we can see the dragons. I suppose once they start using their breath weapons it'll be very obvious where they are."

Galahad glanced at the sergeant and his men. "Ideally we wouldn't risk the airship during the dragon hunt. I don't doubt this ship is sturdy, but dragons have a way of... testing the durability of any airship, and walking all the way back home is less than ideal. If we set down too early, we'll waste most of our remaining light walking."

"The sun is going down, so most dragons would be returning to their roosts fairly soon- if they're not blighted yet." Galahad mused. "The darkness might actually play to our favor. If the dragons are not yet blighted and are in fact coming into contact with blightbeasts, we should be hearing them- and seeing breath weapons relatively soon." Galahad glanced back to Izayoi and shrugged. "If they're already blighted? I've fought a few blighted dragons before. They have no sense or strategy, just blind rage. If they'd spotted us by now, we'd know."

"Sergeant, do any of your people here possess radios, or other methods of ranged communication? I believe our best course of action would be to proceed in the air until we spot either the breath weapons or a roost. Have the majority of us dismount and make our way on foot- with a few remaining on the airship to guide us and provide information while in the air."

---

As the Kirins started to leave the planning table, Esben quickly walked ahead fell in beside Izayoi almost immediately, talking under his breath: "Are you sure about sending Rudi with us? I was going to have him on the dragons." She barely glanced his way, though compared to half their discussions there wasn't any clear and easy-to-read expression that let him know what she was thinking.

"Galahad and I alone would have been enough. And that comprises a significant bulk of our frontal combat strength. Should anything go wrong, I would be relieved to know the boy can hold the line."

"You're more confident against dragons than I would be—and assuming I can keep them in line, we shouldn't need any heroics from him."

"I have fought them before. And Caradoc is a dragoon."

"Used to working with other dragoons, yes, but I don't fancy an argument about this. If you think the three of you have it handled, then I'll trust you to handle it. Make sure you still have all your limbs when we reconvene." There was no time for anything else, as their paths diverged at the next turn in the halls while she hunted down Miina and he continued off to the hangars; he would just have to hope their diminutive healer didn't really have to show off how good she was getting on dragon wounds.

---

Other than his little interjection while Rudolf continued theorizing out loud on the flight, Esben spent most of the ride in silent contemplation of the problem put before them. Overseer Baramoux and some of the Seven still trapped within Solitude, with no word making it past the city walls, no sight from afar that could confirm any of their activities or if they yet lived. Alex, cavorting about and making a nuisance and worse of herself to the Kirins, who he expected had more than a small hand in Baramoux's lockdown and insurgent hunt turning on its head.

Yet all the same, despite nobody sent into the city making it back out, as far as what intelligence they had suggested, whatever long-range observations could see...much of life in Solitude seemed to continue as normal. Typical guard patrols, typical people with typical routines going about the day's business. No sign that Valheim had made it into the city proper.

No sign but their forward bases, which until he could get eyes on them himself, he had to assume were meant more to defend the city or stage an attack going north than they were to attack Solitude itself. And given that Valon had already begun to try and train up Valheimer replacements for Edren's dragoons, even if Alex wasn't in the city, he wouldn't be surprised everything looking normal and no agents making it back out was due to some effort to disseminate her own skills of disguise to the invaders. An excellent lure, drawing those in that still sought to serve Solitude rather than the monster stretching out to swallow them.

And no time to consider much of that before they'd have to start prodding at the beast itself.

"Walk and talk," he spoke up after Rudolf, already making his way towards the forest's edge. "Once we know how old our intelligence is we'll know how much scouting we need to do before we can start to hit them—and have your fastest soldiers run ahead and pick a good spot for a bivouac for us. No open flames, but I want everybody to have one last chance to check their things, divide ordnance, and get a hot drink and a snack before we spend the next few hours whipping these dogs."

---

Éliane was uncharacteristically dressed. Instead of her usual, far more bombastically colored officer’s uniform, she had taken the unusual liberty to change into mission appropriate garb, donning a winter field uniform that was usually given to Skael’s alpine forces. As such, she actually blended into the environment for once, matching with the snow drifts that were common enough around Solitude nearly year-round. After confirming that short-range radio still worked, she even fitted herself accordingly.

The pre-mission planning aboard the airship ultimately hadn’t yielded too much given the sorry state of their intelligence even right in their backyard, and they didn’t have nearly the right numbers for this mission even with the reinforcements, but there wasn’t much else they could do but to scout it all out.

It came without question that Éliane had the most tactical knowledge here, especially when it came to the environment around Solitude.
“As much as I dislike it, we’ll have to do this piecemeal,” she agreed. There was a map already in her hand, and she gestured for them to gather around, before pointing at the two positions nearest to the forest. “These two positions will be easy to approach from cover from the forest. If the barbarians are halfway competent, then they’ll have scouts themselves in the forest; we’ll have to maneuver with that in mind.”

She traced her fingers over to the farther two locations on the map. “These two are excellent forward positions on paper, but are easily buffeted under weather and when the drifts are high enough like this, plenty of blind spots in predictable places that any Solituder can exploit.” Pulling a pencil from a pouch, she lightly drew several paths towards the positions. “Scouting and hitting them like this, we should have the element of surprise.”

"Aye, sir. We've spare radios for your lot as well. Albinsson!" The sergeant turned to call out towards a startled private. "Get our guests some damn radios already, would you?"

While that was being attended to, Izayoi simply nodded in agreement with Galahad's battle plan, electing to spend the rest of the voyage leaned against the deck railing, simply staring out towards the mountains.

She had wanted to deal with the camps herself. Despite Reisa's blood on her hands cooling no small amount of her fury, Valheim as a whole still drew a significant amount of ire from Izayoi. But this was the more tactically expedient option. Months before, she might have insisted otherwise. But now...well. If nothing else, the bonus of annoying Esben with her move had been at least somewhat worth it.

Minutes passed. As the airship drew closer, those aboard heard it before they saw it: the roars of dragons. Screeching and howling in what seemed to almost be...pain? And then the sight came into view: dragon attacking dragon, the ones on the offensive in a mad fury. A closer view with a spyglass would confirm the obvious theory: the attackers were practically leaking Blight from their fangs and wounds.

"This ought be the limit of how far we fly." Izayoi tucked the radio she was given into her robes, adjusting her kote's fit. "I should think it would be better if we make haste to fall upon them before the Blighted ones emerge victorious. 'Tis better that they all be distracted than a few dead and the rest Blighted."

___



"A few days old. Only thing to add is that by all accounts, they're refusing to even get near the city limits. Not even to rotate and resupply." The raid captain rubbed her chin in contemplation, but eventually gave it up as a bad job.

"Either way, I agree. Initial scouting first. Then we finalize our plan of attack-"

"Captain!" A hurried, hushed cry came up from the front of the group: another raider. "Valheimr patrol of a dozen, damn near on top of us ahead. Visual as soon as you crest over the hill. We got damn unlucky in picking our landing zone: they're heading our way."

"Birdshite!" The woman in charge hissed, flicking the safety off of her longarm. "We've had this landing zone marked out for days! Their patrols haven't ranged out this way at all, they had to have known we were coming...damn it! Form up, you lot! Ambush positions!"

Miina regarded the radio with a blank gaze. What, exactly, was she meant to do with this? She had one working arm and it would be occupied… nonetheless, she shoved it into a pocket where it would be somewhat safe. Who knew, maybe one of the others would need a replacement.

The rest of the wait had her all but tapping her foot, just wanting it to be time already. And then it was upon them – the roars and howls of pained dragons, the great beasts tearing into one another. That would make their job much easier; perhaps it was better to not ground them at all? That might give the blighted and not-blighted dragons a common enemy. Or were blightbeasts too lost in their anger to recognise a more immediate threat?

Nothing to do but find out.

"Mmm, k-kill them all, then?" It was what she expected, but unkilling dragons was beyond her skills. Best to confirm first.

---

He was not physically capable of a deeper frown, and yet he found it lacking to express his displeasure. "So they have eyes we don't know about," he grumbled under his breath. "Or our communications aren't as secure as we were hoping. Or they've been comfortable in their positions long enough to start pushing further out, or worse. Wonderful." The soldiers that had been sent along with the greater part of the Kirins followed their captain's commands, starting to take positions hunkering down in the snow, no attention at all paid to Esben's complaints.

An airship coming through the sky was not exactly the epitome of stealth. Even in Skael's turbulent weather, one could be seen far enough out to take preparations to face. Radio communications weren't foolproof either, if the invaders could figure out which frequencies were being used, and with at least one traitor SEED working with them, it would be hard to have a code they couldn't break. All the same, given how she liked to pop in at the worst times, Esben had to wonder whether that traitor wasn't part of the reason the Valheimer patrol knew when and where to be to meet the raiding group, just as soon as they were all out and starting to move and their airships were in the middle of leaving.

Paranoia. Tiresome paranoia that wouldn't give him anything worthwhile to work on, just the remembrance that, tied up with other objectives and other people as he was, there was no way that he could manage to get ahead of his trickster former mentor. If he could devote himself only to trying to hunt her down and cut her off, then maybe, there might be a chance...But not when he had Solitude to try and free, a wider invasion to repel, an Etro-damned quest to try and get to some fancy crystals before the invaders could, and six others to try and keep in one piece as well!

"Sometimes it feels like Iðar can only help me with the small things anymore," he muttered. "And the rest of you just counteract it...Chisato! Come with me. Elly, Rudi, stick by each other, watch each other's backs, and don't let anybody get behind you that you haven't spent the last couple months travelling with. I don't want a repeat of that village up north. We'll keep an eye on things and step in if it's needed. Understood?"

A huff sounded from beneath the helmet, curling almost to a growl at its tail edges.

"It's enough to make you wonder why we bother, isn't it?" Rudolf remarked in dry commiseration with Esben, his disdain for this ongoing trend every bit as cutting. "Every time we try and put our minds to a problem, approach it like we're professionals, it blows right up. No wonder I was talking to the walls of the ship."

Waste of time. Really motivated a guy. But, for what gripes he had, and a growing list¹ of them at that...

He glanced over his shoulder as their attaché of Skaeller soldiers dove into drifts, letting high-piled snow and long-stretching shadow do what they could to conceal their positions on the short notice. A moment later, the spy raised his voice by just a hair— enough to snap off the bones of a marching order before he and Chisato too sequestered themselves out of sight. Best you could really do under the circumstances, and given how compromised their information channels apparently already were...

The old knight's blade found its way into the hand of its new contractor in short order, blackened mail softly clinking as he stalked three paces forward in the evening snow. "Got it. You and me, Elly. Let's pull them into the snare and get warmed up."

... It was a good thing he'd argued his case in front of the others, at least well enough to get Izayoi's backing. If their position was sighted either way? It was a damned good thing he would be here, and personally get in the way of whatever catastrophe the caprice of the gods tried to twist this into, rather than a score or two leagues away as a landbound swordsman trying to do a dragoon's job.

He'd make a note to mind his pace even as he took the front. Too far forward would be begging somebody to slip past him, after all. Hell, thinking about how exactly "Loki" had gotten the drop on them that first time to begin with...²

Help me out here?

Your fellow caffeine addict's shadow has been duly noted. Provided you actually follow your own advice, we can manage a quick *teleports behind you* and *unzips various swords* if you need to get fancy. Try not to.

Rudolf crouched low, sword and knife drawn, ready to spring. Silently, he agreed with what the demon and Esben were implying— risk as little as possible with the unfamiliar faces, reveal as little as possible to the unfamiliar faces.

---

---

• _{1. "List" is always an inexact and frankly misleading word choice here. It's more like a cloud of fifteen— no, seventeen now. Seventeen bugs buzzing around in here, bouncing off the windows trying to get to the outside that they can see.}
• _{2. We were across the map for this. I distinctly don't remember her being said to have popped out of a shadow, since this is where this train of thought's going. Granted, that associate of hers, Lanius, does have that raven he scries through. Maybe you should slime out the next few birds you see.}

---

Galahad took a radio as he stared out over the battle in the distance- blighted dragon against dragon, beast against beast. He frowned. "It'd be a shame to kill all of them." He admitted. "Ideally, we'd kill the blighted ones and let the regular dragons scatter. But they're dragons... scattering isn't exactly what they are known for."

Galahad adjusted his armor and hefted his halberd. "Its been a while since I've fought so many dragons at once. But there are many of us, and most of these dragons look to be fairly young- small by dragon standards. But still dangerous, so don't let your guard down."

"Miina, if you can use your magic to ground them, then Izayoi and I can make short work of them- especially if we have riflemen with us." He turned to Izayoi and the Skaelers, "Base of the neck, root of the wing, head and eyes, wing membrane, all of these are weak spots for dragons- should carry over to blighted ones too. Watch for their breath attacks."

He turned to the sergeant and gestured towards a clearing on the mountain. "We'll dismount there. Set us down, then circle wide to provide support. Don't get shot down. I don't wish to walk all the way back."

---

Éliane did not groan, but she angled her head heavenwards as she rolled her eyes. She did pause that moment to give Rudolf a strange look for a moment regardless.

She knew how unlikely it was for things to go as planned, but she had still naively held onto the hope that it would. But given the woman they were working against, of course there would be a wrench in every step of the way. Having been backstabbed once already, Éliane didn’t need to communicate to be on the same page as Esben and Rudolf when it came to the soldiers that were seconded to them. Any one of them could be that thrice damned traitor.

The pink-haired woman shot off a sloppy salute towards Esben by way of reply before ducking down towards Rudolf. “What has the world come to when you have to worry about your sightlines from both sides of the field…” she muttered darkly once the unfamiliar squad was out of earshot. Catching Rudolf’s words, she gave him a thumbs up. “I’m guessing it would be too much to hope that there won’t be a second assassination attempt on me or another of us in this battle?”

With a sigh, she shrugged, unslinging her own rifle, unsafing it as she began to hunker down for her own ambush position—one that covered Rudy and gave her a view of her own countrymen as well. At least it also made for a good place to shout orders from if it really came down to it.

---Tch.

A Valheimr patrol? Here and now? There is very little chance that such a thing could be a coincidence. There's no reason to protest Mathiassen-san's decision, naturally. Splitting our forces and moving to best deal with the Valheimr patrol as subtly as possible is our only viable choice. As I follow him, I consider potential options. We'll have multiple angles of approach, certainly, but if they already anticipate us being here then that alone may not be enough to ensure the element of surprise.

---Ah? 'We'll keep an eye on things'?

...

---Very well, I suppose. I would have liked to assist in eliminating the patrol. In fact, I would have greatly preferred it. But apparently my position is best suited to simple observation in this scenario, for whatever reason.

Far from me to question the need for subtlety, but I am perfectly well-suited to such aims.

"Aye, ser!" The sergeant saluted, bellowing orders back to the helm to land. Deboarding was quick, and the soldiers gathered up, setting out alongside Galahad, Miina, and Izayoi on foot towards the mountain and the dragons. Once they'd nearly reached the site, the Skaelers split up to set up fire support as Galahad instructed, readying and loading rifles while getting firing lines.

For her part, Izayoi refrained from drawing her blade just yet, her brow furrowed as her ears twitched. She narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate and hear past the sound of dragons roaring.

"Something has been bothering me since we began to make our approach. 'Tis almost as if we're being watched." She grunted, a hand falling to the hilt of her sword. "Keep an eye upon our flanks and rear as we engage. The chance of another encounter with that damned spy is hardly zero."

They took the final steps up toward the mountain path, and a stray dragon on the edge of the battle noticed them first. It roared, Blight dripping from its fangs, and the remaining flight of dragons began to look in their direction, wings splayed out to take flight. By this point, there were perhaps only one or two un-Blighted dragons remaining, with half a dozen writhing on the ground in the throes of infection. And ten in the full throes of Blight. Izayoi drew her sword, wind beginning to gather along the blade.

"Now, Miina! Galahad, at your ready!"

___



From over the ridge, the Valheimr patrol finally came into hearing range. Raised voices, agitated tones, to the point of near-panic, surprisingly. A dozen men bearing guns and sabers, holding the leashes of five barking, yapping hounds. If the yips were anything to go by, their presence wasn't completely made just yet. The dogs were alert and searching, to be certain, but it didn't seem that they had a definite scent.

"Keep searching! He can't have gone far!"

"Damn it, how the hell did that bastard thief even live long enough to break through the quarantine?!"

"Shut up and keep your damn eyes open! If this gets back to the higher-ups, we're never getting off garrison duty again!"

Searching for someone, it seemed. From her vantage point, the raid captain narroweed her eyes and moved her finger onto the trigger of her rifle, but held her fire. A cursory glance across the assembled skirmishers revealed no suspicious tells. Or at least, none that were obvious. They were all prepared to open fire at a moment's notice.

"It's one fucking mystrel, and a damn redhead at that! How in all hells have we not even seen a single red hair in the middle of all this godsforsaken snow?!"

She'd take the lack of answer – and the state of the dragons as they approached – as a yes, kill them all. Well, she'd probably still avoid targeting the unblighted ones specifically, but there were so few that she couldn't see it mattering if they died… she just wanted to keep the distraction around as long as possible. Three of them against what was about to be over a dozen Blighted dragons? Anything extra was welcome–

Well, not having to keep an ear open for that annoying blonde woman at the same time, not being able to give her full attention to just the magic was…

Nothing for it, though.

"N-N-No flying," Miina hissed, concentrating on the same combination Izayoi had showed off back on the ship over to Drana. Almost the same, almost, but not quite. With one of her arms out of commission, she couldn't release it as two separate streans she was balancing into one effect, no. Everything had to be twined together into one unstable spell first, wanting to reject themselves and – well, it was a good thing she had a proper catalyst, any slip-up would have been agonising otherwise.

As it was, her sword was still humming as she cast whatever this was at this point, but there was an upside to doing it this way. It made it a lot easier to balance the disparate elements while they were all still directly within her grasp. Enough, maybe, to hold the resulting vortex together for several minutes – or, perhaps, long enough to deal with these beasts.

It was a blessing his face was covered, that only he would be privy to the scowl falling from his face and the nonplussed blink that broke his stare through the snow at the crest of the hill, awaiting the first sign of movement until just now. The air was thick with anticipation as details continued to roll in on the true nature of this Valheimr deployment— and that falling expression quickly began to twist back towards a grimace.

One mystrel. Red hair. Bastard thief.

Where had he heard this story before?¹

He pulled away a half step, checking the imprint he left in the snow. Were it not for the mission already on all their plates, Rudolf would have quite happily tugged on this thread to try and bring back something substantial for their miles-away mage to work with. More than just "sounds like Zeke made his way down here too, and he's got the usual suspects after him"— after this, it was just going to be a rolling assumption wherever they went.

But diversions would throw a wrench in everything, the exact same once this information had revealed they still had a chance to dodge. Sure enough, his tracks were going to be deep, a consequences of his arms and armor— if this hunting party were to crest the ridge, it seemed a safe assumption that Rudolf, at least, would have his trail spotted. That'd be a problem if he dove for cover in Elly and the rest's wakes, but if the jig wasn't actually already up the way they thought it was...

He held his left hand up, pointing towards the woods opposite the scatterplot of ambush points their division had set up, and then tightly circled his finger around— planning to bound away from where the bulk of their raiding party was, make the best use of those distinct tracks as he could, then return to the group after he'd left the trail of breadcrumbs sufficiently out of the way. Chisato, at least, would be able to guess at the lynchpin of how he planned to break the trail off and not lead these hapless dozen manhunters right back into the campsite— it was her Exit materia that he had been using as reference for shadowstep this whole time, after all.²

Two breaths later, he set off at a brisk trot, melting into the gloom. With any luck, this would all just be an exercise in theory, and the patrol would drift the other way while they kept good and quiet.

So, Ithar, if you're reading this,

---

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• _{1. If I were Miina Malina, I'd chalk this up to my brother deciding to fuck with me specifically. Hells, if I were Miina Malina's brother, this is how I'd fuck with Miina Malina specifically. An endless trail of breadcrumbs— actually, this gives me an idea.}
• _{2. Artistic integrity has been debated and relitigated on the subject of reference since long before he picked up the pencil. In a pinch, I cottoned onto her performance against the Ruby Weapon as, "probably the easiest mnemonic for a rock brain". Naturally, I'm right.}

---

"If the spy arrives, I fear we may be under equipped to deal with them." Galahad mused, "But that's a hurdle we'll cross when we get there. He nodded as he keyed the radio they were given. "Airship crew, be on the lookout for any potential interruptions."

The rest of them continued on foot. It wouldn't be long before they arrived, following the sounds of dragons battling. Galahad looked on in horror. It was rare to ever see so many dragons in one place. From a safe distance, it would be majestic. If it weren't for the blight. Now they were little more than deranged monsters. A damned shame. He looked at the riflemen as they began to set up. He pointed at one with a scope on their rifle. "The ones on the ground, half infected. Put them out of their misery. The rest of you, prepare to fire." He barked.

As soon as Miina's vortex grounded the blighted dragons- or at least brought them lower to the ground. Galahad began to advance. Three steps, ice and stone cracking and splintering under his heavy footfalls as he brought himself low and leaped high into the air. "Now! Open fire!" His voice whipped through the air as he went high up. His jump height was cut by Miina's vortex, but he used to the resulting force and speed to bring himself down faster to the ground, his halberd lifted over his head as he aimed for the largest blighted dragon, the one leading this pack, his weapon wreathed with lightning.

"I'm sorry it has to be this way. You'll find your rest soon." Galahad murmured as he careened down towards the blighted dragon. The halberd flashed as Galahad brought his weapon down like a bolt of lightning, aiming for the base of the dragon's neck.

---

Éliane admittedly was less attuned to Miina’s personal troubles than some of the other members of the party, but when the voices of the enemy patrol reached her ears, she had to pause. It could easily still be a plot from the traitor, but the person they were supposedly searching for… sounded suspiciously like a certain relative of the redheaded mystral in their party.

Leave it to fate that Miina wasn’t with them at the time, but she considered for a moment and decided it was probably better, at least for this immediate engagement.

She glanced back at Rudolf as he made his hand signals. It took her a moment to understand his intentions, but it was a better immediate plan than what she could come up with. She nodded, keeping herself hunkered down still for the moment.

For her part, she flagged the attention of the fireteam captain, making a few hand signals of her own in the standard Skaelan style.

Keep bloody quiet and don’t engage unless the jig is up.