PreCursive

  Surprisingly, I didn’t have to venture far to find someone else. Maybe five minutes into my tree-top travel, I ran into another operative. This one I had never met before.

  The two of us almost literally ran into each other.

  I was grappling to aree when anent appeared in midair in front of me. My eyes widened in surprise at the same time that theirs did. Just before we collided, I celed my grapple and shot it back out at another bran front of me. I jerked out of the way of the ent just in time and stumbled ahe new branch, as the ent nded on my inal destination. I clutched my chest, panting from the adrenalihat was still running through my veins.

  “You okay down there?” I heard a feminine voice call from above me. Shakily, I raised one fist to give a thumbs up, trying to calm down. Moments ter the ent nded in front of me. Casting an eye over them, I could tell that they were female from their silhouette, but I could tell little else. They had their hood up, while their mask ainted bck with small curls of what looked to be white smoke over the cheeks.

  Eyeing them for a moment, I extended my hand. “Hangman.”

  “Wisp,” She answered, gripping my forearm with an answering nod. “I’ll be blunt. Do you know what the fuck is going on?”

  I sighed. “Do you know what a Ward Break is?” At her answering shake of her head, I was unsurprised. Grey had told me long ago that it was a rare phenomenon, actively persecuted by the nations of Vereden.

  Too bad the fug Loyalists had no damn morals.

  I briefly expihe phenomenon and my suspis about how the Loyalists had manufactured multiple enha versions of it.

  “Well…” Wisp said slowly. “Damn. So, we’re screwed?”

  I shrugged, as Fade stuck his head out from the depths of my cloak. Wisp reached out to scratch his head as I answered. “I have no idea. Are you the ohat I was supposed to meet up with?”

  She didn’t even have to answer. My location jerked away from Wisp, in the dire that I had been going. Judging by the ghat Wisp shot me, I’m guessing they felt it too.

  “Guess not,” I said ftly. Turning in that dire, I looked over my shoulder. “You ing?”

  “Lead the way,” Wisp ined their head, gesturing forward.

  Without another word, I got trappling across the tree-tops, Wisp following along behind me.

  I noticed that they didn’t o use a skill to navigate the opy. They looked to be strong enough to just jump from tree to tree.

  Yay for them.

  …………………………………………….

  Before long Wisp and I arrived at the designated meeting point that Headquarters had arranged for us. Landing on the forest floor, I was a bit surprised at hoeople were here. There must have been dozens of people milling about in the small cleariher speaking quietly to themselves or mending wounds. Actually, it didn’t even appear to be all Noe Division members. There were sur Order forces mixed in with the sea of cloaks and masks, as well other what looked to be a few Healers.

  Wait.

  With a flood of emotion, I reized a few people in the crowd. Letting Fade fall to the forest floor with a yelp and abandoning Wisp, I made a beeline for a female agent wearing a white painted mask with a blue teardrop running from one eye. They were standio a bck-furred Gnoll wearing Healer’s robes.

  The agent saw me ing. I saw their crystalline blue eyes widen first in shock, before softening in relief.

  Whisper met me halfway, with the two of us clutg each other fiercely in near desperation. “Sylvia,” I breathed into her ear, relief thi my voice.

  “Nathan…” She returned just as quietly, nearly shaking in my arms.

  The eime I had been out there after the first Break, hiding in the bay rings, had been a sense of dread. I had known that Sylvia was assigo the same task I had been, even if we had never run into each other. The idea that she could have been swallowed up by one of the hordes hadn’t been able to leave my mind.

  I couldn’t describe the sense of fort it gave me, to find her here.

  The two of us remained in each other’s embrace for a moment, before we were interrupted by a cleared throat. Relutly parting, I found that it was ing from Renauld, whom Sylvia had been standing with.

  The Gnoll looked a bit worse for wear, with his robes coated in both blood and dirt. His normally well-groomed fur looked like it was matted from the sweat of battle, fear, and exhaustion. Frankly, I hadn’t seen him this bad looking since he’d been rescued from Caer Drarrow.

  Renauld smiled weakly at my iion. “That you, Nate?” He asked in a quiet, hoarse voice.

  I nodded slightly, ung about giving away my identity like this. “What are you doing here? Whisper I uand,” I said, lookiween him and Sylvia. “But you? You should be with the host.”

  Renauld shrugged tiredly. “I don’t uand everything, and it’s a bit hard to expin. But I think your boss is about to anyway.” He owards the front of the clearing, where people were starting to gather.

  My boss? The only two people I would sider my ‘boss’ were Grey and Hook. And I think I would have noticed if Grey were here.

  Sure enough, when Sylvia, Renauld, Fade, and I joihe gathering group, I couldn’t help but be surprised.

  Hook actually was here.

  I had thought he was back at headquarters, personally, helping to coordihe Noe Division as their leader. But no, he had apparently been hiding among the host and had just never shown himself.

  The dwarf actually looked worse off than even Renauld. There were huge rents in his clothes and armor with crusted blood dried along the edges. Pale, tender, freshly healed flesh could be seen through them. The beak on his avian themed mask looked to have been cracked off, leaving a splintered appearao it, while even more dried blood crusted in his steel grey beard.

  There was a grim cast to the dwarf’s stance, as he waited for everyone in the clearing to gather silently.

  Time to find out if we were screwed.

  “We’re screwed,” Hook said bluntly, crossing his arms tightly.

  Ah.

  Well then.

  “For those of you that weren’t there, let me catch you up to speed,” He tinued direly. “A few ho, Noe and was made aware of a strange instaltion discovered beyond the periphery of the Army’s advance. Agents were dispatched to iigate it, aermih its purpose and in. It was identified as Loyalist in nature, due to the presence of a single Herztalian soldier ag as as guard.”

  “What were these instaltions like in appearance?” A male agent I didn’t know asked cooly. It looked to me as if he had some kind of dog mask.

  “I don’t know,” Hook said, shaking his hand. “The agent was uo describe it properly through the unication . And yes,” He raised a hand. “Before you ask, I have a prototype two-way on me so Headquarters keep me updated. It’s the only reason I’m out here with you ground pounders and not kig my feet up. But it’s shoddy as all hell, so don’t expect your own just yet.”

  They didn’t know what exactly had happened?

  Well, I guess I could be useful. I took a step forward, drawing the attention of Hook and the ents.

  “I entered one of these instaltions apanied by anent, shortly before it was activated,” I said simply. I felt Hook’s scrutiny sharpen. “I describe what I found, if you’d like.”

  Hook gestured for me to tinue. “Go ahead, Hangman.”

  “It was a modified Ward Stone, plete with plinth,” I said, crossing my arms as well. “Rather than repelling monsters, it was actively luring them in. The stone rojeg a barrier to protect the Loyalist soldier that was…waiting, I think. I have a measure of experieh Ward Stone runic arrays, so I took the time to i it. And after what happened when it fulfilled its purpose, I think I make some jecture.”

  That was the beauty ed Mind. I could devote aire thought string to puzzling out a problem, even while I was running for my life or nearly gibbering in fear.

  I started pag in front of the gathered agents, gathering my thoughts.

  “I think the lured monsters were meant to be used as fuel,” I said finally. “A normal Ward Stone fulfills its fun while remaining whole, but not these. Think of these modified versions as essentially being bombs. These stones were created solely to enhance a by-product of their owru. That being the Breakage Effect.”

  “Wait,” Anent I didn’t know said. They seemed to be female and had a bd white pinstripe mask. “I think I’ve heard of that. It’s when a bunonsters are created out of nowhere…” She trailed off. Many people in the crowd shifted in realization before the agent tinued. “Isn’t that super illegal?”

  “Incredibly so. And reized by everyone on both ps,” Hook said, a frown audible in his voice. He motioo me. “tinue, Hangman. I want to hear this.”

  I nodded, still pag. “The Breakage Effect works by geing an artificial spawning period, created by the void left behind by wards when they’re broken. It’s sort of like…the way water will rush in to fill a punctured ship hull. When that Aether fills that void, monsters are born. A goddamon of them. What I think happened here is that these modified stones were first creating an enhanced void, as I noticed Aetherial absorption arrays on it. Sed, wheone was broken, the spell that rogrammed into the stoo go off at destru rushed out and absorbed the lured monsters, instantly turning them into fuel. The spell then deployed, rising into the sky as I’m sure several of you noticed, and…somehow multiplied both the speed and geion of monsters. That, I don’t know how.” I finished, shaking my head.

  I heard a murmured versatioween two agents when I was done. “When did we get a ward specialist?”

  “I don’t know, but we needed ohe ent muttered back.

  Was I a ward specialist? Possibly, now that I thought of it. Grey hadly been le in his Abjuratioures, back when I was first creating the Ward Breaker that would bey first Bond Breaker. I had o really uand Ward Stones and their arrays, to know how to destroy them. And it’s not like my education or lectures with the man had stopped, ever since we escaped Addersfield. We still had lessons on the subje occasion. It just hadn’t e up.

  Hook nodded sharply. “Thank you, Hangman. I’ll rey your observations to Headquarters. What became of the soldier that triggered the Break you observed?”

  I blinked, startled. I had pletely fotten about him. “I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I grabbed the ent and booked it as soon as it looked like a Break was going to happen. Presumably, he was either torn to bits by the monsters or absorbed by the spell with them.”

  “And who was the ent with you?”

  “Finch,” I said, heat entering my voice. I spit off to the side, to the surprise of everyone else. “That bastard left me behind when the horde came. Ran off a me to die. I only survived by hiding ireetops.”

  “Ah…” This time, I reized the agent who spoke. It was the woman I had met on the way here, Wisp. “I… firm that Finch didn’t make it. When I found his…remains, I firm that he was KIA when the horde caught up to him. It looks like he wasn’t able to outrun them forever.”

  Well…

  I wasn’t going to celebrate his death, but I wasn’t going to mourn him.

  Hook sighed. “Which brings us to what happened . The break that Hangman observed wasn’t the only one. We firm that at least six others were set off along the path of the Army. Estimates put every break at geing over fifty thousand monsters, from aerial observations. These are just estimates, mind. I still have Sparrow out there trying to observe the movements of the bined horde.”

  Over three hundred and fifty thousand monsters….

  That was an order of magnitude rger thaire bined forces that the Uprising could field.

  A murmur of dismay swept through the people gathered in the clearing.

  “When the horde finally hit the Army,” Hook said, ign the despair. “It came in almost literal waves. The rear guard was almost immediately cut off from the rest, which, unfortunately, prised the forces of the Order of the Eclipsed Dawn as well as a sizable portion of the northern forces. Which is why there are a number ur soldiers with us,” He Renauld. “I made the call to withdraw Noe Division assets from the host, when it looked like the battle had bee a slog. However, let me reassure you of ohing. The Army of the Uprising has not been wiped out.”

  I let out a sigh of relief, as Sylvia o me slumped releasing tensioh had people that we cared about in the host. The crowd was feeling simirly, with a note of ever-present stress fading from the air.

  “However,” Hook said ominously. “and has made the decision to cel the pnned siege of Elderwyd Ttec. As of this moment, the Army is in the middle of a fightireat back to the safety of Helstein. At the same time, they are deliberately keeping the horde occupied and engaged with them. There, they io withstand their own siege, and attempt to prevent this horde from overrunning the north and south.”

  “Then…why are we out here, instead of with them?” Sylvia, or rather Whisper, asked slowly.

  Hook let out a long drawn-out sigh then, and did something I didn’t expect.

  He unmasked.

  Reag up, the older dwarf took off his fractured avian mask. Beh, I was able to see the craggy features of a tired example of his people. The grooves and creases on his face resembled the crevices and yons of a dusty valley, as much as they did wrinkles. His unremarkable bck eyes underlined with heavy bags stared out at the gathered agents from their sunken sockets, as he smiled wryly at us.

  “Because they might be occupied, but we aren’t,” Hook said grimly. “With approval from and, a decision has been made. A campaign against Elderwyck is still underway, even if it isn’t going to be a military one. As of now, these are the orders for the Noe Division. For the foreseeable future, we are going to be dug a campaign of sabotage, infiltration, assassination, and guerril warfare against the Loyalist forces of Elderwyck.”

  “Ladies alemen, prepare yourself. Because we’re going to win that city from the inside.”