The Heavens Shall Fall

“You want to go now?” Joren asked once again when they walked out of the castle.

"Yes," Siu answered him in the same tone. "As I said, waiting until morning offers no real benefit, especially if they have spies around here and they report back that a weird carriage with an unusual bird demon appeared. Anyone would deduce what that means, and we may not have a second and such an easy opportunity to slip behind their lines and check things out."

There were not many questions after that, and soon Siu, Rinmei, Arya, and Marly were off, running and disappearing into the darkness.

"Awww," Arya grinned beside him as they were rushing, way faster than any regular human could, “This is just perfect!”

"She is in her element, isn't she?" Rinmei looked toward her with a smile.

"And you are not?" Siu asked, because she looked just as energetic.

“Brr... I don't like it... It's cold.” Marly grumbled, being the only one to do so, hiding inside Siu's robes.

"You don't even need to run," Arya snorted in answer. "Crybaby. You should, though; it warms you up, good!"

As they kept moving forward, following the route that would lead them towards their target, Siu made sure to slow down now and then, letting Rinmei catch up, as she was still freshly promoted.

“You alright?”

“Don't worry, I am.” She nodded, breathing a bit harder than he was. "I am an Inner Disciple now, so this is just extra training. Let's keep moving!"

For the next two hours, they saw nobody as they followed the road, and Siu was almost falling into a trance-like pace when Arya suddenly skidded to a halt, followed by the rest, immediately on high alert, coming out of their thoughts.

“What?” Siu whispered, already scanning the dark landscape. It was hard to see far, as dark clouds covered the sky and hid the moonlight, and even if his eyes adjusted, it was still impossible to see much.

"Hmm..." Arya sniffed the air, finally pointing ahead and a bit to their left. "I can smell smoked meat."

“Probably the Watch.” Siu muttered, "With our pace, I think we reached it, so we will need to sneak by them."

"Just follow me!" Arya grinned, veering off the road into the deeper part of the snow, which did slow them a little.

Still, it was the right choice when Darrin's Watch came into view. The conquered fortress stood out in the darkness, covered in orange light. Especially from its two towers, one in the south, facing towards Sumeck, the other towards the north, with massive braziers burning brightly on its sides.

"No wonder they occupied it..." Siu muttered as he scanned both the land and the stone walls surrounding it.

The Watch was indeed in the middle of the flattest part of the country, letting the sentries up in their towers see way into the distance on a clear day, making it hard for any army to move around without being discovered. Even on a night like this, the multiple fires they lit around it made the approach difficult if someone wanted to sneak in and take a look. There was simply no dark spot left in the immediate vicinity of the Watch.

"I guess this is their new headquarters, and we are only going to visit abandoned ones," Rinmei said with a small shrug, watching it from behind a wall of fresh snow.

“Most likely,” Siu murmured, scanning the place in the distance, "However that doesn't mean the head of their operation is also here."

“Operation?” Rinmei asked.

“I don't think that this is just bandits or a rebellion of the downtrodden," He answered, taking a deep breath, "There are cultivators there too. I caught a sense sweeping around the immediate area of the Watch just a moment before.”

"Did they find us?" She asked, already looking into the dark, trying to catch if anyone was coming their way.

"No," Siu looked at her with a half-smile, "I think my senses are a bit sharper than theirs. I even noticed Vael when we first met, and he didn't even know about it."

“How many?” Arya asked as she scrunched her nose. "I can't smell them from here... There are too many humans in there, and they are cooking something super tasty... Aw, now I'm hungry!"

“Don't know either.” Siu shrugged, ignoring the latter part. "I also can't tell their strength before any of you ask. Anyway, we are not here for them right now... We will make a wide circle and keep moving. Let's go!”

In the end, it took them another two hours to reach Fort Marden, which, unlike the Watch, was built atop another hill. This one was smaller and lower than the hill Sumeck sat on, but it was still a steep climb. After getting as close as they could in the dark, Siu watched the moving torchlights from their hiding spot between two large snowpiles. That alone told them that the place was still very well occupied.

“That's a lot of soldiers,” Rinmei whispered, "If every place is captured like this and is manned, this is more like an invasion."

“Yes, I was thinking so too.” Siu nodded, squinting at the figures, trying to get a feel for their powers. "And I can feel the presence of cultivators here, too. How much sense does it make that a kingdom that rarely has to deal with traveling cultivators or rogue vagabonds gets swarmed by them so quickly?"

"Pretty low," Rinmei agreed, grimacing a little. "I guess we will call in the Elders, huh?"

"Most likely," Siu nodded, realizing this was a bit too much and not at all like how the mission details suggested. "Someone had cleared snow from parts of the road leading uphill." He added, pointing out the marks that were illuminated by the light coming from the fire burning before the fort's main gate.

“Let's try and count what we can see from here,” Siu whispered, already being close enough to the fort to make out the gate and its iron bars that were, surprisingly, raised.

It took only fifteen minutes to confirm two different patrol groups of four appeared at set intervals, while two stood constantly at the entrance, close to the fire. Then, there were four more sets on the wall above them, patrolling in the same rhythm. Lastly, they made out the silhouettes of archers in one of the fort's towers, hidden in the darkness... Maybe he froze to death, but Arya's joke was quickly countered when they saw the man light something up, probably a pipe or something similar.

"We won't get a correct number from here..." Rinmei muttered, but then Arya just grinned at the two.

“I was waiting for you to say that. I can check from the inside!”

"..." Siu looked at her, and Rinmei was already expecting a no, but Siu just nodded. "Make sure you are NOT seen. I know how much you like to be the center of attention, but this is precisely the opposite here."

“Ahaha, I know... They won't even know I am there. Come, Marly!”

“Yes!” She yelled, and before Siu could react, the squirrel disappeared into the dark, just as Arya's body suddenly lost its edges, melting into the shadows, fading from view. If not for their bond, even Siu wouldn't have been able to tell where she was, nearing the fort quicker than he ever saw her move.

"That's a tall wall," Arya muttered as Siu heard it in his mind, translating to Rinmei. "But they are stupid, ehehe... No guards are looking! So easy to get into the chicken coop..." She added, enjoying the mission, as she simply climbed, or more like flowed through the dark, up the wall, appearing at the top of it in a black flash.

When she did so, Arya's figure became visible for a moment as she was next to a blinking torch, but by the time the light was over her a second time, she was gone again, jumping off, landing noiselessly inside the fort.

"I'm in! Marly? Where are you?"

"Above, Big Sis!" She answered, floating over on a gust of wind, letting it catch under her flaps and take her even higher, landing on the roof of one of the buildings within. "Where to?"

"Just around," She answered sharply. "Follow your nose, and we will sniff out how many baddies are here! Bet you I can do it faster than you!"

"Bet!"

"You know what?" Rinmei spoke up suddenly next to Siu, "No need to tell me what's happening. Or I will go into shock..."

"Understood." He muttered, stopping to tell her what the two were doing, because deep down, he felt the same, too. He wouldn't say it out loud either, because he wasn't feeling it like Rinmei, but like Arya. Maybe it was their connection, because at first he didn't see an issue with making a bet, trusting the two with this task completely.

While Siu began smiling to himself, Arya moved through the inner side of Fort Marden without making any noise, as her feet didn't even leave any prints on the snow, her whole being sticking to the shadows. From above, Marly floated from one roof to the other, mentally mapping the outline of the five buildings within its walls and transmitting it to Siu's mind. Even if she were seen... Who would think much of a squirrel? Probably nobody.

And it only took ten minutes for the thought to be tested in reality, as one guard actually noticed her when she landed on a windowsill, and inside, people were wide awake, eating. When it happened, Siu's heart nearly stopped just by sensing it...

"Big Sis! He threw bread at me!" Marly yelled suddenly, "Free food, so I'm not complaining, but it tasted stale..."

"So you are complaining." Arya giggled, while Siu just stared into the dark with a blank expression.

“What?” Rinmei asked, nudging him when she caught his twitches, ready to make a ruckus and go in to save them.

“Nothing.” He answered in a weak voice, making Rinmei want to ask more... but she managed to hold it back.

"Master," Marly said again, now looking into one of the bigger buildings through a window, "There are a looooots and loooots of people here. They also have shiny clothes..."

"Shiny clothes?" Siu asked, but then understood, as those had to be the armor of the knights who defended this place before. Did they loot them, or did they join the enemy? “How many?” He asked, focusing on the important part for now.

"One... Two... Three..." Marly began, actually counting on her paws.

"About a hundred." Arya's voice answered the next moment. "And Master, from this close, I can smell them well enough. Most of them are weak... but some smells are a bit stronger. I mean... I still think they are weaker than us, though. We could take them on!"

"Even we can't defend against a hundred arms and legs if we go into a battle..." Siu's eyes narrowed while warning them. "Can you sniff out how many cultivators are in there?"

"Already on it!" Arya answered while Marly was still counting, starting over because apparently something shifted and people began moving and changing positions, which confused her. "Marly, you can stop; help me find all the strong ones!"

Happily abandoning the counting, she was once again back to floating from rooftop to rooftop, while Arya was trying all windows or doors she found, marking them with her nail, leaving some of her essence on them, so she would feel if they were opened. She didn't want to be surprised by someone walking out from one of them and running into her. In the end, the two of them managed to find ten people who felt strong enough to be counted as cultivators, and one who made Arya stop and sniff the air multiple times.

"Oh... That's the strongest one yet."

“Blood Resonance stage? Stronger?” Siu asked by reflex, making Marly also land close by, hanging down from a frozen gutter, looking at the man who was clearly giving orders to someone between two yawns.

"No." Both Arya and Marly said at the same time, "He smells only as strong as you were, Master, when we were running from the stag in the forest."

"So at best, in the Marrow Cleansing stage..." Siu said, exhaling, "Still... their numbers are way too many."

"The strongest is clearly the boss," Arya continued, standing under the shade of a stairway, listening to the muffled speech coming from behind the walls and a half-open door. "There should be fourteen of them here... Um, um... They are talking about how the missing ones will return at dawn with new orders. Master, their Boss is not here."

"Did they mention where the orders are coming from?"

"No..." Arya muttered, sharpening her ears. "Oh... Something was said about this month's pay... mmm... I can hear shuffling..."

"Oh, oh!" Marly suddenly exclaimed, sounding actually like a squirrel, "I got this, Master!"

"Marly?!"

"What is it?!" Rinmei asked too, but neither of them dared to raise their voices.

"That's what I would want to know..." Siu answered, inhaling deeply to calm himself down, because he could simply feel that Arya and Marly had gotten to work on something risky. Arya was even making a slight distraction while Marly was scurrying away in a hurry.

He didn't need to wait long to ask what happened, because about ten minutes later, Arya materialized from the darkness, grinning happily. At the same time, Marly dropped onto the snow from above, her mouth looking swollen, as if a hundred bees had stung her.

"What the...?" Rinmei flinched, watching Marly, who just opened her mouth as wide as possible and spat out a leather bag, tied together tightly, with multiple things jingling inside as it landed in the snow. "Did you steal gold? What are we going to do with that?"

"That's not gold..." Siu said at once, taking it from Marly while patting her head.

"Me too!" Arya crouched next to him, forcing Siu to do the same as the two girls kept grinning. "I made a perfect distraction!"

"Yes, you did," Siu smiled while showing the contents to Rinmei. "It's CC..."

Opening the bag and looking inside, he swirled the contents with his finger, and indeed, Flame Crystals were knocking into each other, gently glowing even in the dark. Smacking his lips, Siu guessed that there had to be around a hundred of them just at a simple glance.

"Not bad, but that's still only money," Rinmei said, looking away from it.

"Depends on the place." Siu added in a serious tone, "In here, what do you think, how much is this bag really worth... for rogue cultivators?" he asked, picking a piece out, checking it, and knowing that for people who were left to their own devices to cultivate, this was a lot. They might and would see it as more than just money... It was their only way to consume proper essence, when it was as sparse as it felt around this land.

"This also means," Rinmei suddenly caught the larger picture, "That they are mercenaries. If Marly can steal all their stipends, maybe we can break them up before any fighting takes place."

"Either that," Siu nodded, feeling it was probably the strongest possibility, very much agreeing with her assessment, "Or someone discovered a CC mine and now wants it for themselves."

"Or both." Arya chimed in, wagging her tail happily, making them all look at her. "How is it said, Master? To kill two birds with one stone."