CANELIS FRACHDAL's promotion comes with a price and that is to investigate a supply issue in the army. Upon arrival, she is greeted with a renegade camp underneath the Army's nose, a magical anomaly creeping inward from the ocean, and warring sides...
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2407 Rab 5, Velpa
Canelis sped through the familiar halls of the Royal villa, passing by all the ornaments without stopping to admire them. She thought of them as garish and completely unnecessary to the villa's main purpose. The soldiers coming in and out of the rooms lining the corridor gaped at her like they couldn't believe she's here. Well, let them.
It didn't take long before word reached her that she was supposed to be dead or at least presumed to be so. While being disguised as a merchant in Xai-Ren along with Cailen, she gathered all information she could with regards to the situation in the fortress in response to her disappearance. So far, apart from the occasional outburst of curiosity, no one had flagged Yin-Alora about it and the Army was utterly silent about the whole escapade.
They had spent the whole day yesterday dodging patrol units going along the roads in Xai-Ren. Canelis remembered being appalled at the certain lack of responsibility the platoons dispatched in the acgricultural sector were.
If they had been doing half their job, they would have noticed Canelis dressed in a colorful coat she nicked from a passing merchant. They would have noticed that the pixie with her had been wearing a non-traditional armor reminiscent only of a renegade. Canelis was willing to bet half her fortune these soldiers hadn't even seen a renegade up close.
If so, how could they think the renegades were someone deserving to be terrorized? How could any of them?
A soldier was taught to analyze their surroundings first before making a conclusion about the world. What had happened along the way, that people had started to make conclusions first before seeing what was going on in the world?
How as Canelis supposed to fix something like that in a course of what, three days?
She glanced behind her upon feeling a hollow presence creeping towards her. There was nothing but more marquine vases painted with dyed resin and a few glass cases guarding decorative weapons inside. After seeing what the plague looked like yesterday jarred something in her, made her paranoid.
They hadn't even planned on encountering a plague point. As the renegade called it, these points were scattered all over the border between Xai-Ren and Ok-Sa and have been forming a plague line of some sort. Almost all of the eastern side of Ok-Sa was devoured and already unreachable and the western side wouldn't be far behind. As she witness yesterday, one of the plague points have already reached past the outposts in Xai-Ren. It wouldn't be too long before a huge fraction of the city would be affected.
The memory of the swirling black mass of nothingness flashed in Canelis's mind. It's a good thing Cailen had pulled her back before she careened straight into it. After forcing him to take turns on riding the dagrine, she didn't want to admit she might have not seen the plague point until it's too late.
She owed the renegade again.
That's what propelled her out of bed that morning after she turned up at the foot of the Royal villa's stairs, alive and unhurt. As much as she ignored all eyes and turning heads following her up, she ignored the ones with her right now. It's a disgrace to remain indebted to someone for such a long time. Hence, she needed to solve this plague thing first so she could get out of Cailen and the renegades' collective and figurative hairs.
