Klaas hadn’t noticed it. He was far too concerned about the actual implications of the the failure of the actual equipment that he hadn’t noticed that regular transportation between hubs had been disrupted. Once Malik had made him aware a new deepened expression of alarm had crossed his face. Malik could sense he started running through all the implications that he had gone through moments earlier.
“I don’t think we have” Klaas said simply.
“As you said, we need eyes on this.” Malik added, “Meet me in about an hour, my office, get some of your best and brightest.”
Klaas nodded briefly He left the room following the direction that the scryers took. Malik Thought briefly. He needed to get a team together to investigate the trouble with the transportation line. He left to go towards the central staircase. The lower levels were pretty easy to navigate. It was all laid out rather logically and you’d have to try to get lost to actually get lost.
There was an inkling of an idea playing in his head. He’d need to first stop the traffic in the hub. If people were disappearing from the plates that couldn’t be good. Instantly, knew exactly how to shut them down.
He went back to his office for a moment. He had an idea for stopping the access to the transport lines. He snatched an imperial seal off his desk. It felt heavier than it actually was. It’s metallic surface glinted as he looked at it. He could see the crest of his fort on one side, and the imperial crest on the other. Both were inlaid with a purple color.
No one was going to be happy with what was going to happen. He he gripped it tightly with his hand and left the office. Malik was surprised he wasn’t holding his breath. This wouldn’t be something he’d be able to lightly, yet once he felt this was the right thing to do.
The second part of the problem was he needed a team to investigate what exactly was going on with the transportation line. He had a vague idea of who he needed. There was Garren, Astyr and the old paper pusher himself. Malik always hesitated on saying his name to himself. It was a slight superstition, because he feared that if he said it, the man might actually show up with more paperwork. Astyr would be easy enough to find and he could count on Garren for everything else.
With the seal in his hand he left the office and descended down the stairs. For Garren, it was a quick search. He had been working in the courtyard drilling some of the soldiers. In the time that they had been working together Garren had loosened up quite a bit. A lot of the stony silence that he initially had when they first met once faded away as they got to know each other. As Garren explained it the reason he was so stony was the nature of the assignment itself, and once Malik accepted the secrecy could drop. Garren was quick to warm up to Malik, and Malik found that he could trust him with even the most sensitive of matters. Unlike when they first met, the scarred dots under his right eye were no longer concealed, and the honor tattoos all three dark bars and corresponding dashes were on full display. Malik knew he could easily acquire the records that would show how they were given, but he figured that if Garren wanted Malik to know, Garren would have said something.
When the men saw Malik approach them in the yard they stiffened, however, Malik made it a point to not distract the men and they fell back into their routine just like Malik wasn’t there. He gestured to Garren, who had been well aware of Milk’s presence. Garren passed passed off the instruction to his subordinate and approached Malik.
“Sir?” Garren asked simply.
“Has the paper pusher left yet?”
Garren shook his head.
“Stop him, both of you are to meet in my office.” Malik then passed off the seal to Garren.
Garren’s eyebrows raised in surprise.
“Close the hub, no questions.” Malik continued.
Garren snapped into action, he tossed the seal to his subordinate shouting, “Close the hub, Edict 3715-A”
The subordinate caught the seal, clearly shocked. He shouted orders at the men and they too ran off with urgency. Garren had also set off with urgency.
Malik did the calculations in his head. There wouldn't be too many people left waiting for a ride on the transportation plates at this time. The 50 or so soldiers would be effective at shutting down the hub for at least a little while. He grinned slightly about Edict 3715-A.
“No citizen shall cross paths before the Emperor unclothed whilst unclothed and wielding both a chicken and it’s spawn.”
Malik hoped no one would call the bluff. He recalled the edict from one of his command classes, it had been used as an example of conquered people. It had been considered an insult by some forgotten tribe who’s name would be a point of argument for scholars until the end of time. Malik had often wondered what the spawn of a chicken referred to. Was it a chick or was it the egg?
Malik went to the barracks to retrieve the last member of the scouting party. When he arrived all he found was the night watch sleeping. Astyr had picked the assignment for herself. She had always been a bit of an assertive personality, but oddly enough she took great pains to always stay out of the way. She was never hard to find. He strode simply to the barracks. He knew exactly where Astyr would be hiding.
They had gone to command school together, back then she had been a little more open as a person and quite friendly. Malik had always had felt some form of attraction to her. They had seen a lot of each other around that time and had nearly become an item. Without notice, however, Astyr dropped the command school and had virtually disappeared. They had managed to write each other and stayed in contact, but there was a noticeable cooling to their relationship. When the surprise command of the base had been thrust upon him, and due to the nature of his assignment her name had come up as someone he needed.
The door to the janitorial closet opened smoothly with barely a creak. Malik had seen the mark that was near the door indicating this were the right one. The shelves were filled with various cleaning supplies, odds and ends and various other items just needed to keep the barracks clean. The bottom most shelves were quite dim as the light from the outside room filtered in but as Malik looked up to the top of the room, the shelves grew far darker as most of the lights were disabled. He paused for a moment, holding his hand over the marked switch tentatively. Would it be worth it, just for now?
“Don’t even think about it, old man.” Her voice shot out of the darkness.
Malik suppressed a jolt of surprise, and moved his hand away from the switch.
“Was it my keys this time, old woman?” he asked.
Two orbs lit up in the darkness, near the ceiling. They dropped to the ground accompanied by the light sound of boots hitting the ground. Astyr came out of the closet, her eyes dimming in the light. Her uniform was slightly crinkled in a few places because, as Malik figured it she had probably fell asleep in them. She had no command dots underneath her eye and only a single half honor bar on her neck.
Malik had known exactly what the half honor was for. Astyr was enhanced. After leaving the command school she had volunteered to be enhanced. Like Malik she had also been handpicked for her position. She had shown great affinity for combat through the meager courses given at command school and was snatched up as quickly as she could. The enhanced were near mages with their rune work, however, unlike mages no ,actual runes were embedded into their skin the only work that they had ever received were just etchings to improve physical aspects of their individual focus. He knew that like mages she was stronger and faster than most of the soldiers on the base. He also knew, only because it was quite obvious, that she had also acquired excellent night vision. There had been also general boosts to her other senses either through intense training or- through the application of etchings.
For the most part she seemed to enjoy her time at the fort, she hadn’t seen actual combat because of the long time spent training for both her assigned job as well as the actual training that was required to allow her to use the full range of her new etchings effectively. She would occasionally use her abilities to dispatch dangerous wildlife around the fort and for a generous reward, for the nearby town as they moved.
In the light could make out the faint lines tracing across her face. Thankfully unlike the mages the enhanced didn’t undergo the full effects of aging and physical atrophy that the mages did, they did still get effected in quite the same way, just to a lesser degree.
“What brings you to these parts?” she asked.
“I need you in my office.” Malik replied.
“I bet I’ll be there first,” she winked as she left, walking a little too fast to be considered a walk, and a little too slow to be considered a jog.
Malik knew he wouldn’t be able to match her speed, and walked back to the central building at a much slower pace. All the same though, he hoped he locked the window, just to be the first there this time.
Malik had tried his best, but He wasn’t as young as he used to be. He’d put some strain on himself with the brisk pace he set walking from the barracks. It was nowhere near the speed that Astyr could go without breaking a sweat. He could feel the burn of the muscles from his walk. He hadn’t pushed himself out of breath, not broken a sweat. All the same He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and whipped it across his brow to catch any perspiration. Satisfied he pocketed the cloth and opened the door to his office.
He looked at the assembled people as they all from their seats. The simple joy of socializing wiped clear from their faces as they greeted Malik in their official capacity. Garren stood stiff , the closest to Malik’s desk. Next to him was Laudislaus, the paper pusher himself. His uniform was as immaculate as it had been before. The man had tried to stand as stiff as Garren, however the effort was there. They were standing along the edge of room on the least comfortable chairs that, as far as Malik was concerned, should have been banned as torturing equipment. Astyr held a less formal stance, standing in front of the desk before one of the pair of plush chairs. Malik was quite impressed as she had beat both Garren and Laudislaus to the office.
Somehow Astyr had managed to gather her gear in the time that it took her to get to the tower. A pair of goggles hung loosely around her neck, their lenses darkened and covered with a thin film to reduce any glare. Her short bow was currently leaning on her chair. She wore a hooded poncho covered in a pattern to simulate the leaves of the forest. Around her waist was her quick draw quiver. It had been concealed on the poncho. It was clearly full, seeing the arrows packed neatly inside.
He motioned for them all to be seated as he got to his desk. It had taken far less time than anticipated to get everyone together. He was a little disappointed by the fact that for the most part Astyr had managed to get to the office than he. Malik was quite certain that many of the windows had been locked. Even then the windows themselves were quite a bit smaller than she was. He knew any questions about how she managed to get in would be met with obfuscation and vague answers. It happened in the past and he learned eventually it wasn’t worth it.
Once Malik had reached his seat and settled comfortably They sat in silence, casually regarding each other. Malik knew Klaas was quite punctual, and would arrive the moment that they had agreed on previously. With a casual glance at the time piece fixed above the office door Malik estimated that there were roughly twenty minutes left for them to kill before Klaas would open the door casually, as was his custom.
“It’s going to get a little bit more crowded in here.” Malik commented to himself as he attempted to fill the silence that he knew that would quickly fill the room.
Both Garren and Laudislaus shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. Astyr simply stared at Malik, unmoving in her chair. Here eyes were back to brown and any hint of the glowing that he had previously witnessed was gone. Malik half expected her to break into a grin and tease him about being too slow, but knew that it would never happen. She had definitely picked up some odd behaviors he hadn’t quite managed to get over. There was always and odd disconnect. Sometimes it was like she was always the same person he knew, but then others it was a sudden switch and she was an entirely different person. He’d be lying to himself if he said that sometimes she didn’t unnerve him.
“Garren, what’s the status of the men?” Malik asked, even though he already had a sense of the answer. He just wanted to stop thinking of Astyr for the moment.
“They’ve departed, sir.”
Malik nodded, casting a sly glance to the clock. He caught himself before he started to drum on the desk with his hands and switched to pulling paper from the in-box that was piled on his desk. He read through a few pages, stamped his approval and placed the completed work into the out-box.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer,” He said moving onto the next form. This one would take less time. It was a single page. It looked in order. The stamp seemed louder than it would have been normally. He used the opportunity of putting the second form in the out-box as a chance to glance around the room.
Garren and Laudislaus both looked uncomfortable, however Garren seemed to be having a hard time concealing it, shifting in his seat more than normal. Laudislaus seemed to be having it much easier, sitting relatively still compared to Garren. To Malik’s relief they started their conversation again, a light hearted discussion of local amenities of the town nearby. Astyr looked almost to be melting in her chair Malik felt a small sense of relief that she had stopped staring at him and had closed her eyes. Her face was still expressionless, but at least the discomfort of the blink-less stare was gone.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He continued working on the paperwork determined to make some use of the downtime that he had. If he was going to be sitting in his office for 20 minutes he might as well do something, even if it was something that he clearly loathed. An eternity later, Malik heard the quick knock and opening of the door that had become his signature.
“Magister.” He simply stated. After he had finished examining the form he stamped it and stood to greet the man. The report wasn’t anything quite too interesting, but old habits die hard. He liked to keep Klaas on his toes with pointless things.
The two scryers from earlier were standing on either side of Klaas Unlike before they were clothed. Both scyers wore metal clawed gauntlets. They were both quite shiny as if they had been recently polished. Silver lines cut across the steel surface, in odd patterns that were unique to each gauntlet. Loose silver chains emerged from the knuckles of the gauntlets where they were woven into a loose lattice along the scryer’s upper arms. They each wore a muted purple cloak with a comet pin affixed to their shoulder. Klaas had the similar cloak except he did not have the gauntlets nor the loose lattice of silver chain around his arms.
“I’m surprised by how many people are here” Klaas stated. “It’s quite cramped.”
“We’re closing down the hub with an edict.” Malik replied, “3715-A.”
“Oh?” Klaas’s eyebrows raised with mild shock. “That’s quite interesting.”
Klaas then decided it was best to jump straight to the issue and briefed everyone in the room. He went into excess detail, much to the chagrin of Malik. Once Malik was certain Klaas had reached the end of his information he broke into the orders. With the group of men being sent ahead of everyone else, Malik wanted to make sure that there was some sort of a perimeter around the anomaly in the transportation lines. Malik would travel with Klaas and the scryers and a small squad of Astyr’s scouts. Laudislaus would accompany them. While he didn’t look like much he had been one of the original team that had been used to survey the area, he was the most knowledgeable out of them all as to what was where.
Malik was determined to go, because he felt that to best understand the correct course of action he would need to see, for himself what exactly was happening. Klaas had been set with the same mind. He first weakly objected to see Malik’s reasoning behind this, and quickly jumped into agreement. The scryers themselves were to measure any magical interference, may it be with the transportation line itself or any other possible cause for the vision black out that they had all experienced. Their second objective would be to determine where a safe perimeter could be established leaving just enough room for them to do their work uninterrupted. Astyr and another group of her scouts were to go ahead of everyone else to make sure things were clear. If anyone were to be attacking, Malik was confident that Astyr would be able to warn them in time. He was even confident that Astyr and her scouts would arrive at the hub before even the 50 or so soldiers that he had Garren send out before.
They were able to speed through their planning as both Klaas and Malik had already put a lot of thought in what5 they needed to do. Satisfied that they had covered everything they broke they broke apart to prepare to leave. Astyr was the first to leave.Malik watched her half wondering where she would exit the tower.
Malik was glad that they were all leaving the office. With the addition of suits of armor it felt like there was a group of 9. He started to second guess himself on the choice of offices. The only thing limiting him was the fact he couldn’t justify not moving his desk along. It was quite fixed into this room, and no matter how many times he had tried to move it, it would not budge. He finally decided to bring it up with Klaas later. If anything, he probably knew more about the tower than anyone else living. Malik was getting quite tired of being stuffed in this small office, even though he really had no one to blame but himself. He’d start buy moving some of the decorations through out the fort or maybe just removing the decorations altogether. He was the base commander. He had to have at least some say in how things looked.
They left the tower and were greeted by a group of Astyr’s scouts at the entrance to the tower. They each were wearing the same sort of clothing that Astyr had been. The fact that scouts had been there to greet them was a good indication that Astyr would already be long gone. The scouts had been kind enough to bring a sword and some light armor from the armory for both Malik and Laudislaus. It really hadn’t been much, just some simple pieces that had been designed to slide over their armor. It was more for decoration than anything.
Magic had almost rendered hand to hand fighting all but obsolete. Malik was quite confident that Laudislaus had better training with swordplay than he. Malik had been one of the last classes still educated on fighting hand to hand. With mages and inscribed weapons coming into play, anyone unlucky enough to be fighting with a simple sword and steel armor would most likely cease to exist before he even had the idea he was supposed to be fighting. The empire had come into power with the direct application of magics and their practical uses on the battlefield.
Malik and the group went to the stables and received some horses. The scryers both wanted to ride the same horse so they were obliged. Everyone else had their own horse. The scouts however declined. The group exited the fort leaving Garren to organize the remainder of the troops and to assign a group to keep the fort itself manned.
It hadn’t taken them long to reach the tree line, it had been pushed back somewhat from when the tower was initially discovered. Once they were at the tree line the scouts disappeared up into the branches. The scouts were quite nimble when it came to traveling through the trees where they had a better view of the surrounding area and could keep track of anything that might develop into travel as they continued on to their destination.
The road to the fort stayed the same. It had the same twists turns and curves that Malik had been introduced to when he first accepted the assignment. There had been the option to open up some of the minor for transportation lines from the nearby farming communities to the fort but Klaas had been quick to shut those down. The barrier that had been pushing off the natural vegetation of the forest would have either disrupted or been disrupted by the minor transportation lines. The hub itself had been a a far enough distance that they never had to worry about any cross interference but a minor line, even the smallest type, would have been a poor idea.
It had isolated the fort at first, which hadn’t been a bad thing. It allowed Klaas and his teams of mages to continue their research and development without too much trouble. When the vaults were cleared it had caused quite the headache logistically though. The small twisting road Had only been made to accommodate the occasional group of travelers, the convoy of sensitive materials that had left had, in addition of the large volume of people transporting them, needed security to the objects to make sure that nothing would be lost and it would all be accounted for.
The removal of the items from what had been called the vault went off without a hitch. The whole operation went through smoothly It was a fact that both Malik and Klaas had worn as a badge of pride. Malik had even received a mark of honor, which he proudly displayed. The empire had become quite adept at transporting sensitive materials across great distances. Many of the materials had just simply been transported out by carts and specialty crews, but the more vital items had been secreted out by actual construction crew that were used to build the fort itself.
The empire had a history of collecting and spreading the magical artifacts throughout itself.c More recently it had relied on the transportation networks that were pretty much the backbone of the empire itself. Before the transportation lines there had been many other methods that they had used to spread the materials out for research and development. It had become a great priority for the empire for such a long time that it was usually expected that at some point in a typical soldier’s life they would be involved in some way with retrieving some artifact obscure book.
Malik looked around the road. He tried to catch a glimpse of the scouts that would be accompanying them to the hub. Whenever he thought he managed to see someone it usually turned out to be either some animal or his own imagination. As they pushed further into the forest, the trees grew more dense and the light dimmed as there were more leaves filtering out the sunlight. The road itself had been properly established at this point. There had been less maintenance required for maintaining patrols along the road between the fort itself and Goldenleaf, and for that Malik was quite happy. The road still seemed to swing wildly seemingly at random intervals. The odd hills and curves had been mostly smoothed out, but the wild nature of the road had been quite hard to subdue and it still seemed to peek out whenever it had a chance.
Malik had expected the soldiers to be mounted, although the speed at which they would have been moving wouldn't have put too much strain on the horses. So they decided to skip swapping horses at the way-station as well. Malik had wanted to meet them after the hub had been somewhat secured and shut down careful to keep the soldiers with a great enough lead.H knew that the mayor of Goldenleaf wouldn't be too understanding. Most of the income for the city was traditionally earned by selling food to many of the larger cities. It had been disrupted quite a bit from the construction of the fort. The money that the soldiers had spent in town had brought further complications.
The town had come into existence from the nearby farming areas. The two major farms had combined and owned the town for the longest time, as it was mostly the farmers themselves and a few other hundred souls that had decided to live there. Before the fort it was an easily forgotten town where everyone knew everyone else. They had gone through their growing pains mostly at this point as the fort itself had already been established for nearly 10 years.
What had drawn the researches were visions of unknown entities that lived around some forgotten ruin. The locals actively ignored the location due to local superstition. The first few researchers that had been assigned made little progress in exploring the ruins and many of the chambers underground and a large collection of the rooms in the tower had been sealed. It had taken a good number of years for the first seal to be cracked. Once first seal fell, the others quickly followed. It then became apparent that something important had been discovered.
They passed the way station, with little ceremony. The forest surrounding the way station had been thinned, mostly it had been to make pasture for the horses, and it had been nice to see the open sky again. Malik had never been a fan of the forest and the touch of the warm sun on his skin improved his mood quite a bit. The forest around the fort had always felt a little too cold to his liking. But just as quickly as the sun reached his skin, it fell away again. The forest once again engulfed him.
There had been local legends of men possessed by spirits of the forest roaming to catch travelers unaware. Malik had always equated the odd figures that were fighting the men on his desk as the creatures, but as with most of the researchers and soldiers were stationed at the fort they were quickly dismissed as fiction or wild animals. There had been cases of missing horses from the way stations pastures, but whenever horse remains were discovered there had been clear indication of wild animals. Beliefs between the soldiers at the way station had always been varied. There were wolves that had to be fought off initially when the way station had been built. They mostly gave the residents of the way station and their animals a wide berth at this point, mostly. There was an occasional attack perpetrated by hungry wolves.
Even with clear evidence, however, the stories would still circulate of creatures stalking the woods at night. The typical creatures described had been a man like creature standing at least four to five heads over man, stark white skin stretched over bones. The were said to wait for an isolated person and snatch them away to somewhere unknown. The stories always talked about farmers being grabbed from isolated farms, and with the addition of the fort, there had been new stories of soldiers either watching the walls our out on patrol being grabbed.
Mostly out of boredom Malik had asked a few of the scouts, and even Astyr herself, if they had ever encountered anything odd patrolling during the night. He had tried to obfuscate the line of questioning to get some kind of a candid answer Mostly they talked about the odd animal. Once Astyr caught on, however, she had taken any opportunity to spin a tale to tease Malik. He stopped asking shortly afterward, He didn’t quite find them as funny as she did.
Malik had only had a few reports of missing soldiers, and even with the small number of them reporting missing, they had always been found and reprimanded. Malik never had a case of full blown desertion. The soldiers that had been reprimanded had never had the issue again. The penalty for such a crime was rather harsh, and Malik would try his hardest to go out of the way for his men.
