Chapter 187: Chapter 187: Rekindled

May 16, 624

The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the terminal at the Treehouse was the absolutely enormous number of people moving around – formations marching to the massive doors installed in my absence, cargo crates being moved by groups of soldiers and a solitary warlock, people rushing about to report to their superiors. Only the wounded were being loaded into the Rail.

The second major thing I noticed when I walked out: another layer of wall was barely visible through the propped-open gate, even more buildings erected and soldiers milling about in the open area between. Almost a dozen buildings were already built and another two dozen were in progress from what I heard. Even headquarters was being expanded.

I had been kept relatively up to date while I was gone via Polly and Jasmine, but their text reports couldn’t really capture the scope of the changes. Around the original base, that wall of gargantuan trees was still standing – pitted and scarred with Bombardo craters, but even stronger from the magical metal reinforcements criss-crossing its entire circumference. There was only one gap where a tree had been cut down, a massive entryway set up in the void. It was rather… sad.

A series of monoliths also periodically dotted the walls, thick, almost-visible veins of power snaking up their sides. Heavy enchantments, layered one under another, shone to my Aura. I had been told that they were structures supporting defensive magic capable of protecting the base. How strong they were remained to be seen, but even from a distance I could feel the power radiating from the White Crystals within.

Jasmine was there to meet me when I arrived.

“Major Cooper. Glad you’re back. How was the vacation?”

“It would’ve been better if I had gotten to stay. You look like you’ve been having a fun time without me.”

I smiled a bit while glancing at Jasmine’s baggy eyes. She looked like she had aged another few years.

She scoffed.

“You got to skip the brunt of the load, you punk. Quite… exquisite timing on your part, huh?”

“I tend to be exceptional in everything I do.”

“That’s good to hear,” She smiled, “Very good to hear. Since you don’t have any luggage weighing you down, you can come with me then. I can’t wait to apply your exceptional skills, especially since that Authority 6 mind of yours is even sharper and faster than before.”

“... It’s not that fast.”

“But it is exceptional, hm? Come, I have a present for you.”

Jasmine turned on a heel before marching away, somehow rejuvenated compared to a minute ago. A bad feeling started creeping up my spine.

Sure enough, the first thing I saw when we walked into the war room was a shelf full of Orbs. The fact that all the details regarding the past week took up multiple Orbs was a slightly horrifying thing.

She patted the shelf.

“I want you to memorize these six Orbs by the 18th.”

“... I don’t wanna.”

“And I didn’t want to process an additional 14 thousand troops while also monitoring 26 recon teams, 12 of which are still active. Yet here I am. I’m alive at least, aren’t I?”

“Are you?”

“An admittedly contentable point. But at least you don’t have to draw up anything yourself. Have fun!”

She cutely went up on her tippy toes to pat my cheek before skipping off. Apparently my suffering had an invigorating effect on her, while my happiness did the opposite. That was the only reasonable conclusion.

I shot those Orbs a death glare before heaving a sigh. I would at least be able to test the limits of my mind now.

I grabbed one and infused my Psyka. Information flooded my Mind Palace, hardly having a chance to sit there before being absorbed and cataloged into more familiar charts and maps. There might’ve even been a spreadsheet in there somewhere.

A table with miniature versions of the terrain, the people, and the Scourge popped up in an empty space, playing out the events recorded in the Orb fast-forwarded. As it went, redundant and erroneous loops and repeats in the simulation were quickly corrected. It came shockingly easy. In fact, instead of being the daunting task I had thought it would be, it was almost enjoyable.

To see the big picture play out before me was majestic in its own way, but I soon figured out that the reason I was having such an easy time picking out the main details was because I had already been expecting them. It was like coloring a picture I had already drawn. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Everything was expected. It wasn’t just that nothing fell out of my expectations, but that just about everything that had happened was an unconscious prediction I had made before I left and during my break.

Expecting a range of possibilities and predicting specific happenings were completely different.

The realized predictions, reinforcement requests, and scouting all pointed toward one thing: a larger offensive, sometime soon.

It would’ve been unexpected to the me a few months ago, when we had initially sent the report in to the Kingdom, but it was now fully expected. The Kingdom had already chosen a path on the crossroads when they decided to reinforce the Treehouse instead of abandon it. There was no way that they wouldn’t be stubborn now after having invested mountains of resources into it. It would both kill their momentum and morale and demand even more resources to reorganize and ensure that the Scourge didn’t take advantage of the gaps. The Treehouse wasn’t in a super critical position, but letting a massive Scourge force move anywhere past their lines was a bad idea.

The most satisfying report within the Orb by far was one under Polly’s name, a mission that she headed not long after I left, that I had planned to start before Chief Reginold interrupted with his fatal return.

A recon mission in the mountains southeast of the Treehouse. There was minimal Scourge activity, but some feeling kept pushing me to check it out. I had suspicions and ended up letting Polly take the mission just in case. I didn’t want to delay finding something critical. Turns out, my gut feeling was right.

That didn’t make it good news. The Scourge had created another secret transport route. They had tunneled through a series of hills and assembled a force behind the Treehouse. The upside was that Polly’s team managed to discover the flanking force undetected, and they had yet to use any of those accumulating troops… but they were still there.

Scout patrols also reported increased encounters with Scourge scouts in the north, not to mention an obvious increase in fungal mat and Scourge camp density. They were grouping up in front of us as well, preparing to catch us in a pincer move.

In response, the Kingdom was preparing to attack. All the information gathering was toward that purpose. I just wish they had the same gusto while on the defensive. I wouldn’t have had to petition so much for recon if that had been the case.

Well, at least they were doing something about it.

The most surprising thing today though was the fact that I was able to get through all six Orbs in about four  hours. Less than an hour per Orb was fantastic speed, but I didn’t want others to know that.

To that end, I took three of the Orbs and disappeared into my room. It would make it look like I was working on them.

But in reality? I’d be searching my sixth Star. How sneaky of me.

I had found a plethora of new weapons right off the bat when I advanced, but I wanted to get a full inventory and a read on the era it put me at.

In all honesty, it wasn’t all to prepare. My curiosity had also peaked at the hints of the guns my sixth Star would offer. I wanted to know what I was capable of with my new Authority, and what these new weapons could enable me to do.

There were plenty of strike and recon missions going out and I could easily slip myself into one. I had no doubt that I’d be in the field pretty soon, especially since the Pathfinders and Snow Doves were hard at work. They were out at the moment but would soon be returning. I’d make sure I was with them next time they deployed.

Until then though, there was something I needed to do.

After my first day back passed, I went to go find Polly. She had been busy and was generally difficult to find, but I managed to catch her on a break.

I joined her for lunch and the two of us sat down with trays to eat.

“Good to see you back, John. I'm assuming Jasmine piled on some work for you.”

“Very eagerly, yes.”

I chuckled, chomping down on a chunk of chicken. The one good thing about knights being half the population here was that there was no shortage of dense foods, which meant meat. Perhaps they had magic animals buffed with Vigor instead of steroids or antibiotics.

Polly gave a small smile.

“We need to catch you up. Jasmine finally realized just how much you were doing when you left since she had to take up your roles. She even got a bit worried when her missions weren’t bringing her back as many results as she wanted.”

“Unfortunately I had taken many of the bigger recon missions into my own hands. The only one I had intended to carry out but didn’t was the one you handled. I’ve read the report, and it looks like the General is sufficiently worried.”

“Indeed he is, especially with the…” She quickly flicked her eyes around for any eavesdroppers, “Three dozen Bombardos. I think he wants to launch a major offensive pretty soon, but with the influx of soldiers, I’m not sure how he’ll handle it. Despite that though, he’s asked for your input.”

She eyed me a bit, and with my sharpened Aura I could clearly sense some displeasure.

“Your accomplishments are getting rewarded. I don’t think it’ll be long until you get promoted once more.”

“Well, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

I set down my fork and sat back, elbow propped up on the back of the chair.

“I suppose I had forgotten since I also partially stopped caring given the weight of what I had been discovering, but I haven’t exactly fulfilled my end of our detail. I wanted to apologize, as well as offer you a proposal.”

“Yeah? Not the apology, I honestly don’t care much. Let me hear your proposal.”

She leaned back and crossed a leg, mirroring me in my casual attitude.

I stroked some of the stubble on my chin, feeling the rough texture on my fingers. I had just shaved the day before too…

“I was given an offer while I was back at the Capital from what could be considered a sponsor of mine. He wants me to work for him and has enough influence to get my schedule rearranged so I can do so while also still fulfilling my duties here.”

“What is he, a Sovereign? You may not be high up in the chain but that’s exceptionally difficult to pull off.”

“He’s Sawn from, well-”

“Sawn Industries, I know. Now that I can certainly understand.”

She flipped on a dime, making me smile a bit.

“He wants me to work under him and enchant. I’ve known him for a while but he was especially adamant when I went to join the military after the Magisterium. I ended up turning him down back then.”

“You’re a fool. Any summoner would kill for that job.”

“Yeah, well, my calling was elsewhere. I’m not interested in just getting by. I’ve got a war to fight and I’m not going to shirk that responsibility. Either way, things have changed now. The deal Sawn offered is too good to pass up. I’ll be working one month on and one month off, going back and forth between here and the Capital. But he’s given me a condition.”

I looked Polly in the eye, focusing a bit and seeing all the tiny little details of her brown iris. Biology could be quite fascinating.

“I have six months to become a Lieutenant Colonel. If I start my new schedule, which will half my time here, my chances of getting promoted plummet. That means I want to get it before that happens. I want your help with that.”

“... You’ve been in the military for a year. It may not be nearly as competitive as the fight to become a General, but there are still plenty of people vying for the spot of Lieutenant Colonel. It’s quite the coveted position after all, higher than the other intel positions but without the responsibility of a Colonel. Squeezing you into that fight would be difficult, even with your proximity to the Generals.”

Polly rubbed her chin, her mind churning. She could already see why she would want to do this, as expected of her. Our minds may now be similar in power, but she still had experience. Plus, she was a smart cookie anyway.

I couldn’t do anything to work against Polly. She would want to do this not because I would hinder her progress, but because if she didn’t, I wouldn’t help her as much as I otherwise could.

I had proven myself to be good at my job. I wasn’t afraid to acknowledge my own strengths. There were reasons, obvious reasons, for why I had gotten so much attention. I took on a ton of work, did it all to a grade A standard, and went beyond to impress. I also knew how to grab opportunities. I had done it with the infiltration beyond the Pass, with Chief Reginold’s report, with the Bombardos. I had spurred the entire military into reinforcing a base and then doubling down on it. Nearly 100 thousand soldiers moved at my words, however indirect. I wasn’t unproven, nameless.

Polly wanted that on her side.

Even if I couldn’t do too much for her now, I could in the future. If she wanted my help, then she’d need to help me get this promotion. She needed to make me the fastest rising star in the military’s history, having achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in just a year, if not less than that.

After that? Not only would I stop taking the spotlight, but I’d actively shift it to her. She would take credit for all my hard work and exceptionalism, and I’d fade into the background. In fact, I’d probably be scorned. I’d take this promotion just to get pulled to the rear every month. The Generals would probably get pissed at me, thinking I conned them.

But hey, it wasn’t like I was shooting for anything much higher than Lieutenant Colonel, and even if I was, it would take years of work to achieve anyway. I wanted to ride this wave while it had momentum and squeeze out all I could.

Polly had obviously already run through those thoughts, so the two of us just spent some time in silence. I started eating again at some point to pass the time.

She finally spoke as I finished my chicken.

“... Despite everything, I think it’s possible. Alright John. I’ll help you get that promotion. Question is, how much can I trust you?”

“I may have stolen some of your thunder, but I’m not a liar. Even then, I didn’t take the spotlight because I didn’t want you to have it. As confident and amazing as I may be, I can still get caught up in heavy situations. I still lack some of the numbing that comes with years of this work.”

“That’s not a bad thing. You can be awfully direct sometimes too. Learn some rhetoric.”

“I don’t bother with that when it comes to people I trust. You deserve to know the unfiltered truth, and I want to help you because, like me, you’re good at your job. The military needs more people like you and I want to help you. You can do more than me. All I want is this quick promotion before slinking off to work enchanting. Lord knows I won’t get promoted after that.”

“Indeed. Don’t worry, I’ll get you that promotion. To that end, your name will start appearing on reports. You’ve gotten close to the Generals as well so there’s no need for my help there. I will help you get into some of these meetings though. I want you by my side at the very least, and I’ll go to you for some input if the opportunity arises.”

“I’ll take what I can get.”

I smiled and raised my cup, Polly doing the same.

They tapped together, both of us taking a sip.

“To a rekindled partnership.”

“Work on your toasts as well.”

She chuckled a bit, making me shrug and down the rest of my water.