Chapter 469: The Question

The winter weeks flew swiftly by, and a false spring was raising everyone's hopes. It wouldn’t be long before winter’s cold jaws clamped down on its neck, reminding us all that it was winter, but I was enjoying the nice day and the fine company.

By ‘The Sixth Legion is leaving in the spring’ Arachne and the rest of Command meant early spring, and there was a ton of running around and shuffling going on in the Legion as people got everything ready at the last minute.

We’d determined that I needed to lay relatively low. Plausible deniability was the name of the game. ‘Sentinel Dawn’ wasn’t going on the excursion out to the Han Empire. Sentinel Dawn would attract all sorts of ire. The Han could claim it was an invasion, although they were too far away and way too busy to do anything about it. No, more threatening was the potential prospects of the Wardens stepping in, my presence arguably a violation of the Treaty of Kyowa. The extreme reaction, one extremely unlikely, but who knew how political winds could shift and what chances opportunities would seize, would be a full-on outcry how ‘Immortals are invading!’ and ‘We must all band together and fight back!’

Extremely unlikely, to the point where we were still willing to go through with the operation, but weirder shit had happened.

Soldier Elaine was going to be a simple [Healer-Soldier], part of the 2nd Century in the Third Cohort. I wasn’t even the leader of the line! That was Nike.

On paper. We all knew what was up.

Pure coincidence that the rest of the line were all [Batteries]. They obviously knew what was up, but were selected partially for their ability to keep their mouth shut. Frankly, I was stunned that there were seven [Batteries] in the entire Legion with a reputation for discretion!

I was blatantly cheating though. Instead of getting all my gear packed up and stowed away on the line’s nodosaurus, I’d just teleported it all into [Vault of Ages]. I was also debating sleeping in there, given the extra comfort and safety, but that question was still up in the air. It would commonly reveal that I had a third element and more mana and magic power than a level 128 [Healer]should have.

My Deception Ring was set to 128, while my amulet was permanently displaying 256. If someone got through the first one, they’d see the second one. If they could sense they’d broken through a skill or enchantment that could fool [Identify], seeing the exact same class and level on the second round would just be evidence that there was a third layer.

There were levels upon levels of deception, a whole hallway filled with smoke and mirrors around my presence in the Legion, and that was simply what we were practicing on ourselves! I’d complained at one point that Arachne was going overboard, but that just had her laugh.

“I’m doing the bare minimum.” She said. “You haven’t even seen me get started.”

I wisely shut up at that point.

I had a dozen makeup kits hiding out in my [Vault of Ages] simply to modify my appearance, so soldiers that were a little more familiar with me wouldn’t instantly recognize me and rat me out to everyone else.

Katerina and the rest of her command knew about me, of course, but not even the tribunes had been told that I was hanging around. We still hadn’t settled on whether I was still the third in the chain of command or not if Katerina and Leonidus should die. I was of the opinion that if we got there, we were so fucked anyway and should be going back home.

We had a meeting to hash it out once and for all. The chain of command had to be crystal clear before we left - both to us, and to the troops. ‘Sentinel Dawn is third in command’, to me, gave a blatant message of SENTINEL DAWN IS HERE EVERYONE and was less than subtle. There was no plausible deniability.

A discussion for… I wanted to say another day, but sadly, it was for later today. Before that, a fun meeting!

I walked into the restaurant where the War Sentinels met once a week, and made my way to our room. I was a little early, only Tyrannus beating me to the punch. He had a long stalk of wheat in his mouth.

“Tyrannus. Anything interesting this week?” I asked the man, settling into my customary seat. The man thoughtfully chewed on the stalk for a bit before answering.

“Eh. A raiding party of a bunch of young elves from Tympestshard decided that Exterreri looked like a fun place to ‘party’ a little. Only killed two of them, managed to capture the rest. Letting the [Diplomats] sort it out. I’ll tell you the full story once everyone’s here.” He said. “You?”

I wasn’t quite vibrating with excitement, but there was a kaleidoscope of butterflies making my stomach their home.

“Sixth is deploying soon!” I couldn’t stop my voice from becoming a nervous squeak. I made sure to drum on the table with the tips of my fingers, not my nails. I didn’t want to drive Tyrannus and the rest nuts.

He gave me a knowing nod.

“Stole a few dozen of my favorite soldiers! Try to bring them back home alive, yeah?”

I got quiet and still at his comment, overcome with sonder. Each soldier had their own full, rich lives. They all had friends. Families. Favorite foods, children, social circles. They’d each spent hours upon hours working on their classes, agonizing over which skill to take. They all had a favorite memory, cherished moments, and embarrassments that cropped up at inopportune moments.

I’d need to keep them alive. I’d be looking at them and judging in a snap, judging in less time it took my heart to beat, if they would live or die. If I’d extend saving magics their way, or judging if their unwilling sacrifice would let me save three more.

I wasn’t even there yet, and the responsibility was already threatening to crush me.

“I’ll do everything in my power to.” I answered Tyrannus, who managed to successfully read into my somber tone. He didn’t say anything, but he did pour me another drink and push it my way.

He didn’t have to say anything. I was in rare company, meeting with the few others in the world who shared a similar burden.

The rest of the War Sentinels slowly trickled in, only Depths missing. Probably on a mission to the bottom of the Sea of Stars.

After a round of greetings, Tyrannus stood up and clapped his hands together, creating a deafening clap that silenced us all.

“Dawn here is about to deploy on her first full-Legion mission, a little stroll through the Han Empire.”

A few chuckles met his announcement, a couple of cheers in my direction. I clamped down on my anger at how callous they all seemed about it. It wasn’t a good time to start a fight. They knew - or they should. I found it hard to believe that people were just an abstraction to them. That they didn’t care at all.

Maybe they didn’t though? Enough people coming and going could inure an Immortal to the realities, could jade them to the fleetingness of a mortal life. It was one of Iona’s big complaints.

“We’ve all met and talked over the years, but for our newest member, advice before she goes! I’ll start!” Tyrannus proposed. I saw Queen starting to take out a deck of cards.

The Sentinel turned to me, and any joy was gone. He was all business.

“Never stop thinking about morale.” He said. “Doesn’t matter how strong your army is, doesn’t matter how big the other army is. Morale wins and loses more battles than anything else, and your presence in the Sixth can easily swing it one way or another. I know your thing is keeping people alive, and I know enough about the System and warfare to know you won’t be able to keep everyone alive. When making the call, consider the impact it’ll have on the army. A single standard-bearer does more for morale than an entire line of soldiers. The Primus Pilus can be worth an entire Century. It’s your decision.”

I absorbed Tyrannus’s words, and while they had merit, while I’d meditate on them later, I almost wanted to entirely disregard them. My goal was keeping people alive. I’d far rather the almost 100 people of a Century survive than Wren, simply in terms of lives saved.

But… if morale was high, that could create an effect where, globally, more people lived. A butterfly effect. Then again, if I started to consider the knock-off effects of who I healed and what they did too closely, I’d need to consider other parts of my [Oath] with knock-off effects.

Don’t heal the [Terrible Tyrant], he’ll murder more people as a result. Yet, those sorts of thoughts went against the beating heart of my [Oath], to render aid to those who needed it.

There was silence after Tyrannus’s advice, and Queen started to shuffle her cards. The most senior War Sentinel looked around, a little disappointed.

“Anyone else have advice for Dawn?” He asked. Calamity shrugged.

“Dawn operates so differently than most of us that my advice is worse than useless.” He simply stated, throwing a few coins into the middle of the table. “Nothing about dodging armies and hitting supply lines and agricultural bases is useful or practical for Dawn’s style.”

Flood gave a curt nod of agreement.

“Aye. No offense Dawn, but you’re closer to a [Primus Pilus] than a [Strategist]. Calm probably has better advice.”

The man in question looked startled, then thoughtful.

“Yes… large skills that turn the tide of battle?” He mused out loud. “I didn’t consider it like that, but yes, it fits. Bunker down. The Legions are fantastic at building fortifications. Try to get the Legate - oh the Sixth, that’s a Legata these days isn’t it? - to build a fort, and have them come to you.” He frowned at the thought. “Then again, you don’t exactly force a victory if they don’t come to you, so I’m unsure how useful the idea is.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“If the Sixth’s Legata can force people to attack them in the first place, she’d be building a fortification anyway.” Flood pointed out. “I know she’s mortal, but remember, we all started as one, and you don’t get old and grey in the Legions by being an idiot.” The woman knocked on the table, signifying Queen to deal her in.

I seized the moment to signal Queen to throw me a pair of cards. The top two cards were good, promising a strong opener. A little cheat, but - damnit! Queen dealt one to Flood, then one to me, then one to Flood again! My opener!

A quick pair of [Rapid Reshelving] casts ‘fixed’ my hand, although from how Flood and Queen narrowed their eyes, I wasn’t sure if I’d been fast or subtle enough. Especially since they were visibly and obviously giving out ‘loud’ tells - I knew both of them had the most perfect poker face when they wanted to.

Aw fuck.

Legion spoke up.

“We’ve talked about this before, but I’ll just say it again so Tyrannus doesn’t bug me. Disguise and deception are your best friends. They will figure out you exist. They will be looking for you. You need to find a way to perfectly blend in, hide your level, your class, your appearance. It might be tempting to keep changing how you look, but don’t do it. People much smarter than you or me are going to be actively on the lookout for that sort of thing, and ‘this one soldier keeps changing their appearance and nobody else does’ is something they can figure out with relative ease, which paints a huge target on your back.”

He glanced at Tyrannus who nodded his assent.

“Let me tell you a few stories about how I learned that the hard way…” He said, snapping a pair of illusions over his cards.

I smirked. He was overlapping with a card Flood already had, and the player order meant he was going to reveal first. Ooooh, getting caught cheating here was unpleasant.

“Hey! No! Not fair!” My protests were futile, falling on deaf ears. Strong hands gripped my arms and legs, not letting go in spite of all of my twisting and thrashing. “Legion was cheating more! He got caught more! This isn’t fair!” I yelled.

Tyrannus shrugged.

“Yeah, but you were more obvious, and need the reminder before you head out for the first time.” He gave the signal, and two of Legion’s hardlight bodies poured hot tar over me, carefully avoiding the mouth. Queen shook her head.

“Honestly, teleporting cards around? Right in front of our noses? Please, that was a terrible effort. Someone half your level would’ve caught on. This is just a good reminder to do better next time.”

I swore and threw a finger in her vague direction, twisting uncomfortable as the tar worked its way under my clothes, being stupid uncomfortable.

“Annnd down.” Tyrannus ordered, an entire barrel of feathers upended over me. I was placed down, crossing my arms and glaring at everyone. Flood had an evil grin as she popped snacks in her mouth, and Calamity was rolling his eyes.

“I hate you all.” I declared as I [Blinked] out of the mess, grabbing my clothes with [Rapid Reshelving] a moment later. “I hate you all so much.” The tar, without a body to support it, simply collapsed in a feathery heap.

A few coins traded hands, Queen being the smug recipient of most of them.

“She’s not dumb, of course she knows how to use her skills.” The Sentinel smugly informed the rest.

“I thought she’d have the grace to wait until we were at least gone.” Legion muttered.

“If it keeps you alive, it’ll be worth it.” Tyrannus said to me. Queen finished pocketing her winnings and flipped me another card.

I spent every ounce of focus on the spinning calamity, getting it into [Loremaster’s Library]

before it could detonate. Would Queen stop casually flinging those around?!

“Good job getting out so quickly. I’ve been thinking about your [Oath] and what I could make that could help. I wanted to do a mass-Ooze spell, but realized too many people fall over in a fight. You could easily drown someone, and that’s no good. Instead, that card will lay long thick strands over the battlefield, like super-sized spider silk, then quickly harden. It’s a little flexible, so people can still move a bit, but that makes it much harder to cut or smash apart. Hope you won’t need it, but now you’ve got a second card if you do.”

I was touched. I knew each card took Queen weeks or months to make, and she hadn’t given me a single hint until now that she’d been working on it.

“Thank you. If anyone has spare moonstones they need recharged, please, let me know.”

“Dawn. Welcome.” Katerina welcomed me into her office. “The rest of you, dismissed.”

The usual set of the Legata’s followers saluted and left the room, giving us a private meeting. Plausible deniability.

“We’ve all known this was coming for some time.” Katerina said without preamble, handing me over a thick set of papers.

I muttered a quiet “Thank you.” I wasn’t entirely convinced by Arachne’s philosophy that ‘manners made the Immortal’, but it couldn’t hurt.

“The exact details have been kept under wraps until now, to minimize the chance of the information making it to the wrong party too early, and in case various negotiations broke down. First and most importantly. I know everyone’s been bored during the winter, and most preparations are complete. We’re leaving in three days.” Katerina announced.

I nodded stiffly, all my plans gone in the space of five words.

“The Fiendish Ferrymen are going to be working in tandem to open a pair of portals for us to get to the Han. The way back we’ll have to figure out ourselves. Our best [Analysts], vampires included, believe that the Wei are most likely to win the war. Now, this is warfare, so nobody knows for sure, but we’d ideally like to be on the winning side.”

Made sense. We were fighting for levels, but nobody wanted to die. The entire exercise was pointless if we didn’t survive it.

“We have a contract with the Wei faction to act as mercenaries, and we will be working with one [Great General] Wang Jian. Now, if things change, remember. We’re acting as mercenaries. I am very willing to entertain other offers and switch sides if needed. We’ve all seen the weapons and armor being used, we’ve all drilled with them.”

Round shields over tower shields, and the spears had quite a bit more heft to them. The basic tactics remained the same, which was important for getting everyone up to speed quickly enough. The armor was totally different though, but eh, I took the approach that armor was armor.

“We’re calling ourselves the Ironbear Brigade, nominally out of Lithos. Now, onto the details of where we’re going. You’ve got the list of generals, information, tactics, and a few of the strategies we’ve developed. I don’t want it to pass, but bluntly, you need to know. If Leonidus and I both die, you’re in command, and you have to lead the Sixth.”

Fuck. I was going to be in charge.

I split my mind into four pieces, each one jumping to a different part of the document and reading. All my skills together meant I could get through the entire thing in under a minute.

I skipped directly to the ‘Sentinel Dawn is now in charge’ contingencies. Bless Katerina, most of them were variations of ‘announce what was going on to the troops, keep it quiet, and get the hell out of the Han Empire.’ It looked like we’d have to march out, which was less than ideal.

One plan that had my eyebrows shooting up into my hair was Operation Fortification. It called for the Legion to build one of their famous forts in a desirable location, and settle in. Start life over, half the world away. Become a mercenary company for real. Either integrate into society with a bend towards influencing the leadership and politics to be favorable to Exterreri down the line, or waiting for extraction.

They didn’t take the short view here. I could see how a powerful block influencing a country to be favorable to Exterreri could really pay off long term, but - ah.

Of course.

The plan called for me to rule, at first openly, then from the shadows, such that the people didn’t forget their roots or their mission.

I had no desire to become a [Governor], and I had a feeling it’d be faster and easier for me to sell off enough Immortality gems to pay the Fiendish Ferrymen to open a portal back home.

Another section of the package tore me in two. I couldn’t tell if it was serious or not. It was written like it was serious, but it was so over the top and absurd that I just couldn’t tell if it was another layer of the mercenary deception, or if someone actually thought it was a good idea.

Rules for the Ironbear Brigade

1 - Pillage, then burn

…

7 - Do unto others

…

13 - There is no ‘overkill’

14 - Violence solves all problems

…

The thirteenth point made me wonder if Artemis had written the manual, and they just kept going, each one seemingly trying to one-up the rest of them.

There was something nagging me about the consequences if these became normalized behaviors in the Legion and the active encouragement of it, but it was way above my paygrade and skillset.

The Han Empire had been doing well, once upon a time. A great [Emperor] overseeing his domain, peace and prosperity, everyone agreed he had the Mandate of Heaven. All good stuff.

Then he died, and a succession crisis occurred. Infuriatingly, the document didn’t go into the details of why or how, just the fundamental end result. I guess it wasn’t important for all of us here and now, but I was curious!

The empire had split into five factions, each one with a ruler claiming they had the Mandate of Heaven, each with their own colorful cast of generals.

The Chu faction had managed to seize control of the capital city. Everything flowed from Kun Ming, they claimed, it was the cultural and political heart of the Empire. Their position had them also defending the Great Wall of the Han, a check on raiders from the Ankhelt Kingdom. Interesting to me, they also touched on Rolland, and they weren’t too far from the old seat of the Valkyrie Order… as the wyvern flew. Wang Qi, Biao Gong, Zhang Tang, Xin - names and dossiers of generals flew past me. Haku Ka jumped out at me, simply because he was famed for having 100,000 prisoners of war executed… by being buried alive.

Note to self: Do not get captured by Haku Ka.

The Qin had the ‘instruments of state’, which mostly seemed to be the imperial seal, ring, and a few other trinkets that way too much importance was placed on. Nothing was mentioned about them being divine instruments, which implied that anyone else could just… make their own. It was a fairly weak claim to the throne.

More practically, they controlled the Tears of Vulcan.

The Han Empire was filled with dullahans, and I had to wonder if the name of the empire was derived from their name. Armor wasn’t just important to dullahans, it was literally part of their body. The Tears of Vulcan were one of the more practical magical spots in the world. Endless Lava bubbled up from the tops of the mountains, and slowly wormed down the slopes, before vanishing into the base. Somehow, they were always hot, always flowing, and didn’t count as conjured material.

The dullahans had harnessed the phenomena. Huge forges were placed over the endless rivers of Lava, the heat captured and controlled. Metals were harvested directly from the flows, and the forges produced tons upon tons of tools, weapons, and armor daily. Control of the forges was a major economic and military advantage.

Naturally, they were located near the center of the Han Empire, and bitterly fought over. Losers tried to smash as much as they could before being forced to retreat, and the report suspected that there was a significant shortage of skilled [Blacksmiths] who could work them.

Why leave a resource for your enemies?

Much of the fighting occurred near the Tears, and there was a whole section on them another thought process was working on.

The Qin generals were a little shorter. There was more of a mix - Meng Tian was a pure strategist with no known close combat abilities, while Wang Ben was an expert spearmaster. Kyou, with adamantium armor, who’d taken 100 cities. Meng Ao kept a smaller unit, but each soldier had fully enchanted gear, and Teng was rumored to never blink.

I was interested in the Wei. That was the faction we’d contracted to help out with. They claimed to have the true heir to the throne, and the intelligence report agreed - Han Long was the previous emperor’s eldest son. A footnote indicated that they believed Kyou of the Qin was an unrecognized bastard of the former emperor.

The other heirs who’d caused the initial succession crisis were mostly believed to be dead, but that didn’t stop the war at all. Apart from Wang Jian, the Wei also had Hu Shang, Lian Po who’d deserted the Qin, Lin Xiang Ru who was ill - I wondered why that made it into the report, I should poke around if I could - and Zhao She, who had a nasty reputation. ‘Kidnap family members from important people from the other side and strap them to shields’ sort of nasty, as well as having his entire honor guard fire upon an enemy during a duel he was engaged in.

Artemis would approve.

The Yan’s claim to the throne was the Dragon Banner, and there was an entire page dedicated to the artifact. In bold letters at the top of the page was an order.

SECURE THE DRAGON BANNER IF POSSIBLE. BELIEVED TO BE THE DIVINE ARTIFACT ‘THE SOLSTICE BANNER’.

The list of all the generals started to blur together. Wang He, Yang Duan He, The Lady of Death, Pang Nuan, who liked killing opposing Classers, Yue Cheng, Fu Di - each had extensive notes.

The Zhao were the last faction, and their claim was more practical.

They were the biggest. They lacked any of the ‘legitimacy’ of the other factions, but they had the most people, the most food, and the biggest armies. Meng Wu, Huan Yi, Zhao Kuo, Wu Qing, Ling Huang, and more were all listed.

The last note had me make a disgusted noise.

Great Generals are constantly dying and shifting sides, and promising individuals are constantly being promoted in the turmoil. Information may be outdated.

How was I supposed to track what was going on if people kept changing sides!?

The days flew by in a flurry of preparation.

The portal was a thing of beauty. Daytime here, yet I could see the night stars on the other side. It was wide enough for soldiers to go through eight by eight, and tall enough that a siege engine could be brought through.

Katerina had ordered no siege equipment. Loudly. Repeatedly. It was too much like invading. I’d seen enough parts stashed away in various wagons and strapped under nodosauruses to know that the siege geeks had no intention of obeying that particular order.

One day Katerina might call for siege equipment, and it’d be a ‘miracle’ how quickly it was assembled.

Actually - I bet she wouldn’t be. I bet there was a large degree of plausible deniability going on there as well, and I didn’t need to know about it. If I was in charge, we weren’t going to be breaking down the gates of a city. Unless something had gone tragically wrong.

Julius and Artemis had agreed to help hold down the fort while I was gone, the two of them considering it a sort of long-overdue vacation.

Auri was with me, of course, and she’d worked out a brilliant trick to not being seen. There were some flames that were almost completely transparent and invisible. Sure, it didn’t work against everyone, there were numerous skills that could let someone see her, and she still existed and was hot, but it was a great defense against casual inspection.

I was hanging back a bit when a flurry of motion caught my eyes, a number of troops pointing up into the sky. I shielded my eyes, my eyes widening in delight as I caught what they were seeing.

Fenrir! Which meant Iona!

Shit! Not terribly many people knew about Fenrir’s connection to me in the Sixth, but enough did. I stealthily slipped away - nevermind the rest of my line, and the soldiers behind me noticing a ‘sudden gap’ - going invisible and dashing to the other side of the Legion’s fort. I dropped my invisibility and started to signal up to Fenrir, flashing a harmless [Nova Lance] as a sort of landing signal.

I noticed there was no Nina.

Iona and Fenrir landed, but Iona didn’t disembark. She held out a hand to me.

“We need to go now to save some slaves.” She said.

Her words crashed into me, causing a brief freeze.

Did I go with Katerina and the rest of the Sixth Legion, on my job to help and heal people?

Or did I go with Iona?