Owin Castaway had been curious about the southern lands for decades now. Mostly, it was an idle curiosity, waxing and waning with his interest in other things and his general busyness. He’d entertained thoughts of traveling there, but had always discarded them as too risky or impractical. He couldn’t leave his party for that long, not all of them would want to come with on such an uncertain adventure, and after he met the Hive Queen and everything that followed, he was far too busy and bound to the new Empire to think seriously about it.

  Except now here he was, sent to the southern lands across the mountain by the Empress’ will.

  He’d known he had to hurry as much as he could while not disregarding sensible caution. The discovery Tim — now Prince Tim, he reminded himself — and his party had made was delicate and there was no time to waste for others to find the location, or those who had first found and made use of it to come try and reclaim it by force. Empress Regina had sent Zephyr ahead, and while the Thaumaturge was doubtless a more than competent mage, Owin was unsure how much he trusted him to handle this. Even if he was loyal, he was only a single man. He had said he couldn’t bring anyone with him traveling with magical means, which was probably true.

  But Owin and the elite fighters detached to accompany him were traveling quickly, too. A larger force was making its way over the mountains using the newly prepared, if incomplete, road. They would still have to contend with monsters, but he was confident they could make it across safely. Owin and his people, on the other hand, used the wings of the largest contingent of winged drone mounts — or perhaps flying drones in general — assembled since the war.

  They’d all switched mounts twice during the trip, at the safest locations they could find. None of the mounts were high-leveled enough to have gained sapience, clearly a deliberate choice — the Hive did not want to risk their necessarily more vulnerable people like this, he assumed — although all of them were close to it, in the late thirties. They managed to fly fast and high enough that they were mostly unbothered by monsters.

  Owin doubted any of his companions had ever been so high up. The world looked very different from such an altitude, even the peaks below them shrunk like lines on a map. He counted himself lucky to have the experience. Unfortunately, his first impressions of the southern lands themselves didn’t necessarily line up with the hopes he’d had for them.

  They were interesting enough, of course. Cities with neat and clearly magically aided rows of crops around satellite villages surrounding them like what Princess Janis had once called a fractal pattern. From above, it was harder to make out details, but on the ground he had seen a mix of races he wouldn’t have encountered north of the mountains. Not that they stopped at any of the villages or smaller towns. Crossing the mountains was only occasion for another mount change before they continued on.

  He had considered the route carefully. Some of his fellows had argued for stopping at the city of Veragles, which was probably closest to the mountains. However, it would still be a detour. Instead, he would prefer to travel to the site Tim’s party had found directly. Of course, setting down directly at that point would be an obvious hint for anyone that there was something to find there, and even traveling on foot was probably risky. The other option would be a city close by which might be friendly. Unfortunately, it was hard for him to know exactly how friendly any of them would be. Most likely, all of them would be alarmed by their flock of flying drones.

  Instead, they set down well away from any settlement in an empty field. One of the drones accompanying him would stay with the flock for now, while they traveled onwards on foot. If things went sideways, the drones should also allow for a quick escape.

  “Let’s get going,” he said, securing his pack to his shoulders and sweeping his gaze across the rest of his new party. Most of them were unknown to him, although he might have seen their faces before. Gwen and most of his former party had stayed in the Empire.

  “Yes, Sir,” his second, Dustin, replied. He was a Nerlian who’d fought in the Cernlian civil war, then in the war against the gnomes, and had meanwhile been made a Major in the new Imperial army.

  Not all of Owin’s men were soldiers, only about half. At least those were a proper unit, even if one recently assembled. The others were drones, Delvers who hadn’t enlisted in the military, and two mages with knighthoods in Cernlia.

  Owin spent more time looking at all of them than their surroundings, as they set off, though he tried to be discreet. He hadn’t had the time to integrate this ‘strike force’ as well as he might have liked. But all of them were seasoned combat veterans with the levels and Skills to show for it. Hopefully that would be enough. They marched quietly, obviously on the alert.

  It would be hard to find their target just from descriptions, but they had several good rangers with them, who quickly took the lead to sniff out the underground base, using Skills able to map underground terrain features as well. It was the reason two of them were in of this party. The descriptions Lady Galatea had provided did help, at least once they confirmed they’d passed over the right cities. Owin hoped the trek wouldn’t take long. They were all tired, and needed a good night’s sleep to be at their best fighting form, even with good Con stats. The mages were noticeably drooping, which was not surprising after the flight.

  “I’ve found them, Sir Owin,” the best ranger with the most applicable Skill, Lauris, finally spoke up. “At least I reckon so. Big underground complex going in several levels, only connected with one proper, long tunnel to the rest of the network.”

  “Good work,” he told her.

  “I’m afraid there’s more, Sir.”

  Owin raised an eyebrow. He knew her Skill, rare as it was, only worked in brief spurts with a long time in between. If you didn’t know where to look, searching anything for underground caverns was prohibitively time-consuming. It might explain why more people hadn’t stumbled on this base, since it was in the middle of nowhere. “Yes?”

  “I don’t feel lives or magic with the skill, but people are also made of material thicker than air and if there’s a big group of them in a space, I can sometimes tell. I can’t be certain, but it felt like it this time. At least a few dozen people overall.”

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  Owin stifled a curse. “That sounds like there’s more than just our people waiting for us here,” Dustin said. “Hostiles?”

  “Impossible to know, but it seems likely,” Owin replied. They would need to proceed with care.

  He made his party slow down a bit as they continued, staying closer together for protection. At the same time, he sent scouts ahead to try and investigate. They used a standard pattern, with two scouts out far, one of them ahead of the others to alert the rest of the group, and several in close guard around the main party. Lauris stayed with them while Marcus, their stealthiest scout, ranged at the tip.

  Owin tried not to get too nervous as they continued walking without any word from him or the others. In situations like this, his nerves always felt stretched to the bone. But he knew how to keep control of himself, keep them in check, and gauge the actual passage of time.

  He was just starting to consider swapping out the scouts when Marcus finally appeared in front of them, clearly letting an invisibility Skill fade. “Sir,” he saluted.

  “Report,” Owin asked.

  “I’ve found the entrance to the base, ten minutes ahead. The gate is open. There are giant golems guarding the path in front of the entrance, but not directly standing in front of it. Several warriors were moving around as well, all human men, wearing nondescript and non-uniform armor. There were no visible sigils or banners. I chanced a peek into the tunnel, and there are definitely more men inside, at least two dozen in the vehicle bay. I am uncertain about the deeper reaches of the complex.”

  Owin nodded. It appeared their enemies were hiding their affiliations, then. If they truly were enemies, he reminded himself not to take anything for granted. “Any signs of our allies?” he asked.

  The scout shook his head. “No, Sir Owin. I saw no signs of a struggle, and no drone, elf of either kind, or human with Delver or Imperial equipment.”

  “If they abandoned the base without a fight, they might still be lurking out here, and at least keeping an eye on it,” Dustin offered.

  That did seem like the most logical conclusion. “Right. Return to your scouting, see if you can’t make contact with them. Be careful, we don’t want to fight our comrades.”

  “Yes, sir.” Marcus melted back into the wide grass around them, although it shouldn’t be tall enough for it.

  Owin motioned to the rest of the group to keep moving, slowing down even further. They still wouldn’t be in sight of the entrance or the guards, but it was best to be careful.

  In the end, the others made contact with them before Marcus returned. Owin already drew his sword and had almost prepared a Skill before he realized that the shadow moving out from behind a scraggly tree at the side of the path was friendly.

  The dark elf raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “Calm, friends,” he said in a low tone that only just carried to them.

  Owin glanced at his System notification and nodded. He’d been briefed on everyone in Tim’s party, including Alvol as Oliren. Sheathing his blade again, he stepped up to the dark ranger. “It’s good to see you,” he greeted him. “We feared your party was lost after seeing the men occupying the base.”

  Oliren inclined his head. “Lord Tim took about half of our party to Iliucin before they came. Commander Anuis decided there was no point in fighting for it and ordered the withdrawal,” he explained. “We might have held them off for a while, but we were severely outnumbered and it was too risky. Instead we erased signs of our presence and withdrew as soon as we spotted them coming. I’ve been keeping an eye on the entrance. Most of us will be out scouting, but I can lead you to our current camp.”

  “Please do,” Owin nodded. “I would have made the same decision in her shoes. Less than ten people fighting against this force would turn out badly even if we have higher levels.”

  The dark elf only grunted in what seemed to be agreement, then motioned at them and turned to lead them off at an angle to their previous path.

  “How many do they number?” Owin asked quietly. “And have you found indications of where they’re from?”

  “Fifty men and eight golems in total, by our estimates, and unfortunately not,” Oliren replied. “We should continue speaking at camp, Sir Owin, sound still carries out here.”

  Owin nodded and fell back a bit, keeping quiet. He wondered if their camp would be much better. It probably wasn’t intended for a group of their size.

  They walked for about five minutes, until he guessed they were far enough from the entrance to not be noticed but still close enough to get there quickly in a hurry. There was a small copse of trees, looking a bit like an overgrown orchard, mostly olive trees he guessed, beside a small dirt trail that might have been made by game. As he passed the first few trees, he realized someone must have used some magic to shape the inner part, creating a more complete wall of greenery to hide the clearing in the center. Several people were sitting there, their packs carefully arranged to allow for a quick exit.

  Anuis Eltarianal turned and stepped towards them as she entered. “Sir Owin,” she greeted him, then dipped her head at the others behind him as well. “It’s good to see you.”

  “Likewise, Commander,” he replied, sweeping his gaze across the clearing. There were only two other people here, both human, the rest clearly out on patrol or scouting.

  “You should settle in, then we can talk,” she suggested.

  Owin nodded, stifling a yawn. It was like seeing a campsite and standing still allowed the tiredness to catch up to him. He pushed it away, set down his things and then sat by an unlit fireplace with Anuis, Dustin and their remaining officers.

  Unprompted, Anuis began to report what had happened. Apparently, Tim had left yesterday for Iliucin. The people they’d seen had arrived five hours later, mid-afternoon the day before, and Anuis had withdrawn the rest of her party, as he’d heard. They’d been spying on them since then.

  “Have you found any indications of where they’re from?” Dustin asked.

  The elf shook her head. “Nothing conclusive, unfortunately. The obvious guess is Iliyan. We’ve found nothing to confirm it, but also nothing that would question it. And their men’s appearance matches what we might expect for people from there. Or so I’ve been told, human ethnicities have never looked very different to me,” she added with a slight smile.

  “They do,” Ed spoke up, shrugging at Owin’s look. “They definitely look like people from the southern lands, I mean; dark hair and slightly darker, more olive skin. We’ve been here long enough I’ve picked up some impressions. Plus, they’re exclusively human.”

  “So they’re probably local, but it doesn’t confirm which city or country they come from,” Owin said. “We can assume Iliyan for now. The more important question is what they’re doing.”

  “So far, not much, from what we can tell,” Anuis said. “It’s possible that they’ve just been very discreet.” She cocked her head. “Will we get further reinforcements? We may be able to force them out with your strike force, but a proper century would be better.”

  Owin rubbed his forehead. “More reinforcements are coming, but they have to get across the mountains first, then get here. If that’s where they should head. I’d prefer not to start a major fight without Tim’s approval; he’s still officially in charge here.”

  Ed nodded. “He could have been back here today. But we don’t know when they’ll come back, yet, or with what news.”

  “For now, you should sleep,” Anuis added. “You’ll be no good in a fight exhausted. Perhaps we’ll get word back from him in the meantime.”

  Owin nodded reluctantly, but his tiredness was getting hard to ignore. It took the last of his energy to make sure matters were sorted and his party properly settled.

  He barely felt awake when he unrolled his bedroll and dropped into deep sleep almost as soon as his head hit his pillow.