Tristan headed through the streets to the west, while Eloise headed north, and Felicity back south. They kept in touch using the communication spells stored in their artificed items, and after a few hours, were able to track down the base of operations for the Alphinaud military. Surprisingly, the location was not unique in any way from the surrounding buildings, and Felicity only stumbled upon it because she saw something shiny in the window, had broken the glass, and saw tons of maps of the Demon Realm with markers that denoted military forces.

As they met in front, Tristan theorized. "It seems like a reasonable countermeasure to infiltration. Make all the important buildings look just like the rest."

"It would make spying tricky," Felicity quipped as she flew back through the now-shattered window and unlocked the door from inside. She pushed it open and then fluttered back up to Tristan's head.

Tristan went inside and scanned the space. A two-story building, that was thirty feet wide and fifty feet deep, with a door leading further back, and a set of stairs ascending to the next level near the back door. The entire room was dominated by tables, all of which showed various maps of the Demon Realm: a full-view map, close-up maps of different regions, some with tacks or stone, carved pieces that presumably represented military forces.

Eloise walked to one of the largest tables and stood, studying it. As she stayed put, Felicity scanned the room. "Looks like they don't have anything else except those." She pointed with her tail to a row of silver figurines that were on a shelf alongside dozens of stone effigies. "That's what caught my eye at first."

Tristan walked over and examined the pieces, finding them to be uniformly carved and even had small, etched words on the bottom that said the unit they represented. Cavalry, archers, desert wardens, he thought as he mentally read off the different units. And the silver ones look like commanders.

Those were labeled with names, and each piece was slightly different from the others. Seems like there were ten in total. None of them were in the field, though. He looked back at the maps to confirm that none of the silver pieces were set out. Which means that they aren't out and about. A thought crossed his mind. "Eloise."

"Hmm?" she looked at him.

"There's forces outside the Alphinaud borders if these pieces are anything to go by."

She frowned and scanned the maps across the room. "You're correct, if they were updated recently." She pointed to several pieces on the largest map that provided for a whole overview of the Demon Realm. "These ones are marked as "general", so I would assume that means just an indicator of the units being in that location." She then moved to one of the other maps that focused on a region of the realm. "As I thought. These ones are labeled by unit type."

"We could be expecting them to return," Tristan replied.

Felicity frowned and her paw-claw biscuits ceased. "I don't like the sound of that."

"What happens when they come back and don't find their Demon Lord? A ruined city?" Tristan asked.

Eloise sighed. "They won't form their own Demon House. If anything, they'll scavenge, then abandon. Head to another House's territory and pledge service." She shook her head. "Looks like we will not be able to bring them on board with our plans."

Tristan reached a hand up and poked Felicity's side. "Mind flying over the town and keeping a watch for anyone coming?"

"On it!" She turned invisible and flew through the open door.

Eloise pointed to the stairs, "You go up, I'll check the back."

Tristan did as she asked and went up the stone steps. The upper floor was split up into officer's quarters, and he went through each of them. All were identical in layout, with a small bookshelf that contained more personal items. Scanning different books, he found one that looked like a diary of recent events. He skipped past the minutiae and to the portions that were relevant.

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5th of Winds Season

Some of the patrols came back and were very haggard. The commanders think some new camp disease is going around. Quarantine was ordered, and they are outside the city walls in tents.

…

12th of Winds Season

The quarantine failed, and something is spreading through the city. White sores appear, and it is quite frankly, terrifying. Stramal has ordered that the whole city go into lock down, and we shelter in place. Food is being delivered to every door, and the units in the field have been sent word via summoned bat to stay away until notified.

…

22nd of Winds Season

The whole city is infected. These sores are so itchy. I've tried everything in the kit that we were provided. Rumor has it that after long enough, a person will just pop from the inside. I've seen a few of the other officers who have quarantined look a bit bloated.

…

30th of Winds Season

The lockdown broke for a short time. Some desperate people fled the city, hoping to escape the infection. Idiots. We're all infected. It's fucked up. Stramal has decreed that we won't leave and risk spreading this to the rest of the realm. He notified the Demon King, and hopefully we'll get some help.

…

32nd of Winds Season

I'm beginning to swell a bit. Everyone who is feeling too bloated is being ordered to go outside. I've…I've seen some of the others explode. It's disgusting, and I know the same fate awaits me. I think I might take the easy way out. Just jump from the window and land head first.

…

33rd of Winds Season

It's too painful. I can't take it anymore. I curse whoever let the fucking patrol back in carrying the disease. The fuckers who broke quarantine and infected the whole city. If they had an ounce of the resolve that Demons held, they would have stayed put outside and died in the sands. I'd wish a pox upon them, but it got them first. I am going to jump and end it all.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

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Tristan checked the other rooms and found similar journal entries in various diaries, and a few rooms contained the white ichor, splattered on walls, with chunks of foul-smelling viscera. Presumably, those who did not want to die in the street. He went downstairs and through the back doorway, finding Eloise elbow-deep in drawers, filled with reams of papers. "I found a journal. Looks like a group brought the disease in. Everyone quarantined, some groups broke it but order was brought back."

Eloise stood up. "Seems to track with the information down here." She gestured to the drawer she had been rifling through. "There's plenty of documentation here that seems to corroborate that narrative account. Mostly casualty reports." She clicked her tongue. "We're correct, then, that the Undying Realm intentionally infected the Alphinaud House forces. The disease was brought in and ravaged them. The few that got out ended up spreading it to the wildlife." She gestured to a closed window. "And now…it could be out there. Spreading even further."

Tristan's face settled into a frown at the idea of the plague harming innocents that didn't know of Duberceix's plot. "That's horrific. We need to warn people."

"I agree." Eloise led the way out of the building and back to the street. Tristan was right behind her, and Felicity flew back down to land on his head, turning visible once more.

"I didn't see anything, and I went up until it got cold and hard to breathe." Felicity flopped onto Tristan's head. "Bleh. Tired. I had to flap so much once the air got thin."

Tristan reached up and scratched her head between the antlers. "Well, we got the information we needed. They mentioned in the journal something about sending summoned bats to warn others."

Eloise nodded. "I can do the spell. It's just summoning at First Order and tying some messages. Let's get some parchment and we'll write some missives."

In total, they wrote six missives. One to each of the remaining Demon Houses, and one to the capital. All sent anonymously, but sharing the same knowledge. A detailed accounting of what happened, the fact that the Undying Realm was behind the action, Tristan's theory sans his name about that same realm attempting to undermine the Demon Realm, and the information on the two diseases that he had uncovered.

The process took about an hour, and then Eloise went to one of the walls and performed her summoning spell. Tristan watched in fascination as spectral, yellow bats appeared – each with their own little set of horns like what Demonkin had – and she tied the missives around each of their little feet. She glanced back at him as the bats flew in different directions. "I will have a limited essence capacity while they are manifested. But, once they reach their destination and the condition of the letter being removed is met, I get the essence capacity back."

Felicity clapped her paws. "So neat! That's something that I never had to deal with, though."

Eloise chuckled. "Eventually, you might. Some spells can be sustained by committing a portion of your capacity."

Felicity craned her head over Tristan's forehead to peer at him. "Did you know that?"

"I did not," Tristan replied as he crossed his arms. "Care to teach us?"

"I'm not technically a professor. But I can teach you that. First…" Eloise looked over the city. "We should probably burn this place to the ground as best we can. Purify by fire."

Felicity cackled with delight. "We get to burn it all?"

Tristan looked back to the large city of stone buildings. "This will take a while."

Eloise clapped him on the back. "Come on dragonslayer. Let's get to work."

The whole process of purgation took the rest of the day, but Tristan and Eloise with their fire elementalism, and Felicity with her transmutation and plenty of oil and alcohol she found in different buildings, were able to completely scorch the city. Not a single stone was left unburned. They chose to stay in the barracks inside the wall near the eastern exit. The next morning, they would begin their journey across the sands of Brightmarch and make for the Crescent Lakes where the Tousles House held the reins of power.

After setting the tent up, Tristan subjected all of them to the Cleanse spell to ensure they were free of the Creampox. "Thank The Matriarch you have rejuvenation as a spell type," Felicity said as she wriggled into the sleeping bag.

"Indeed. That heaven dragon's death was fortuitous," Eloise added.

Tristan had taken off his armor and was sitting upright, Omnitome in hand. "Time to teach me about this whole entire crucible trick."

Eloise turned to him, sitting cross-legged. "Well, you spin your crucible to push essence out, and that is how you fuel a spell." She raised her fingertip and whispered something Tristan didn't catch. A flame extended from the tip and stayed put. "Normally, you exude all of your essence into your body, push the essence into the appropriate limb, and with the spell phrase, you manifest the effect. However, there is an advanced technique. When you spin your crucible, you don't spin all of it. Only part of it." She let the flame go loose, and held a hand out for his Omnitome and pen. Tristan handed them over and she flipped to an open page, drawing a circle. "Imagine, just for the sake of this example, that you have ten units of essence. With me so far?"

"Yup!" Felicity had wriggled her head out of the sleeping back, and it had shifted to be very long as she snaked it around Eloise's shoulder. "But essence doesn't come in units like that."

"It's just to help illustrate." Eloise made a few small marks in set intervals, splitting the circle into slices horizontally. "Now, let's say that you need one unit of essence for a First Order spell. Instead of spinning your whole crucible and letting the essence flood into your body before directing it, you just spin enough of the crucible to let that one unit of essence out. That is how you can cast a spell and maintain it for an elongated period, instead of just the duration."

Tristan nodded in understanding. "Spells with short durations can be elongated. But if I have a spell that lasts for an hour, like Good Luck, then I might want to spin enough of my crucible to fuel the spell constantly and always keep it active."

"That is correct. It is an advanced technique, because you really need to be in touch with your essence crucible. You can cause spells to persist during sleep if you train your crucible to spin subconsciously. That takes decades of practice." Eloise handed back the Omnitome and pen, then turned to her bedroll and unfurled it.

Felicity snaked her head back into the Tristan's sleeping bag. "I think it's neat, but what spells would you keep on all the time?"

"Summoning for me," Eloise replied. "Having another pair of hands is extremely useful. Oh!" She turned to Tristan. "I should add that some spells cannot be maintained like that. Most elementalism, for example, is a one-and-done type of deal. Fireball, for instance. You can't keep that going endlessly."

What if…what if I could keep Cure Wounds constantly active? Tristan spun his crucible, feeling the full quantity of essence surge through his body. He directed it to the belt holding the artificed spell, and felt it activate. The spell did not do anything, because he was not injured. But, it allowed him to gauge roughly how much of his crucible he would need to commit in a constant spin. Closing his eyes, he visualized the now-slightly-depleted crucible in his mind.

The silver sphere was covered in crisscrossing lines of all different colors, each representative of a spell type he now had access to. Instead of looking for the luster, he envisioned something similar to what Eloise had drawn – small lines bisecting the crucible into different sections. To his delight, the crisscrossing lines began to shift and become bands around the crucible that marked it out horizontally.

Alright. Now, I just need to practice spinning little sections of it. He kept his breathing calm, and tried to spin just the top tenth of his crucible. To his frustration, the entire top half spun instead. He let the spin cease, and tried again. Over and over, feeling out the sensation. It was like trying to train a muscle that he knew was there but wasn't familiar with flexing.

After an hour, he stopped and opened his eyes. The tent was cool, but not frigid. Eloise was curled up in her sleeping bag, on her side, watching him. Felicity was fully at the base of Tristan's sleeping bag. "Any luck?" Eloise asked.

Tristan nodded. "A little progress, I think. You're right, it's tough. I've only been able to do a both-direction spin before. The top half spinning to suck in essence, the bottom half spinning to emit it."

Eloise cracked a smile. "That is a decently advanced technique. Consider this the next level up in difficulty. You'll get the hang of it, I'm sure."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Tristan replied.

He slipped into his sleeping bag, and Felicity scrabbled up his body until she was nestled into the crook of his arm, with her head resting on the nook of his neck. "Nighty night," she mumbled.

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