Madris had never really traveled into Esemen before. She couldn't deny that a part of her was excited to do it now. Of course, she would probably not see much of the country, the way she would do while traveling normally. The country itself would be too consumed by preparations for war. It could still be very interesting. Dangerous, of course; especially because she was already tired and had used up most of her mana. She would have to sleep soon. Presumably, the quarry she was chasing would do the same, though. Even if they used flying beasts for part of their journey, they wouldn't be crossing the country inside a single day. It was already night, anyway.

You should not forget that Lucas Clasen is in the Eternal Dark, she told Regina, thinking about the wider implications of leaving right now.

Trust me, I haven't forgotten. So you think he is involved in our enemies learning maps of the tunnel systems?

I don't see why he wouldn't be. It's an important gain for them, which would not be too difficult for him to get. At least he'd be well-positioned for it. The plans are supposed to be secret, in that not just anyone can access them, but they are not that secret. Hardly impossible in exchange for a few favors or straight-up bribes. And he's probably developed contacts in the western regions, those closer to his home.

Contacts who might now be active, or perhaps sending information back to him, her student realized.

Madris sent her a mental nod. Be careful with your information, that's all I'm saying. I won't be there right now, but I'm sure you can develop closer relationships with the local Eternal Dark officials on your own.

You're not supposed to be gone too long, Regina replied, a bit of concern in her words.

I won't be. You should simply strike while the iron is hot. Now, if you'd give some orders to the flying drones?

Already done. Do you need anything else before you set out? You're sure you don't want someone to accompany you?

They'd only hinder me. It's easier to only hide my own presence. And I want June back within Imperial borders as much as you do, I think. Edmund should return, too.

Yes, they've both gone above and beyond.

Madris paused for a moment. There was something in Regina's mental voice — ah, maybe it was like that. She was starting to have a certain suspicion, but made sure to keep it from the surface of her mind right now and didn't ask about it. She'd wait to see how it turned out without trying to meddle, or suggesting it. That was Regina's business and not something Madris wanted to poke her own head into.

Instead, she turned her focus on her surroundings to finish her preparations, and then to several people further away. Primarily those remaining in Prekan. She should at least check in with June and the others, after leaving them behind to chase their enemies. There hadn't been much time to actually talk with either of the younger psychics, unfortunately.

Please do be careful, June said earnestly when she contacted them. I'd hate to switch places. You wouldn't make as good a prisoner as a young princess like me.

You brat, Madris replied, but she didn't bother to hide the fondness in her mental voice.

You keep forgetting that Madris is high nobility in her home, Edmund said, hesitantly getting into the spirit of the teasing. Isn't it true that she could also be called a princess?

Madris smiled to herself, deciding to be amused rather than disdainful at being saddled with that title. Maybe if House Ulaven held any real territory, she replied. And if the Eternal Dark was a little less unified. Despite appearances, we're not actually a collection of principalities.

The feeling of June's mind turned contemplative for a second, but then their pretty little princess clearly made herself move on from the subject. She turned more serious. We have not had any diplomatic response from Esemen or the Westerns yet, correct? At least we are not at war, but it also doesn't give much insight into what they are doing.

Do not worry about me, June, Madris replied. If I am gone for much longer, you will need to take over for me at the excavation. We do need to get the monster activity under control, at the very least.

I won't let you down, June promised.

I know you won't. I will see you later.

If she lingered much longer, she would hardly get to leave at all, so Madris started moving. Of course, there was still one last thing to see to.

Since their two groups had met up, she didn't have to go far to find Zephyr. The man was standing above ground, watching the sky. She wondered if he was sensing the extent of the tunnels beneath their feet, although they were not standing right above one.

"I hope you still have enough mana," she said.

Neither of them needed to clarify for what, they'd both been informed of all details. She did like the efficiency of the Empire's operations. Zephyr smiled weakly, showing that he was probably cutting it close. "I can cast a good Haste in my sleep," he replied. "Better you than me out there, Lady Madris."

Madris only shrugged. She decided against needling him about that time she had snuck into his army's warcamp and kidnapped him. They were probably both thinking about it anyway.

Without further ado, she felt his mana wash over her and the Spell laid itself on her.

She turned to go, then paused. "You've done well, Sir Derrek," she said. "If Regina has any sense, she will know she can trust you by now."

The man raised an eyebrow in surprise, then half-shrugged, half-nodded. "I won't say no to that," he said. "Also, you do know I am not a knight. Eminent Mistress."

"I also know humans can use titles in different ways," she rolled her eyes slightly.

But it was really time to go now, so she tested his Spell by starting to run. As always, it was good work.

It would have been easier to fly, but she was confident that going on foot would be stealthier than using a flying drone. Regina had already promised to send several drones as high as they could go, then bring them down further inside the border of Esemen, so they could, if possible, come pick her up later, if she wanted to travel deeper into Esemen quickly. For now, Madris continued on her own, relying on her magical senses more than her psychic ones, for once. It was not outside the realm of possibility the Esemen had laid an alarm line, like the one Cernlia had maintained against monster waves.

It turned out to be a good thing that she was vigilant. It should have been dark, but the night was lit by stars and a crescent moon, shining down with more than enough light for not just a dark elf to see, but presumably also humans. At least those accustomed to it. But the border region was almost desolate; in the gloom, it looked like some forbidding moonscape. Wherever that word came from, she'd have to ask Regina. Madris stuck to lower terrain where possible, following shallow ravines where they existed. There was a road, used for trade, though not very much used now. She avoided it.

Madris found the first magical tripwire when she was less than halfway to the first Esemen settlement. She slowed down, then halted, focusing on her magical senses. It was long, but certainly not long enough to cover the entire area. There were several others, further off, though. They were staggered; not covering the entire perimeter at once, but still canvassing the field and probably crossing any direct path across the border. Still, it meant it was possible to avoid them. She followed this line until she found a weak point at the end, then used some of her mana, exhaling it to brush lightly across the construct, and jumped over the line. She held her breath and waited for a long moment, but it had worked. The mana didn't change and no alarm was sent out.

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From there, Madris picked her way more carefully forward. She detoured to the side, hugging one of the lines and slipping into the gap between two further ones. Still, she didn't assume she was safe, but kept scanning for more, better hidden lines. There was nothing to find, though. Apparently, the Esemen don't expect the Empire to attack from here. Which made some sense, strategically.

Or they had simply assumed they'd see an attack coming and didn't need alarms. As Madris finally neared the actual territory of Esemen, beyond where a border might lie on a map, she conceded that they had clearly made decent preparations. Unlike the Empire's preparations, they were apparently not even building fences, but there was an obvious outpost or fort of some size. Still a little too small to be called a proper castle, though it was obviously a fortification to anchor the border. While she was curious to see what it looked like up close, Madris decided not to risk it — she didn't want her little trip to be brought to an end this quickly — and instead kept her distance from it, going in an arc around the fort.

She could still sense people on the walls; the night guard. They were just humans, though, and they had little chance of seeing her in the darkness from this distance.

More interestingly, their psychic signatures matched others she was picking up from farther away. In fact … yes, now that she focused on it, there were very similar patterns in both directions parallel to the border from outpost. And beyond. They had clearly built a line of fortifications. The Empire had, of course, been aware of at least some of those in principle, but it was good to get confirmation.

Madris passed them by, making sure to stick to the darkest regions and to mute her psychic and magical presence as much as possible. It did not take long to see the first villages and towns, which she avoided for now. Instead, she tried to find King Stephen and the Order of the Sun Temple fighters with him who had escaped from Prekan. Unfortunately, it was not as easy as she had hoped.

She was starting to get tired, the effects of the Haste Spell slowly wearing off. She had hoped that they would be at least as tired as her and stop somewhere to sleep after their escape, maybe in one of these little towns. That didn't seem to be the case. They might have already been picked up and perhaps flown somewhere else.

Madris stopped inside a small glade of trees, letting herself drop to the mossy ground and trying not to slump in relief. She closed her eyes anyway and took a minute to gather herself. She hadn't felt this kind of exhaustion since the War of the Coalitions. Which she usually avoided thinking about. Promising herself to examine her feelings in more depth later, Madris instead focused on the outside world, casting out her senses to locate her quarry.

There. It was, in the end, not too difficult to find them. As she'd expected, they were still traveling, and in a large enough group that it was hard to miss them once she looked in their general area. Well, the group she found only seemed to consist of the king and a few senior people from Prekan and the Order, so their number had been greatly reduced. Over half of them were currently asleep, making their minds harder to detect; including the king, who was the most distinctive and thus should be easiest to find, which probably explained why she'd missed him at first.

Madris opened her eyes, stood, stretched and kept walking. At the same time, she focused her attention on the sky above her and called to the small group of drones she found.

She had to slow down and wait at the edge of the small wood; it was easiest to hide here. The drone that finally set down in front of her was an unusual specimen, clearly the product of Regina experimenting with them again.

She was not an expert in biology, but the 'construction' of its ribcage clearly hinted at increased lung capacity. Its shell seemed thicker and more widely spread than most drones, rougher to the touch when she reached out. Its limbs were thin and stubby, the base of the wings broad. She could sense overwhelmingly from the drone that it was cold, even now, despite the adaptations that should have helped it deal with low temperatures. It must have flown quite high on its Hive Queen's orders. High enough to avoid detection.

Madris climbed on a bit gingerly, patting the drone. "Keep flying northeast," she told it. "I will show you the direction. Alert me if you sense anything out of the ordinary or any other people at all."

The drone just looked at her, and she sighed slightly. "Up."

It crouched slightly, then jumped into the air and beat its wings. Madris leaned forward, downright lying on top of the drone. It was surprisingly comfortable. She was glad she'd dressed warmly despite the running, making sure her jacket was closed and pulling on her gloves from a pocket. Then she closed her eyes, searched for the drone's mind and imprinted on it the location of their goal — the city she was fairly sure her quarry was traveling toward, the central hub of this part of Esemen.

Then she tried to sleep for a few hours.

It worked surprisingly well, despite the awkward position and the wind. She was exhausted and had slept in worse places; besides, mastering their own mind was always the first step to mastery for a psychic. However, the skill to truly control her dreams still eluded Madris — and anyone she spoke to, no matter what they claimed — and her dreams were uneasy, plagued by new shapes and scenes. Instead of any coherent story, even a bizarre one, they were just chaotic, disconnected flashes and sudden surges of emotion.

As she finally woke fully and blinked the sleep from her eyes, she knew the reason. She had battled Helen inside her own mind. While she'd been more focused on neutralizing and subduing her opponent in the present, inevitably she'd picked up details from her mind. Including quite a bit of useful information she had already passed on to Regina, but also more personal snippets of life, if there was a difference.

To the pits with it, I still like her a little, Madris admitted to herself. Helen had not been her favorite student, if she'd had any, but Madris had respected her drive and ambition. She did not like the idea of Helen getting killed, even if the woman deserved it.

Someone else who'd seen Regina's decisions over the years might doubt whether Regina meant to execute Helen, but Madris didn't; she knew the Empress better than that. No one would protest Helen's death and she was an active threat; Regina wouldn't hesitate at all to chop off her head. Ironically, she might be more hesitant about trying to wring out every drop of information from her first.

Flying all alone above the clouds over Esemen, Madris had too much time to think. She pondered whether she had let her feelings get in the way. Had she, however subconsciously or indirectly, allowed Helen to escape? She didn't come to an answer that satisfied her.

A low trill from the drone brought her attention back to the present, and Madris instinctively looked around to see whether anyone had heard them, but they were alone in the sky. She was confident she would have sensed it and woken had they come close to any other people, anyhow.

But now they were approaching a large city.

Resting had allowed her to regain some strength, at least. Madris readied herself to apply a subtle veil over herself and her mount as they continued, and searched for her targets again. It seemed she was just in time; they'd just entered the outskirts of the city and were now making their way farther in. It would be interesting to see where exactly they went and who they talked to, but that would still take a bit of time.

After a moment, she closed her eyes and connected more closely to the mind of the drone. Its eyes were better than hers, especially when it came to seeing from this high up, and she asked for its vision of the city.

Immediately, it was obvious that the Esemen were mustering military forces. A sizable army camp had been placed just outside the city gates. It was not surprising, although she noted the separation. By her estimate, at least ten thousand solders were inside the camp; more of them could be in the city, it was hard to discern them from the minds of the populace at large. There could be up to thirty thousand men here, but this was not likely to be their sole or even main force. They also had an impressive, at least by past standards, collection of tamed monsters and flying beasts.

None of that was altogether surprising, so after Madris was sure she had impressed the information in her mind, she moved on.

She tried to look for King Stephen again, but then paused. His mind was slightly distinct — interestingly, not as much as his mana signature was, if one looked closely, but still just a little. And now, looking deeper into the city and trying to sift the minds of the people there, she had picked up several ones distinct in a similar way.

Several more … and then even more. There were quite a few here. Half a dozen … no, over a dozen people.

Champions of the gods.

She blinked, sinking forward to lay her cheek against the shell of the drone, and looked at the city below. We thought it was just special circumstances and an important choice, and I suppose it still was, but Stephen is clearly not the only one Gediarno selected. And the same goes for the other gods.

If there were already so many Champions here — even if you were generous and assumed that most of the Champions in Esemen or beyond were gathered here, perhaps joined by a delegation from the Western Confederation — there were probably still more elsewhere.

This was unprecedented.

Madris sighed. Her priorities had changed; she'd try to send a message back, and she also needed to be careful and return quickly to let Regina know. This was clearly vital information about their enemies' strategy. Trying to compensate for technology with divine power?

Hard to know whether that would work or not.

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