Cultist's Camp

Bernard was listening to Zeph's description of the cultist's camp with disappointment. It wasn't their main base. A large defensive barrier was formed around the camp, but Rin was able to pass without alerting anyone. Through Rin's eyes, Zeph saw a few makeshift buildings and animal pens that were made of earth magic. The only demons there were lesser demon familiars. There were a bunch of tents scattered throughout the clearing. What really caught his attention was the field full of beasts. They were separated into large pens.

The place looked like they had been there for a while, as there were obvious paths between areas created by foot traffic. It was surprising, the number of magical beasts that they had managed to capture. They were taking anything and everything they could that might be able to fight. Zeph saw a few wind weasels and other creatures that he hunted when he first came to the world. There were also many new magical beasts that he had never seen before like gold colored tigers that let off hazy waves of heat and a racoon-ish creature that gave off sparks of electricity. More magical beasts than he could count were held near the camp and they looked drugged or dazed.

Rin stayed low as she ran between cover. Apparently, all the times she snuck up on Bianca in the kitchen to steal food was paying off. She had a good grasp of her surroundings and was able to avoid everyone. There were a few close calls as she rounded a corner only to come upon an unsuspecting cultist, but she was able to back up silently. Eventually, she came across a social gathering spot. Several cultists were sitting on tree stumps and rock chairs chatting with each other while having their demon familiars serve drinks or doing miscellaneous chores.

Zeph had Rin listen in on some conversations, and overheard them talking about their real base. It was deeper into the forest. This camp was being used to hold the magic beasts until they were ready to attack the city. Some of the cultists were able to use some charm magic to keep them under control. Eli frowned when he learned that some of the cultists could use mental magic.

They needed more than a description from Zeph, so Bernard told the boy to link what he was seeing into his holo pendant. That way they could project what Rin was seeing and hearing to everyone. Zeph followed his grandfather's instructions and was able to create a projection of the camp after half an hour. During that time, he had Rin hide in a cardboard box. Just as he thought, no one gave the box a second look.

Bernard told Zeph to search for the most important looking shack or tent in the camp. It took Rin some time, but after searching through over a dozen tents and earthen huts, she found it. There was a desk in the center of the room with a small cabinet on the wall. There were some papers on the desk so Zeph told Rin to hop up and take a peek.

It was a chart keeping track of who was in the camp and who was out. A list also kept track of what beasts the cultists brought in that day. The fox used her paw to move the papers around until she found a schedule. A list of names and times displayed who was patrolling the camp, various odd jobs, and who was taking care of the animals. Since the camp wasn't the base he hoped for, Bernard thought about what to do next.

The camp was a small base, so their main fighting force wasn't here. Eli already said that they wouldn't get any information out of them as they had a habit of dying after capture. So, the old man decided to destroy it. Now that they knew the main base was deeper into the forest, they knew where to start looking tomorrow. When the new tracking device was done, he would send some Valir to start the search.

Remembering the schedule, he thought of the best time to attack the camp. The cultists would all be back after midnight and would probably sleep. Bernard looked at Eli. "Do you think you can get close enough to check the strength of their defensive barrier?

"Yeah, no problem. I'll be back in a few," the elf answered as he walked towards a tree.

Zeph could feel Eli's magic rise as the elf touched the trunk and phased into it. He blinked a couple of times in surprise. "Okay, now that was cool. What's he doing?"

Bernard smiled. "It's a spell of his that he calls tree walking. It allows him to travel from one tree to another within a certain distance. He can also use it to hide inside the tree for spy work. If they didn't have that defensive barrier around the camp, Eli could have gone in along with Rin."

"Wait a minute. Eli can teleport!?"

"In a way. Eli has an affinity for space magic and plant magic, which is a branch of life-based magic. He managed to combine both in order to merge his body with a tree and use it as a conduit for travel. It makes it easier than regular teleportation, and there is less risk of him injuring himself in transit. Teleportation is a risky use of space magic and could easily kill a magician if they make even the slightest mistake. It's one of the main reasons we don't use special gates for travel. Nobody has made one stable enough to guarantee anyone's safety." Bernard rubbed his chin for a second. "Actually, now that we have the new magic script and can create spells in 3-D, we might be able to do that." He tapped his pendant. "Note to self, start a project on teleportation gates."

Alex interrupted the old man's rambling. "Bernard, are you sure that's wise? Aether Labs already has enough of the council's attention with the inventions you're working on now. The only reason they haven't bothered you is that they have to pay attention to the demon situation around the country and deal with all the arguing nobles. If you are researching teleportation and weapon technology, they might suspect you're planning a rebellion."

"Why would they do that?" Zeph asked.

Bernard sighed. "The council and I have had problems since the time I purged my territory of the lesser nobles. They thought one of the reasons I did it was because I was power hungry."

"Some of your research projects didn't help," Alex interjected

"So I joined the government as a researcher to show my loyalty. They didn't like some of my inventions. For example, the newly developed revolvers allow regular people to use attack magic equal to a tier one mage. I made a lot of things that would non-mages to fight and defend themselves, and those old fogey's were worried about commoners being able to fight the aristocracy.

I was also very vocal on my stance on certain policies that conflicted with the higher-ups. Several members of the council and I also don't get along for personal reasons. Since my learning gems would also allow for knowledge to spread in ways they couldn't easily control, they used the excuse of it being mind magic to fire me and get me out of their hair. It was also a way to ruin my good name.

I fought for them in the war and then I created things to make people's lives better. Instead of thanking me for my service and letting me continue doing good, they cast me out. I didn't take that well and went into a self-imposed exile of sorts to bury myself in my own research.

As for the rebellion, it's a reasonable fear. One of the reasons the lesser nobles betrayed my father was because they wanted to rebel against the country. Asperitus has always been the most prosperous territory and we are almost completely self-sufficient. So they are worried we might try to break away and declare ourselves a separate nation.

"I thought there was more to that story. But didn't you say you weren't interested in politics? You even let Keva run things."

"That's true, but the council is old, and they're so used to schemes and plots that they see everyone as a potential threat. Plus, there are a few personal grudges between and a few members."

"Aaah, I see," Zeph said while he was looking at the monitor to make sure Rin was okay. The former kitten was sniffing around one of the desk drawers. She pawed at it and opened the drawer to reveal a box of cookies. ~Seriously Rin~ he said to her through their bond.

~Nya! (◕‿◕)~ She sent back.

'Did she just send me a telepathic emoticon?' Zeph asked himself. ~Rin, how the heck did you do that? ~

~Nyew? ~

~Never mind. Start heading back, we're almost done here. ~

~Wreowr? ~

~I'll give you some cookies when we get home. ~ Zeph sighed

~Nyay!~ Rin sent back before sneaking out of the tent and making her way out of the camp.