Craigmyle Point

A bounty worth four hundred and fifty thousand dollars or fifty million in tiur! She ranked third amongst the Nafriton students by a solid margin, and barely ranked among the top fifty of everyone on the bounty list. Only Daren and Chris ranked higher than her among the students.

How did she become so important to the True Order?! Did those lunatics suspect something? Aayla only interacted with them directly during the mission to rescue Daren, but her participation should have been kept secret.

Maybe that's just how much they valued 'Ramona Heston's goddaughter'. Still, Aayla couldn't shake the feeling like that bounty was way overpriced. A tiny feeling nagged her brain that something else had influenced these numbers.

Aayla dragged her feet as she walked back to the tents. Unlike her, the Nafriton students were mostly annoyed with a tinge of pride. Chris didn't join in on the conversation, but he was clearly very pleased with his high evaluation. Even Daren had a hint of smugness on his face.

"Are you all idiots? Why are you so happy to be on the True Order's hit list?"

"Why wouldn't we? Clearly, we are the most valuable wizards in all of Chinebar. We even ranked higher than those CNU jerks."

"Did you see how few got onto the list? Heh. We totally creamed them this time."

"CNU is in Sarrasak, right? The city that was taken down in the beginning. They were probably all captured at that time. We had time and plenty of warning to run. They didn't. Honestly, the list doesn't really mean anything except that we have to watch are backs even more closely from now on."

Silence fell over the group as they struggled to find the words to refute that logic.

"Oh yeah?! Well, those idiots still got captured! We didn't! We even crossed the Glacier Mountains and broke out of the True Order's siege around Forest Waypoint!"

"That's right! That's absolutely right! We earned our place on that list of the best wizards in all of Chinebar!"

The Nafriton students high fived each other while Aayla put her face in her hands. That was not what the list was about. She had never realized these young wizards were so stupid before. The pressure must have broken them or something.

"Did you all see my bounty? I'm worth fifty thousand tiur!"

"Tch. Just fifty thousand tiur? You barely broke into the middle of the list. Most of us got a little bit more than that amount. You're not even average, second-year."

"Haha! At least I'm better than a mere after thought like a certain first-year who was just thrown onto the list for collecting the entire set of Nafriton students."

The first-year in question hopped in rage as his pride took a severe hit.

"Shut up! Both of you pale in comparison to Sir Forolan and Sir Vear! They even beat out the professors and other powerful wizards!"

"It's weird though that the headmaster and the deputy headmasters aren't on the list though."

That single sentence brought their joy to a screeching halt. Amidst all of the excitement they had forgotten about the high-ranking faculty. They cautiously changed the subject after checking Daren's mood. The headmaster was his teacher, whose life and death was unknown.

They quickly turned in for the night. After the traders came back, they would rest for a couple of hours before continuing on towards Craigmyle Point. The sooner they got to civilization, the better.

Hours later, the march towards safety began once again. The militia followed behind them for a few miles before turning back. Their mistrust of outsiders was blatantly obvious. Apparently, the mistrust of outsiders was common in these parts, and the True Order attack made this worse.

The expedition soon found out that they were lucky with the first village. The next villages were either ghost towns or completely hostile. The fiercer ones would even attack before bothering to find out their identities.

Their supplies managed to last until they reached an outpost on the outskirts of Craigmyle Point. The military town had fortified its defenses, but wasn't as openly hostile as the smaller villages. Someone claiming to be the town's representative quickly exited the walls to talk with the expedition.

Negotiations were intense. Resources this far north were limited on the best of days. These days resources were even more scarce with the True Order's embargo and the Ural Bay storms preventing international trade.

Fortunately, Craigmyle Point sorely lacked first hand information about the ongoing war and the True Order's strength. The reports of the glacial ice wolves also deeply concerned the representative. A deal was quickly struck between the town and the expedition.

At long last, their journey came to an end. The representative guided them to nearby villages that had been evacuated due to safety concerns. Assuming they kept the houses in good condition, the expedition could settle down in the area and begin trading with Craigmyle Point.

Scouts were sent out from the town and the expedition to find the wolf king and the mercenary leaders. With their journey complete, the expedition disbanded. Temporary leaders were elected amongst the refugees. After the initial scramble to claim a house, the villages became peaceful.

The mercenaries were promptly hired by the mayor. Houses were prepared for them inside Craigmyle Point, but still patrolled the refugee village to ensure basic safety and public security. As trade picked up the initial unease towards the refugees in Craigmyle Point began to dissipate.

The refugees settled into their new lives fairly quickly. Running water was scarce but the sanitation and public order was much better than the previous camp across the Glacier Mountains. The information exchanged between the newcomers and the town shocked them both.

Craigmyle Point was shocked at the strength of the True Order. They had assumed that the news coming up from down south was heavily exaggerated. How could the capital city fall? Even more impossible was a major city voluntarily surrendering to the True Order. Now events started to make sense.

The Forest Waypoint refugees were even more surprised. Many events were now confirmed, and many new events had taken place. Sarrasak, Dor, Nandel and Landrienne quickly fell to the True Order. Cuoq City temporarily fell but was recaptured.

The military had been separated and now defended Fort Niumta, Fort Kast, Port Altalon and Port Vilskameau along the southern edge of the nation. Nafriton and Forest Waypoint were officially in the hands of the True Order.

Caplay, Halcyon and Odala managed to fend off the initial waves of the attack. Halcyon became the northernmost bastion of government forces. The front line focused on the city as the other free major cities rushed to send support or block Landrienne's forces.

Rumors swirled about the defending military forces managing to flee towards Cuoq. Some military force had helped to recapture the city, but nothing was confirmed yet. Daren prayed that his grandfather and the Halcyon Guards had successfully retreated.

Shock after shock hit the refugees. The Prophet of Truth declared the foundation of a new nation, the one true magocracy Cinembi. Anything related to the former Chinebar Republic was to be removed or destroyed. True Order agents scoured the nation to forcibly recruit promising young talents in mass.

The whereabouts of the missing wizards were revealed publicly when they appeared as brainwashed True Order initiates. Students and fully fledged wizards emerged in the ranks of the True Order no matter their age or original faction. The Nafriton students suddenly felt that being on that list was no longer desirable.

Finally, a new prophet revealed himself. Claiming to be the Prophet of Terra, the mysterious, warped man controlled magical beasts with a mysterious crystal to lead the True Order's attack. This new prophet was also responsible for the terrorist group's progress on the control collars.

People gathered together to discuss what all of these events meant. What most didn't understand was why a new Prophet had emerged to lead the True Order. The students were no exception.

"The Prophet… of Terra? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Do we have any Ancient History majors?"

"Wait! I think we do," a student exclaimed before turning to look at Aayla.

All eyes turned towards her. Aayla wasn't paying attention as she dove into her own thoughts. If that crystal or whatever that Prophet had could control armies of magical beasts, then would it be strong enough to use as a power source?

More importantly, could there be another person from Terra? The face of a half-crazed silver haired gentleman passed through her mind. Or could it be him? Even Ramona had no idea what happened to him when Aayla arrived on Tellus.

A hand waved in front of her face. She blinked and looked up to find the students' gazes locked onto her.

"Sorry, I was thinking of something. What were we talking about?"

"The new Prophet of Terra. Does that mean anything to you?"