40. Frontlines

For a week Castus practiced, refined and learned the rough basics of enchantment. By now he had collected a number of sigil designs. He had even been able to create a number of them for practice. Freth seemed fairly impressed with his progress. He had grown fond of Freth. There was never any discrimination or commanding tones that made him feel his situation.

Castus' happy learning period had come to a close though. Today Castus wasn't stirred awake by Alyssa or Wyden, but Zed. He hadn't seen him since he first met everyone and truthfully, he kind of forgot about him. Unlike the others that were always around or Cerone that had made a large impression the first day Zed had been gone for a while and beyond that first day Castus had barely interacted with him.

Zed was fumbling around with a pair of daggers he had and the clanking of one of them falling to the ground had woken Castus up. Zed noticed and gave a wave. "Morning there. You should probably get ready. I've been listening all morning and everyone is moving around a lot. I think something is gonna happen." Castus thanked Zed, ate and got prepared. He waited for a minute or two before deciding to go met with Freth. Castus only got halfway when Darius met him in the hall.

"Not today. Follow me." Darius grunted spinning Castus around. He led him into a meeting hall. Zed had already arrived, along with Alyssa and Wyden. Darius sat them down as a number of other members of the church of Sol poured into the room. Castus sat down next to Alyssa.

"What's going on?" Castus asked looking around the room.

"Not entirely sure right now. From the speeches they made me give, I think a critical movement in the war with the Mordens though." Alyssa theorized.

They sat for another ten minutes. Castus caught a glimpse of Dimas and Freth sitting next to each other chatting. He also saw Grant sitting next to a group of some authoritative looking individuals. The chatter of the room died down to a whisper and Castus turned around to see someone take the center stage of the room.

"Good morning everyone. Praise be to Sol!"

The room chorused and echo. "Praise be to Sol!"

The man speaking was older. Steel gray hair and blue eyes. "Today we will be dispatching a large group to aid the war as well as a special unit to join the Ryden kingdom in a strategic attack to claim the umbral for ourselves." The man nodded to an assistant, who began walking around handing out some sheets of paper.

"Please read the orders being given out now. You will have two hours to prepare yourselves and stock up. Assign yourselves to your designated positions." The man's gaze stopped on Darius who sat next to Castus. He nodded at Darius and Darius nodded back. "Now go and execute for the glory of Sol!" The room erupted in a drowning sound of footsteps, hushed whispers and movement.

Darius put a hand on his knees and stood. "All of you follow me, you will be part of the special squad." What followed was a whirlwind of movements. Castus could barely keep up at their rag tag group was dragged around the base being loaded up with sacks of rations, equipment, healing salves and whatever manner could be deemed useful to them. The reality of what was happening didn't set in until the four of them were sitting in a carriage, traveling to the front lines of the war.

Castus fidgeted nervously. Over the past period of learning with Dimas and Freth, he had gained some skills in forgery and enchantment, but he couldn't for the life of himself figure out what that had to do with this special operation. He also couldn't understand what Alyssa could bring to the table. Wyden and Zed seemed like the only decent choices overall. Wyden and Zed could make a potent pair. Lighting and portals seemed like an optimal combo. Trying to distract everyone Alyssa chimed in. "I wonder what we are going to be doing when we get there?"

"I'm betting the same as I always do ya know. Running reports back and forth from camp to camp. Just cause I got this damn collar on doesn't mean I'm still not bored!" Zed shouted the last part, obviously at Darius who sat in the front of the carriage, it elicited no reaction though.

While that didn't exactly sooth anyone the joke did make everyone snicker a bit. Castus brought that down again though. "Do you guys think Shi and Rys are still in there?" This caused Zed to perk up. "What do you mean in there? Aren't they just out on a different assignment?" Castus slapped himself realizing he had never told anyone what he learned.

"Uhh, no, I found out that they both are in the umbral that we are headed to right now." Alyssa frowned at the words. "I know that Shi can probably survive decently well, but Rys never fights. Honestly, I take him for more of a pacifist than anything else. I'm worried about them both though. I hope their alright." Silence ensued and the four sat in the bumpy carriage as it rode. Each of them worrying about the future to come.

Two days of travel later they had arrived at the front lines. Tents and campfires sprawled out endlessly, situated on a dividing line of destroyed landscape. Every few seconds Castus could glimpse explosions of varying colors fly over the line both ways. They rarely reached their target; most being intercepted by an equally as big projectile.

Stepping out of the carriage on wobbly legs the group stuck close to the disembarking Darius. While they were adults in these bodies, it looked rather funny to see a bunch of seven- and eight-year-olds huddled around Darius. Darius pushed forward after getting out of the carriage, stretched then moved forward towards one of the larger tents. "We will rest for the afternoon, then you will be briefed at dusk, before the operation begins. We have to act fast before the Morden scouts can report the back up and fortify the lines."

The four of them looked at each other and gratefully entered the tent, laying down on the sleeping bags and blankets that littered the floor. No one said anything. It was clear that the anticipation and worry had eaten away at any mood to talk. Castus tried to take his worry away by thinking of the gun he had designed. Through some simple experiments and the free time he had following Ferth's lessons he had designed a simple gun; all he had left to do was build it and right now there was no better time.

The barrel of the gun was made from obsidian steel. The handle was made of a hardwood he had analyzed in the marshes with Grant. The latches and hinges were made of the same quality steel as armor was normally made from. That had all been simple, but the hard part came to making the bullets. He knew what he needed the bullet to do, but Castus had never had the opportunity to try any of the bullets. He sat and looked at his library of blueprints for the various bullets. Castus was most concerned with the ratio of shouk powder in the casings. The overall shape and design was simple. A thin casing to hold the powder and shell that would be fired, but the amount of powder would determine if the bullet would be powerful, weak, or self-destructive. Slowly he deleted some blueprints of the higher capacity shouk powder bullets and got rid of the lower end ones too. He settled on a middle ground, rationalizing that it may not have too much of a punch, but it would be far less likely to simply blow his hand off. He moved both the gun blueprint and the bullet blueprint to the top of his library. He needed to be ready to make both as soon as possible.

Castus finished this and sat back, noticing the sun beginning to set through a slit in the tent. He had something to defend himself with, but would it work? His worries ran rampant and Alyssa stirred him out of it. "It's time everyone." The group stood up slowly and left the tent. Outside Darius was waiting and watching the Mordens line closely.

Meanwhile in the umbral

Shi and Rys were in bad shape. Both of them were extremely low on mana and physically beaten badly. They were panting, both people looked emancipated from the lack of food and rest. They were still alive though. The activity in the umbral had increased multiple times over. The number of beasts that they would spot jumped from one to two a day to seeing one every hour. Hiding had also become increasingly difficult as more and more apex predators roamed the cave system.

Rys turned to Shi, who had taken on a much more monstrous form, resembling more of a bladed humanoid than the amorphous person Shi once was. "Shi, I don't know how much longer we can hold out." Shi looked over at Rys and nodded. It was true, they hadn't eaten for some time and now the beasts were so far beyond them they had zero chance in a confrontation. Not to mention the wound Rys received earlier had begun to fester and slowed him down significantly. Scuttling around the cave system and hiding was no longer going to cut it. They needed a new strategy. They looked around the cave system, desperate for some form of hope.