The Oracle Paths

A couple of minutes after they left the Mutant Office, the massive door opened again and a young woman with crimson shoulder-length hair and irises walked fearlessly down the hall. She had a short black horn arched over the left side of her forehead and with each step her heavy, but tight fitting mythril armor clanked noisily, heralding with great pomp her entrance.

The chatter and laughter died down instantly, as soon as the mutants present recognized who they were dealing with. It was so quiet that one could only hear the flies buzzing around. A reddish glint flashed fleetingly in her eyes and the buzzing died down as well.

'Aisling, what is she doing here?! Shouldn't she be attending the Council? '

That was what all the mutants in the Office were wondering at that very moment. For this Aisling was the one and only leader of the Mutants. Her authority was unchallenged and her reputation was matched only by her fierceness in battle. Without her, the Mutants would have long been assimilated by the other factions, if not expelled from Laudarkvik.

Deep in thought, the revered warrior greeted the crowd absently-mindedly with an imperceptible nod, then walked directly to the spiral staircase at the end of the hall that led to her office. As she was about to take the stairs, she felt something tugging at her sleeve.

Turning, she saw a group of kids, all of them mutants, looking at her with stars in their eyes. The little girl, who was clinging to her arm on the other hand, had the same crimson hair and eyes as her, and looked worried sick.

"Big sister, is everything okay?" The child murmured nervously.

Unsure how to respond, Aisling noticed the anxious looks in the crowd and sighed wearily.

"I guess there's no point in hiding it." She ruffled the girl's red hair mechanically, then addressing the other mutants she announced sternly,

"The Council has just ended and regrettably I have only bad news to tell you. First of all... Lodunvals has just been wiped out by the Khinchod Protectorate. Just before, there was an incident with two Guilties, but we don't know if the two events are related. What is certain is that it strongly compromised the city's defenses."

Upon receiving this terrible news, all the mutants present without exception were dumbfounded. Just this morning, they were doing business as usual with Lodunvall. To imagine that this thousand-year-old city a few hundred kilometers away from them was now under enemy control was absolutely chilling.

Lodunvals was not like those insignificant villages regularly raided by hordes of Wilderness monsters. In a thousand years, the city had been besieged many times but had never fallen. What had just happened was the official death knell of peace and the onset of a bloody and lawless era from which none of them could escape.

Sensing the doubts and pessimism of the crowd, Aisling apathetically clarified,

"The enemy army numbered 300,000 Wengols and almost as many Wurchings. There were many conscripts, but half were professional soldiers. The Khinchod infantry is superior to Ret'Asian troops, but according to my sources, Lodunvals should have been able to hold out longer, at least a few days. After all, they have Laudar Vikien and an Aurae Archdeacon to hold the stronghold."

"So, what happened?" A burly mutant in the audience with a long braided beard asked impatiently. He was one of the few who wasn't intimidated by the young woman.

Aisling stared at him for a long time, then grunting with revulsion she said,

"Laudar Vikien deserted with his private regiment of mage-knights. All the civilians have been left to their own devices. The forsaken guards, a few honorable noble clans and the Aurae Cathedral clergy sacrificed themselves to buy a little time to evacuate the citizens. They are still fighting now, but they have already lost half of their men. Archdeacon Fiona is currently fighting one of their Great Warlocks. If a Rank-S Warrior keeping a low profile in Lodunvals hadn't come to her rescue the fight would have been over already.

"Oh my god, this sucks!" A mutant blurted out with an appalled gasp.

"What are we going to do?!" Another panicked.

Aisling let the crowd digest the news for a good minute until the previous bearded mutant once again approached her in all seriousness,

"You said there were several pieces of bad news. What are the others?"

The crowd immediately fell silent, an eerie, suffocating air filling the hall.

Aisling closed her eyes to mull over her answer, then replied gravely,

"The Emperor has ordered Laudarkvik to retake Lodunvals and if possible retaliate against Khinchod. Each faction will be rewarded according to its efforts. This order cannot be ignored this time. A company of imperial griffin knights has been dispatched here to oversee the counterattack. While we await their arrival, we have been tasked with rescuing what remains of the Lodunvals' army to buy them some extra time.

"That's the second bad news. The third piece of bad news is that the Council voted on which faction would be in charge of this first rescue mission. The Humans, Mutants and Astral were voted unanimously by the other members. Most of the Astral are not fit for combat, so the war effort will fall primarily on the Humans and us. In return, generous rewards will be offered to participants. If no Mutants agree to participate, it will be deferred to the Emperor and we will be heavily sanctioned. There is no requirement on the number of troops, but if the mission fails and it is proven that we have not used all the means at our disposal, then we will be sanctioned the same.

"I will leave for the battlefront with the vanguard within the next hour. As for you, you have until tonight to determine the volunteers. All will be clearly stated on the mission board. The Adventurers' Guild has also promised generous rewards open to everyone."

Once the speech was over, the mood in the hall could hardly have been more gloomy, and some of the Mutant children were even about to cry. Reading the fear and reluctance in the eyes of these people she knew every name of, Aisling stifled yet another sigh, then said authoritatively,

"Dismissed."

The Mutants, who a few minutes earlier were still joking about the incident with Jake, Carmin and the Mutant Vely, dispersed in whispers, their faces grim, but several of them calmly re-strapped their armor before heading for the mission board.

They had made their minds up. For Aisling and their faction, they were willing to stake their lives.

Now that Aisling had gotten her things off her chest, she felt much lighter and the girl who closely resembled her followed her into her office, holding her hand tightly.

"Hey, Aisl! You missed a grand moment by a few minutes." Her little sister stated impishly. "Vely getting humiliated by a new member after another racist outburst!"

Aisling, who had just slouched back against her chair with her feet propped up on the desk, raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Oh? She probably deserved it. It'll serve her right."

"For sure, she'll remember it, hehe..." The girl giggled.

She then told her the exact course of the argument and Aisling became more and more surprised as the story went on. It reminded her strangely of a description she had just heard not so long ago.

'Are the Guilties here already?'

Because of this one uncertainty, the young woman decided to give up her brief moment of respite to get to the bottom of it.

*****

Far away, sitting at a table in an inn, Jake and Ruby were unaware that their cover had already been blown. They had once again grossly underestimated the effectiveness of the Empire's intelligence agency.

As soon as they left the Mutant Office, they returned to the Second Plateau to rent rooms at a not-too-shabby inn. Wyatt and Seren wanted to refuse when they smelled the damp, sweaty, filthy building, but a glare from Carmin forced them to swallow their displeasure.

Carmin unhesitatingly sat on Jake's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck to sniff his carotid artery, but he teleported to the chair across from her and her butt fell back onto the damp chair with a creak.

"Not fun..."

Jake chuckled wrily. He hadn't forgotten how she had tried to suck his blood during the last Ordeal. Especially since judging by Wyatt's jealous expression, her behavior wasn't exactly sincere. If there was another one who seemed upset, it was Ruby, but at no time did he consider the thought that it might be jealousy directed at Carmin.

The one who was looking at him with great interest was Lily, Carmin's little sister. She had traumatic memories of Jake, but her childlike curiosity about him had always been genuine. She found his scent interesting and the aura of vitality and confidence exuding from him at all times was extremely attractive to a young vampire.

Seren hated Jake with all her heart after he captured her and forced her to cooperate with them during the last Ordeal, but she too wouldn't say no to a little glass of his blood. Comparatively, Ruby's icy blood wasn't as appealing to Wyatt, no matter how vibrant it was.

There was something about the smell of her that rang false, like a stale dish that had its suspicious taste and smell drowned out with lots of spices. That didn't mean Ruby smelled bad, but a Vampire Progenitor relied heavily on his instincts. And his instincts told him he'd be better off drinking a goblin's blood than this woman's.