By noon we had reached the checkpoint station.

Julius dismounted near a tree. He was mid way through kneeling down behind the tree when he stopped, walked back to his horse, and unlatched a buckle. His shield came loose from the saddle.

Good call, Julius.

I chuckled lightly at the dramatic way that he secured it to a fitting on his back.

Digging out a pair of binoculars from a belt pouch, he resumed kneeling behind the tree. After two minutes he gave me his verdict.

"It’s abandoned."

"You’re sure?"

"No patrols. No guards at all, actually. I’m sure."

We tied up our horses and made our way forward to scout the fort. In the center was a stone-brick barracks atop a hill, surrounded by eight bunkers. Each of those were sunken into the ground, with large earthwork fortifications winding around in front of them.

Two more permanent structures rose along the outpost’s southern border. A tall wooden tower was built above a stone workshop and a large wooden stable. The entire encampment was encircled by eight foot palisade walls.

The place was definitely abandoned, the outpost commander must have received news of the coup. Without new orders from Axio, they probably set up camp somewhere out of sight.

I noticed dried and faded rectangular patches of grass along the western edge that seemed to indicate a large number of temporary structures, like tents. There were over thirty patches in total.

If they were tents, then there was a larger force than normal stationed here. The barracks would have been ample housing for anyone stationed here, with room for more than two-hundred Divisionals. With all those tents added in, the force here would have exceeded over five-hundred.

Julius called out to me from atop the tower. I jogged over to the workshop and waited for him to come down.

A loud crash echoed from inside the stone building and I heard Julius yell out something incoherent. He stumbled through the doorway, kicking an odd shaped metal object. When he looked up and saw me, a look of embarrassment spread across his face.

In an effort to prevent me from poking fun, he quickly pointed out past the camp’s border.

"There's, uh… A break in the tree line over that way. It looked like it was cleared out to make room for wagons. My hunch is that the Divisionals are holed up a few miles in."

I eyed the direction his finger was pointing in and we headed off to the edge of the outpost. Just like he thought, there were cart-wheel spaced depressions worn in the grass leading into the forest.

As we were walking back to our horses, I pulled my coin from my pocket. I turned back to look at Julius and continued to step backwards, raising an eyebrow at him.

He sighed.

"Heads..."

I sent the coin spinning through the air.

It landed neatly on the back of my hand and I covered it with the other.

"If it’s your call, what would your plan be?" I asked my irritated looking partner.

"I’d set up camp and light a fire near that break in the trees. I’m confident that they’re running patrols through the woods, one of those patrols checks in the outpost to look for disturbances.”

He paused to stretch his arms high above his head, letting out a long, dramatic, pained groan. “They find us, we play nice, and they take us to their new base. I’d also like to take advantage of the downtime to rest for a bit. I did get shot in the chest, remember?"

He smirked at me.

I pulled my hand back to reveal the face resting on the back of my hand. Tails. I smirked back at him.

"I’m sure you’re right, that a patrol will come by sooner or later—but I don’t want to risk the later part being too long, and have someone else notice a signal fire."

I tilted my hand back to show him the red-stained wings on the face of the coin. His eyes rolled.

"I think we’ll head into the forest and find them ourselves." I slowed my back-stepping pace to allow Julius to catch up and I placed my hand over his chestplate, "How's it feeling?"

"I’m fine." He batted my hand away instinctively—his face softened instantly, "I really am fine. I’m sorry for that."

We mounted up and rode past the borderline of the outpost and dense forest. Julius stared longingly at the treeline as we passed by. I knew he was tired, but we could rest once we were in the safety of the new camp.

The terrain was not particularly kind to the Divisional wagons, as we passed four of them off the trailway, their wheels splintered and broken.

We rode for over an hour through the forest. Julius spotted the massive earthworks barricade a second before I did, his arm shot up in a tight fist at his shoulder’s level. We both pulled on our reins and came to a stop.

A small break in the treeline was ahead of us. The sun was still high enough in the sky that we could plainly see a field of green grass interrupted by the dusky tones of dirt piled up high. Tall cut timbers formed a wall behind the earthen trenches. We dismounted, moving closer on foot to get our bearings and do a little recon.

We were still about a thousand feet away from the structure.

"What are the chances they let us in the front do—" Julius cut himself off when a loud snap popped behind us.

I tried to spin around quickly. But as I turned, someone pushed me backwards and I fell down into a bushy growth.

Can today just be over already!?

I cried out in surprise when I hit the ground, a tough branch had left a cut across my leg during the fall.

A sword flashed in front of my face and the feeling of cold steel pressed against my neck.

"Don’t even think about moving," a voice said dryly. A loud whistle came from the forest. It echoed sharply through the woods, and was followed by the sounds of heavy steps running our direction.

I looked up at the person whose sword was threatening my life, and was relieved to see they were wearing the standard red and white uniform of the Vanixian Republic. She was in a mix of heavy and medium armor, a steel breastplate with leather pauldrons. I couldn’t make out her rank, as her body was turned away from me to keep an eye on Julius.

"Who in the Aether are you?" she demanded.

"Get that sword off her neck or you’ll regret it!" Julius snarled.

Celestials above, he’s going to get us killed. ‘Play nice and they’ll take us to their base’, he had said just an hour ago.

In response, a man appeared behind him. A plated fist contacted the back of Julius’ head, dropping him to the ground. Julius let out a groan of pain.

The man stepped into view and knelt down in front of me. He was wearing a full-plate uniform with Knight-Lieutenant's insignia painted around the collar plate. "You want to be more cooperative? Or maybe you want to eat some dirt, like your friend here." he sneered.

I needed to come up with something quick to defuse this situation.

"Maybe, you’d like to explain why you’ve assaulted a superior officer." I tilted my head slowly in a nod towards Julius, who was now struggling against two others, "and why you’re threatening a Commander?"

The Lieutenant glanced over at Julius and motioned for his men to pull him up. Julius’ insignia were easy to see in the sunlight through the canopy above.

The Lieutenant looked back at me, his expression now more stressed. The woman holding me at sword point shifted uneasily and looked to the man for direction.

"That is High-Protector Julius Adaemus." I said plainly, "And I am Commander Airis Vanixi."

The Lieutenant stiffened, his face went from stressed to outright distraught.

I hope that did the trick.

He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated for a moment. He cleared his throat and choked out, "That’s impossible. Commander Airis was killed in action."

"I was not."

"..."

He stared blankly at me. What kind of response do you give to that kind of logic? The woman at his side responded instead.

"You could be spies!" She cried out, and then pushed her sword closer to my neck, "You don’t even have a uniform on."

Julius interjected, "Yep, that’s us. Two spies, who’ve come all this way through the forest and then decided to just walk up to your gates."

"Makes us some pretty poor spies," I jumped in, "We’re here to see Commander Hailey Brooks."

The Lieutenant continued to stare at us, his eyes darted around between my face and Julius’. His shoulders finally relaxed and he sighed deeply, "Pearson, at ease. Lower your weapon and let her up." He then turned to Julius, "Tori, Garrett, let him go."

Julius was released and he jumped away from his two captors. He shook his arms and narrowed his eyes at them.

The Lieutenant looked back to me, "Your faces look familiar. I’ve seen both of your portraits at Command. So you’re both either really good imitations or you’re the real deal. Considering posing as two of the highest ranked members of our Republic to sneak into a base would be an idiotic idea, I’ll take you to see the Commander. She’ll recognize you if you really are who you claim to be."

"Great," I said as I struggled up from my leafy seat, "You know us, now how about we know you?"

The Lieutenant’s arm snapped to a salute, his right arm resting against his chest, "I am Knight-Lieutenant Luke Mitchell. Vice Commander of the Third Divisionals."

He pointed down the row of his party, who had fallen in behind him, "These are the rest of my patrol party, You’ve met Knight Murphy Pearson." his finger pointing at the woman whose sword had moments ago been digging into my skin.

"Adept Abigail Garrett and Initiate Alexander Tori" he pointed at the two who were wrestling with Julius.

"Crusader Mei Devins, Knight Aeko Monroe, and finally Adept Tatsuko Hirota" He took in a deep breath. "You can pester them for their life stories back in camp if you’d like, but we should get a move on. We’re past our check-in time and the guards at the gate get... worried, if we’re late."

I gave everyone a smile and an awkward wave. They looked exhausted, any pleasantries could wait until we got back to their camp. I wasn’t sure how to greet a party of soldiers that a moment ago were bearing arms down at us anyway.

"Lead the way Knight-Lieutenant."