The sunset painted the land in front of us in warm colors, giving it a beauty that would ordinarily be hidden. In the distance, high mountain peaks rose into the sky, but closer up, winding streams, hilly fields, and the occasional cluster of trees spread out before us like tiles in a mosaic. There were a few villages dotted about them, but even with my cultivator senses, I couldn’t make out much human activity.

We’d veered off the straightest course south, and were instead traveling towards the mountains on a curved route and currently moving southwest. I could still make out the city at the base of the mountains, if I focused, but the Whitecaps looked different from this angle, the mountain range more elongated.

“We’re not moving quickly enough,” Yarani muttered.

I glanced at her, absently patting my horse’s neck as hers pranced beside mine. “We’re doing what we can,” I said calmly. “I wish our advance was faster, too, but that’s just the way it is. We’re lucky we’ve been able to scrape together any army at all.”

“I’m still not so sure this was the right decision,” Tenira commented from my other side. “I mean, after our losses, to just take another army to the Zarian. And an objectively weaker one.”

I shook my head. “We need to press them, especially now.”

Yarani nodded. “Nari’s right. Trust us, Tenira. We don’t want to give them the chance to get back on their feet and really make their numbers count, and we can’t squander our momentum. Right now, we still have the initiative. Even if they manage to push us back, it won’t mean losing territory we’re already entrenched in.”

“It’s not like there are many people living here,” Tenira muttered. “Alright, I suppose I see your point.”

I sighed softly, then nudged my horse forward. The others followed, and we kept moving. There was no real road here, so the Imperial forces didn’t move in a column so much as in a horde, but with surprising organization in the seemingly chaotic mass. My group, surrounded by guards, traveled almost at the head, with only a few of the generals and high-stage cultivators further ahead. A few airships kept pace overhead, though there were no planes in the air right now. There would be little point in them. Of course, that we weren’t expecting combat didn’t necessarily mean there wouldn’t be any. So far, the Zarian had never tried very hard to ambush a large Imperial force, but I wasn’t inclined to think they couldn’t possibly do it.

“Are you expecting trouble?” Yarani asked.

I glanced at her and gave her a quick smile. While Kajare might be more helpful when it came to court or dealing with the Terbekteri, I valued having Yarani along in this war. Not that any of my companions was ever less than helpful, especially Tenira. “Not really,” I answered. “But I’m trying to be prepared, anyway. We are getting pretty close to their core territory, and as we just discussed, with weaker forces than I would have liked.”

“Having the black stagers along should help. Even if they can’t fight, their senses work just fine, after all.”

I nodded. That was a good point.

We continued moving, still at a more sluggish pace than an army should have been able to manage, though it wasn’t really slow. We had a lot of Lighters in this army. They were just the kind of troops that could be replenished most quickly, and they were effective here. If nothing else, they made good garrisons for the villages and towns we took.

For the next half an hour or so, nothing interesting happened, and we made slow progress through the Zarian countryside. The monotony was only broken when I sensed the Red Phoenix approaching. His fiery form cut through the sparse cloud cover and he winged his way towards us, banking once and coming in on a shallow approach. Probably to give everyone enough time to see him and not feel threatened.

I reined in my horse and smiled. “Hello again, honored ancestor. You have news?”

The phoenix transformed into a young man again. He strode forward, ignoring the soldiers warily edging away from his path, and nodded at me. “Perhaps. I am not certain if there is anything important, but I intended to check in with you, anyway. Is everything going as you intended?”

“Yes.” I glanced back over the army. “Things are moving as smoothly as could be expected.”

“Good.” He smiled briefly. “I was half-afraid I would need to help you sort out some kerfluffle. In any case, there is a large temple to the Storm up ahead. Just a few leagues off your current route, if I’m any judge. Which I am. It is quite big, considering these lands, and apparently of high significance. There was some activity there, including some priests, though it seems to have been tapering off when I left.”

I frowned. “Alright. That could be interesting. Thank you for the information. We had better not dawdle too much, if there is still something to find there.”

The Red Phoenix inclined his head, before turning and transforming again, rising into the sky. Apparently, he wasn’t going to guide us to the site. Well, it wouldn’t be too hard to find, anyway.

I made the arrangements quickly, with Tenira’s help, and we soon set out out a faster pace than before. The army had changed its course slightly to head to the temple. It wasn’t like we had any particular path we needed to follow, so that didn’t pose a problem. Meanwhile, my party went ahead with the vanguard. I didn’t protest when Aston brought a few more people to fill out my guard detail, though there were enough elites coming that I wasn’t concerned about my safety. One of the eighth-stagers elected to come, as well, so we should be reasonably sure we wouldn’t bumble into an ambush, anyway.

The temple really was big, bigger than almost any I had seen, except for the great temple of the Moon. Its layout was completely different, consisting of two concentric circles and stonework between them that I just found odd. It took me a moment to understand it was probably deliberately chaotic and swirly, and another one to see the strategic and tactical sense. Hidden in the arrangement was a cunning set of fortifications, which would funnel enemies into kill zones and traps. Assuming they couldn’t knock down the stone, at least. In the center of the complex, though not the exact center, stood the main temple building, which reminded me vaguely of old Greek temples. At least, it had a few decorative columns and a straight-edged roof, though that one was thatched with a material I didn’t recognize.

We made good time and arrived quickly. I swallowed my protests when Aston had our group slow down to send others ahead to approach the temple first. After they reached it without falling afoul of any attack, he let us go forward, too. I focused on my sense of the place, which confirmed that it was definitely dedicated to Jideia. The hairs on the back of my neck stayed prickly all the way in.

A few of the elites had gone around, in order to cut off any retreat if we found enemy forces holed up here, but it seemed like that wouldn’t be necessary. No one emerged from the temple complex, and I couldn’t sense any presences strong enough that they would pose a danger. There were still people here, though. We made the final approach on flying swords, rising above the stone-lined paths, and I got a good look into the wide glass windows of the temple, which showed me a small group of priests. By the time we came to a stop in the front courtyard, before the steps up to the actual temple, the door opened and they emerged.

I took a moment to study them. There were four priests and half a dozen people wearing casual clothes, ranging from the second to the early fifth stage. The priests sent my spiritual senses prickling. It was like they were coated in something that tasted of Jideia, though of course the actual sensation was not comparable to anything physical and hard to put into words.

Their apparent leader, a short man with salt-and-pepper hair, stepped forward and gave us a sweeping bow. “Imperial Princess. What an unexpected honor.” His tone was clearly sardonic.

“I’m sure. Good day to you, priests of the Storm.” I smiled slightly. “This temple and its surroundings are now taken by the Empire in pursuit of its war against the Zarian Dominion. We will take you into custody, but you have my assurance that you will be treated honorably and no harm will come to you.”

The group exchanged glances. Two of the weaker laypeople took a hesitant step forward, then stopped when they realized the others weren’t coming and glanced back. My own forces had spread out enough to cover all of the grounds now, but half of them concentrated in a knot here. The elites started to ascend to the temple from the sides, moving to encircle the Zarian without blocking their way down or putting themselves between us.

“Now, now.” The priest actually wagged his finger at me. Clearly, this one enjoyed his theatrics. “Let’s not be hasty, here. Why would we agree to this? Your Empire has no jurisdiction here.”

I bit down on my first reply, since asking him if he knew what war was or arguing the definition of jurisdiction or authority would clearly get me nowhere. “Perhaps because it’s in your own best interests?” I suggested in a mild tone. “We are going to secure this area, we simply can’t forgo that. But no one wants any civilians getting hurt in the process. If you cooperate, go where we can keep an eye on you, and give us no trouble, we’ll let you go with our apologies once we’re sure there’s no threat here.”

The look they exchanged now gave me a sinking feeling. Then, incongruously, the priest smiled and bowed his head. “Very well, quite right. Friends, go to the nice lady, we wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt if that can be avoided.”

The ordinarily dressed Zarian looked surprised at that. “Brother -” an older woman started.

“I mean it, Liuna,” the priest interrupted. “Go.”

Hesitantly, the group did as he bid, walking down the stairs towards us.

The priests, however, stayed where they were, even as our elites slowly came closer. The other three had their hands folded or arms crossed and serene expressions on their faces, the kind someone put on to cover any real emotions and make everyone, including themselves, believe that they were calm. Clearly, the Imperial soldiers sensed something was up just as well as I did, judging by the caution they displayed. I glanced at Aston, but I didn’t give any orders, trusting that he was better suited to handle it if there was a threat.

“A good start,” I told the priests. “But I was talking to all of you. Come here, please.”

The leader smiled again. “Unfortunately, we can’t do that, Princess. I suggest you cover your ears, though. This might get a little loud.”

Without hesitation, I pulled up a qi shield and retreated. My attention remained fixed on the priest, though, and what he was doing. Just as he finished speaking, I could sense a change in the qi of the place.

The next moment, the temple itself exploded outward in a detonation far too tightly channeled to be an accident. My ears rang under the noise and I lost my vision to the blinding flash for an instant. Large stones were hurled upward like marbles, and the ground all around us shuddered as the walls marking the temple’s perimeter and grounds shattered.

In the instant before the explosion reached them, I saw that the priests had already been consumed in pillars of fire.

After the shaking abated, I drew in a deep breath and jostled my shield lightly to dislodge the debris gathered on it, glancing around at the fresh scene of devastation. If that priest hadn’t felt the need to be dramatic and given us warning, this could have been an unpleasant surprise. Not that I’d really been in danger. I doubted this could have killed me even if my guards weren’t here.

But that wasn’t the point, of course. They hadn’t blown up this temple trying to catch us within it, I was fairly sure. They would have probably tried harder to get us into the epicenter of the detonation.

“Did any of you sense anything from within the temple?” I finally asked.

“Nothing that would explain where that explosion came from,” Yarani answered promptly. She’d stepped closer to hover at my left side. “They could have been shielding formation arrays or artifacts they used for it from detection within the temple, perhaps. Though that wouldn’t have been easy.” She frowned. “Or they might have been using chemical explosives …”

I shook my head and took a wary step closer. My qi senses told me that everyone had come out of that more or less unscathed. As dangerous as an explosion could be, all the fighters here were reasonably strong cultivators and had had cause to expect a threat, plus enough time to shield themselves.

“There was no qi used in that explosion, perhaps not even to set it up,” a new voice said. “I’m reasonably sure of that.”

I glanced at the cultivator who’d stepped over to join us and nodded courteously. Ki Niyani was dressed similar to the last time I’d seen her, and her attire didn’t show a single stray bit of dust. It was a little incongruous seeing the Forest Continent native here like that, given the much colder climate around these parts, but I knew that was stupid. Eighth-stagers didn’t have to worry about that kind of thing.

“Thank you for the confirmation,” I told her. “If they are taking a page from our book, it’s certainly interesting, but not the most important question here, in any case.”

We all turned our attention back to the now-destroyed temple. The dust stirred up by the explosion still hadn’t settled completely, and I already knew Aston wouldn’t let me onto where the main temple had been before checking for hidden traps and structural stability. Even so, I doubted we’d find much.

“What do you think they were doing?” Tenira asked. “It doesn’t make much sense to me. What point is there in destroying the temple, even if they knew we were going to do that, too? Let alone in killing themselves over it? They knew we’d let them live.”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. But …” I frowned, then heaved a sigh. “I get the feeling this had little to do with what we did, really. That was a sacrifice.”

We fell silent again, and when I glanced back, I saw them exchanging looks. I ran a hand through my hair, thinking probably the same thing. What is Jideia up to?