The sun was not yet up when Nannade was awoken by lieutenant Ionna. They put on their equipment and got ready. The scouting squad consisted of the lieutenant, Nannade and six scouts of the Ordo Militaris, all of them armed lightly, with a bow and a short sword. She refused to take a short sword. She preferred to use a short spear. The spear’s shaft had been shortened significantly; the entire weapon only reached up to her chest.

The seven others knelt down and spoke a short prayer, Nannade did not join in.

“Our Lady Radiance, guide us through the darkness where we must hide. Shine your scouring light upon our enemies, so they may be revealed to us.”

Before they left camp, Nannade left something with Olly. She had a weird feeling. Did she truly love him? She felt at peace and happy when she rested on his chest, but after getting back up, a shameful feeling of wrongness overcame her. She forbade herself to think about it further. There were more pressing issues at hand.

The terrain they moved through was rocky and hilly. They avoided a road that led to the bay. It was not until long after sunrise that they came to a point where the road met another one. Finally, they found a small village.

The squad took a surveying position on a hill above, from where they could spy on the villagers. They went about their business like any other people Nannade had seen in Sturreland or elsewhere. They were not chained or overseen, but a weird statue stood in the middle of the village. It was made from wood that seemed to still sprout branches. From where they were, Nannade could make out the shape of a voluptuous woman cradling a babe. She used a spell to take a better look from afar and saw an inscription at its base. “From the mother comes deliverance from disease and weakness”.

They spied for quite some time, until Ionna decided it was enough. “This place is no threat, we shall route the rest around them, to not alert them. One of us will stay behind to relay the information to Ser Andronicus, the rest will move on.”

Nannade had to interject. “Actually, I want to add my observations to the report. I want to take a bit of time to inspect the surroundings for any corrupting effects.”

“Very well, but don’t take too long.”

Nannade immediately set out to use the time well and began to search the bushes for more of the malformed plants and beetles. She found none of the beetles and only one purple plant, a bush carrying berries that seemed oddly large for its kind but otherwise normal, until she squeezed the berry, and instead of sweet juice, seeds spilled forth. Countless tiny seeds and nothing but seeds. All the berries from the bush were like this. Nannade had a suspicion, but could not yet be sure. She decided to go back up the hill and observe some more. She noted everything down that seemed abnormal. She noticed a large number of children and young cattle, but only few adults, of which most were women. She did notice a few men going from house to house, where each time young women opened the door and pulled them inside. The last thing she realized was how large the fields surrounding the village were. In some directions they stretched to the horizon. Fields of these sizes would be enough to feed armies. Or fuel huge rituals.

She needed to feel what the life force of this land was doing and went further into the bushes to find a secluded place. There she started to hum a few notes and feel the land. As she sank deeper into her surroundings, she noticed something dangerously intoxicating. As if thoughts forced their way into her mind with drilling tendrils. The serpent struggled, did not seem to like these new feelings that arose in Nannade. She only started to slowly realize what it was, then it came over her like molten metal pressed into her head. Images flashed, desires arose, her muscles wanted to jump into action.

She had to stand up and violently shake her head. The serpent wrapped around her, protecting her mind and soul. Opening herself up like that was a mistake.

“Do you feel that too, Aaka?” She asked.

“You know I can’t help you with this.”

“Are you this stringent about that?”

“I wouldn’t be a good familiar if disobeyed my master’s orders.”

“You can’t be serious. Do you want to be stuck in this land? How long do you think you’d last against this disgusting influence?”

“I am anchored to Black Surgeon, who is outside the influence.”

“Fine, stay in your smug safety then.”

She went back to Ionna to add her observations to the report. “Something about this land is wrong, I can feel it in the mere atmosphere here. The balance is thrown off and the land tries to cope, even the people are affected.”

Ionna gave her a queer look. “Can you be any more specific? Something I can actually write in the report?”

“I can’t give definitive answer yet, but I’ll try.”

“When you say that the people are affected, do you mean they could be a threat?”

“No, actually I’d say they are rather occupied by it. They wouldn’t interfere much. This village is as harmless as they come. Lots of children, few men.”

Ionna though for a moment. “Sounds like the cult is conscripting the men for military. We should look out for fortresses or something similar. Anyway, I'll finalize this report then we’ll move on. One frome the squad will stay here while we move on.”

She caught herself wanting to stay behind and see Olly again, but she knew she’d be needed ahead of the platoon anyway. For now, their objective was to find a path into the mountains that was unobservable if possible and to scout out and possibly sabotage the enemy’s military installations.

They continued their trek and one scout stayed behind as the rest hurried ahead to find a suitable path and set up a camp for the rest of the platoon.

Nannade felt nervous. Should she speak to Olly or keep pretending like nothing happened? This morning, when she left that gift with him, what did she intend with that? Was it a sign of her affection? She was confused. She had enjoyed resting on his chest. Somehow, she thought back to Carsten, Fiona, and their child. It could be born any day now. She wanted to be there for them, at least visit them. Camillo and his family also flared up in her memory; the happy faces at supper.

Her mission would have to take precedent, so she refocused her resolution on that. She couldn’t work on her project; she had left it with much of her unneeded baggage on the ship, but she managed to distract herself by talking to Ionna. Nannade could tell Olly was looking at her when she wasn’t looking, a necessary skill Garetas had taught her. She tried not to look back, but she caught herself sneaking a few glances. He looked generally desinterested, and the one time their eyes did meet, he quickly looked away.

It hurt. It hurt a lot. Had she been a stupid little girl yet another time? She tried to return to her conversation with Ionna, but the dagger in her heart remained.

In her dream, the dagger seemed to become a blessing. She did not dream of Olly, but for Gregorus, for some reason. Of course, in her dreams he was much more kempt and friendlier, and she enjoyed the pretty dress she wore. When she decided to turn around, she saw the central mountain mass of Stakkarun behind the clouds. It seemed to be flowing with dark water and she could see the power flow through it. Before she could turn to walk up there together with Gregorus, Ionna woke her up.

Again, the scouts prayed together, then they set out. Back in reality, Nannade felt the dagger again. Why could she not have stayed asleep?

The day passed her by in a similar fashion, they could cover almost twenty miles a day. Their target for now was Highwatch keep, a castle fortress on the upper slopes of the central mountains, facing south. They suspected the cult to have its headquarter there. They could not approach it from the south, instead going around the mountains in the north, to hopefully find a dead angle from behind.

On their scouting treks, they spotted more villages, all in a similar manner: small, mostly women and children, fields much larger than they need be surrounding them.

They made their way up the mountain that was towering ahead of them and came into much tougher terrain. Their planned path was around the mountain in the north, from there, they could approach the castle, which lay on the south side of the mountain, from a dead angle in its east.

It was after they had their short rest for lunch when Nannade heard something. Bleating sounded through a tight rocky crevasse that lay off their current path, incessantly, as if coming from a rather large group of goats or sheep. She made Ionna aware of it and she agreed to investigate further. A stray shepherd could easily expose them to the authorities. Nannade and another scout went into the crevasse. It was twenty feet at its widest and the ground was uneven, consisting mostly of fallen leaves and rubble. They got closer to the bleating’s source, but there were still tight spots to get through. Nannade could not understand how an entire group of sheep could have ended up this deep in the crevasse.

She cleared a bent and saw the source of the bleating. It was a monstrosity of a sheep, its wool filling out the entire width of the crevasse. She could see several pairs of hind legs and heads poking out of the woolly mess. One head looked directly at her. She got closer and noticed bloody skid marks on the ground. One of the marks ended at a dead, half-formed sheep with bitemarks taken out. Whatever this monstrosity was, it was birthing and eating lambs.

“This is disgusting, repulsive!” the scout said. Nannade had to agree. Even from a standpoint outside of the church, this was one of the most abhorrent things she had ever seen. The gift of life perverted and twisted. This cult needed to be taken out.

She took her dagger and slit every throat of the abomination she could reach, unleashing a torrent of blood that seemed to never die down. She thought about reducing the corpse to ashes with a spell, but the time and effort a corpse of this size would take would hinder their mission and the smoke could alert their enemies.

Nannade reported back to Ionna, who was just as disgusted and they continued their trek. Another scout was left behind again to keep the Platoon on the right path. The malformed sheep was another indicator to what Nannade had been assuming: the cult was worshipping and empowering fertility, and had removed everything else from nature on this island, forcing it to bear more fruit than it could muster. What its influence on the humans was, Nannade did not want to imagine. She had the sick feeling she’d find out soon enough.

At the campfires, Nannade tried to avoid Olly again, she still felt drawn to him, she still liked him, but she felt weird about it all at the same time. And ashamed for some reason. She deduced this feeling to be originating from the concept of fertility. She could not bear child from humans, and so, any loving union would offend fertility. Elissa had taught her that long ago.

She would be able to be shielded from this influence by Ssil, at least during the day time. She decided against telling Olly or anyone else. Such knowledge could cause loss of morality and thereby severely hinder a military expedition this deep into the enemy’s heartland. But she did have a talk with Father Syagricus, to ask how he protected his men from “the demon’s foul influence”. He told her they would pray together each morning and evening, and he would recite prayers and psalms during their wandering to uphold their morals and spirits. Nannade did not know how far Her Lady Radiance’s influence would reach, but it would not be able to rival that of the local deity for much longer, if at all.

In her dreams, Gregg came to her. She started to feel a deep affection to him and enjoyed his presence as she felt a future with him. A deep yearning for motherhood arose in her, before she was shaken awoken again by Ionna.

Ionna gathered her squad and again, they spoke their prayer before setting out. The landscape became rockier and hillier, as they entered the foothills of the mountain. Nannade had noticed a considerable drop in energy within Ionna and the other scouts seemed increasingly distracted. Nannade decided to ignore it and push on.

The scout troop came to a point where they had to find a way either across a ridge running down from a mountain’s peak or around the entire ridge. Ionna decided to send the corporal with half the squad and Nannade to find a way across, while taking the other half further down the peak to find a shallower pass there. They would meet again at sundown.

As Nannade was climbing the steeper and steeper inclines, she started to hear the scouts whisper among each other. Initially, she did not care, but she kept picking up the name of Ionna. Then she started to listen in.

“She deserves to be a mother. It would be a strong child she’d bare.”

“Our Lady Radiance would bless any union for such a devout follower.”

“A child born of her would be a treasure to the faith.”

Something started to dawn on Nannade. She stopped for a moment.

“Is something the matter?” the corporal asked. “Don’t you think we should meet back with the rest of the squad soon?”

Nannade was sure they could find a way across the ridge, but the corporal had a point. It was getting late and they should meet back with the rest of the squad and set up camp. But she'd need to talk to Ionna as soon as possible. She hoped to keep a clear head for long enough to explain things, but she felt the spirit of the island taking hold of her ever stronger as she looked to the southwest, where the ship lay in a hidden bay.

She met back with the rest of the squad in the shadow of the ridge, where camp had already been set up, minus the tent the other half of the squad was carrying. It would not be long before the rest of the platoon would arrive and Nannade wanted to talk to Ionna before that. She might be in danger.

Nannade could not find the lieutenant, but when she asked another member of the squad, he said she was in her tent discussing the further proceedings with the sergeant. When she decided to join in, she found she was too late.

Ionna had already fallen to the demon’s influence and taken her favourite to bed.