Xerxes woke the next morning expecting bad things to happen. Maybe Katayoun would report the matter to Gandash. Or Enusat and Jad would get caught trying to dispose of blood-soaked clothing.

Nothing of the sort played out.

The camp stirred before dawn. They ate a simple breakfast. They broke camp, then marched to the beat set by the drummers in the middle of the procession.

During that entire time, he didn’t get anywhere close to ‘talking sense’ into Katayoun. He tried his best to catch her eye, but she avoided him.

Dammit.

There wasn’t time to press Jad and Enusat about the previous night’s event, either. By the time the sky grew light, they were leaving the vicinity of the Gateway complex, and he had no idea what was going on.

The marching order Gandash prescribed had the heavy infantry in the front of the line, specifically Units One and Two, those to which Xerxes and Kashtiliash were assigned. He sent light infantry from Unit Fourteen to scout ahead. Ningsummunu, who was one of the group who hadn’t reached the High Seer level before deployment, went with them.

Katayoun was also with heavy infantry, but she was a Balatu mage, and Gandash had the healers in the middle of the procession.

At least that meant Xerxes could talk to Kashtiliash, although he waited until they were a good thirty minutes or so from the Gateway.

“Any idea what happened last night?” Xerxes asked.

“They fucked up,” Kashtiliash replied.

“I guessed that. But how? What exactly went down?”

Kashtiliash just shook his head.

The scenery was beautiful. Towering trees with furry animals scurrying up and down their trunks. Craggy rock formations. Blue skies and puffy clouds. Xerxes wasn’t paying any attention to it.

Had Jad and Enusat been attacked by thieves? Had they run afoul of local constables? Had they run into trouble in that brothel Enusat had mentioned? What worried Xerxes the most were the possible ramifications. Jad and Enusat were both High Seers. How could anyone have possibly inflicted such a bloody wound without them retaliating? Had they killed someone? More than one person?

Late in the morning, when a lunch break was called, Xerxes headed back up the line. Katayoun was huddled with Kishar, and was still avoiding him. He passed her and went further down to find Jad and Enusat, who had clambered onto a boulder shortly off the trail. He could tell as he approached that they were both in foul moods. Enusat’s jaw jutted out when he wasn’t chewing, and Jad slouched as he sat, facing away from Enusat.

“What the hell happened?” he whispered as he joined them.

“Stupid shit,” Enusat growled.

“That’s basically it,” Jad said. “There was a tavern. We had some drinks. We got dragged into a fight.”

“Which wasn’t our fault,” Enusat said. He spat a seed into the underbrush.

“That’s it?” Xerxes asked.

“Simple as that,” Jad said.

High Seers were much stronger and tougher than Seers, who were in turn far beyond any newly-Sighted mages, and of course any Unsighted. That wasn’t to mention that Jad and Enusat were no slouches when it came to fighting. Was that all there was to the story?

He wanted to press them. Ask for more details.

But he could sense that it wouldn’t lead to anything fruitful. Maybe later, when they both calmed down.

“Alright,” he said, and started eating.

There wasn’t much conversation after that. He finished his food and went back down the line. Katayoun’s attitude hadn’t changed in the past few minutes. She refused to meet his eye.

“This isn’t my fault,” he muttered as he passed her, though not loud enough for her or anyone else to hear.

Back on horseback, he continued down the mountain next to Kashtiliash.

Two hours later, one of the scouts came back, hunched low over his horse.

“What’s happening?” a soldier yelled at the scout as he passed. The scout didn’t respond.

Scant minutes later, a halt was called.

Gandash came up on horseback, accompanied by five light cavalrymen, one of whom was the scout from moments before.

“Lieutenant Kashtiliash, Sergeant Arda,” he said, “I want you to take all of Unit Two down the mountain. Private Tustimant here—” he gestured at the scout “—will take you to meet Lieutenant Ningsummunu. They’ve spotted an Abhorrent. I want it killed, and the area secured. It’s most likely a spawn, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.”

“Yes sir, Captain,” Arda said, and Kashtiliash made a muttered echo of the affirmation.

As Xerxes watched it all happening, he thought, Why didn’t he send me?

Was Gandash punishing him? After all, Xerxes had the most experience fighting Abhorrent, so shouldn’t he be the one to do the honors?

As Kashtiliash left, Gandash said, “Lieutenant Xerxes, Sergeant Stratos, you and Unit One are our ‘front line’ so to speak. So I want you on guard at all times. We have no reason to believe it’s anything other than a lone Abhorrent. But… be ready for combat nonetheless.”

The wait was agonizing. The road was wide enough that Stratos had the soldiers form a line from one side to the other, while Xerxes hung back several cubits with his component pouch ready. Behind them, the rest of the troops in the company waited. The breeze from earlier had died, and the sun crawled across the sky, baking them in the mid-day heat.

Flies buzzed.

Xerxes thought back to the horrors of Mannemid. The journey through the Yellow Forest. Asnu Gorge. The juvenile Abhorrent ripping soldiers to shreds and dragging Bel to her death.

Thankfully, there were no bridges or cliffs here.

And back then, they’d faced a juvenile Abhorrent with only a few dozen armed fighters, here they had nearly two hundred. Not to mention nearly fifteen mages.

It’s nothing like back then.

The distant thud of galloping horse hooves reached their ears.

The Unit One soldiers tensed, lifting shields and weapons.

Xerxes put his hand on his component pouch.