It didn’t take long for the others to finish exploring the hamlet. It was abandoned, as they originally thought, but Yuriko was mistaken in thinking that there were no signs of struggle. There weren’t any signs in the house she checked, but there were in the square.

A dozen houses were all along the dirt road but right smack in the middle was a gathering square. There, they found churned-up earth, spots of blood, and the burnt remnants of one of the houses. So there were thirteen houses originally.

Yuriko saw deep grooves along the dirt path, as well as hoofprints and bootprints alongside the grooves.

“They fled?” Yuriko muttered.

“It does look like it,” Sheamus said as he crouched to stare at the tracks.

“Krystal’s Facet would be useful now,” Asami muttered as she frowned at the burnt house. “Too bad she and Mikel are out of action.”

“Krystal’s Facet?” Yuriko asked.

“Her third one, I think,” Heron answered. “When she reached Journeyman she chose to enhance her first Facet and came up with a third ability.”

“And it does?”

“Er, she could see a bit of the past, I think, as a reflection left in the ambient Chaos or the planar structure.” Heron coughed. “I’m not too sure either.”

“It’s not that reliable, but it would have been nice to see what really happened,” Asami said. “I’m pretty sure that none of us, the militia or legion, raided across the border. So the question is, who did this?”

Yuriko gnawed on her lip. The Federation was made up of seven allied City-States, but did this mean that they weren’t as close-knit as they were taught in school? If the Empire didn’t do this…

She looked eastward, at the Zarek Mountains, and more specifically, at the foothills that were covered by the Primeval Forest.

She gestured towards it. “You think something came out there and attacked them?”

“Isn’t it too far?” Gwendith blinked at the mountain. The only reason they could even see the forest there was that Zarek was really high, and so were the foothills compared to the plains. They were probably seventy or eighty longstrides away from those foothills. “There must be other farming villages or hamlets closer to the foothills, why would they come all the way here?”

“Then you think it was people?”

“Whose people is the better question,” Braden opined.

“It couldn’t have been the Haveenians right?” Orrin asked.

“Would they harm their own people?” Yuriko said.

“Bandits?” Gwendith asked.

Yuriko looked at her friend in surprise. Bandits?

Seeing her confused look, Gwendith said, “Robbers, thieves, burglars.” She shrugged. “Few nations value order as we do.”

“Criminals, then?” Yuriko asked.

“That’s a possibility,” Braden said.

“You…” Sheamus muttered then shook his head. “Are you surprised by criminal elements within a country?”

“Yeah,” All six of them murmured. Desire just shrugged.

Saki popped out of the shadows and gave the rest of them condescending looks. Yuriko’s eyes narrowed and Saki giggled at her. “Hmph!”

“Our sheltered little princesses and little boys don’t know about the Empire’s shadows,” Saki said. “But this,” she gestured at the deserted houses, “is rather common in wild planes and other nations. They claim the planes in their name but can’t even keep them safe. This plane is a frontier of the Empire, but should it emerge as a Stable plane, nothing of this sort will happen again.”

“You really think it’s bandits?” Yuriko asked.

“Maybe. We can’t be certain, young mistress, but it sure points that way.” Saki shrugged. “Would you like to follow the tracks and find out? It looks like they’re headed towards the city, anyway.”

“Huh. Sure, why not.” Yuriko shrugged. From the cold ashes, this happened more than several days ago. The chances of them catching up were low, but they didn’t have a set path anyway.

They left the farming hamlet, taking nothing with them. Since it was no longer raining, they didn’t have to seek shelter for the night. The winds were cold though, so they still put up a rudimentary shelter. Yuriko could use her kinesis to build quickly, but she was by no means the only one so capable.

Gwendith could freeze and unfreeze the ground and could give them somewhere dry to place their sleeping bags on. The twins sorted out the fire. Either of them could use their Facet, which were red and black bolts of lightning, to ignite the firewood. Heron could easily sweep the detritus away. Well, he could cut wood, too, or gather grass with his abilities. As for Sheamus, he could directly manipulate earth and stone to shape a windbreak. He couldn’t quite make a roof though.

In the end, they built a suitable windbreak with low earthen walls, covered it with blankets and slept inside. It was cramped with seven people sleeping at once. Sheamus erected a short divider for peace of mind. When Yuriko woke up, though, she found herself entangled with Gwendith, and oddly enough, Asami on her other side. Desire was stretched across their legs with a bubble of drool trembling from the corner of her lips.

When she expanded her perception, she noticed that Gwendith was actually awake pretending to be asleep and that Orrin was struggling to go back to sleep while Braden was still snoring and…

Blushing furiously, she hastily retracted her perception and as wriggled out of the pile, decided never to expand her perception aura while in a room with sleeping boys. Outside, Saki had cooked their breakfast ration bar porridge. After she did her morning ablutions in a suitably secluded place, her attendant handed her a bowl and a spoon. She swiped a mug of warm tea next to the kettle and ate her breakfast in silence.

The next hour saw the rest of them struggle out of bed, eat, do their ablutions, and then return everything to how they found it. They continued on their journey, following the tracks. They mostly stayed on the dirt road, which meandered with the lay of the land.

The area grew flatter and flatter, with fewer hills and ridges, until it became a rolling plain. Most of the land they crossed wasn’t even farmed. She saw little evidence of herds or pasture land too.

The Haveenians had more land than they could cultivate so why did they insist on going up north?

Another day went by before they even saw another farming hamlet. And this time, it wasn’t deserted.

_____________

Sheamus Dorn led the group as he walked towards the hamlet. He could see nearly twenty dwellings, and since it was midmorning, there were plenty of people out and about. Adults doing their chores, kids running about at play. There were only a couple of teenage kids in the lot, and those were also busy doing their chores.

Speaking of teenagers… he glanced at the group he was supposedly leading. All of them, including Yuriko Davar’s Shadow Guard, were teenagers. He felt quite old all of a sudden, as he was twice as old as the golden goddess.

He felt the weight of her regard though, and he meant that quite literally. Yuriko Davar could use her aura to perceive, sight, touch, and sound as far as he could tell. Lately, she’d been able to hide or shift the light she gave out, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t feel her looking. He only hoped that the people in the hamlet weren't sensitive enough to feel it.

With the way she was dressed, it was actually hard to tell what she looked like, though the feminine cut of her poncho revealed her gender. It was loose and roomy enough to obscure her curves, and her hood was deep enough that when she looked down, as she was doing now, it was difficult to see her face. The clothes couldn’t mask her swaying gait though, which was definitely feminine. Her height, which was only a couple of inches shorter than his, also drew attention, and coupled with her gender…

Yeah, she drew attention. Not as much as she would have if she walked around in her normal outfit, but a fraction of a big number was still larger than the whole of a small one.

So he noticed quite a few eyes riveted to her when they came close to the hamlet, but that also meant fewer eyes on the other members of the group. The Chaos Lord, Desire, would have sparked fear if they realised what she was, so he supposed Yuriko taking all the gazes was good, too.

“Ahem. Excuse me,” he coughed and called the attention of one of the women gaping at them.

“Huh, oh! Foreigner?”

“Not really, no,” Sheamus said slowly, while he tried to match his accent with hers.

The middle-aged woman gave him an odd stare then shrugged, “You had an odd accent, and you’ve quite a large party.”

Sheamus chuckled sourly. “I travel a lot and my accent just changes to match. Sheamus Dorn.” He reached out a hand to shake, and the older woman clasped it.

“Mara Owens.” She said evenly, “What brings you to the Owens Farm?”

“On our way to the city,” Sheamus said simply.

“Ah. Well, you need supplies?”

“Yes, I believe that would be good. And,” he glanced up at the sky. The Radiant Sun was just a handspan away from reaching the western Veil. “Shelter for the evening, if you would allow it.”

Mara eyed him warily and said, “There’s no room. I’m afraid we cannot host you or your group for the night. Ah, we have little to spare, too, with the Season as harsh as it is.”

The sudden backpedal startled Sheamus but he kept his head and offered, “Then whatever you can spare is fine. I have hard coin to pay.”

A light of greed nearly overcame the caution in Mara’s eyes but she took a deep breath and gestured for Sheamus to follow. She glanced at the others, her eyes lingered on Heron who was not only the tallest person in the group, but was also visibly strong and muscular. It didn’t help that his hood didn’t fully conceal his face. His eyes danced around the buildings and the set of his jaw seemed to put the older woman on edge.

She gathered some of the other adults and held a murmured conference, before beckoning for Sheamus to come with her. He followed her easily, confident in his power. None of these people looked dangerous after all.

They haggled for a few pitiful sacks of carrots, potatoes, and onions, but they settled on nearly one-fifty Shekels for the lot. He actually didn’t really know the price of food here, but he suspected that he had been fleeced, and from the satisfied glint on Mara’s eyes, he’d been swindled rather badly.

It did result in the woman lowering her guard, so he took the chance to ask her why she’d been so uptight.

She tilted her head to one side, then said, “A couple of weeks ago, some people came through the farm. They spoke of marauders who attacked their farmstead.”

“Oh, then why aren’t you…”

“Putting up a guard?” She grinned and nodded towards a building. He looked and saw that on a second-storey window, someone had a crossbow. It was aimed straight at him.

“Huh.”

“We can protect ourselves. And you look like you can, too. So, thank you for the business but please be on your way.”

“Alright. Thank you, Mistress Owens.”

They wordlessly moved past the hamlet and continued down the road. The sun would set in less than an hour, but they managed another longstride before they stopped. Since it didn’t rain all day, and the skies were clear, there was little reason to build a full shelter. At least, that’s what Sheamus thought.

Yuriko, on the other hand, insisted on the full works, and since she did most of the heavy lifting, if one could consider using their aura instead of their bodies to lift heavy work, he had little reason to complain. Instead, it was Braden who confronted him.

“You paid a hundred fifty Shekels for this?” he said derisively. “You could have gotten all this for ten.”

Sheamus snorted. “I doubt she would have sold this much if we haggled down. They’re on a wartime footing. And, did you notice what they were worried about?”

“Marauders,” the other twin, Orrin, muttered. It wasn’t that hard to distinguish the two from each other as Braden was tanned and more muscular while Orrin had paler skin, and his physique was a bit weaker. “Real criminals or agents of the state?”

“I suspect we’ll only know if we encounter them and ask,” Sheamus said dryly.

“I hope we see them then,” Yuriko said eagerly.

Sheamus chuckled. “I doubt they’d provide much challenge, my lady,” he said with a chuckle.

Yuriko sniffed. “They would if I restricted myself.”

The rest of them chuckled along, though Sheamus noted the somewhat wild look in the twins’ and Heron’s eyes. Ah, yes, all three of them, huh?

Well, Lady Yuriko’s desires were answered at noon the next day when they saw another hamlet surrounded by a troop of dark cloaked warriors.