《A play with fire》 The girl in the cell 1 One hour before Sundown. Coming from his final briefing with the leader of the forward scouts, captain Swift gathered his team inside their temporary residence. ¡°The last information we have, about the ember-societies poacher outpost, is that it was vacated by their elite mages 3 days ago, as observed by our scout contingent, posted on the overlooking hills.¡± The following days were quiet, until a scout, proficient in long range reconnaissance, noticed some unrest in the camp''s central area.¡± From then, it took only minutes, after the start of the disturbance, for our remaining scouts, to see the first people flee the camp into the woods in random directions.¡± That sadly required them to vacate their observation spot immediately, or risk being found.¡± All this happened last night, and is the reason we were called in.¡± It had been a close call for them, just arriving in time back home, 2 villages over, to be available for this last minute mission. Our job will be to infiltrate the camp, search for clues to the origin of last night''s disturbance, return here, and report back to our Headquarter.¡± Looking at Harriets sullen face, he knew his team''s scout and infiltration expert was not happy going on this special assignment. They had just come back from charting the new trade route between the town of rapid-falls and two new border villages. Whoever decided to start making inroads into the outer edges of the transient realm should go there and do the job themselves. This whole frustrating debacle was followed by a 2 week return trip. And now no time to cool down and relax. The rest of his team showed a variety of different opinions about it as well on their faces. And he decided to not comment on how Gregor was smiling at Harriet, almost daring her to air her grievances. Sam was, as always, the more stoic type. Captain Swift was happy, they acted all professional enough to not protest the mission, now that they were already here. No need to waste time when you could do a fast and thorough job and be back sooner, with less complications. ¡ª-------------------------------------------------------- They slowly closed in on the area cleared for the camp''s construction, hiding between the trees.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The darkness of night was fast approaching, and within the next hour would make the infiltration easier. ¡°Harriet, like always, you go in first and look for a safe route for us to follow.¡± Sam and Gregor will make a roundtrip along the camp''s edge and report back here in one Hour.¡± I will keep an eye on the main gate and look out for unexpected guests.¡± If everybody is back here, we will decide our best method of ingress.¡± ¡ª-------------------------------------------------------- Harriet was not happy, but a job was a job. Looking at the camp infront of her, she decided to silently review the content of their scouts reports, before deciding how to approach her task. The camps palisade was built roughly 30 paces away from the forest edge, far enough to notice anything or anyone approaching from there. In addition to the wall came five sets of guard towers. One set for every cardinal direction, and two higher towers in the camps central area. With nightfall just around the corner, Harriet prepared her light-cloak spell, to become one with her surroundings. The spell was one she was very proud of, as it routed all light around her, making her seemingly invisible. The only downside was, to keep her own ability to see intact, she had to at least allow some light coming from in front of her to reach her. That always created some minor disturbances, only visible for people standing right behind her, opposite the direction she was looking. Sneaking up to the palisade, she soon noticed the absence of all guards. It was not that only few were left, after the disturbance, like the scouts speculated, but that she could see nobody on the wall. It was completely empty. That was convenient, and somewhat worrying. This made it a less risky decision, when Harriet opted for a swift climb up the wall. Looking down, inside the camp proper, the signs of battle were obvious. Slowly creeping up the ladder to the nearest tower, she wondered what had happened here. Even the new vantagepoint did not change the impression of a completely abandoned camp. Almost as if everybody inside, who did not escape in time, was dead. Seeing no reason for further secrecy, at least outside the camp, she decides to make a point by knotting a thick climbing-rope from her backpack to a nearby palisade stake and signal her captain and team to climb up. ¨C----------------------------------------- Captain Swift is sure something more is going on with this camp, Sam and Gregor found no patrols on any of the walls, and by now they would have needed to light their lanterns, if they wanted to see anything approaching from outside the camp. But nothing happened. No guards, not patrols, no lanterns. Following along the wall with his gaze, Captain Swift soon took note of the rope Harriet had placed for them to climb. The decision already made for them he hurries his team up and over the wall. ¨C---------------------------------------- ¡°Now that we are all back together, what should we do next? "Any proposals?¡± the Captain asks, looking each of his teammates in the eye. It is good practice to keep an open mind in these situations, for observations made by the team not already known to all. Harriet, having been the longest on the wall, decides to speak ¡°as far as I could tell, the camp is empty ¡­disregarding the obvious corpses¡±. I could see no lights in any of the buildings, and the moon is just bright enough to not lose your way.¡± As we all know of the hard-limit to our stay here. Sunrise next morning. Our scouts expect by then the reinforcement, alarmed by the fleeing people from last night, to arrive. Since I have my stealth magic, and you have your own spells for sneaking around, why not split up and look a little closer.¡± Not seeing anything inherently wrong with the proposal, Captain swift decides on a two pronged strategy. ¡° Sam and Gregor, you will start from here, near the wall, and slowly work your way inside.¡± We will go straight for the administrative building, and look there for survivors to question later¡±. ¡ª--------------------------------------- The ticking clock in mind, the team splits up. The girl in the cell 2 Melding with her surroundings, Harriet slowly followed in her Captains footsteps, his magic suppressing any sound he made. For her it was always eerie how he could walk so quietly, in his at least for a mage, heavy armor. If someone were not looking at him, they would only notice his presence the moment he strikes. It was a useful skill to have while out on hunting missions. People would always ask them in secret, if their captain was truly a mage, as he always dressed more like a warrior. But she, and her teammates, knew how dangerous their leader was. Especially within tight spaces¡­ like the deep forest of their last mission, or within buildings ¡­ like they should expect for their current one. Rounding the corner of a small warehouse, just beyond the wall, both almost stepped on the first body of the day. Its clothes identified him as a mage of apprentice rank, within his society the lowest rank. Cause of death seemed to be the large burn wound going down from his neck, to his lower back. His robes, near the wound completely burned away, had long stopped smoking, and now showed his badly burned back to the outside world. The surrounding building had traces of the battle as well. Soot stains and burn marks everywhere. It was too early to speculate what had happened. Following the street, Harriet noticed two more corpses and an oddity. ¡°Captain ¡­am I the only one with the impression that these two, both mages of the ember-society, had fought each other?¡± If you look at the body near the wall over there¡± she said, pointing at a dead mage, leaning his back against a building wall. ¡± it is obvious that he died from shock and blood loss after getting hit by a, as it looks, potent fire spell, in the face¡­ poor guy by the way¡±. ¡° And the other one, over there¡± she gave a short nod to the third corpse of the day, lying face down on the ground, ¡° had his feet, up to the knee burned away¡±. ¡° Both are facing each other, more or less¡±. Captain swift followed her direction and taking a closer look of his own, signaled his intent to take her observation for now into consideration. ¡°But we still don''t know the reason for all of this. what happened here last night?¡± was the only return question, she got out of him. These many dead bodies, so early in their investigation, did not help the odds of finding any survivors deeper in. By now, reaching the central administrative building had become their number one Priority. There they should find information about the last missions, these people had participated in, and if some unexpected had happened. Something could motivate someone to start a small civil war over.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. And why were these apprentices so badly burned? With their magical understanding, not one of them should be able to put out so much energy. That is not how mana, and magic works. Whatever had happened that night had led to many dead bodies and a large group fleeing the camp as soon as they noticed the unfolding violence. Suddenly, captain swift signaled her to stop advancing. Looking in his direction, she saw him pointing to one of the small ditches, running throughout the camp. These were obviously for the remains of natural, human processes¡­ and smelled so as well. But the smell was not the point of interest here, instead it was the human remains, halve buried within the ditch. And these were by now nothing more than blackened bone shards. It almost looked like this one, was overusing his mana channels so much, that he literally burned himself out over it. But that self defeating act went against all common sense. Entering the administrative building, both noticed the smell of roasted meat, drifting into the enclosed corridor, from the mess hall on the far side of the opposite wall. To their left, near the building''s entrance, was the small staircase leading up the second floor, and down to the guard station, marked by obvious signs. By now both were sure that nobody else was alive in this camp. This meant on the other hand that they could search alone, without risking getting dragged into direct conflict with other mages. With a short nod to the ground, Harriet indicated her intention to go down the stairs and visit the guard post. Deciding to meet up again, in a few minutes, they split up with her going down and captain swift taking up the second floor. The moment she had arrived at the lower floor, leading up to the guardstation, she heard strange noises, coming from the single jail cell in the adjacent room. Thinking about it, in all the carnage, she had not noticed until now, that they had never seen any animals inside the camp. And so many remains were welcome meals for scavengers. But the source of the strange noise was not a rat, but the single girl occupying the only jail cell. She looked small and with her off-white skin and hair color almost vanished under white bed sheets of the little cot, placed in one of the rooms corners. The noise Harriet was hearing came from the girl, and almost sounded like she was snoring. Except, Harriet had noticed right at the door that the strange girl was not sleeping and just pretending. Having found the seemingly only survivor, one who liked silly games, Harriet decided to return to the main entrance and wait for her captain. It was, by now, only a matter of time ,to regain access. Her two other team members should by now have arrived at the central building as well. Harriet was still angry that they had no down time between their last mission and this excursion. But this won''t stop her from having some fun at their upcoming meeting and talking last. She was curious how the others, including their captain, would react, when hearing about the single survivor, sitting useless inside a jail cell.