Theft of Decks 4, CH 39

“Layered defenses. Well-hidden permanent crafted items, attuned to specific gems, personally granted to commanders in secret. Upon their deaths, the gems are reclaimed and granted to new commanders. The perfect way to anticipate and ambush any would-be attackers.” I believe I have an idea. A lot of what the Savior did is actually workable, if you remove the diabolical aspects of it. Take this. If we locate the activation gems and the crafted items, we would actually be able to reuse them for a concerted, layered defense that would be extremely effective against enemy high-Tier wielders. This will change how I read these blasted diaries. (Book 2, Page 23.)

“It worked.” Lucille’s voice was as tired as it was surprised. “It actually worked exactly as we wanted. Granted, we had to place guards to ensure that people didn’t die in the rush to access the Wellspring and change their cards – but people are in awe, grateful… and quite a bit scared of your bald warrior here.”

“Aw. Why? People shouldn’t be afraid of me!” Liam said.

“You broke a well-made wooden platform weighing tons apart, like it was a castle made of twigs.” Kith smirked. “I’d be surprised if they aren’t saying that you’re twelve feet tall, using a spear for a tooth pick.”

“He’s not wrong.” Lucille granted. “But, apologies, Liam, this is exactly what we wanted. Earning the gratitude of the people, along with a healthy show of power. It should give us a tiny bit of air to breathe and actually plan for the next stage. There will be some armed resistance, when people find out this is for real, but hopefully, we will have a vague idea of how we are going to build our society before then.”

“How’d they take my surprise then?” Kith asked smugly.

Lucille rubbed her face. “It. They. Well, they appreciate the power. As to the lack of subtlety, I believe everybody knows about you by now.”

“What I want to know is how to repeat it? Can you build another one for me?”

Not one to be upstaged, Kith had picked his moment right after the Dark Wellspring came into place, to use his Monument of Liberty card. The shimmering ten-feet-tall statue that came into being right behind the Wellspring portrayed Kith, heroically placed alongside Spike, with Radine on his shoulders. Now, all summoners picking cards had all rarity ranks improved by one.

“Sorry.” Kith smirked. “One time only. I guess I’ll just have to deal with being the face of Liberty for all eternity.”

Chase snorted. “Or until somebody’s had enough and chops it down. Now. Moving on - where does all this leave us, though?”

“In deep trouble.” Lucille sighed. “The news arrived less than five minutes ago, which is why I asked you in here. Parts of the Lightborn army have started advancing into our lands and our forces are pulling back, entirely outmatched. Liberty is officially under invasion.”

Kith cursed. Nobody else said a word.

Eventually, Chase spoke up again. “Do we have any numbers? Anything more solid? Has Radine returned, Kith?”

Kith shook his head. “She won’t, for at least four or five days. It’s a massive flight for her. Besides, her route wouldn’t take her past their army, so I’d have to send her out to scout again.”

Lucille bowed her head in dismay. “As you may have learned for yourself, the Savior did not like people taking cards that would help with scouting or far sight – no doubt, in order to avoid being spied upon. As such, we are near blind when it comes to details. But we do have their numbers. About three thousand. Two to three hundred of those are mounted.”

“Three thousand.” Chase repeated, frowning. “Okay, like you said yourself, people are queuing up to change their cards to something they like. Can we actually present an army that would be able to fend that off straight away?”

“Yes.” She said, looking far less happy than that response should have warranted. “The real question is: can we fend them off and be sure that our forces here in Salvation can actually keep the peace and aid to make sure that we do not fall apart? To that, the answer is a resounding ‘no.’ We are already getting reports of hostile Guardians taking heavy tolls on the hopefuls all across the border.”

“But that’s no good.” Kith complained. “We can’t just send forces out there to aid all those poor bastards stuck at the borders, knowing they’re facing Guardians that might be too tough for them. Especially when those forces are better used elsewhere.”

“I know!” She admitted through gritted teeth. “But what would you have me do? If we pull back everybody, every tiny village between Salvation and all outlying borders will be left fending for themselves. It will be a slaughter. On top of that, I can’t get anybody here to agree to any single action. It’s like trying to herd cats! So, help me, damn you. If you agree to my plans, I believe I will be able to convince a large number of the others. Then, maybe, we will be able to come up with something useful and act instead of just reacting! We can weather this, I know – but we need our defenders to be able to circle back here and earn proper cards. Then, with time, and better strategies, we will be able to defend ourselves and build up a defense that will last in the long run. And…” She trailed off. In a tiny voice, she finished. “I just don’t know anymore. I’m so tired.”

Sera sighed. “It is as I feared.” She faced the others. “The coming weeks are not going to be easy – for either of us.”

“You’re saying that in a weird way. Why is that?” Chase asked suspiciously.

“Because you will be leaving me behind.”

Chase snorted. “Yeah. That’s not happening.”

Sera grasped his hand. “It is. Let us face the facts. We have three fronts in this war – because it is a war, make no doubt of that. The border, with the hopefuls and their leaders. Underpowered, wielding poor cards, reeling. The Lightborn army, who we can expect to put everything and everyone they meet to the torch or enslave them. And finally, Salvation, where the battle for the future of a Liberator society will be fought.” She smiled ruefully. “Given a choice of these three battlefronts – where do you believe I would be able to do the most good? Fighting, or attempting to carve out something good within this web of diplomacy and bickering?”

“I will be staying, too.” Cilia said. The tone of her voice brooked no argument. “I entirely agree with Sera. Somebody needs to stay here and build up a new Salvation. I will be able to help with that. I can craft what needs to be crafted – items that we can send to aid the borders, or to build up a proper defense against the Lightborn. If it’s just me, you know I’ll run out of droplets within a few hours, and then I’m basically useless. Here? I think we could manage something good.”

Kith’s demeanor was stuck somewhere between disbelief and dark humor. “Oh yeah. No worries. We’ll take on three thousand Lightborn. There’s a full three of us. That’ll be easy.”

“You would not have to go alone.” Lucille’s voice offered. ”We do not have the numbers to face their army, that is beyond discussion. Yet, I do believe that, with all the people choosing new cards right now, we would be able to find a decent number of volunteers who would be willing to aid you, knowing what you intend to do. Maybe a few hundred to harass and strike at their army.”

“I’m not even sure what we intend to do.” Kith said. “Die? Because without Sera on board, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Sera cocked her head. “Aww. That is almost sweet of you.”

Liam snorted. “No, it isn’t. He’s just wheedling. It’s what he does, when he thinks he can avoid hard work.” He lunged at Kith and grabbed him in a headlock.

“Gah. Get off of me, you damn brute!” Kith struggled, but eventually relented, red face aimed at Sera. “See what you’d leave me to, Princess?”

Lucille’s wide eyes ranged from one to the other. “I prayed for a way out. For years, I asked the Savior for a way to live. This was… not what I expected.”

Liam chuckled and mussed Kith’s hair before releasing him. “We’ve heard that one before. I mean, not the praying part.” Turning to Kith, he shrugged. “I’ll say, it’s pretty damn obvious what we’re trying to do, isn’t it? We’re slowing them. Stalling. Drawing them in the wrong directions and making sure they’re running themselves ragged. It’s not like we need to kill them. We just have to make sure that they waste their time and energy chasing after us.”

“Oh. Wait.” Kith frowned. “We can do this!” He pushed off of Liam and started pacing. “I tried out my Chariot of the Land this morning. It’s bloody massive. It can easily hold a dozen, maybe fifteen people. But that’s not the best part. It’s fast, too.” He snapped his fingers. “Lucille! If you get us ten, no, twelve people with good cards for continuous ranged combat, and… probably a good healer too. Then, we can stay ahead of them and slowly wear them down! If they ever make it as far as Salvation, they’ll be too exhausted to even consider anything but surrendering.”

“I can do that.” Lucille said haltingly. “But… are you sure? Fifteen against several thousand? It sounds like suicide!”

Chase gave her a lopsided grin as he patted Kith on the shoulder. “It’d only be suicide if we intended to stand up to them directly. Kith’s totally right. We have plenty of cards that can hurt them from a distance. With hundreds of miles for them to cross, and some helpers, we’ll be able to hurt them badly. Besides, I do have a few ideas we can try first, and we’ll have Cilia take a stab at the plans before we leave. Finally, I intend to use diplomacy!”

Liam frowned. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Lie.” Kith grinned. “He’s going to lie a lot is what he’s trying to say.”

Chase spread his arms and beamed. “You do know me.”

Half a day passed, as they plotted and prepared. The palace was starting to look more like a beehive, with the constant coming and going of thousands of people – those who wanted to help forming a new society, guards, craftsmen and the idly curious. Chase, Liam and Kith were intentionally ignoring all the goings-on, in favor of planning properly for their own task. Sera and Lucille somehow managed to rustle up enough volunteers that Chase could use his Stealing Is Giving, Too card, amplifying his attributes by a full thirty-nine points.

They’d been reunited with their old gear as well. They had located it all, safely stashed away in a storage room, along with what little they were able to salvage from Nordon’s brews.

They also located the attribute-boosting leather armbands Cilia had managed to craft. Somebody had stolen a bunch along the way, but they still had enough that they were able to find two for each person joining their raid.

Finally, they all converged in the open area outside the palace. They had dropped the Liberty outfits and were back in their own clothes and armaments. Kith summoned his chariot, and they all stood back for a moment, taking it in.

“Those kitties pulling the thing are intimidating. The rest looks a bit… rough, doesn’t it?” Liam asked.

“Like somebody decided to take a thorn bush and make a theme out of it.” Cilia agreed. “At least they’re only on the outside. Imagine sitting for hours with spikes up your behind.”

“Actually-“ Chase started.

“Hey! Anybody who thinks my glorious ride is ugly is more than welcome to get out and walk!” Kith snapped.

“Rough isn’t necessarily a bad thing, is it?” Liam said. Then he burst into laughter. “Man. It could be bright pink, and I’d still ride the damn thing, if it means I get to nap along the way.”

Sera stepped forward and dragged Chase into a hard hug. “I know, telling you to stay safe would be ridiculous. So, I have only two things to say. Do not die. And return to me. We will have the largest, most ostentatious wedding ever.”

He smiled. “I have no intentions of doing otherwise. We’ll make those Lightborn nobles back in Isarn look like paupers. Now, any final good advice? That goes for all of you!”

Lucille shook her head ruefully. “We owe you all. I will make sure that everybody here knows what you are doing for us.”

“Please, no!” Chase groaned. “They’re already being plenty weird about things. This morning, somebody wanted me to hold a baby. Why? I wasn’t buying!”

“We have already planned plenty.” Cilia said, ignoring his antics. “You know which route to lead them, if possible. You know the pass which would be a good ambushing spot. And Gelly there-“ She pointed at a middle-aged, short-haired Liberator in a leather surcoat who’d look right at home wielding a cleaver at a butcher’s block. “Got lucky and got a summoned steed as her first-Tier card. This will be your one possibility to send a fast messenger to us, if you need to.”

“Until Radine returns.” Kith mumbled. “Stupid bird.”

“Yes. Of course, we’ve indicated on the map where there are Keepers, and at which times of day we intend to have somebody listening and watching for any updates. But we are still severely understaffed in that department, and you’ll likely be on the move at most hours, so there may be delays.” Cilia took a deep breath. “I do not like sending you off without us. Yet, it is the logical choice. And, as long as you manage to protect yourselves from the mounted troops, as we have talked about, you should be able to stay ahead of them and do some real damage.”

“Real damage? That’s our job.” A gruff voice announced. An elderly mixed-blood man, half-Liberator, half-Furyborn walked up. The burnished color of his skin and his pointed ears made no secret of his heritage, while his looks – corded muscles and a wiry, stark white shock of hair – led the mind to think of old leather and steel. “I’m Banes. I reckon I don’t know much about this mess. All this about the Savior being a lyin’ bastard wouldn’t surprise me none – but that’s not why I’m here.” His upper lip rose in a half-snarl that looked about as close as he’d ever come to a smile. “You!” He pointed at Chase. “Made sure that I could get cards. Real cards, whatever I’d like. “And you!“ His finger continued to stab accusingly at Kith. “Made sure that all us summoners could be powerful. I used to have two cards apart from my Devotion card, one common, one uncommon. Now, I have fifteen. Two of ‘em rare! And those bloody outsiders think they can come striding in and take over? I’ll feed ‘em a good showing of Liberty. Right up their bloody bums!”

“And we appreciate it.” Chase nodded at him, then at the large group behind him, each wielding their own backpack bristling with armaments. “I know that none of you are weaklings, or unused to conflict. What we are going into, however, will be different from what you’re used to. There will be no Prism to disorient and slow our enemies. There will be nobody for us to call upon, if their powers turn out to be greater than we expected. We will only have ourselves to count on.” He shot a savage grin at them. “But once you’ve seen Liam in battle, you’ll find that those odds aren’t the worst!”