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"That\'s where we come in, huh?" Ike said, snapping back to the conversation.

Clarina nodded. "I\'m too weak to rescue them. But if it\'s you two… you stand a chance. I don\'t think you can defeat all the New Republic, but you don\'t have to. If you know how to kill those indestructible puppets, that\'s enough."

Indestructible? Ike frowned. Not by half. At Rank 2, it\'s practically easy, as long as you have the right tools. By Rank 3, it should be possible to break them barehanded. How low rank is Clarina\'s sect? Or are the puppets stronger, and the guy I faced really had a cut-rate, low-quality puppet?

Or… He grimaced as a thought occurred to him. Ike shook his head. Indestructible, huh.

Unaware of Ike\'s thoughts, Clarina blithely continued. "I know all the secret exits and entrances to the sect. I can show you the routes in and out. You should only see a few guards. There\'s still fighting in the forests… they attacked us in the middle of the night, so no one was ready to fight back, but many of us escaped."

"Don\'t mages not have to sleep?" Ike pointed out.

Clarina looked at him like he was stupid. "We still have to meditate at night to settle our mana."

"Oh," Ike said. No one told me that.

Wisp leaned in. "Don\'t worry, it\'s mostly superstition."

"It\'s not superstition. It\'s true! It\'s a necessary daily process to settle the mana! If you don\'t do it, your mana will go haywire," Clarina insisted.

Ike pursed his lips. He looked at Wisp and shrugged. "Seems to be okay for me."

"Maybe you\'re not human, ooo." Wisp waggled her fingers.

"Maybe I am human and she\'s full of shit," Ike deadpanned, thumbing at Clarina.

"I am not! We meditate every night. All mages do. It\'s normal!" Clarina defended herself, taken aback.

Wisp clicked her tongue. "Come on, Ike. No need to start throwing strays at poor Clarina."

"Yeah, yeah." He nodded at Clarina. "Sorry."

Clarina straightened up. She nodded back regally, accepting his apology.

Ike cleared his throat. "Not to rain on your parade or anything, but if there\'s fighting in the forests, how come we aren\'t hearing anything? Or seeing anything?"

Clarina stiffened. After a beat, she shrugged. "Perhaps the fight is at a lull."

Or maybe your side lost. Ike considered, then shrugged. He didn\'t care about the girl. Never had, and still didn\'t. Her parents could go rot, likewise. But what the girl represented was a route in to the New Republic\'s coffers and treasure rooms. This wasn\'t a rescue mission. This was a heist.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He exchanged a glance at Wisp, who smiled and nodded back at him. She shot him a thumbs-up, fully on the same page.

Of course, I\'ll rescue her parents if we encounter them, but I\'m not going to pretend like they\'re why I\'m doing this. Treasure and knowledge on the puppets, that\'s what I\'m after. The girl\'s desires are secondary.

Shawn sighed loudly, and a heavy weight dropped onto Ike\'s shoulders. He staggered, almost dropping to his knees. Lightning flickered over him, enhancing his body, and he caught himself seconds before he hit the ground.

"Ike, you alright?" Wisp asked.

"I…yeah?" Ike said, a little lost. He looked at Shawn, confused.

Shawn yawned. He smacked his lips before explaining. "I\'ve been carrying my own weight all this time, but it\'s too much. I\'m tired. I need you to help me carry my weight."

"I\'ve been carrying you this whole time," Ike argued. His feet are off the ground. There\'s no way he can just… get heavier.

"Right, and I\'ve been carrying my weight," Shawn said, nodding.

Ike looked at Wisp. She shrugged. Internally, so did he. I guess it\'s magic. It doesn\'t have to make sense to a mortal\'s perspective. "Well, could you go back to carrying your own weight?"

"No! I\'m tired."

"I\'m tired!" Ike argued.

"You aren\'t." Shawn yawned and rested his head against Ike\'s shoulder. "I\'m still carrying… most of it. Help me just a li\'l…" His voice faded away. A few seconds later, gentle snores emanated from his body.

Ike grimaced. He grabbed Shawn and tried to remove him from his body. The boy was stuck tight. His hands might as well have been knotted in Ike\'s clothes. Even his feet clenched tight to Ike\'s armor. He pulled at Shawn\'s hands, but they were bound tight, beyond his Rank 2 ability to untwine.

"Dammit," Ike muttered.

Wisp gave him a sage look. "Think of it as training."

"That\'s what people usually say when they shove their chores off on me," Ike grumbled.

"Chores? That\'s what you\'re calling our gracious offers of deep wisdom?" Wisp made a shocked face.

"You should be grateful that so many experts have offered you training," Clarina said earnestly.

Wisp pointed at her and raised her brows.

Ike glared back. "Uh huh."

They walked on in silence for a while. At last, Clarina turned. "My city is just ahead. Through the next line of trees, there is nothing but empty space until the outer wall. You need to take care, but please, take a look."

Ike stepped forward. As she\'d said, more light spilled through the trees ahead of them. He pushed aside the branches, peering out.

A broad, empty field stretched forth, spanning the distance between him and a lone-standing mountain. The mountain was smaller than his city, and no slums clung to its underbelly. White buildings circled its upper regions, uniform in build and size. Higher up, at the very top, a few elegant, but not overstated, castles jutted up toward the sky. They were castles, too. Not palaces or manors, but castles. Defensible, with thick walls and arrowslits, along with strange arcane weapons Ike didn\'t recognize. In the distance, other small, bare mountains dotted the landscape, off to the far horizon, where a single enormous mountain heaved up from the earth. That distant mountain overshadowed the entire region. It couldn\'t be called a valley; it was an expanse, a plains, and yet, that mountain made it a valley. It was larger than Ike\'s home city\'s mountain. Larger even than Mont. And atop it, a thousand lights glimmered from a thousand buildings, each one larger than Clarina\'s castles combined.

"What\'s that?" Ike asked, pointing.

Clarina swallowed. "That\'s King Roche\'s land. He is the king who rules all the Lords and Ladies of the plains, the mountains, and the mountains beyond the plains."

Ike frowned. "Why isn\'t he putting an end to this New Republic? Doesn\'t he care that there\'s a revolt on his land?"

"He…has no reason to worry. Even if the New Republic united all the small sects between here and the King\'s grand peak, they would simply be decimated by the King\'s thousands upon thousands of mage soldiers," Clarina said.

Ike eyed the distant peak. He pinched his chin, thinking. Lord Brightbriar is making a puppet army and supplying them to members of the resistance. I think I might know why.

"Is King Roche popular?" Ike asked.

"Oh yes, of course! No one would dare say a word against him," Clarina replied quickly.

Ike raised his brows. Ah. That\'s as clear a \'no\' as I\'ve ever heard.

After a beat, he shrugged. It wasn\'t his problem if Lord Brightbriar wanted to revolt against the king. Maybe I\'ll go warn them about the Lord\'s plot. Get a reward.

"You mentioned another way in?" Wisp prompted Clarina.

"Yes! Yes. Right this way." Clarina gestured, leading them back into the woods. Ike stood there for another moment, gazing into the distance. At last, he let the branches go and followed her into the woods.