[YF] Chapter 250: Ruins of Meja

With war upon the pact nations, we unanimously decided to forgo the railway and fly direct to Meja. Now was not the time to worry about committing a faux pas. We needed to get to the core of the pact nations now, even if we had to leave our guards behind.

Not that our train was in working order any longer.

With the amount of enhanced mercs travelling with us, it would have been possible to reorient the train back on the rails. But even if it had remained in operational order after the derailment, my haste in getting treatment for the two unenhanced with us had stripped us of that option. We could melt an engine block in a second, but not rebuild it.

So I carry Leal with my enlarged falcon form, while Yalun flies by my side as an eagle. The other elders all thrust themselves through the air with burning jets. A rather energy intensive method of travel, but it is by far the fastest. It helps that recovery is easy out here. Though, the swathes of burnt land left every hundred kilometres or so are rather blatant blemishes on the already unhealthy earth.

Despite the assumption of war, there has been no sign of the Henosis. It isn’t much of a surprise; we are deep within pact nations borders and there are a few nations between the Empire and our destination. It is honestly odd that we were ambushed where we were, but it didn’t take long to understand why, even if we weren’t specifically targeted.

Śuri’s interrogation of the two that had set up the array of explosives on the track — and proceeded to trigger them when the first train passed — revealed they knew little more than what they were tasked. Loyalists of the Henosis Empire, they infiltrated the pact nations and were directed to destroy this specific area of rail on this specific day.

It is impossible someone in Henosis knew we were coming; not only was our timing unscheduled — the train now lying in a ditch having been waiting weeks for our arrival to the border — but the pair had received their orders two months ago. Far more likely, the Henosis have hundreds, if not thousands more of these unenhanced infiltrators across the nations.

Henosis declared war by crippling their enemy’s rail network.

We’ve seen enough evidence to assume as much in our rapid travel north. Following another rail for a while, we came across a destroyed bridge along with the twisted wreckage of the train that had gone down with it. Unfortunately, none had survived.

Back in the mermineae war, the possibility of sabotage had remained on everyone’s mind. It had to be. With how narrow the controlled land between the pact nations and the now defunct Joiak, all mercenaries had been made expressly concerned with the vulnerable nature of the logistics backbone that held everything together.

That possibility had not materialised — mostly because of the mermineae’s lack of war structure — but clearly the Henosis were not so inexperienced. The pact nations knew this was a danger, and yet the Empire still succeeded. Without expending anything but unenhanced lives.

I want to know how they made it through. Has the pact nations been twiddling their thumbs while the Henosis have stood on their borders? The Mercenary Order was supposed to go through a reform after their failures of the last war; have they pushed that to forgetting to fight a war entirely?

I’m sure it’s hard to discover individuals with ulterior motives, but they had two months from when these individuals were given their tasks. Surely that was enough time to discover a trip up somewhere… unless they weren’t looking. If they had, then there is no chance they would have allowed civilian rail to remain in operation — and especially not that of the áed envoy.

I am frustrated. This was supposed to be an easy trip to Meja. I would introduce my elders to Remus and whoever else is important in the pact nations, then go off on my way to Riparia. Armageddon is coming; can’t these damn Henosis just stay to themselves as they have ever since the failed invasion of New Vetus?

Each of my elders flying around me has determined or otherwise serious expressions. I understand their hatred toward the Henosis — my own thoughts of them aren’t exactly positive — but we are here to work to stop or survive the Anatla shattering the barrier that keeps them from our world. My elders will take barely any convincing from the pact nations to join the war. They will do so with glee. But if the Henosis are anything like the pact nations and keep their elite hidden away until they’ve analysed the strengths of their opposing elite, then my elders joining early will only ramp up the scale of this war immediately.

My mind falls back to that ice mage that slaughtered thousands of her own kind like it was nothing. It would take a single water mage at that level — or even worse, Tore’s — to shut us out of the battlefield. I don’t believe my elders will fall to such an engagement, not with so many of them fighting together, but the moment they realise the áed are supporting the pact nations — and that we have the strength to do so — they will free any elite they may have kept in reserve. The battles will stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Anyone, even Beiths, will be slaughtered in the crossfire.

Then, there’s also the chance one of those elite could be sent to the wasteland. The most effective way to boot my elders out of this war, is to provide a danger to our kin back home.

But, if there is war, what am I going to do?

Do I fight for the survival of those close to me that rely on the pact nations as their home, or do I continue on and try to discover a protection for all. Henosis, or the Anatla. Which is the more pressing threat?

Obviously, the Anatla are a greater threat; even the Titans fear their coming. They fear their arrival enough to guard where they remain trapped. But not only do I have a very loose lead to follow for a slight hope of survival, but we don’t have a timeframe for when the barrier will collapse. The Henosis are a threat now.

Unless our guess is miraculously off, and this planned crippling of the rail network is some excessive posturing by the Empire to show how easy it would be to invade, then this is an invasion. My friends that I’ve gone so long since I met, my team that I hope hasn’t remained split in my absence, they will all be in danger from this war. At least until I know my elders can work with the mercenaries of the pact nation, I will remain. Hopefully it won’t take long for them to settle in and I can move on to my original task.

I’m just disappointed that I won’t be able to spend much time with my team. With the war, I doubt they’ll be exempt from duty.

We’d seen plenty of signs that the land has not gone undamaged by the Collapses during our flight, but the city before us is by far the worst affected. At least, of those that weren’t swallowed completely.

I’d passed by the capital of Meja once before. Back during the war, it had been a majestic place. A mountain of a city. Surrounding a tall spiralling wall, buildings had extended as far as the eye can see. But it was upon those spiralling walls that rose like titanic steps where the true city lay. Towers near as large as an ursu continae grew from the tops of each massive wall, combating one another for space to rise.

At the very centre of the wall, held above the rest, stood a castle with a series of spires that, when added to the height of the wall of stone they stood upon, rose over half a kilometre.

It truly was a mountain of a city.

So to see it split in half, a gorge cutting both mountain and castle right down the middle, is shocking.

One of those tall central towers is gone completely, but surprisingly the castle remains mostly standing. Any section even near the split is crumbled and clearly unsafe — as is most of the city below that has experienced the same — but the structure holds its weight.

The new fissure running through the city and tearing up the landscape until beyond the horizon is deep. But more importantly, it splits what was once a whole, into two parts by as far as the city is tall. The devastation is clearly not limited to the fissure alone, but it is all I can look at.

If not for the volans already flying as our entourage, I’d assume the city was dead and abandoned.

Finally snapping my focus from the fissure that looks more like a titan took a claw to the land then anything the land itself could create — even though I had seen something similar happen myself — I turn to the streets of the lower city. They are… well, not empty, but still. The few of those on the streets move sluggishly and downcast. War is upon them, but the people in what is supposed to be the capital of the pact nations acts as if their loss is already assured.

Instead of directing us toward the castle itself, as expected, the volans guide us to the wide road leading up to it. The only road I can see above the first wall. Only here, along this street, is there any urgency. Dozens of the races rush around. Hundreds of volans shoot off the roofs of many tall buildings, flying east. Yet in the centre of the road, stands a single unmoving dohrni.

Remus’ visage becomes clear as we land, and I almost excitedly rush up to him. But his eyes stop me. His orbs linger on me a moment longer than the rest of my elders, but they contain none of the lightheartedness or humour he always tried to keep up. I would never so much as call it a facade, but even in moments of trouble, he always tried to keep up appearances for those around him.

That is gone.

He doesn’t so much as acknowledge me amongst my kin as he bows in greeting. It… stings a little, but I can understand the urgency of the situation.

“Welcome to Meja. I apologise that our greetings cannot be served to the standards Meja treats all diplomats, but our current situation is… undesirable.” Remus lifts his head and his eyes flicker between my elders, gauging their reactions. “We have prepared a place for you to stay while you’re here. We will be ready for you once we have a better idea of the situation.”

Remus gestures to a tower bordering the wide road with a bunch of fire inscriptions etched into the outside wall. By the heat wafting from the wall itself, they must have done the same thing to it, as they did our train.

“No,” Śuri says, to my surprise.

Remus stiffens. It is subtle, but I know him well enough to see how his tentacles clench in… frustration? Fear?

“This is not the time to waste,” Śuri continues. “You need our strength, do you not? Let us not waste time with frivolous platitudes. Take us to to those we are here to speak.”

The stress seems to bleed out of Remus’ limbs, but doesn’t disappear completely, so I assume Śuri’s words aren’t too insulting. Or, considering it is Remus, it might have even been what he wanted to hear. The dohrni nods, and begins leading us up the wide road to the half castle above. “Then please, after me.”

It is only because I replaced my ears with the senses of a feline, that I hear his murmured addition. “Please don’t burn the morons.”

If my elders hear, none let it show on their faces. Well, except Kiko. The old áed turns my way and raises a brow. I give a light shrug, but I can’t remain as uncaring as I want to look. Remus’ attitude has unsettled me.

I’m not looking forward to this.

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