Serial
50: BIRDSEYE
January
19th, 33 S.D. 12:58 Leitis, Sventa
Jun crossed his arms as he grumbled to himself. “Hmm... I think... this all makes absolutely no sense.” He frowned deeply, shaking his head.
“Let us start with the root of your misunderstanding,” Losha suggested. “What part of what we just discussed confuses you the most?”
“Every part,” he answered with a sigh.
“Well, now you know that you cannot rush these things. You have to start with the basics and really improve your grasp on fundamental ideas first.”
“Sa... sa...” Jun said distantly. Losha cocked her head slightly.
“Is something wrong, Jun?”
“Well, I honestly thought I could learn something in a day. You know, like simple stuff. Maybe like making this glass of water move, even just a little bit. But it looks as if this is not as easy as you make it seem.”
The two of them were in Jun’s house by themselves that day, once again sitting together at the kitchen table. Losha, at the boy’s request, had given him an introductory lecture about what serialization was, how it worked, and what people could achieve with the art. Though the format and venue were different, her talk with Jun had not been dissimilar from the sort of tutoring she used to give new students in Palostrol. She recalled the last such lesson she’d ever taught, the day after Master Eltin introduced Aline and Istan. How very far away that time seemed to her...
If she had brought along some materials, Losha wondered whether Jun would have had an easier time learning the subject matter. The book she had started, a primer containing all the elementary principles of serialization, specifically targeted newcomers like Jun. Unfortunately, the text remained at home, unfinished. She could demonstrate a multitude of series for him, but examples only did so much to enlighten the unversed. What Losha needed was another visual tool; something like Siersus’ serameter would definitely have helped explain core concepts. For an instant, she found herself questioning just whatever had become of Siersus that night; where was he now? Fearing a wandering mind, however, she put her attentions on Jun.
“Indeed. Even that much takes weeks of training to perform. At any rate, I was merely giving you an overview of certain topics. By no means would you suddenly have the insight necessary to serialize anything.”
“But still, I was kind of hoping I could start doing, well, practical skills right away...”
Losha laughed a bit. “I am afraid you will have to wait until I can give you proper instruction. I merely gave you preview of a sort, and at that I spoke in generalizations.”
“Alright, I get it...” Jun said, his voice wavering on a note of disappointment.
“Sa, you need to keep that enthusiasm though,” she smiled. “If you quit now, you will not become a serialist any time soon.”
“I-I have no intention of quitting!” Jun said, suddenly grabbing both of his knees and leaning forward. “I want to be one too, just like you are, Losha. It may be confusing now, but just wait; I can learn.”
“You certainly are determined,” she noted pleasantly. “It may be quite a while before you and I can sit down for a full day of real study. In the meantime, however, I could supply you with some reading to supplement your knowledge. If you get a good foundation in these topics, you will be well prepared once school starts. We just have to finish up this blasted war...” she trailed off.
“Sa, sa! That sounds great!” he exclaimed.
“In that case, I will send letters to you from the field.”
“Se? From the field? What does that mean?”
“I cannot fight the whole war from here. I have to work with our army to defeat Henron. I have to go where the battlefield goes. The places I need to be, they are not suitable for ones such as yourself.”
“Because I am a kid?” he asked, puffing his cheeks out slightly as his brow furrowed.
“Precisely. You are a child. You are not a soldier. Things out there are not safe, so you have to stay back in Sventa, away from the front-lines. You need not worry though. I will make sure our people will not leave you alone. You will be under the military’s custody, temporarily of course.”
“Sa, sa... but are guys with guns and knives really the best nannies...?”
“They have experience with civilian refugees,” Losha assured him. “Everyone will treat you just fine.”
“Well, if you say so. I do not have much of a choice.”
“You truly have no living relatives?” she asked.
“Dad... he was all I had...”
“I am sorry...” Losha said, turning her gaze aside for a moment. “Perhaps if I had come sooner... Sa. When this is all over, I will take you back with me. If you have no one else to live with, I will gladly host you in Sevia. I mean, when the school is built, it will be there regardless.”
“Sa, I forgot. You are a Holvate, of the Torom no less. Your family is like, real important and stuff, for all of Sventa. You probably live in a huge house too.”
Losha looked around her for a moment. “I do not know about it being huge, but it is certainly large. It is that way for a purpose since so many of us live there. You will have to see it for yourself when you get there.”
“Shrieks, I do not think I can wait!”
“Well, you have to.” Losha stood up, pushing the chair back as she rose. “I am afraid I must attend to some business at the moment. I will probably return in a few hours, so try to keep yourself occupied until then.”
“Are you going to leave me soon then? Is it almost time for us to say goodbye?”
“Not yet. I shall let you know when. But the day is close at any rate. Just think of the situation like this: the sooner I do my job, the sooner I can return. Besides, it will not take me that long to finish up this mess. Sa, but before I forget, now would be the right moment to give you this.” From her back pocket, she pulled out the pistol that she’d taken from him during their first encounter.
“Hey, my dad’s pistol!” he smiled, as if it had slipped from his mind over the past few days.
“Sa. Thank you for allowing me to borrow it.”
“Well, you kind of took it from me...”
“And you kind of shot at me,” she said with a knowing grin.
“A-anyway,” he said quickly. “Did you really hold up that Avil person with this?” Jun cupped his hands together as she gently placed the firearm into his palms.
“Sa. Had him at gunpoint the entire time.”
“Wow...” he said, looking down at the weapon.
“I have to go for a bit, alright?”
“Okay.”
She turned and walked out of Jun’s house. Closing the door behind her, she heard Jun’s muffled voice through the thick wood.
“Hey! It is not loaded...” Losha but shook her head as she stepped onto the street. Tami happened to be nearby, and upon seeing her, he headed her way.
“There you are, Losha,” he said. A pair of binoculars hung around his neck, bouncing against his chest as he swiftly walked up to her. “It looks like we have some new developments.”
“Sa,” Losha said, folding her arms together as she stopped. “Visitors from the south. Lots of them.” She tossed her head in that direction. “It is about time the Sventa army caught up with us.”
Tami paused for a moment before he blinked and nodded. “Sa, that is right, seras frequencies...” he muttered to himself. “It must be nice to not have to use tools or whatnot, you can just tell when people are coming and going.”
“Four-point-seven kilometers away. Feels like a single division only.”
“That is basically what I saw,” he said.
“They should be here soon then. Gather Valo and his men. I shall grab Faima and Yega.”
“Understood.”
Losha turned around and looked off into the distance. “It feels like I just started fighting, but already it is time to bring this conflict to a head.”
Delri Vasta Sventa, the Prime Lead of Sventa’s First Division was a stern-looking woman. Though she wore an eye-patch over her left side, her gaze remained pointed and intent. Despite the afternoon chill, she walked about with only a thin, long, open coat, as if unmolested. As one arm swung crisply in sync with her steps, the other constantly gripped the sheath of her sword. She carried her weapon strapless, creating the impression that she were willing to fight at the first notice. Her dark, glossy hair ran smoothly across her back and over her shoulders, a glimpse of beauty against all of her other austere mannerisms. She and Losha made their way to what had formerly been the mayor’s residence for a meeting. Behind them, WOLFWIND, Range Lead Aslo, and Valo followed.
“I must say, I am especially honored to finally meet Ver Holvate,” Delri genuinely said, however, without taking her eye away from the path ahead.
“Oh, my first name is sufficient. By all means, just Losha.” Her response elicited a most curious glance from the Prime Lead. “Did I say something odd?” Losha asked.
Though at first she didn’t seem like one who even knew how to smile, Delri closed her eye for a moment and grinned. “Heh. Sa. It is refreshing to hear a Holvate as humble as yourself. You are nothing like Levias.”
“Levias?” she wondered for a bit, struggling to recall the name. “Sa, that cousin of mine or some such.”
“Hmph. He does not deserve to share rank with Kint and myself. You, on the other hand, are more than worthy of the Torom. And no, I am not trying to gain your favor,” Delri said as she opened the front door for Losha. “Courtesy and compliments are just my nature,” she winked.
“Are they now?” Losha asked as they filed in.
“In all seriousness, I do respect your efforts. Boz has informed me of just who it was who managed to bring us a supply of Gandian rifles. Those proved invaluable in our first major sortie against Henron, as you may remember.”
“That was an unforeseen consequence of my journey home. I never planned or orchestrated any of those events. It was a coincidence at best.”
“A coincidence that would never have happened without your intervention. Even so, I thank your uncanny luck as well as your abilities in battle.”
Losha for a moment found herself taken aback by how relatively untouched the mayor’s house was. However, upon further thought, she was reminded of a conversation she’d overheard between a few Henron soldiers; their words implied that no one had yet ransacked the place. That had been shortly before she’d taken hold of Leitis. They pulled a few curtains back to gain some light, despite the dull, overcast day. Moving along, they stumbled upon the dining room where there sat a long table, a natural makeshift war-board.
“Let us get straight to business,” Delri said as she stepped ahead of the rest. With all pleasantries out of the way, the Prime Lead assumed strict focus on the work before them. She sat on one end, crossing her legs and steepling her hands together as she leaned back. “What is your current situation, Losha?”
“As you can see, we have reclaimed Leitis. Three days ago, I drove the Henron out. Two days ago, WOLFWIND along with members of the Special Operations Corps subdued and captured Avil Henron, a sniper of Henron’s TRIBLADE unit. We are currently holding him under guard.” At the mention of this detail, Delri raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“Since then, there has been zero enemy activity around us. It seems, as I had hoped, I have acted as a deterrent against further incursions. We have secured this position in anticipation of reinforcements.”
“Hmm... I see why Boz gives you such free reign. You know what to do. At any rate, let me inform you all about the next operations we will undertake. These directives come from the Tabran itself, so listen carefully. We are to expel the Henron at all costs, starting with Totul, Valia, and finally the Ganglan Pass.”
She pulled out a thick, rolled-up map and tossed it onto the table. As it slid, it unfolded evenly. Marked in red were the sites she had just spoken of. More targets were designated besides those three, yet they were beyond Sventa territory.
“Our goal is simple in scope: eliminate the Henron orders and afterwards push ourselves into their land. From what we know, half of their fighting force is occupying our land. We will defeat them on our grounds while we have the chance and the advantage. It should be feasible to reduce their strength by a third or more. That will, in turn, pave the way to finally beating them. First, however, we need to engage them at Totul.”
“I suppose that means we will be discussing our approach to taking back that town?” Aslo asked.
“Indeed, that is the crux of this little assembly,” Delri nodded. “From what we have so far discerned from current conditions, two Henron orders have been stationed east of our position, operating from Totul and Valia respectively. We also know that these orders are the freshest and have suffered minimal combat losses so far, though this is largely due to their absence from any major fight. Nevertheless, they are working at nearly their fullest. As of this moment, we are outnumbered, two-to-one, easily.”
“However, the enemy has revealed their hesitancy, having failed to do anything meaningful against WOLFWIND. The course we will take is this: destroy their hold on Totul, secure the area, wait for Kint’s Third Division, then jointly push the Henron out of Valia and the Ganglan pass, and ultimately pursue the Henron into their lands where we will further address them militarily. Now, regarding Totul specifically. Valo, was it? Did you receive the latest missive from WINGPOST intelligence?”
“Sa, Prime Lead,” Valo said, standing up with an envelope in his hand. “They arrived yesterday by air.”
“Excellent. They are as fast as Boz claims them to be, it seems. What is the final analysis then?”
Valo moved to the center of the table and dumped the contents in a pile. At first, they appeared to be nothing more than slips of paper or cards with strange gray shapes printed over them. Valo began arranging them into four separate groups.
“So what exactly are we looking at?” Faima asked, leaning forward. “I see nothing but a lot of dark and murky... images?”
“I guess we are looking into your soul,” Tami said.
“Ksh. Not dark enough then,” she retorted.
“Valo?” Losha asked.
“Sa. We are all familiar with what the Gandians call ‘photography’, correct? It is the ability to grab an image from whatever a special device is looking at and in the end reproduce that same image onto a different medium.”
“Oh, I have seen that stuff before,” Yega said. “Gandians always use it to record what their families look like. Allegedly cheaper than getting a painting done. I can hardly see how though; those devices cost plenty.”
“Well, the families just hire people to take photos... True, however, the older generation of hardware certainly cost a fortune,” Valo said. “But there have been a lot of advancements in manufacturing miniature models. They are less expensive and actually easier to make, so easy that we have come up with our own designs”
“So these are in fact pictures taken of Totul?” Delri asked.
“Sa. What we have here are aerial photographs over the town of Totul.”
“Aerial?” Tami repeated. “How did you manage that?”
“Simple,” Valo began explaining. “The carrier birds we use to transfer messages are fitted with cameras. We use the white fengales for two reasons. One is that they can handle the load better than other species. Secondly, they have a unique trait that serves our purposes: they always circle overhead six times before attempting to land or fly off from their start location or end destination. We modified the cameras to incorporate and measure small compasses, so whenever the birds circle, we automatically photograph what lies below them. The fengales are unaware that no one in Totul is standing-by at the designated message post, so they end up returning, and then we can process the film. This sort of reconnaissance and information gathering is experimental, but it seems to be progressing.”
Losha reached out and picked up one of the photos. “These are a bit blurry.”
“Well, the lens of the cameras are not of the highest quality, and they were taken while in motion with only natural light sources,” Valo said. “Even so, we have extracted some valuable clues.”
“Details,” Delri commanded as she folded her arms.
“Sa, of course. If you look at this pile, you will notice the general outlines of houses, buildings, and roads.” They all perched forward, grabbing the photos and passing them around. “Check those conspicuous objects facing west, near the town’s border.”
“Those are catapults,” Aslo said, squinting.
“Correct,” Valo continued. “Totul has high stone walls around its perimeter, since it basically sits in the middle of hunting grounds for foxes, bears, wolves, etc. Just inside of that, they have erected eight of these installations.”
“They certainly are quick builders,” Losha observed. “I do not see how they could have brought them all the way from Henron, much less squeeze them through the Ganglan Pass. They must have set them up on-site.”
“Hmph,” Delri smiled wryly. “Not nearly as efficient as cannons, but deadly all the same, and above all a problem. What else have we learned from these images?”
Valo took one photo between his fingers and waggled it in front of them. “This little discovery was pure chance, but we have it now, and that is what matters the most.” He threw it down for all of them to examine.
“Alright,” Faima said, standing over the table, supporting herself with outstretched arms. “I see people, a field, and some sort of cloud.”
“Not just any cloud. That came from an explosion.”
“Explosion?” Aslo spoke up curiously. “How can we be so sure?”
Valo drew a line with a sweep of his hand towards a cluster of photos they’d neglected up until that point. “These are from the same set, the same bird. We have fragments of the explosion as it happened as well as the moments prior to it. By simple comparison, we derived that some kind of event happened. After careful investigation, we concluded that a blast occurred.”
“And the meaning of all of this?” Delri asked.
“Landmines,” Valo stated. “It seems they are staging quite a defense.”
“Which would appear to leave us at a disadvantage,” she mused, tapping the hilt of her sword as the other hand stroked her chin. “They have already fortified a structurally secure position, inside and out. With those mines and catapults, they will create a formidable buffer zone between us and them. By the time we manage to get to the gates of Totul, we could well face severe casualties. Under ordinary circumstances with ordinary soldiers, I would be a suicidal fool to ask my soldiers to charge Totul. If the times were different, a prolonged siege from a distance would be best. I would just starve the b******s. Fortunately, I have the luxury of your services, Losha. Tell us, what do you think you could do about this situation?”
Losha looked at Delri for a moment then down at the material scattered before them. Though at first silent, she stood up and trained her eyes steadily at the map.
“Valo,” she said. “How far from Totul have they spread these mines?”
“From what we can see, at least a full kilometer west of the town.”
“And they have likely buried them under the snow. The ground is far too cold for digging. Excellent. Those catapults... How mobile do we estimate them to be?”
“Based on how we know they designed them in the past, stationary for the most part, limited pivoting left and right, a little more than 120 degrees.”
“But these should be easy to spot, correct?”
“Sa.”
“Prime Lead, when do we plan to strike,” Losha asked.
“If we do not encounter any unscheduled delays, two days from now, on the dawn of the 21st.”
“Then I have but one day to make preparations of my own.”
“Preparations?” Delri wondered aloud.
“Exactly,” Losha replied. “If everything happens according to what I envision, the history books will not even consider this round a battle.”
Delri smiled sharply with interest. “Please, Losha, do elaborate.”
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