Aether Beasts

Chapter 43 - 43

After the talk with Elder Kaylin, the three of us headed back to our tents to get sleep, well Sandra and I did, apparently, Misty didn't need sleep and was somewhat nocturnal in nature. She could act both in the day and night, but apparently, she felt safer in the night, which I guess made sense considering chances of being seen or anyone finding out what she was were lower in the night.

We woke up only hours later and to my surprise, the camp wasn't as silent as I expected. It was much quieter than it had been, but there were still dozens of people moving about and to my relief the guards had been doubled and were actively patrolling the perimeter, not to mention that I spotted groups of guards heading out, probably to do scout work.

I didn't know if the number of guards was normal or if it was because of what we'd told them, but either way, it was definitely a good thing.

It wasn't hard to find Elder Kaylin and the group he's been talking about. They were situated in one corner of the camp. The group was mostly made up of peak first cores but there were three-second cores as well.

"Good, you've arrived, I can finally begin to explain why you're all here."

The three of us joined the others as everyone fanned out into a semi-circle around the elder.

"You've all been called here today because of a special mission that needs to be done. I'm sure many of you are aware of the lack of certain apples that arrived yesterday and some of you might already know that we lost a few caravans. I don't need to tell you how hard it will be for us if we can't get food, water, and other essential supplies here."

There were grim nods and muttering all around as everyone took in his words. He was right in that an army marches on its stomach as much as on its legs. That was a quote my aunt had taught me from an old-world book.

"Well I've got a way to fix that and to deal a great blow to the enemy as well," Elder Kaylin said, a feral smile appearing on his face. "One of our far-ranging scouts and stealth specialists located a large cache of supplies just two days ago. At first, we assumed it was just like the rest we'd found and not worth much time, but he managed to get in and discovered over four storage units. He didn't manage to get a lock on what they had, but he did get his hands on some supply documents. If what he brought back is correct then over half their entire supplies are kept in that camp and are moved at regular intervals to their other camps."

"It's not heavily guarded?" One arcanist asked."

"That's just it," Kaylin replied. "They're hoping we ignore it. For the longest time, we've wondered about where their supplies go. We've spotted a few caravans but we've never located where they go. We assumed they kept it all in different camps, but apparently not."

"So we're here to steal from them?" A short-haired woman asked.

"Exactly. If we can get our hands on those storage units then not only can we restock our own supplies but we can also take much of theirs. That will have many benefits as it will force them to act cautiously for a time and to turn their sights on other things."

A few people had questions, but eventually, Kaylin split us up and handed us our tasks. Sandra was to be with the group that would head in to take the storage units while I would be with the raiding party. The elder expected that we would have to fight at some point, but he wanted it to be a retreating battle, and after the units had been taken that led into Misty's job. She would be one of the lookouts and at first, I was worried she would have trouble with it, but then Zirani informed me that aether vampires have dark sight and could see as well in the night as they could in the day.

So it ended up with three groups, the infiltrators and thieves, the raiders, and the watchers. The watchers had an extra in the form of Misty but no one would complain about having an extra set of eyes watching their backs.

Elder Kaylin would be coming along just in case we ran into any of the twin horn elders. There was a sort of unspoken agreement that elders would only fight other elders unless provoked or attacked by disciples. It was highly unlikely any elders would be at the cache as it would give away something was different about it but better safe than sorry is what Kayin had said. Of course, I did ask how we were going to move the storage units since in my experience they were large and bulky, but apparently, the twin horn units were essentially large discs rather than pillars and could actually be rolled on the ground quite easily. Plus once the single was given that the storage units had been located and were in the process of being taken the raiders would act given time for the thieves to get out of there.

"Everyone remembers their roles?" Kaylin asked.

We all nodded and moments later were moving through the forest at speed. Once we entered twin horn territory we would slow down and go for stealth but currently, we were in steel heart territory so we could run freely.

"What do you think of his plan, Zirani?"

"It's simple, but well thought out,'' she replied. "He's chosen the right people, but it all depends on his information. There's a lot that he's just guessing although they are educated guesses, but even those can be wrong sometimes."

"If that's the case then I sure hope his guesses are right."