The night had stretched into pre-dawn and Alucent was crouched behind corroded brass plating twenty meters from the Iron Vale outpost's perimeter wall, fog thick enough that he could barely see Raya positioned to his left with her cloak tied tight and her Weaveblade already drawn and ready for violence, it was 5:00 AM and the temperature had dropped to ten degrees which made his breath visible in the air and his frock coat wasn't providing nearly enough warmth despite being freshly patched after the rest period in Eryndral.
The six-hour security window Raya had identified was supposed to start in fifteen minutes when the guard shift changed and patrol patterns got disrupted by personnel rotation, tactical advantage that might give them enough opening to infiltrate the outpost and secure the intelligence documents Elder Kael had assigned as their primary objective, the kind of high-stakes mission where failure meant Alucent got reassigned to safe boring duties and someone else would get to stop Eloha.
Gryan was positioned to his right with his mechanical arm charged and glowing faintly with stored energy that he'd been accumulating during their approach through Iron Vale's industrial maze, his brass plating looked polished from recent maintenance and his expression showed determination instead of the anxiety that was eating away at Alucent's concentration and making it really hard to focus on the mission instead of worrying about proving himself to the Council.
"Tavin's checking the secondary entrance" Raya whispered and her voice was barely audible over the distant hiss of steam vents that ran beneath Iron Vale's streets "He says his visions show the Voidshard crates are stored near the intelligence room so we can secure both objectives if we move fast enough"
Recovering the three Voidshard crystals they'd hidden earlier plus securing the fortress defense documents felt like a lot of objectives for one infiltration but it also meant they could maximize the value of the raid instead of having to come back later and risk another dangerous operation in hostile territory, the kind of tactical efficiency that made sense if they could actually pull it off without getting killed by overwhelming opposition.
The outpost was 150 square meters of brass walls and reinforced plating that looked much more fortified than the maps had suggested, smog clung to everything and made the structure seem diseased and wrong in the pre-dawn darkness, at the center of the compound Alucent could see the Runewell through gaps in the perimeter wall and it was pulsing with energy that felt corrupted somehow like the Coalition had been using it for void-aligned applications instead of standard Runeforce distribution.
"Gate's reinforced with triple-layer brass" Gryan said after examining the entrance with his enhanced vision from his mechanical arm's optical systems "We're not punching through that without serious Runeforce intervention or explosives we don't have"
This was it, the moment where Alucent needed to prove he could handle Thread 3 inscription work under combat pressure instead of letting anxiety compromise his technique like it had during the Council chamber demonstration, Elder Kael's warning about emotional interference was echoing in his mind and making everything worse but he couldn't let that stop him from completing the mission and securing his role in the resistance operations.
He pulled out his Runequill and the tool felt heavier than usual in his hand like it was weighted down by all the expectations and consequences riding on this raid, the destruction rune was something he'd practiced dozens of times in the Steamcottage while the Forgepit sat idle and cold but practice was completely different from reality where guards could show up and enemies could kill you if the inscription work failed.
"I can handle the gate" Alucent said with way more confidence than he actually felt inside "Just need maybe thirty seconds to etch the destruction rune and channel enough Runeforce to shatter the brass without triggering alarms"
"Thirty seconds is a long time" Raya replied and her professional assessment made it clear she understood the tactical risk "Guards could spot us before you finish the inscription and then we're fighting our way through the entire outpost instead of infiltrating quietly"
But what choice did they have, the gate was the only entrance that wasn't covered by patrol routes and trying to climb the walls would expose them to detection by the Shadebinders stationed inside who specialized in void-aligned awareness that could sense runeforce signatures through concealment runes, the kind of opposition that required creative approaches instead of standard infiltration techniques.
"I'll be fast" Alucent said and moved toward the gate before his anxiety could convince him to back down from the attempt "Gryan watch for guards and Raya be ready to engage if things go wrong"
The fog parted around him as he approached the brass gate and positioned himself close enough that the Runequill could reach the surface, ten square centimeters was all he needed for the destruction rune but it had to be perfect or the whole thing would collapse and probably explode in his face, red glow started forming as he began etching the pattern and channeling Runeforce from the corrupted Runewell inside the compound.
The destruction rune was a really complicated balance between stability principles and chaos architecture, contradictory forces that needed to be woven together with perfect precision or the whole structure would fragment and cause reality distortion through Shadowcage Taboos manifestation, his hand was shaking slightly from anxiety and cold and the pressure of knowing that Elder Kael was probably right about emotional interference compromising his capability.
Focus on the pattern not on the consequences, just etch the sigils with steady movements and don't think about what happens if this fails and gets people killed again.
The red lines were cutting through the brass with the Runequill's enhanced edge and Alucent could feel the Runeforce flowing through his connection to the corrupted Runewell inside the outpost, the energy felt wrong in a way like it was contaminated with void corruption from Coalition applications but he didn't have any other power source available so he just kept channeling it and hoping the destruction rune could handle the instability without collapsing.
Behind him he could hear Gryan shifting position and the faint hum of his mechanical arm preparing defensive protocols in case guards showed up before the inscription was finished, Raya was completely silent but Alucent knew she was ready to move the instant violence became necessary, professional discipline that came from years of resistance operations and survival instincts that had kept her alive this long.
The destruction rune was halfway complete when Alucent felt his concentration slip just slightly from anxiety about the Council's ultimatum and his hand jerked maybe two millimeters to the left, barely noticeable but enough that the sigil alignment got disrupted and the stability-chaos balance started tilting toward dangerous territory where explosions happened.
Fuck! I need to compensate for that error or the whole thing's going to detonate when I try to activate it.
Thinking that, he adjusted the next sequence of sigils to account for the misalignment and tried to restore balance through really careful inscription work that required way more focus than he could actually maintain while anxiety was eating away at his concentration, the red glow was flickering with instability and the Shadowcage Taboos were pressing against his consciousness with warnings about reality collapse becoming likely if he pushed the rune too hard.
And Shadowcage Taboos are taboos that forbid the use of power deemed dangerous or uncontrolled, specifically direct Runeforce overuse, I need to be very careful not to feel the triggering anymore because this could be considered uncontrolled or overuse that can risk corruption for me. Alucent couldn't help but analyze his situation.
"Movement inside the compound" Gryan whispered with urgency in his voice "We've got maybe fifteen seconds before patrol reaches the gate"
Fifteen seconds wasn't enough time to finish the destruction rune properly but it was all they had before guards discovered them and the entire infiltration turned into combat they couldn't win, Alucent forced himself to speed up the inscription despite knowing that rushing Thread 3 work was exactly the kind of mistake that caused catastrophic failures.
The final sigil locked into place and he activated the destruction rune with a pulse of corrupted Runeforce channeled through his connection to the outpost's Runewell, five seconds was all it took for the gate to shatter in an explosion of molten brass fragments and red light that washed over the compound entrance, but the explosion didn't stop cleanly like it was supposed to.
The instability from his earlier hand slip caused the destruction rune to overload and the blast expanded outward in a half-square-meter sphere of reality distortion that made the air crack like glass under pressure, Alucent felt the Shadowcage Taboos surge with thirty percent chance of erasure and for a moment he thought the whole thing was going to collapse into void corruption that would kill everyone.
"Get back!" Gryan roared and threw himself forward with his mechanical arm extended to create an energy barrier that absorbed the worst of the blast, five seconds of holding the barrier while brass plating groaned under strain and hydraulic systems screamed from overload, his face contorted with effort but he managed to contain the explosion before it could expand and kill them all.
Then the outpost erupted with alarm sirens and the sound of guards mobilizing inside.
Rune-Armors were pouring through the shattered gate opening and they were two meters tall with brass construction and enchanted steel plating that marked them as expensive Coalition assets worth 500 Silverweaves each, their arms terminated in cannon barrels that crackled with stored Runeforce energy and the first blast came maybe fifteen seconds after the gate fell, a ball of compressed force that scorched the ground where Alucent had been standing before he dove to the side.
"So much for quiet infiltration" Raya said with grim humor in her voice and then she was moving like liquid shadow through the fog with her Weaveblade cutting toward the nearest Rune-Armor's joints where the brass plating was weakest.
Alucent scrambled to his feet with his Runequill still clutched in one hand and adrenaline washing away the anxiety that had been compromising his focus, combat had a way of simplifying things into immediate problems that needed solving instead of abstract worries about Council evaluation and future consequences, he could work with immediate problems.
Another Rune-Armor was targeting him with its cannon arm and the energy buildup suggested the blast would come in five seconds which wasn't enough time to dodge or find cover, Gryan's mechanical arm intercepted the shot with another barrier deployment that sent sparks flying everywhere and bought Alucent enough space to counterattack.
"Tavin says the intelligence room is in the back section!" Gryan shouted over the sound of alarms and combat "We need to push through the compound before reinforcements arrive from the main Coalition garrison"
Pushing through meant fighting multiple Rune-Armors plus whatever Shadebinders were stationed inside the outpost and that felt like basically impossible odds but they'd already committed to the raid by shattering the gate and there wasn't any way to retreat without confirming the Council's concerns about Alucent being too compromised to function, forward was the only option even if it got them killed.
A Shadebinder emerged from the compound interior and the cloaked figure was 5'10" with void-corrupted blades drawn and moving toward Raya with professional assassination technique, 35 seconds of combat that ended when Raya's Weaveblade found the Shadebinder's throat and dropped them without ceremony, efficient killing that came from years of experience dealing with Coalition assassins.
"Secondary entrance is compromised" Tavin's voice came through a communication rune he'd etched before they split up "I'm rerouting to join you at the main gate"
Great! so now they had lost tactical advantage from multiple approach vectors and were committed to frontal assault through the most heavily defended section of the outpost, exactly the kind of situation where Alucent's flawed inscription work got people killed through cascading failures he should have anticipated.
Gryan was sabotaging the outpost's gear systems with his mechanical arm plunged into exposed machinery near the gate, metal shrieking as he jammed the mechanisms that powered the Rune-Armors' mobility and weapon systems, two of the constructs seized mid-step with their cannon arms locking uselessly but there were still more advancing through the compound.
Another blast, this one closer and Alucent felt the heat wash over him and singe the hem of his frock coat, point-two meters of scorched earth appeared where his foot had been maybe a heartbeat earlier and the reality of how close he'd come to dying made his hands shake with delayed fear reaction.
"Move through the compound!" Raya ordered with her command voice that demanded immediate obedience "We're not surviving extended engagement out here in the open"
They pushed forward through the shattered gate and into the outpost's interior where smog mixed with smoke from damaged systems created visibility nightmare, Alucent could barely see three meters ahead and his Runequill felt inadequate for close-quarters combat where enemies could appear from any direction without warning.
The intelligence room was supposedly in the back section according to Tavin's visions but they had to fight through thirty meters of hostile territory filled with guards and Rune-Armors and Shadebinders who wanted them dead, the kind of tactical situation where survival seemed increasingly unlikely with every step deeper into the compound.
A Coalition guard appeared from the smoke and he was 5'8" with standard military uniform and a panic expression that suggested he wasn't experienced combat personnel, just some kid assigned to outpost security who probably thought this was safe duty away from actual frontline operations.
The guard was reaching for an alarm crystal mounted on the wall near where he stood and if that thing activated it would bring every Coalition force in the district down on them in five minutes, Alucent's hand moved before his mind caught up and he was etching a crude destruction rune in the air itself without any surface to stabilize the pattern.
Raw Runeforce pulled from the corrupted Runewell shaped itself into glowing sigils through sheer desperate will and the rune flashed with red light that connected with the guard's chest, two seconds was all it took for the kid to die with his body crumpling and blood spraying across the brass wall in a pattern that looked weirdly artistic in the smoke-filled darkness.
Alucent stood frozen staring at what he'd done and the guard's face was burned into his mind with that panic expression still visible even after death, the alarm crystal fell from the kid's hand with a dull sound against the floor and Alucent realized he'd just killed someone who probably had family and friends and a life that didn't include dying in some shitty outpost raid.
"Alucent move!" Raya's voice snapped him out of paralysis "We don't have time for emotional processing right now"
She was right but that didn't make the guard's death feel any less heavy or the blood any less visible on the wall, another casualty added to the running count that kept growing with every mission they completed, the weight of it pressing down on his consciousness and threatening to trigger the same emotional interference that had compromised his inscription work earlier.
The intelligence room was finally visible through the smoke at ten meters ahead and Tavin was already there working on the door's locking mechanism with his hazel eyes focused on the runic security patterns, his Runetoken pulsed with awareness that helped him navigate the Runeforce defenses without triggering alarms.
"Voidshard crates are in the storage section adjacent to this room" Tavin said while his hands moved with practiced efficiency through the lock-breaking sequence "We can secure both objectives if we're fast"
Three Voidshard crystals worth 200 Silverweaves each plus the intelligence documents about Eloha's fortress defenses, 600 Silverweaves of combat enhancement materials that could make the difference in the final assault if they managed to recover them and escape the outpost before reinforcements arrived.
The door mechanism clicked open and they pushed into the intelligence room which was twenty square meters of filing systems and document storage that looked more organized than anything else in the outpost, Coalition efficiency applied to record-keeping even in hostile occupied territory.
Raya was already sorting through documents with really fast assessment of what was strategically valuable versus routine operational reports, her experience with resistance intelligence gathering showed in how quickly she identified the fortress defense patterns Elder Kael had specifically requested.
"Got patrol schedules and runic security layouts" she said while stuffing papers into a waterproof pouch "This should be enough to satisfy the Council's requirements"
Gryan and Tavin were hauling the Voidshard crates from the adjacent storage room and the blue-white energy contained inside pulsed with dangerous power that made Alucent's skin crawl from proximity to that much concentrated Runeforce, the crystals represented serious combat capability if they could transport them back to Eryndral without getting killed or captured.
Behind them the sound of reinforcements was getting louder with more Rune-Armors mobilizing and probably Coalition weave-mages responding to the alarm about infiltrators breaching outpost security, they had forty-five seconds before escape became impossible and they were trapped inside hostile territory.
"We're leaving now" Raya ordered with absolute finality in her voice "Gryan take two crates and Tavin grab the third, Alucent you're on rear guard with your Runequill in case we get pursued"
Rear guard equaled being responsible for stopping enemy pursuit which felt like more responsibility than Alucent could handle but he didn't have time to argue before they were moving back through the compound toward the shattered gate and the fog-covered approach path they'd used to infiltrate.
A Rune-Armor blocked their exit route with its cannon arm charging for a blast that would likely kill at least one of them if it connected, fifteen seconds until the weapon fired and they'll be exposed in the middle of the compound without cover or defensive positions.
Alucent etched a barrier rune on the floor in maybe three seconds of desperate inscription work, white light flaring as he channeled corrupted Runeforce into stability principles that should create protective shield between them and the Rune-Armor's attack, but the rune was unstable from rushed execution and he could feel it starting to collapse under pressure.
The cannon blast hit the barrier and for a moment the white light held against the compressed force, then the stability principles shattered and the explosion washed over their position with heat and concussive impact that sent Alucent flying backward to crash against a brass wall.
His vision blurred and his ears were ringing from the blast and he tasted blood in his mouth from biting his tongue during the impact, pain radiated through his back where he'd hit the wall but nothing felt broken so he forced himself to stand up and keep moving because stopping meant dying.
"Barrier bought us enough time" Raya said and she had a burn mark across her left arm where the explosion had caught her but she was still functional "Move now before they regroup"
They ran through the shattered gate and into the fog-covered industrial maze of Iron Vale with alarm sirens screaming behind them and the sound of pursuit echoing through brass corridors, Alucent's lungs burned from exertion and his hands were shaking from adrenaline crash but he kept running because that's what survival required.
The Voidshard crates were heavy and slowed them down but Gryan and Tavin managed to maintain pace through enhanced strength from the mechanical arm and Tavin's Thread-attuned endurance, somehow he wasn't the scared little kid anymore even though he's still a kid. Raya led them through pre-planned escape routes that she'd memorized during mission preparation and her tactical awareness kept them ahead of Coalition pursuit.
It has been fifteen minutes of running before the sounds of pursuit faded and they were far enough from the outpost that immediate danger had passed, Alucent's legs felt like they were about to collapse and his back ached from where he'd hit the wall but they'd actually survived the raid and secured both objectives Elder Kael had assigned.
"Everyone check for injuries" Raya ordered once they'd reached a relatively safe position behind some abandoned industrial equipment "We need to know if anyone requires immediate medical attention before we continue back to Eryndral"
Alucent's injuries were mostly superficial with bruising and minor burns but nothing that would prevent travel, Gryan's mechanical arm had some damage to the hydraulic systems from overuse during combat but he said it would hold until they could get proper repairs, Tavin was uninjured and Raya's burn looked painful but manageable.
Near the dead Coalition guard's body back in the outpost Alucent had grabbed personal items during their escape and now he found 35 Silverweaves in a pouch along with identification documents that showed the kid's name and age, eighteen years old and from some rural district that had been absorbed into Coalition territory years ago, someone's son who'd probably joined military service because there weren't any other options for survival.
The money represented practical resources they could use but Alucent felt sick looking at the coins and thinking about the guard's face when the destruction rune had hit, another person dead because of his flawed inscription work and overconfidence about handling Thread 3 applications under combat pressure.
"Thirty-five Silverweaves from the raid" he said while trying to keep his voice steady "Plus the fortress defense intelligence and the Voidshard crystals worth 600 Silverweaves"
"The economic value of this success felt completely disconnected from the human cost of achieving it but this was apparently how war worked in this world, you measured victories in strategic resources and tactical advantages while people died in ways that got reduced to casualty statistics instead of being treated like actual losses."
"We'll need to barter for fuel once we get back to the Steamcottage" Gryan said while examining their remaining resources "Maybe 10 Copperweaves should be enough to keep the Forgepit running for the next phase of operations"
"Hmm, tenCopperweaves is one dollars if I am right, isn't that too small for fuel? It feels absurdly low cost compared to the 600 dollars worth of Voidshard crystals we've recovered but everything in this world operates on completely different economic scales than Earth" Alucent was still adjusting to how resource distribution actually worked in practice versus theory.
Tavin's Runetoken was pulsing with vision activity and his hazel eyes had that distant look that meant he was seeing something beyond normal perception, prophecy insights about threats that were developing while they focused on immediate survival.
"Veyris" he said after the vision faded "His Loom control is way more extensive than we realized, he's not just manipulating individual threads, I think he's rewriting entire pattern structures across multiple reality layers simultaneously, I don't know for certain yet."
That sounded really bad in ways that Alucent didn't fully understand but the fear in Tavin's voice made it clear this was serious escalation of whatever cosmic-scale threat Veyris represented, the kind of power that made Eloha's fortress assault seem almost trivial by comparison.
"We'll worry about Veyris after we deal with Eloha" Raya said with forced pragmatism "Right now we need to get back to Eryndral and report mission success to Elder Kael before the Council decides Alucent failed the evaluation"
The reminder that his future role depended on Council assessment made the anxiety come rushing back but at least they'd actually completed both objectives and secured the intelligence documents plus the Voidshard crystals, successful raid that should prove he could function under combat pressure despite emotional interference compromising his technique.
They moved through Iron Vale's industrial maze toward the city limits where Eryndral's relative safety waited beyond Coalition-occupied territory, fog still clung to everything and made navigation difficult but Raya's expertise kept them on course through the darkness.
Behind them the Iron Vale outpost was probably still dealing with the aftermath of their raid and casualties from the combat, the Coalition guard's body cooling on the floor near where the alarm crystal had fallen, Alucent couldn't stop thinking about the kid's face and wondering if there had been some other way to handle that situation that didn't involve killing someone barely older than a teenager.
But second-guessing tactical decisions after the fact didn't change what had happened and the guard was dead regardless of whether Alucent felt guilty about it, another weight added to the growing collection of deaths that followed him through every mission.
The Runequill felt heavy in his belt and his hands still trembled slightly from adrenaline and exhaustion, Thread 3 inscription work under combat conditions had proven to be exactly as difficult as Sir Vorn had warned and Alucent's overconfidence had nearly gotten them all killed when the destruction rune overloaded from his flawed technique.
"You did adequate work tonight" Raya said quietly as they walked and her tone suggested she understood what he was thinking about "The guard's death was necessary to prevent alarm activation and your barrier rune bought us the time we needed to escape, don't let guilt compromise your capability going forward"
Adequate work felt like really weak praise but at least it meant he hadn't completely failed the mission that Elder Kael had assigned as proof of improved capability, successful infiltration despite the casualties and the near-death experiences and the flawed inscription that had almost caused reality collapse.
Somewhere ahead Eryndral's lights were visible through gaps in the fog and smog, city sounds filtering through the pre-dawn darkness as normal people prepared for another day of life under Coalition occupation, unaware that resistance fighters had just raided an outpost and killed guards and secured intelligence that might help stop Eloha's fortress operations.
The war continued with every chapter and every mission and Alucent was starting to understand that emotional interference wasn't something he could just overcome through practice or determination, it was a permanent part of who he was and he needed to learn how to function despite it instead of expecting the feelings to just disappear when combat required focus.
Tomorrow they would return to Eryndral and report their success to Elder Kael and find out whether the Council considered tonight's raid sufficient proof that Alucent could handle pressure or whether his flawed destruction rune and the guard's death confirmed their concerns about him being too compromised for important operations.
But tonight in the pre-dawn darkness with the Voidshard crystals secured and the fortress defense documents safely stored and the weight of another death pressing down on his consciousness, Alucent just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and getting back to relative safety before his legs gave out entirely.
The fog pressed close around them and somewhere behind the Iron Vale outpost still burned with damage from their raid, smoke rising into the smoggy sky like a marker of everything they'd accomplished and everything they'd lost in the process of surviving another mission.