Eirian wants to push. Wants to move until they can't anymore, but Wayland and Vitali, the two sub-commanders that came with the vanguard, ordered them to stop and rest for the night. Both of them casting wary glances towards Eirian, as if they were expecting her to argue.
She'd been a little intense since Chenzhou and Mingzhe's letter came, but the worry and the need to get to them have been gnawing at her like carrion birds on a corpse. She didn't like being stuck on the sidelines, unable to take action, to help.
Add it to everything she had learned from Death, and her anger was boiling, pushing at the seams in a constant attempt to burst out of her and burn everything. If the tribes hurt Chenzhou or Mingzhe before she got there, Eirian didn't think she'd be able to control it anymore, and it got worse whenever she stopped moving. Stopped doing something.
She took extra care to brush off Fleet Goddess, checked every inch of her tack, anything to keep her mind from focusing on her worry for Chenzhou and Mingzhe as the force rested for the night. She started the fire, sorted her things, ate as much hard bread as she could stomach.
She was dreading when she would finally run out of things to do and have to lie down and try to sleep.
She'd even made it so far as to lie down on her bedroll and stare up at the sky, before another scout returned at a dead run. His mount kicked up a cloud of dust when he reigned them in at the edge of the camp, and the rukus was enough to get Eirian on her feet again.
"What's going on?" Instead of leaving it to one of the others, she stormed over herself, arriving just as one of the other scouts was giving the new arrival water. She waited with her arms crossed and her foot remarkably still as he drank.
Finally, after he'd drained the entire canteen and handed it back, he turned to her. "I think I found Lord Rong."
"What- How- Where?" She finally settled on, once the initial shock had worn off. The soldiers close enough to hear were already putting their armor back on and readying their horses. Eirian didn't even have to ask; someone sprinted to fetch Fleet Goddess.
The other scouts gathered. They were far more close-knit than Yuze's spies and seemed to know one another well, and they asked so many questions that Eirian didn't have to ask any.
"What the hell happened, Rob?"
"Some shit went down up north."
"Yeah, we heard about that." A woman with close-cropped red hair sniped. "How did Lord Rong end up in the north?"
Rob, who looked exhausted but was energetically shoving whatever food they handed him in his mouth, shrugged. "The Bandri had him."
"What?" Eirian's voice came out sharper than intended, but Rob didn't even pretend to look scared.
"Apparently, he got caught during the battle and was transported up north. One of Beng Shai's commanders recognized him."
"Do they still have him?"
"If they do, he won't last long with Beng Shai dead."
"Beng Shai's dead?" Rob looked surprised.
"Where you been, mate? Under a rock?" All the scouts laughed at that, but Rob didn't seem too insulted.
A soldier returned with Fleet Goddess. "We have a hundred ready to ride, your grace." He had dark circles under his eyes, but a determined look on his face.
"We'll come too," another scout said. "Might have to sneak in and break him out."
Rob shook his head. "Something went down, he's free, but…" he trailed off. "We should go, you'll understand when we get there."
Eirian swung into the saddle as the others followed suit. "How far away?"
"Less than an hour," Rob said, climbing onto a fresh horse. "Follow me."
A hundred soldiers, half a dozen scouts, and Eirian travel a hell of a lot faster than a full host, and they make it in nearly half that time now that Rob knows exactly where he's going.
They're all expecting a camp or some kind of building, but there's nothing, and they nearly ride right over Yuze in the darkness. Only the lead soldier's battle-earned reflexes stop him from being trampled.
Yuze was sitting amongst crushed wheat, signs of a struggle that fit the body in his arms. He was badly injured, and Eirian recognized wounds from a whip as she threw herself from her horse and rushed to his side.
And then she recognized the body in his arms.
Fox.
"Yuze?" She hesitated to touch him, could see from the blank look in his eyes that he wasn't really there. In shock, most likely. "Yuze?" The soldiers who had accompanied her fanned out, forming a protective circle and searching the nearby grass for anyone else.
It took a few more times of calling his name before Yuze finally moved. Barely. He flinched so minutely that Eirian would have missed it if she wasn't looking for it, and his eyes finally shifted, finding Eirian's face. There was a pale flicker of recognition.
"Eirian?" His voice was low, soft.
Eirian managed to find a smile for him, but she doubted it was very reassuring. "Yeah, it's me. What happened?" He'd been tortured, she could tell that much. Had Fox been captured as well? "How did you escape?"
Yuze blinked, and a little more awareness came back to him. "I…Snake rescued me. And…" he looked down, and Eirian was more than a little surprised that no tears came to his eyes, given how tightly he was holding Fox's body.
A chill went through Eirian at the mention of the traitorous spy. "Snake? She was here?" A murmur of concern went through the soldiers around them.
Yuze nodded, seemingly unaware of anything but Eirian and the body in his lap.
"Fox too?" She asked.
Yuze nodded again.
"Did something happen after they rescued you?" It was painful to have to ask such pointed questions, but Eirian found the patience somewhere in her concern for her friend.
"Yes." It was so quiet she could barely hear him.
"What happened, Yuze?" To have left the vaulted First Eye in such condition, it must have been horrible, but Eirian had to know.
Yuze blinked at her, then looked down at Fox. His masked face was still, as it always was, though cracked and broken in places now. She was rather surprised he hadn't taken it off.
But then he did, and she understood.
Running over his eyes, faded almost completely, were the runic-style tattoos of the Bandri.
~ tbc