There were plumes of smoke rising above NQSC.
Leaning against a dirty wall in the depths of the outskirts, Sunny looked at the towering black pillars silently. A police PTV sped by, flooding the deep darkness of the night with bright lights of the blaring siren. He hid himself deeper in the shadows and crossed his arms.
'Several locations, most of them close to the city center.'
Fires were not a rarity in NQSC, but not on that scale, and not in the affluent districts at the heart of the city.
What had happened? Was the agreement to leave the war out of the waking world broken, already?
[How far are you?]
There was a moment of silence.
[Less than a minute.]
Soon, a luxurious PTV screeched to a halt in front of him. The passenger door opened, and Cassie stepped out of the vehicle, looking a little disheveled. She remained motionless for a few moments, then turned in his direction, winced, and hurriedly smoothed her hair.
Sunny emerged from the shadows and walked over.
"What the hell is happening?"
For now, he was wearing the mask he had fashioned himself. So, it was the only opportunity to have an honest conversation with Cassie — once they reached Godgrave, he would have to don Weaver's Mask in order to keep his secrets.
"Was the compound of Clan Valor attacked? The Dream Gate relay? Storage facilities?"
She hesitated briefly, then shook her head.
"It's all the House of Night. Their strongholds across the city have gone up in flames. It's total chaos."
Sunny was surprised.
"...They were attacked?"
A deep frown creased Cassie's delicate brow.
"For now, it seems like infighting."
'What?'
It took him a moment to process the information. The members of the House of Night were fighting among each other?
Was there a schism among the leaders of the great clan? Unlike Song and Valor, which were monoliths held together by shared blood and familial bonds, the House of Night had been born from an alliance of a dozen Legacy clans — a decision dictated by the meteoric rise of the two great families, to a large extent.
So, he could entertain the idea of internal strife resulting in an open conflict during these trying times.
However, something did not smell right…
Sunny had a few ideas about who could have been behind the whole mess, but he was not certain.
Cassie sent the PTV away and then faced him. Her expression was a little strange.
"There are… defectors."
He raised an eyebrow behind the mask.
"Where are they defecting to?"
The blind seer seemed troubled.
"Several prominent figures of the House of Night appeared at the gates of Clan Valor's stronghold here, in NQSC. Bloodied and with their family members in tow. They are… asking for an asylum."
Now that was simply bizarre.
Sunny felt troubled, as well.
"Where are they now?"
Cassie offered him her hand.
"They are passing through the Dream Gate. The king will negotiate with them — or interrogate them, depending on the situation — personally. Everyone worth anything were summoned back to the camp. The situation might turn more dire than we had anticipated."
He sighed, then took her hand and dismissed [Definitely Not Me].
Before summoning Weaver's Mask, he looked at Cassie somberly and said:
"Let's go see what all the noise is about, then."
Soon, he was standing on the emerald grass of the Ivory Island.
Sunny could see that the camp was much more lively than it should have been.
The Sword Army had already ventured to carve a path south, with countless Awakened soldiers, Masters, and Saints leaving the safety of the fortified stronghold.
The progress was slow, but methodical and steady.
If the cloud veil did not break and the jungle was not incinerated, Saint Tyris would part the clouds herself. Blinding sunlight would flood the bone plain and turn the crimson growth — as well as those abominations that were not fast enough to escape into the Hollows — to ash.
Then, after the Cloudveil repaired itself, the army would advance.
They would clash with the regrowing jungle and the Nightmare Creatures being born in its scarlet depths, pushing toward the fissures in the bone that served as the source of the dreadful infestation. The battles were punishing, dire, and often prolonged — but with champions like Nephis and Summer Knight spearheading the offensive, the Sword Army was slowly gaining ground.
Once they reached a fissures and cut the roots of the jungle in the area, its remnants would be burned, and a fortress would be constructed around the fissure. A containment detachment would be left to garrison the fortress, tasked with preventing the jungle from extending its tendrils to the surface again.
By now, there was a disorderly chain of a dozen of these fortresses and numerous smaller forts extending west, almost all the way to the point where the collarbone and the breastbone connected.
Considering the current state of the main camp, though, most of the Saints leading the expedition force had been recalled ahead of the scheduled rotation.
Sunny did not know what exactly happened in NQSC… but he was quite confident that the fortune of the Sword Army was about to turn for the worst.