"I don't know that we can, or should," the blonde woman said.
"What?" Atar asked in surprise. He frowned at the Chanter. "You would leave these people to be sacrificed?"
"My priority, the concern of our Order, is to save the entire Continent. I do not care for one small city, not when lingering jeopordizes my mission," she said, her hawk-like nose lifted as if in challenge. Isla stared around the room, meeting all of their eyes without fear. "My mission lies below us. Safe, for now. I think we should retreat and leave Ahkestria to deal with its own issues."
Vess took a measured breath. Isla had told them that Felix was alive and safebut injured. He was down in the lowest layers of the city, hidden in another safehouse with the other Unbound they had come to find. Ostensibly, their mission had been fulfilled: they had found the Minotaur and he was safe from the Paladins. But that was before they learned of the Council's strange plan, and the Paladin's part in it all.
"I do not think this will end here. What the Paladins are attempting...apart from its consequences, I wonder at the why of it," Vess said. Eyes turned to her, and Evie grinned. "They do nothing without a purpose, and their aid is never free. What is the Hierocracy getting out of this? We are missing something, and before we can leave we must find out what."
"The Hierocracy, foul as it is, is a simple beast. It wants power, and it will do whatever it can to claim it," Isla said dismissively. "I am affronted that they dared attack a sister of my Order, aghast that they intend to harm so many people, but the Choices before us are simple: Either we flee with what victory we can grasp...or we all die here in a pointless conflict, leaving two Unbound to the mercies of the Continent."
"Pointless?" Vess asked. She felt her face flushing with heat, but she didn't care. "We would be stopping an injustice perpetrated on the weak and Untempered. If our strength is not meant to serve others, to protect them, then what is the point of it?"
The Chanter scoffed. "You have a lot to learn about the world, Your Grace. Pax'Vrell is an exception to the standards of the Continent."
"Isla," Zara warned in a sharp tone.
The blonde Chanter pouted. "Fine. Then have your suicidal assault. I shall"
"Be at our side, to provide your powerful healing," Zara smoothly interrupted. "As expected of one of our Order."
Isla only frowned and mumbled something to herself.
Zara continued, her voice a rising swell that carried the conversation along. "Thanks to our scouts we have learned a few things about our enemy. The Paladins are holding people, operating under High Justiciar Haim and his second, Captain Boldt. They are both Masters, which is another challenge, with all the rest of the Paladins operating as Journeyman under two or three Adept officers. There are thirty Paladins, two companies, and while that is concerning it is less than I had feared."
Harn shook his head. "Paladin's ain't no joke to fight. Those idiots in the Pass posed us all a challenge, but they were the rank and file. Now we're facing their elite. That's not a fight I want to take on without a solid plan. Anyone got one of those?"
Evie shrugged and ticked off points on her fingers. "Storm the Temple, free the prisoners, take a piss in the big fire, run."
Harn chuckled.
"I don't care who is arrayed against us. I need to know why the Highest Flame is condoning this," Atar said. Alister's arm was threaded through the fire mage's, as if both were drawing support from one another. "Why is my masterwhy is Kel'lyv doing this?"
"The Highest Flame, ah, she has always required to consume things to grow stronger," the Faun Disciple said. "She is That Which Burns, it is the truth of Her being. Things that have power, people mostly, have um, historically been the most able to strengthen Her. The pacts She makes with individuals supports Her through lean times, but not if they are not advancing."
"And people don't advance much in this city, I take it," Vess said.
Fiammetta nodded. "We hunt the wastes, but it is hazardous to face the Cursewinds even in a large group. What's more, the undead hurt the Flame. The few hunts that have been organized have lost people and...and a curse turned them into more undead slaves for the Cursewinds."
"The Dustborn curse." Zara said.
"Yes. You know it. Of course, you faced the undead." Fiammetta's head tilted, curiously. "But none of your people perished. How?"
"Felix," Isla said, and Zara's gaze sharpened. Isla waved off the woman's icy glare. "Don't look at me like that. It's a simple enough deduction."
"Felix?" Fiammetta asked. "Who is that?" Her eyes widened. "You mean that man? That monster that conquered a Lost Territory? He's here?"
Zara gave Isla another acidic look before regaining control of the conversation. "That is neither here nor there. What is interesting is the undead are affecting the Urge by eroding its support system. But that would hardly seem to be enough. A creature as old and as powerful as the Highest Flame subsists on more than a few pacts with mortals."
Fiammetta spread her hands as if in apology. "I truly do not know. There are a great many secrets I was not privy toowould not be, not until I become a Matron. Which is...which is not likely to happen, anymore."
"Yeah, super sad. Anyway, let's keep planning." Evie snapped her fingers and pointed at Zara. "What about the Primordial? Can we use that somehow?"
"What?" Isla stood, alarm writ large across her fine features. "What Primordial? Where?"
"A Primordial is behind the undead," Atar said. He tilted his head to the side. "Didn't you know?"
"IHow? The Primordials are gone," Isla insisted. She looked to Zara. "What are they talking about."
Zara pursed her lips in thought. "An idea that might hold merit. Vess, please give Harn and Darius the route you plotted to the Temple. Isla, Atar, Alister, and Fiammetta: come with me. The rest of you, get some rest and prepare yourselves." Zara regarded them all with her ice blue eyes, as if she were weighing them one by one. "The ritual is to take place at dawn, and we will be moving well before that." Zara left, trailed by those she had named.
Vess took another, slow breath before motioning Harn and Darius close.