CoESC Book 18-9.2: Discoveries and Return (Patreon)

“Halt!” the patrolmen shouted as Yuriko crossed their path. She was halfway down the mountainside from the pass she discovered and was roughly five hundred longstrides west of the coastline. Since she wouldn’t travel directly east to take the coastal road, it would probably take her less time to return. But she opted to leave with a suitable buffer to make it back to the city…to Rakkisgrad before the appointed time. It didn’t help that she hadn’t managed to connect her pager to a communication network over the past couple of weeks, so she was woefully ignorant of any possible messages from Amalia’s brother and his benefactors. 

The patrollers were a gaggle of soldiers mounted on all-terrain vehicles—or more appropriately, four-wheeled dirt bikes—in a loose line stretching down the road. Yuriko’s misfortune was that she arrived at the intersection of the asphalt road and the dirt trail that led up to a small plateau some fifty paces above. She’d ridden her mountain bike at blistering speed, and the switchbacks had concealed the side of the convoy. Well, that and she didn’t extend her Anima perception beyond her skin since she needed to keep her Anima in check; otherwise, the bloodsuckers could see and track her through imprints left on the planar canvas. 

She spread her perception now and got an accurate count of the patrollers as well as their armament. 

Five soldiers on five ATVs, each armed with assault rifles and pistol sidearms. Four men were in the group, and the lone woman looked tougher than nails. When her Anima perception washed over them, they didn’t react, so she supposed they weren’t part of the empowered people who made fights more interesting. Not that assault rifles were trifles, but there were many ways she could deal with a fusillade of bullets even without making use of her Satellite Swords. 

She did obey their command, though, for the moment, to find out what they wanted. Well, stopping quickly without resorting to Animakinesis wouldn’t be simple. She squeezed the brake lever on the right side of the handlebar, which engaged the rear wheel’s mechanism, then engaged the front wheel brake on the opposite handlebar. She squeezed lightly so that the wheels didn’t seize, though the steep downhill slope meant that her speed didn’t decrease by much. She skidded into a sideways position, perpendicular to her original trajectory. It would murder the tyre rubber, but nothing a Mending spell wouldn’t fix. Uh, provided she recovered the flaked off bits of tyre. 

She noticed that the patrollers, all five of them, had raised their rifles to their shoulders, but only the nearest one actually tracked her position. The rest just looked ready, and from how their eyes darted to and fro, they were looking for any possible companions. 

When she finally skidded to a stop about three paces from the middle patroller, Yuriko let out an innocent grin. “Hello! Nice weather, ain’t it?” 

It was nice, come to think of it. The light snow that had been falling over the past couple of days had ceased, and the sun was nice and warm, even if there was no Radiance to absorb. Evidently, the patrollers disagreed, considering each of them wore their jackets closed up tight. 

“You…are illegally in Westenland’s exclusion zone,” the nearest rider, who wore an insignia indicating that he was the squad leader, said coldly. 

Yuriko tilted her head. “Why do you assume I’m here illegally?”

“You would have shown a writ of passage otherwise,” came the dry answer.

Yuriko’s lips twitched in suppressed amusement, and she decided that she wouldn’t let them suffer if she decided to kill them. Who knew who their real masters were, after all.

“Ah, I guess that’s true. Well, it was nice meeting you, but I do have a schedule to keep.” With an insouciant grin, Yuriko kicked off. Her bike jumped right over the patrollers amid their surprised yells, then over the edge of the road, and straight down the steep slope. 

“Hey! Come back! Smuggler!” 

“No can do!” Yuriko yelled back. 

Bang! Twip!

She didn’t flinch at the gunshot since it missed her by a league anyway. The mountain bike’s wheels touched the slope rather than coast on air, and she swerved into some cover. She careened down the slope at speed, just from gravity alone, but when she pedalled, her bike accelerated like one of those jet planes in Astoria. She was beyond the field range of the patrollers’ pistols, and within moments, beyond the easy rifle accurate fire range as well. Not that they continued shooting at her, which, she supposed, was a mark towards decency. She outwardly looked like a mortal after all, and one who hadn’t made any overt attacks. Well, the sliver of Mien she used to cloud their judgment didn’t count. 

A giggle escaped her lips, and it oddly echoed up the mountainside. The sound of the guns firing suddenly seemed louder, which only prompted more laughter. 

The wind against her hair and the exhilarating speed she rode down the mountain weren’t really exceptional compared to flying, but with her being so limited, this was one of the few ways she could actually get her heart pumping. Hmm, if she leveraged her speed coming down, she could fly through the foothills and be out of it at a shorter time than she expected. She didn’t know the roads that would lead her back to Rakkisgrad, but she didn’t intend to return to the coast anytime soon. Besides, all she had to do was follow the roads once she was beyond the exclusion zone. She was also certain that she wasn’t that much west of Orlingrad, which was the closest city to Rakkisgrad. Roughly four hundred longstrides west, and about fifty or so north? She wasn’t all that certain, but she did know that Westenland’s intercity roads were well-maintained and had sufficient signage that she shouldn’t get lost. That, and if she kept heading east, she should reach the city. 

It didn’t take more than ten minutes before the patrollers were left far behind, but ironically, her stunt didn’t actually shake off pursuit. She didn’t realise at the time, but of course, they’d radio news about her to their organisation. The first she saw of it was a day later, when she finally reached the foothills at midmorning. There she spotted another group of soldiers. Like the ones on the mountainside, they were on ATVs, but there was a full squad of them rather than a fire team of five. 

Thankfully, she spotted them while she was on top of a hill, while they were making their way along the road at the bottom. They saw her too, but she evaded them by biking towards the bushes, then took off on foot. There was a reason she had the bike bag after all. 

The exclusion zone near the mountains was covered by woods. The old farmlands had been abandoned and allowed to become overgrown, though she remembered the government often burned down swathes of forest once a year or so. She didn’t understand then, but she supposed it was to prevent the invasive spores from propagating wildly. It mustn’t work very well, considering fire and smoke only spread the spores anyway. 

But, she supposed the lack of humanoid victims was the limit. Even the shambling mounds had human remains inside of them after all. 

Anywho, by the time the patrol managed to crest the hill, Yuriko was already half a longstride away. She left a trail of broken twigs and leaves behind, and the trees weren’t big enough to serve as an arboreal highway, so she had little choice. Still, she was faster than what the soldiers could manage on foot, and their ATVs wouldn’t fit on the narrow trail. 

She emerged back on a road an hour later, and she checked where she was facing from the angle of the fake sun, then followed the road southwards. She’d crossed nearly fifty longstrides an hour later before she was intercepted by another patrol, though this time, they were in a car instead of ATVs. Which meant she slipped off the road again to escape, but this time, still on the bike instead of on foot.

Once she reached the flatlands, her speed had stabilised to fifty longstrides an hour, and her bike would have broken down at the strain she put it through if she didn’t infuse it with her aura to strengthen the gears, the chain, and the wheels. It meant that the thing glowed a subtle gold, but better than being forced to stop and cast Mending every so often. She did that anyway by the time the sun set, and she prepared her dinner. 

Most of her food had actually come from animals she hunted while in the wilderness, so she still had enough canned meat to last her until she reached Rakkisgrad…hopefully. Or, if the patrollers got too annoying, she’d steal their car and drive it…er, if she could actually drive. 

Synchronisation didn’t really help since her greater self didn’t know how to drive either, especially not vehicles that weren’t Animus-powered, or at the technological level of Dragon Fall City. 

In Shangria, her companions took care of the mobile base’s purchase, but they actually didn’t have it yet, so she couldn’t practice on that either. Well, carjacking should be her last resort, probably. 

Three days after she decided to come back to Rakkisgrad, she finally exited the exclusion zone. Since she’d been wearing a bike helmet during her encounters with the patrollers, she hoped they didn’t transmit her appearance properly. Not that her current looks were better, considering she was still wanted. Well, deal with it as things come. 

Once she found an expressway, she followed it east. She couldn’t actually ride on it, but there were service and country roads that ran parallel to the wider road, for the most part. The Season remained warm, and as she progressed east, it became increasingly humid. 

By the fifth day, she saw a sign that Rakkisgrad was only a hundred longstrides away, an easy two-hour ride, though she should probably slow down to avoid attracting too much attention. The countryside was mostly empty, and the service roads ran alongside empty fields. Ah, the harvest was already done, so the most she saw were piles of hay, cattle, and sheep. 

She glanced up at the sky and noted that it was empty except for white and fluffy clouds. Come to think of it, she’d never seen or heard any aircraft pass overhead. And when she examined some of Amalia’s memories, she didn’t recall the girl having even heard of technological flight. Was it just not possible on the plane? 

Curious. It also meant that the only way she was going to cross the inner ocean was on a ship. And yes, taking the overland route would take much, much longer. She’d like to get out of Irisvaile within a year, thank you very much. 

Even if she didn’t know how to leave, she was sure that her kids’ temporary caretakers would know, so she’d just have to get it from them. Oh, she hoped the portals weren’t time-locked…

By the time Rakkisgrad came into view, Yuriko was more than ready to grab a hotel room and take an hour-long bath. Cleanse helped with hygiene, but really, nothing quite beats the real thing. She didn’t actually spend any Weyrmarks on her trip. 

She did just that as soon as she crossed into the city proper. District 6 was her entry point, and the place looked like a focused commercial district, along with residences meant for office grunts. She didn’t know what that really meant, perhaps running the country’s bureaucracy? Either way, the district had hundreds of medium-rise buildings that were ten or so storeys tall, and it took some time to find a passable hotel…or rather, one that allowed her to book a room without asking for an ID. 

She took the hour-long bath as soon as she secured a room, and afterwards, she turned on the pager the Bellemer magi gave her. It buzzed nonstop for ten minutes.