Ryun sighed, something that he didn’t really need to do. It was more of a reflection of his mental state than an actual physical need. The gesture made him feel better. The War, for Ryun at least, had turned into a cycle of waiting before being sent out for a fight that lasted barely a handful of minutes, then being sent back to wait. It was, if he was being honest with himself, boring. He wouldn’t say anything to others about it, of course. People were fighting and dying in battles that stretched across an insane amount of territory. War wasn’t clean. Though, there were people that he couldn’t really keep things from. “Stop doing that,” Erdania said, her eyes boring into him. “Focus down here.” Ryun gathered his attention back from the corner of his mind where it had wandered off to, and looked down at the chess board between them. “Sorry,” he said. Erdania rarely indulged him and played; she didn’t like it. She would much rather spend her time in a tavern or something similar, drinking and singing with the rough crowd. He did feel a bit bad for her; as far as she had advanced, she was yet to find any alcohol that still had any effect on her. Ryun had a few alchemists on hand testing out poisons that could provide similar effects for her, but he was keeping that a secret for now. He wanted to surprise her with it. He moved a piece, then Erdania leaned down looking at the board with narrowed eyes. “Of course not,” Ryun answered. She glared at him while she moved a piece and took the one he had just moved before her. “You really should be more confident, we’ve been playing a lot of games recently. You’ve gotten better.” Erdania’s expression cleared, and she smiled at him. “Yeah, I guess.” They continued playing, each movement getting them closer to Ryun’s inevitable loss. Then, they were interrupted by a quick flash of emotion across their bond. Both of them jumped up immediately, their own emotions flooding the bond. “Oh, I’m fine,” Selia said over the bond. “What was that then?” Erdania asked. Both of them had felt Selia react to something. Her emotions were a bit muted over the distance, but she had been startled. “Shouldn’t have left her alone,” Ryun said out loud, just to Erdania. She gave him a look, but then Selia answered. “One of the babies kicked.” Erdania’s mouth opened, and Ryun let himself drop down to the roof they’ve been sitting on, all tension leaving him. It’s been almost three months since they’ve gone to war, since they left Selia alone back home. They hadn’t realized it back then, but they were missing a lot of her pregnancy. They’ve gone back to visit early on, but then the enemy would take advantage and put pressure on when they were gone. Somehow they always knew when they were gone, even if they took steps to keep it a secret. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. “Don’t worry about me,” Selia added. “Just focus on ending the war so that you can be here before the birth.” That was a tall order. The pregnancy was proceeding faster than Ryun expected. But according to Yuron, that apparently wasn’t too much out of the norm, especially with demasi mothers. The current estimate for her pregnancy length was around six months. They had another three months to finish the war if they were going to make it. The way it was going, that seemed unlikely. The enemy had started bringing in more forces to the front, and their advancement had stalled. Discover more novels at n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net “We’ll try,” Erdania sent, and Ryun sent over his sentiment agreeing with her. They had to do more, change the way they fought. But he knew that it was a difficult problem to solve. Ryun and Erdania could take anything that the empire could field, but every time they pushed somewhere, the empire pushed somewhere else. They still weren’t able to figure out how exactly they were aware of their movements. Ryun, Erdania, even Nayra, could just make a straight line into the deep of their territory, but they would be sacrificing lives of their people elsewhere. It came down to their willingness to let people die to achieve a greater victory. And… well, Ryun wasn’t willing to do that. Not while they were still winning. Slowly, yes, but they were making progress. Soon, they would reach the first of the enemy factions, a subordinate kingdom that served as a major supplies hub as well as provided many long range support weapons to the empire. That would be the key turning point according to the strategist. Ryun glanced down at their board. In their haste they’d jostled it and moved the pieces. Both of them remembered the state of the board, but he could see that neither he nor Erdania was in the mood to continue. He looked away at the sky stretching around them. They were in a territory that served as a base for this section of the front, on top of a flying castle. More like a mansion really. It was sect make, lent to them by a sect that probably wanted to get in Ryun’s good graces. He didn’t even know their name, but he was sure that Anrosh did and that they would be rewarded. He didn’t have a problem with it, he just didn’t want to deal with people like that. He was grateful to have Anrosh for those things. And he could admit that the manor was impressive. A flying island with a large home, made in the sect style of course, with pagoda roof, and large gardens surrounding it. It was filled with formations to help cultivation of all kinds of Aspects. It was a bit wasted on Ryun and Erdania, but they had been allowing their sect warriors to use it, those that had nature-related Aspects. Like Eari who was down there in one of the gardens, surrounded by his students. That had surprised Ryun; he hadn’t ever considered doing something like that. The closest he came to having a real student were Kri and Hiro, and that wasn’t the same as what a traditional sect student-master relationship was like. It was different, at least according to what Eari had told him. Still, perhaps he should go and visit Anrosh. She wasn’t far, just below his flying island, in fact. She’d set up shop in one of the forts in the valley below them. He could bother her and see where Kri was deployed. Maybe look into how her advancement was progressing. He immediately sighed, if he moved to another front the empire would react. Anrosh had been using him to smack the empire down quickly and permanently when they overextended, or sent someone or something more powerful than their troops could handle. It was the same old thing. The way every fight went in the Infinite Realm. You baited your opponent, had them waste powerful cards, then you punished them for it. “What is it now?” Erdania asked after he sighed. “This can’t continue,” Ryun said. “We need to do something. Change things.” “The thing is, how do we do it without them realizing that we’ve moved?” “We could try not telling anyone that we’re gone,” Erdania suggested. Ryun glanced at her. “You think that’s how they know about our movements. Someone is leaking it?” “There are many different powers in the world. I don’t want to just assume that we have a traitor. The only people that are allowed to read reports regarding us are Anrosh, Lesamitrius, and their command team. Trusted people.” “What? You do realize that I can read everything that Anrosh is writing down there, like right now? In real time?” Erdania opened her mouth, then closed it. “Point. But that just means that they have some way of surveilling us that we can’t detect.” “So how about—” Ryun paused, then tilted his head. “Maybe we should just talk ?” Ryun sent over their bond. Erdania raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking?” “I think that it’s time we hit them hard. Give me a few hours, I’ll read through Anrosh’s reports and find a suitable target.” Ryun sat down on the roof and turned his attention to the fort a long way beneath them. Then he started to read.