Dear Cato,

I am sure you have heard of my presence by now, I doubt anyone in Inath has not. I am Morey, the Hero of Inath summoned by Queen Amarante to win the war against the Enemy. I am also sure that you know of my efforts to free the slaves of Illastein as trade ships from Duport have been selling large quantities of food.

I have in my hand copies of the books you have written and published through the University of Minmay, the knowledge they contain is great and I have to admit that you have done more than I ever could. The Federation owes you a great debt, whether they admit it or not.

We may not have come from the same Earth, who knows how this summoning magic works, but the industrial revolution is something you are clearly familiar with. To confirm such, I have attached the names of country leaders, names and dates of significant events that I remember. Do the terms internet, blog, meme, mean anything to you? Are they recent entries into public awareness? If so, then we at least share a common cultural background.

Since you have avoided contact and clearly avoided letting the Queen know of your status as a person from Earth, I sincerely apologize. I told her that these books must have been written by someone from Earth so she knows now. I don't know why you would conceal your status but I will not press for further contact if you do not reply to this letter.

If you do however, we should meet at some point in the future when our tasks are resolved, as the only two people from Earth to my knowledge, we ought to work together to find a way home, if you still want to leave. The Legendary Sword as Amarante calls it, is a First artifact that I am tasked to find to end this War. It is claimed to have the power to send me home to Earth, and it may do the same for you. I am also curious to know your story and what you have done and experienced so far in this world.

Morey

Dated 4th day of 6th month of year 631

16 months and 6 days after my summoning

Dear Morey,

I have known of your presence for some months now but I did avoid contact with the noble society and you because you are a Hero. From what I've heard they ask you to do, I think I can work better here where I am. I think you understand what I mean when I say they are using you. Still, your letter is very reassuring, I needed to know that you can still act on your own.

Yes, we share much of our history, I think we come from the same Earth. All of the history you wrote are the same in mine, the minor errors are perhaps just misremembering or differing sources. I have included some more points in this letter for you to verify, you must have left the date of the second atomic bomb blank for this reason. I have been in this world for the same length of time as you, given the times you have attached. Almost certainly not a coincidence, my appearance is linked to your summoning. There may be more people from Earth in this world, I shall see about spreading the word in hopes of finding them, if they exist and are in Inath territory.

You must have noticed by now that our language has been modified. This is not English, nor your native language if you don't speak English. I would appreciate any information on this matter, clearly also related to your Summoning, and if anything else about us has been changed.

We should work together, as you say. Tell me more about this Sword you are trying to find. Are there any descriptions, clues or mention of its abilities? Are you sure this is not just a legend the Inath people have created about their past civilization? The common person on the street has no idea the Sword even exists. I can help find the Sword too, even if it doesn't exist, any First artifact is likely to have something we can learn from.

I will support your effort to free the slaves. The descriptions are horrifying, I had not known this atrocity existed until now. Arrange a place on the shores of Illastein to meet the barges in security and I will do my best to smuggle you some support. The political situation where I am does not allow me to divert too much resources but I shall help you where I can. Money, food and weapons will move at your request. Enclosed within this message is two sets of magic circle threads and instructions on how to use them, as well as details on how to make spellcannons, shields and bowguns. This is the most I can provide through these letters.

I have written down everything I remember of Earth's science and mathematics and am working on rediscovering more. An index is enclosed, although obviously I can't send you a bookcase in a letter. If anything would help your war effort, I will provide a copy. I must ask you to keep these a secret until the time is right to release these books however, I am trying to build an industrial base for mass production in Inath and releasing everything would result in everyone trying to leap too far ahead without the industry to back them up. Of course, if you can remember anything to add to them, I will welcome any contribution.

Additionally, I have a strange condition where my lifeforce appears to be defective and not able to use magic and I don't feel magical damage. Full list of observations enclosed. If you know anyone who might have an answer to this mystery, I suspect that will greatly help understand what happened at your summoning.

Cato

Dated 19th day of 8th month of year 631

Dear Cato,

Your offer of support is encouraging. I accept your help! Illastein is currently undergoing a mana crystal rush after news of your find arrived, luckily your letter let the ISL pre-empt it and by my estimate, we are a little ahead of the Rawi's forces in mana stockpiles. Magic circles are harder to work with than your letter suggested, but we have figured it out, suggestions to improve the text attached. You clearly aren't fit for writing textbooks, ha.

One weapon you appear to have overlooked I can tell you immediately. Magically propelling an object appears to exert a constant force, lighter objects fly much faster than heavier ones. Lighter objects also benefit more from Resist enchantments, which appear to increase the 'weight' of an object by a quantity proportional only to the magic spent. So guns that substitute gunpowder with magic are nearly as efficient as guns in our world. The only drawback is the need for a magical power source and it's portability. If you have any improvements, please communicate them.

I propose we swap our communications to an encrypted form. I doubt you know how to work public key and neither do I so we will have to rely on codebooks or one time pads, you appear to have greater resources so you should propose how to make this work. Send the reply by secure channels.

Never heard of anything like your lifeforce problem. However, Inath is in possession of a Tsarian laboratory ruin that I explored some months ago, there may be clues there since they appeared to be working on lifeforce. From what I understood, the night cryers were made by them through a method called lifeshaping. I don't know the details but the location is near the Erushen special region, please find a rough map enclosed.

Morey,

Dated 3rd day of the 11th month of year 631

Amarante scowled as she read through the copies of letters her informant in the ISL had sent her. Both sides had sent more than one letter to make sure at least one arrived at the recipient, which also made them less than secure. More difficult than obtaining them was that after that last letter, all the next ones were in code, unreadable jumbles of letters.

Cato's attempts to send the letters via coastal barge from Duport hadn't been secure when the leak was at the other end, but the code was frustating when only one codebook had been provided in a magically sealed box with a ludicrously complicated and certainly unforgeable seal that would self-destruct when the box was opened, to be compared to the seal described by the accompanying letter. Not to mention the wax and paper seals around the box too, in case that was defeated. There had been no way to steal or copy the book without letting Morey know the book was compromised. And after arrival, Morey had kept the book close to himself and destroyed all deciphered letters after reading them. In private.

The best spies in the country couldn't work out what the code was or even how it worked without the book. Which was something of a first, some of them expressed interest in knowing how the cipher worked in order to use the principle themselves. A cipher that could defeat the best letter counting and text analysis would teach them a lot.

It was not pleasant to know that Cato came from the same world as Morey, and was able to recreate some of the more fantastic things Morey had described. Nal's description of the history of Earth told to her by Morey sounded eerily like the history of the First and the Tsar, only their world hadn't destroyed themselves yet.

It was even more unpleasant to know that Cato was providing an outsider's view to Morey of his own actions. To Amarante's knowledge, Morey hadn't even attempted to set up any kind of information network since he arrived, now he was getting one for free. The thought of the two of them joining forces in Minmay after Illastein had collapsed seemed to spell disaster for the Federation.

How would she handle this? How could she convince Morey to stabilize the Federation instead of destroying it? And how to do the same for Cato?

At any rate, she wouldn't find answers to this quickly. She would just have to handle the other little problem first.

The door guard blinked. The street had been empty just now and now there was a short cloaked figure...

The last thing he saw was a huge twisted staff that was as tall as him. He barely had time to register its twisted shape and countless jagged edges and it's incredible magical strength.

Then the guard, the door to the compound and most of the wall around it suddenly caved in as if hit by a giant's fist. With a ear splitting noise of tearing stone and wood, pieces of the outer wall broke into large chunks of stone that landed in the garden and hit the manor with great shuddering thumps.

Shouts and screams rose into the night air as the hired knights rushed forwards to face a single lone woman. Her short stature and hooded face was unidentifiable, the slight slouch and relaxed pose as she stepped over the destruction was unnerving. Towering almost two heads above her was a magical staff.

Small rings of metal hung off it randomly, tiny gems dotted the surface here and there, strange and inexplicable protrusions jutted out at odd angles. Every now and then, a pulse of magic arose from the surface to wisp out into the night air. It was not a beautiful decoration like those used by mage nobles in court nor the spartan elegance of the steel staffs. This was a mess of incomprehensible alchemy and accessories that was simply chaotic.

There was only one person who owned a staff like that in all of the Federation.

"Selna! It's First Staff!" exclaimed one of the knights.

One of the younger knights, perhaps rasher or bolder than the rest, lashed out with a firebolt. The pulse of magic began to break up the moment it left the man's hands and had completely fallen apart more than three meters away from the woman. She looked at the man once and a massive forcebolt lashed out, smashing through his hastily raised barrier and squashing him into a red smear on the grass and wreckage of bushes. None of the others tried anything after that.

She continued to walk forwards without a word. The knights edged around warily, unsure what sort of opponent they were facing. As she approached, they noticed something faint in the air, a hint of magic that spread out from the woman's small form. No, from the staff. The field was weak and almost intangible, but it sparked and danced with magic, slightly brighter lines of activity coiling around them and their own wards.

There was activity from inside the manor, shouts of warning and hasty scrambling. Too late however, she raised her staff at the door and it blew away like a wet rag. Then the figure was gone inside the building.

"There goes our pay," said one of the battlemages outside.

"Better to live poor than to die," said his colleague, "and still be poor. We can't stop her. "

They carefully did not look at the bloody stain.

"That was First Staff? I didn't think we'd survive that," said someone from the spellstorm party, "that staff must weigh a ton! Who even carries a solid steel staff around?! And a fully charged one! That thing was stronger than a Ritual Summon!"

"Well, she wouldn't be called that if she wasn't so crazy about her staff," said another spellstorm, "we'd better get out of here before she destroys the entire place. "

The woman known as First Staff walked down the hallway. There were disruption walls and even the occasional magic bolt trap that had been hastily created to stall her. She sniffed.

The field around her danced whenever it encountered another spell and a flick of disruption magic broke the offending spell down. She flicked one of the rings to disable the automatic forcebolt reaction. If she destroyed the house, it would get annoying to confirm her kill.

The weak magic arrayed in front of her posed little threat. No more than toys compared to her staff. How could these crude tools be compared to the staff she had worked on ever since she learned alchemy! It was almost insulting, the way they expected to slow her down.

She simply continued walking down the carpeted floor, ignoring the stone walls, magic and arrows placed in her way. The ten meter wide deflection zone could handle anything these knights could throw at her and judicious use of forcebolts made obstacles simply... go away. She stepped over the last body draped over the wreckage of the wall and found herself at the back of the manor.

The fat man was hurriedly running out towards the back gate, six knights jogging beside him in a defensive circle. Tsk. They were getting away.

The First Staff rose in the red moonlight and then lowered.

She squinted at the men and women lying on the ground, and looked up at the black clothed man standing in front of them.

"Thank you for the distraction," the man bowed elegantly, a broad smile on his face.

"Silent Night," she named him.

"The one and only. You must be First Staff, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance," he bowed again. "Truly, you made it really easy to ambush them. "

His smile was starting to look disgusting. Together with the all black outfit of tight fitting cloth, he certainly looked like the assassin he was. Not like Light's Edge, who was legendary for his unkempt clothing and wild hair. At least that man was honest and fun, like a big shaggy dog. This Silent Night felt slimy to her. Untrustworthy.

"I'm enough," the staff wiggled, as if making a point.

"Living up to your name I see," Silent Night's smile only grew wider. She wondered how he managed it without splitting his face in half. "How crude though. To smash everything with that raw power. "

She narrowed her eyes, her staff inclining ever so slightly. "Do not insult the complexity of my work," she warned him.

"Woah there, I'm not here to fight you," the man held up his hands, "that detection field of yours is based off the Summoning Stones I see. Truly, I cannot think of a worse match up for my skills. "

Good that he wasn't going to be stupid. "Mm," she nodded and walked up to the crumpled forms. She kept a haze of unformed magical power between her and the assassin though, ready to turn into a shield the moment he did anything hostile. To understand the field for what it was, even if he didn't get all its functions, this man was dangerous. She didn't want to fight him either.

The knights and the chancellor had only been knocked out, she saw. Some kind of dart had hit them, probably delivering a magical shock. Strange that she hadn't sensed it but she supposed that this man's magical shielding must be better than her own technique she used for her staff. He was called Silent Night after all. He probably had more darts on his body but she felt no magic from him at all. Probing him with the field would be impolite.

"Kill or capture?" she asked the man. Clearly he had received the same commission. Duport had been stirring up trouble trying to raise forces to take back his cities. Vorril wanted him gone one way or another.

"We have him already, so let's capture. Vorril'll have a dungeon or two to keep him in," Silent Night said. He bent down to pick up the limp body. "It's been a pleasant night to meet you, allow me to take my leave. "

He bowed deeply to her and took three steps back, still carrying the unconscious chancellor over his shoulder. The moment the man touched the wall's shadow, he seemed to completely vanish into the darkness. And despite being less than ten meters away, she felt no magic at all.

The woman known as First Staff shivered in the night air. If she had to fight that man, she suspected it wouldn't be as easy as the man had implied.

She sheathed her staff in its shielding, stepped over the fallen knights and walked away.

The peacekeeping Knights arrived half an hour later, unusually slow for the noble district.

The rekis turned as one, following the lead of their pack like the good dogs they were. The riders on them rode on silently.

"The Riders of Ranra have suffered a defeat like never before," Zim, the party leader wasn't happy. Neither were any of the others, riderless rekis surrounded them on all sides. Two hours ago, they were at the limit of party members, now there was space to double their count. And empty harnesses to put under them.

Reki riding wasn't an unusual skill, far from it. Rekis were the Knight's best friend and transport and pack mule and so many other things besides. But the Riders were the premier reki cavalry party in all of Ranra. And when it came to Ranra, the whole federation knew of the prowess of their knight cavalry. For them to suffer a defeat like this was impossible. Except not, because it had happened.

"Where did the zombies get that weapon?" the second in command shook his head wearily.

"I wonder if this is the end for us," Zim muttered as the rekis loped onwards, carrying them away from their disaster.

"Zim?" his second said with some concern, "Are you alright?"

"My body, yes. Just a little sore," Zim said, "my spirit, maybe not. "

"Why?"

Zim looked up at the sun shining brightly in the sky, the cheerful birds flying away as they drove hard through the rough fields of the Algami Plains seemed to mock him. "Perhaps it is time I bought that farm," he said.

His second looked at him as if he was crazy. "But we surely can do something! The past Leaders have faced worse than this-"

"No, they haven't," Zim cut him off. And they didn't. Not since the Riders were founded had they lost so many members in a single battle. And the other parties were even worse off.

"Surely we can rebuild," his second said, pleaded even, "we can recruit the others, train them and when we return, we will brush them aside like we always have. "

Zim shook his head. That one devastating battle, as if the zombies had been waiting for them to unleash that new weapon. If he hadn't been half-convinced of it, Zim was now. There simply had to be some sort of malevolent intelligence behind the zombies. Nothing else could explain what they had seen.

He feared that the days of their party were numbered. And he feared that perhaps this would spell the end of days for the Federation.

"We ride for Ereti as fast as the rekis can hold out," Zim commanded what remained of his party, "the Order must know what we have seen. "

And a terrible tale it would be. The zombies had been a single solid block, like many other armies they had driven away before. The Riders and the other parties who could answer the call had lined up in their charging formations as they had done before. Charging against cavalry with weak infantry like the zombies was complete suicide and the Riders had ridden many a zombie swarm to ruin.

Only this time it had been different. The zombies didn't charge back. Instead, those infernal beams came at them. And instead of the one or two that rumours had said, it was like a tidal wave of light. One that burnt men and rent stone. And not just a single salvo, the zombies had fired in waves, staggering their shots into a deadly hail that would break even the stoutest heart. The momentum of the charge was too much to stop and only the hasty casting of Mist spells had saved Zim's party from total destruction.

It was a trap. Completely a trap, Zim felt. The zombies had had this weapon for some months now and they had only shown a few of it per army. And now suddenly there was at least thirty, probably forty, of these beam zombies in a single army? One half the size of the usual? If that wasn't a trap, Zim would eat his own ears.

So, the Enemy had learned some strategy. That was far more dangerous than the light beams.