All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 103: Divide and Conqure

Harold had been a bit nervous when he returned to the city. As he led the shattered remains of the demon extermination force through the streets, his previous terror at the skeleton army’s pursuit had long given way to a deep sense of foreboding. He figured his head was on the chopping block.

However, apparently, the reports of the few officers that survived had been enough to wash away the failure, if not put him in good graces entirely. On top of that, the news of the demons and the undead working together was a real cause for panic. They were natural enemies, so the cooperation couldn’t have been voluntary. A demon powerful enough to force undead of such power to attack his armies was truly terrifying.

As reports had come in of the undead infection spreading, things had only gotten more complicated. Many thought it was a complicated plot from Barleona to sow discord, though Harold knew better. That didn’t make it any easier to coordinate troop deployments though. Even with the war effort, troops would have to be sent. The debates had raged for weeks on how to split the forces between threats.

The final details still weren't settled on, but there was a consensus - at least the minimum needed to be sent out now. Since the undead army wasn’t Harold’s field of expertise, being the dean of the demonology college, he had escaped being sent out right away. Though, despite his best efforts, he was sent to reinforce his counterpart. The necrology school was in the neighboring region and was beginning to mobilize, an effort that he was expected to contribute to.

Still, he didn't mind. At least it should keep him far away from a battlefield, and he knew that the Warden would like an update in that area anyway. The dean of necrology wasn't a member of his organization, and while the king seemed to have forgiven Harold, the Warden still was a bit colder than he would have liked. A show of effort was likely required to regain some standing at least.

Even with all the political implications of his position, it was still of Harold’s own volition that he was meeting with the commander of the troops a day before they set up. The man knocked on Harold's office door promptly at 2 pm, as scheduled.

"Come in." He called. A sharply dressed officer dressed in royal greens and whites stepped in. A casual salute followed by a firm handshake soon saw the man relaxing in the chair beside Harold’s desk. A glass of spirits joined him shortly after. "It's good to see you, Arthur."

"Likewise, Harold. I was glad to see you made it back from the north in one piece." Arthur remarked in a casual tone.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I take it you read my report?" Harold confirmed. Arthur nodded. "Well, there are a few points I wanted to emphasize and give you a chance to ask me questions about."

"I appreciate it, what parts in particular?"

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"The threat we went to oppose was not defeated and we think it may be behind the recent undead outbreak." Harold said, laying out some background. Arthur just waited for him to continue, as this was all common knowledge amongst the senior officers. "I wanted to tell you more about what this threat is. There were a few things that I couldn't put in my report."

Pausing to take a sip of his drink, Harold continued. "Now this is my personal opinion, nothing official. If I were you, I would expect the demon threat behind these issues to be at least level 70."

Arthur paled slightly but otherwise managed to maintain his composure. "Are you sure?"

"At least. That could be more by the time you get there." Harold confirmed.

"How do you know?"

"I can't say for sure, but it defeated something else around that level. I felt the battle as we were leaving with a sensory skill. I believe it may have destroyed the leader of the undead." That last bit was a lie, as Harold couldn't admit any knowledge of the Lieutenant. Even if he had felt it disappear.

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I considered Beatrice's question about what to do next, now that we had found people who would come back to the castle with us. Honestly, I wasn't sure. I didn't want to leave the rest of the people out here alone without help, but we also couldn't take these humans with us on our exploration. No matter how good of care they took of themselves, they were still slow and old.

If Tony was stronger, I would have him take them back by himself, but I figured that would be dangerous for all involved. Well if I couldn't send Tony alone, could I send both of the humans back?

No, that wouldn't be a good idea. I would need to be able to talk to humans, and if this trip had demonstrated anything, it was that humans were easy to scare. So I asked Beatrice if she could take the two humans back by herself and make sure the castle was okay, before coming to find Tony and me.

Beatrice thought about my question a little bit. "I am pretty sure I can make it back to the castle myself. I can probably even escort Silas and his wife. However, I'm a bit concerned about finding you again."

Hmmm, she made a good point. We didn't really have a good way to communicate over long distances. What if I told her where we were going? Well, no, I didn't think I could communicate the idea well enough. I suppose I could try. I started to describe my search pattern plans.

Beatrice did her best to follow along, but I started to lose her quickly as I started going through the algorithm steps. She started drawing in the dirt with the tip of her shoe, trying to follow along. This gave me a better idea! I told her to forget that, and she looked unreasonably relieved. Instead, I placed my arm in the dirt and drew a perfect circle.

That symbol, drawn in the ground, would indicate that we were searching that path. Beatrice nodded her understanding. Then I drew an X through the circle; this would be when we finished. That way she could just go up the main road and find the offshoot we were currently exploring.

"I think that I could follow that. Maybe you can mark if there are people for me to bring back if you find any, if they are able to wait long enough for me to show up?" Beatrice considered.

I think I needed to give Beatrice more credit. She was pretty good at problem-solving, even if tracing algorithms were not her strong suit. I was still not sure how comfortable I would be with leaving humans behind unprotected. When I conveyed that to her, she seemed to agree. "Well, I understand the concern. And we don't have to use that symbol unless it makes sense. Of course, if they survived this long they might be fine. Also, there are a lot of people still left to find, and a delay to them might be worse than one to a family that can hole up in a house for a few days."

How long would it really take for her to find them again? Especially if we found multiple families. That wasn't even considering my uncomfortableness with leaving Beatrice on her own for so long. Sure, she had been doing much better recently. But I couldn't help but remember how often she got damaged when we first met. I pushed those thoughts aside. I needed to trust her.

We ended up agreeing that if the situation arose, we would use a checkmark to indicate there were people waiting for her. Otherwise, we would start heading back with the group of refugees until we met her. It was a decent compromise.

With all the zombies disposed of, we headed back to the front of the house. We had only spent half an hour working the plan out, but still, the group had finished their tea and Tony was inside with them helping them pack up. Things were thankfully already laid out neatly, so when Beatrice joined in, it didn't take much longer to finish off getting some travel supplies ready. At our pace, we might be able to make it back in a day since we wouldn't make any detours, but it was already late.

Before we all headed out, I wondered if it would be a good idea to stay here for the night. Beatrice asked Silas, and he shook his head. "If we want to make it to the castle I don't think these old bones can do that in one day. If we make a couple hours of progress before the sun falls, then we should make it tomorrow night."

With that, we all set off down the trail together. Silas was right. They didn't move very quickly at all. I considered taking Tony and going ahead but decided to wait. It was always the case that the zombies didn't seem to have any respect for the trails as they were laid out, so I didn’t rule out them coming out of the bushes. So I decided to stay nearby, as Beatrice would have a lot less space to work within the more tightly packed trail rather than these offshoots.

As we walked, Beatrice laid out the plan for Tony and the others. Silas seemed to be slightly relieved that they were heading right to the castle. I'm sure it had nothing to do with me going in the other direction. Tony seemed to be more than a little worried about Beatrice. I understood his motivation as she did seem quite breakable.

Beatrice was able to convince him otherwise, though. She started to hammer home her self-sufficiency with all the examples of her saving him until even I started to feel bad for the guy. He wasn't as incompetent as it seemed. We just kept fighting really strong opponents. Well, for them. In fact, I could say the same thing to Beatrice to keep her humble, but I supposed she wasn't worried for my safety, so it might not be the nicest thing to do.

I almost had to anyway when Tony suggested that he take them back, but Beatrice was able to convince him that it wasn't a good idea without getting too braggadocious. I made a little reminder that she might need more training on humility. She performed well enough with me, but it should be a universal quality. Just because she was starting to have serious success didn't mean that she could forget to be humble.

When we got to the road, Beatrice put me down and waved goodbye. I returned the gesture. As we turned off to the south, Beatrice and her charges went towards the castle. I watched them until they left my sensor range. I hoped that they would make it alright as Tony and I stared off toward Greg. I couldn't wait to see what these humans called a city.