A man walked in the Exploratores HQ in the city of Corvanus, home to the Northern Court of the Empire. He was dressed in worn armor and traveling gear, standard fare for an Exploratores. He made his way up to the largest office in the building.

He opened the doors and walked right in.

The man inside the office raised an eyebrow, but sighed and shook his head as the visitor walked in. The man inside also wore light armor, but his was polished to a shine and highly decorated. He also had vertically slit eyes…oh, and the lower half of his body was a snake’s.

He was also the Magister Exploratores per Corvanus, the highest ranking Exploratores in this third of the Empire. And so the most knowledgeable person on the current state of the Empire on the ground.

The visitor moved to take a seat.

“What’s the word on Utrad?”

The Magister Exploratores frowned and picked up a report in his hand.

“Magister Caelinus’s movements are strange. He has been under pressure by the Centaurs lately, but he should have been able to handle it with his own forces. Maybe he’s worried they’ll trigger another wave of incursions? But no, I can’t see any specific reason why he needs Turannia’s legions. And he and I are going to have a long conversation about that stunt he pulled with the Exploratores, there was NO reason I can see for that.”

The visitor sighed.

“What about the incursion in Turannia? How did he respond?”

The Magister grit his teeth.

“My guy said he told them ‘handle it themselves from now on’.”

The visitor groaned.

“So we lost Turannia already…”

The Magister grabbed another report to with his tail, scratching his head with his free hand as he read it.

“No, that’s the strangest part yet.”

The visitor raised an eyebrow.

“Turannia’s now reporting they defeated the incursion. The official report should hit the court in a bit.”

The visitor froze.

“...what?”

The Magister nodded.

“I know, right? I asked my guy to explain but he just said I wouldn’t believe it if he told me.”

“And?”

“Well…he was kind of right. Apparently the Selkies went all in to assist…and some random wandering knight no one has ever heard of before showed up and defeated King Uscfrea in single combat.”

The visitor rubbed his chin.

“That’s strange but not unbelievable? We’ll have to revise our opinion of the Selkies, who’s the wandering knight?”

“That’s the unbelievable part.”

“Oh?”

The Magister’s eyes narrowed.

“My guy gave me her name and description, confirmed via status check. And I can’t find a single reference to her or anyone like her anywhere, past or present.”

The visitor froze again.

“So…”

The Magister nodded.

“Whoever it is…they aren’t someone I know of. And...by the level the status check reported, she definitely shouldn't have beat King Uscfrea in single combat. Maybe the Selkies injured him beforehand or something, but I'm just having trouble seeing it. I'll have to get the full report once things calm down a bit.”

The two sat in silence for a while before the visitor shook his head.

“Well…an unknown that strong is concerning…but it appears she helped us out? We’d definitely like an investigation of her identity, however.”

The Magister smirked.

“Already in the works, who do you think I am?”

The visitor grinned back.

“Why do you think we make you do all this?”

"Ugh."

The visitor chuckled as he stood up from his seat.

“Well, let us know if you find anything we need to know. And keep us posted on the situation in Utrad.”

A man in elegant clothes stepped through the halls of his villa, making his way towards his private study. Once there, his servants bowed, and then locked the door behind him. He made his way to a comfortable chair, seated before a particular artifact, similar in appearance to the Legion communication artifacts, but with a mana core covered in cracks. He channeled his mana through the device, and then sat back, waiting as his perception was pulled from his body…

He found himself in a featureless world, something like shifting gray clouds all around him. But he was not alone, several other figures stood around him in a circle, all wearing masks over their faces. Like he had on now as well.

“Greetings to you, my brothers and sisters. Come, and let us discuss the state of our mission…”

And after they discussed it for a while…

“With that, my brothers and sisters, it is time to address the elephantom in the room: how did we fail in Turannia?”

Everyone went silent for a moment. One of the figures crossed his arms.

“With respect, why does it matter?”

A figure to his side turned to the speaker.

“You dare?”

The first speaker nodded.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“No, seriously, why does it matter? Turannia is useless, the Empire is barely even present there. Why should we care if a scheme there failed? It doesn’t affect our overall plans, does it?”

The other figures moved to speak but the leader raised a hand.

“That is exactly why it matters. As you said, the Empire barely had one foot in Turannia, and no serious interest there. It only stayed there due to its pride, its refusal to voluntarily relinquish a conquest, even a partial and useless one. And that is why it represented a big opportunity for us.”

The leader turned and pointed his head towards another figure. She nodded back and continued for him.

“Turannia represented an opportunity for us to gather data on our techniques. A safe place to test the ritual in a real setting, before we applied that method on riskier targets.”

Another figure across from her crossed his arms.

“Not to mention, it was a contingency plan. If we drove the Empire out of Turannia, they wouldn’t have bothered to come back. So we would have had an entire province where we could have operated openly…and a corrupted dungeon to take advantage of that freedom. A monster army in our back pocket would have given us a lot more options should some of our other plans experience difficulties.”

The leader nodded.

“Excellent points all, but you’re all missing the most important one.”

The leader glanced around at each person in the room.

“The plan worked at first. The comitatenses and the Exploratores were both drawn out of Turannia. The Wulver and the Dobhar were incited to invade, providing further distractions. The province was left practically defenseless and should have fallen even without our ritual. And yet…we still failed.”

The leader paused for a moment, watching the room. The other figures began to straighten up. The leader nodded and continued.

“So the question is…how? Was there a fundamental flaw with our plan? If so, we will need to rethink all of our plans from the very start. Or…”

The leader paused, glancing around the room. A figure to his left rubbed her chin.

“Or were we stopped by someone other than the Legion?”

The leader nodded and then turned towards the figure who first spoke up.

“I believe that should address your question?”

The figure quickly nodded.

“Ah, yes, thank you for your wisdom.”

The leader nodded back.

“Of course. We are all brothers and sisters here, it is important we all understand what it is we are striving for. Well then, let’s proceed. Herald of Rain, I believe Turannia was your responsibility? Please start from the beginning, and share everything you have learned thus far.”

Herald of Rain jumped a bit and nodded.

“R-Right. So, the plan started off well. The situation in Utrad made Magister Caelinus call for reinforcements as we anticipated. Turannia was stripped of both its comitatenses and Exploratores, we had word the Dobhar fleet was enroute, and our agent in Magnumiter signaled that Wulver were ready to move. I subsequently prepared the ingredients for the ritual and made contact with the chosen vessel, a black market middleman named Cassius who had worked with us before.”

The leader nodded.

“As expected, and then?”

Herald of Rain gulped.

“And then…that’s when the trouble began. When I arrived in Turannia, I received no indication that the Wulver had started to move. I reached out to Sabucia, our agent in Magnumiter, but she never responded. But the Dobhar and the Legion were still moving as planned so I proceeded onward.”

Another figure nodded at that.

“That was reasonable, the Wulver weren’t the main crux of the plan and would have been moving stealthily for as long as possible. The lack of contact from your agent in Magnumiter would have been concerning, but I suppose communications are spotty that far out on the frontiers.”

Herald of Rain nodded.

“Right, that’s what I thought too. I figured I would check in on her after the ritual in Castra Turannia.”

The leader nodded.

“What happened then?”

“T-Then, I met with Cassius and handed him the ritual ingredients. He said everything was in place…save for one potential complication. A wandering knight, newly arrived in town, confirmed by the city guards to be a level 26 human. Cassius had gotten involved with the knight to get rid of her by sending her on high-risk monster hunts…only for her to survive and succeed no matter what he sent her against.”

Another figure, the one who had complained about Turannia, crossed his arms.

“That should have been a red flag, right?”

Herald of Rain nodded.

“It was. I was a bit wary, but Cassius assured me it wouldn’t be a problem, and that the knight was out of the city at the time we met. With the Dobhar on approach and the Wulvers’ status unknown, I thought it wisest to move forward with the operation, under the assumption that the knight would not be sufficient to overcome a corrupted dungeon, should the ritual succeed. We needed to take Castra Turannia before the Dobhar or the Wulver if we wanted to maintain a presence in Turannia, after all.”

The leader rubbed his chin.

“That was a risk…but a reasonable one. Please, continue. What happened with the ritual?”

The figure fidgeted somewhat.

“That’s…where things get strange. I retreated to a safe distance outside of town, and monitored the ritual location as best I could, mostly mana readings. From what I saw…it seemed the ritual succeeded. I got elevated mana readings indicative of a mana storm…followed by a gap in my perception implying a dungeon appeared.”

One of the figures frowned, crossing her arms.

“So, what went wrong then?”

Herald of Rain gulped.

“It seems…someone destroyed the dungeon. The gap in my perception was filled in shortly afterwards, and the mana readings returned to normal.”

Everyone went silent for a second, until one figure spoke up.

“Did you verify this?”

Herald of Rain nodded.

“I checked around town. The Legate and the Magister Exploratores per Turannia were keeping things pretty tightly sealed…but I overheard some of the guards gossiping. An eyewitness claimed it was the wandering knight. I investigated her…but there wasn’t much. No one knew her before she arrived, just a few days prior. She arrived with two locals who subsequently left her to apply for the Exploratores and then left her behind in town, so likely not closely affiliated. She was asking around town, looking for someone or something, when ‘a man from the slums’ made contact, which I’m assuming was Cassius or one of his subordinates. At that point, her only other interactions were regular check-ins at her rented inn for messages, or else with Cassius.”

Another figure rubbed his chin.

“That’s not much to go on.”

Herald of Rain shook her head.

“No, and all of Cassius’s subordinates vanished after he sent them to ambush her outside of town. But…I found something when I went looking for Sabucia. There were claims some wandering knight used a magic box right in the entrance to Magnumiter. Sabucia’s cover organization followed the knight out of town…and their bodies were found shortly after. The local limitanei ruled it a robbery gone wrong and didn’t pursue it any further.”

Everyone went silent. The woman to the leader's left rubbed her chin again.

“To use a magic box openly like that means the person in question was either an idiot with more money than sense or a person of exceptional means. And we would have known if an idiot that highly ranked was in the province...so it was likely someone with great confidence in their abilities. Or...it was done intentionally, knowing what the results would be. And you're saying this person was the same wandering knight?”

Herald of Rain nodded.

“The timing and locations check out, and the knight in Magnumiter also had two local companions like the knight that arrived in Castra Turannia. And then…”

“There’s more?”

“I heard that someone had found the scene of some big battle between the Wulver, so I went to check out the site. As rumored, I found the site of a recent battle, with hundreds of Wulver bodies, that were clearly NOT killed by other Wulver. From the state of the battlefield and the bodies…I estimate the battle occurred just before the knight arrived at Magnumiter. And no one in the Legion or in Magnumiter was aware that this had happened until long after the fact.”

The room went silent. Herald of Rain continued.

“Then…I returned to Castra Turannia and heard what happened with the Dobhar. They were apparently defeated outright…by a wandering knight. I checked the battlefield…and found some remarkably similar damage to what I observed at the Wulver site. In my opinion…the same person was responsible for both. And who was likely the same knight who appeared in Magnumiter and killed Sabucia, and subsequently arrived in Castra Turannia and foiled Cassius’s ritual. The timings add up too perfectly and there was no one else in Turannia capable of such feats. The only other person who comes close is the Exploratores Miallói, and we knew her location at those times. Even she would have been hard pressed in many of those situations, and was confirmed not to have been responsible for the Dobhar’s defeat by multiple eyewitnesses.”

The room remained silent for some time after that.

“So…an Exploratores, maybe?”

“No, there were hardly any Exploratores in the province, so we should have noticed a big shot like that arriving.”

“An inquisitor maybe? They would be able to falsify a status check...and then the magic box thing could have been intentional bait?”

“That’s possible, though that would imply the inquistors know much more than we thought. Herald of Rain, do we know what order the knight claimed to be from?”

The Herald of Rain shook her head.

“She never claimed any orders at all, from what I can tell. And I’m not sure she’s a knight at all, the reports of her fights are conflicting and frankly fantastical.”

The leader rubbed his chin.

“Where is she now?”

“Still in Turannia, last I checked.”

The leader nodded.

“Then she shouldn’t be able to interfere with our plans. Herald of Rain, start investigating this ‘wandering knight’ and report on her movements. I want to know where she is…and what she’s capable of. And then we will see if she’s a serious threat to us…or another opportunity.”