Barrier (to) Entry

The compartment door was still rattling when the engine roared to life. The wheels began to roll as Lord Brighton explained their destination to the convoy, giving directions over the radio while plugging a set of coordinates into their GPS. John turned his gaze to Adantia, now seated in the back with the rest of them.

"Not that I needed the help, but I assume you would have intervened at some point, yes?" Sarcasm laced his words, but he wasn't just looking to irritate her.

"No." The statement came without hesitation or comfort.

"Because you knew I could handle the Barrier somehow, or...?"

"Because if you couldn't handle it without me, there's no point in you being here in the first place." John frowned, but couldn't say he was surprised at the answer. Adantia shrugged without turning to face him. "Besides, what do you need me for? Fox-girl over there was half rabid to go after him. Pretty sure she'd have bitten his face clean off if you let her."

Vallya didn't say anything, but her body shifted to face away from Adantia. She'd been silent since the incident. Her tails were bound around her own waist, and she fretted with the fluffy tip of one of them.

"And what the hell did he get himself into this time?" Etriyya turned her eyes between the passengers one after another. She'd noticed the tense mood the second that the doors swung open. "Was thinking I'd get to hear about how the meeting went, but it doesn't seem like the lot of you are talking about a debate."

"A mage from a lost territory approached us. He was **** enough to try confronting John over his abilities despite Adantia's presence," Moira explained. "His guards caught John in a snare, but he was able to handle the situation before we could pierce the Barrier's defenses ourselves. Those who could have done so more easily seemed rather content with allowing things to play out…"

Moira's eyes didn't just linger on Adantia. They swung to her father, and twitched toward Kwang, though they didn't make it all the way to his seat on the opposite side of her.

"Wouldn't have let them if they tried." Adantia laced her fingers together behind her head and leaned back against the wall, head lolling with each bump. "Would've stopped the rest of you as well, if I thought any of you would have made it into the Barrier before the fight was decided one way or the other."

"You would stop us from protecting him?"

"You would stop us from protecting our Father?"

Kim and Sophia's voices carried the same immediate heat, though the harpy's physical reaction was much more pronounced. Sophia straightened up until her amazonian frame reached to the ceiling, her claws lengthening slightly as she gripped the bench beneath her. Golden light shimmered on her back, visible in the slits and gaps of her armor. Kim remained still, save for the subtle ways that her fingers flexed around the blade once more laid across her lap.

"You want to protect him?" Adantia scoffed. "Then what just went down was the best thing that could possibly happen. He showed that he can handle himself. If everyone thinks you're all relying on me to protect him – or yourselves – they'll just wait until I'm busy, or distracted, or fighting on another front. Putting the hurt on one of the idiots that stepped far enough out of line is the best way for him to discourage anyone else from trying the same thing."

"I still can't believe they tried it," John admitted. "In front of everyone, even after all they claimed to know about us. Maybe they planned to warp me out of there, but how did they think they could get away with it so brazenly?"

"They didn't 'think', that's your first mistake." Adantia's laugh spoke of experience in the matter. "The Abyss is a godawful place. People who don't have power get abused and tossed around at the whim of the people who do. And the only thing worse than never having power is getting a taste of it, then having it stripped away. Going back to the bottom of the food chain, usually with a target on your back to boot."

"He had no possible way to think that would work," John pointed out. "Even if he thought I was weak enough, he knew I was standing beside a Warden, a Slayer, and you. He could have died."

"He should have died." Vallya interjected, full of petulance and vinegar.

Adantia ignored the kitsune's vitriol. Her eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, indifferent. "You sound surprised. That mercenary you brought along knew there were fates worse than ****, didn't she?"

"That was-" The reminder of Arista's fate made John falter. "She was afraid of being a **** again. I don't know what trauma she had, but that was different than losing your territory."

"It really isn't." Adantia snorted, tilting her unseeing head toward John to let him see the full grimness of her expression. "I built Paix so that there would be one place – just one – in the whole Abyss where being weak didn't mean being a toy or a tool for someone else. Not everyone gets to lock themselves away in a private little world whenever things go wrong. Most of us just get kicked, over and over, until we stop getting back up. When you've been beaten down for long enough, a situation that ends in success or ****? It starts to sound a lot like a win-win."

John didn't know what to say to that.

So he pulled Sophia and Vallya tighter to his sides and said nothing at all.

---

Their travel north was mercifully smooth compared to the previous leg. They were only stopped twice, both times resolved quickly when Adantia held up the marker she'd been given. Once, she left the door open as she got out. John was pretty sure he heard a handful of voices screaming at the border guards when Adantia held the small emblem up in front of them.

Moira, Adantia, Kwang, and Lord Brighton spent most of the trip discussing the logistics of a forward operating base. Two hours into the journey they pulled off to the side of the road. A few barked orders over the radio sent a cluster of Order soldiers, half of them healers and clerics, scampering out of the vehicles. John counted at least thirty of them, including the healers that had accompanied Lord Brighton to aid Adantia. The lot of them walked off into a clearing on the side of the road, mulled around for a few minutes, then disappeared inside of a Barrier.

"Mark this location on your phone," Lord Brighton advised once the convoy was rolling into motion once more.

"They'll have a functional medical ward and a guard rotation established by nightfall," Moira added. "With the battlefield in such disarray, this place will function as a safe haven in case of the worst. In the event that the front lines should collapse, if you should need medical care in a safer location, or if we are separated from each other with no clear way to regroup, this will be the priority location for us to reach, recover, and regroup."

"A wise decision." Kwang didn't move, and neither did Kim. Despite their inaction, there was an absolute sense of confidence that the Slayers would have no difficulty in finding this place again. John couldn't say the same about himself—he copied an address into his notes that was near enough to function for a mundane GPS, then placed a marker on his Maps app just to be doubly sure.

As the miles lengthened and the afternoon sun began to dip, something in the atmosphere began to shift.

The map of the front lines was opened again, projected by one of Tricia's drones when Moira requested it. The scientist herself chimed in on occasion, checking in between experiments and projects with some rumor or another she'd heard. The enchanted insignia Adantia carried went off twice; each time, it twinkled slightly in the light, and a piercing chime sound filled the cabin before voices emerged. Each time they were asked about their progress, then given some new piece of information. Each time, the line where red met green shifted further south.

Their arrival was not heralded by the clang of steel, nor by the groaning and creaking of a thousand corpses. It was a quiet awareness brought about by the sight of Barriers in the landscape ahead. Not the individual, distantly spaced concentrations of mana that had denoted border crossings and critical infrastructure, though. This was a solid wall formed of discolored patches of horizon in the distance, as if Gaia had just discovered the Color Balance feature and was giddily redecorating, throwing reality into a chaotic mess of disjointed color palettes.

"That's their front line?" John wasn't sure what he had expected, but in his mind, he'd expected it to be more impressive. Or at least more orderly. "It's all over the place. Doesn't look like they can keep a consistent size or shape."

"Barriers are not a simple matter for those of us who must do more than press a single button," Kim chided. "And given the length of time this war has gone on for, it's unlikely that they have Fateweavers skilled enough to cover large swathes of land by themselves. Certainly not for an indefinite period of time."

"And this is the strongest part of their defensive line," Adantia grunted. "We reinforce here, maybe they can spare a few mages for the rest of the front. Maybe."

"I don't see any opposing Barriers," Vallya noted. "What of the Northern Ashes?"

"As fast as the alliance has been losing ground, I doubt they've even had time to set them up yet," Adantia said. "Don't worry. As soon as these idiots hold ground for five minutes without tucking tail and running for the hills, the Northern Ashes will have a whole bunch of Barriers up to fence the defenders in."

That grim thought stuck with them as they rolled onward. A few hills later and they were finally approaching the nearest of the line of barriers, two large box-shaped presences hanging over the roadway and the long stretches of farmland to either side of it. One Barrier stood apart from the rest, smaller and more well-maintained than the defensive line. His Observe also noted it as a regular Barrier, as opposed to the half-dozen or so Trap Barriers he'd seen belonging to different clans.

Of all things, that particular Barrier was draped over a trailhead. It was centered on a large community building near the trail's primary entrance, reaching halfway into the parking lot beyond. There were no mages in sight, but there were quite a few civilians sitting around the outdoor picnic areas or walking to and from their vehicles. The convoy drew plenty of attention as they rolled into the half-empty parking lot, the armored vehicles parking together just past the outer boundary of the Barrier.

"Alright, let's go make our introductions." Adantia already had her door cracked open, making the short hop down to ground level. "They already know we are coming, but I'd rather not start lining up the battle formations until they know they're not under siege."

"A wise decision," Moira agreed as she gave herself a once-over, ensuring all her gear was still tightly fitted and easily accessible. The necklace that held her shield and hammer in their diminutive 'stored' forms jangled threateningly as she rose to her feet and stepped toward the rear. "I can't speak well of their communication thus far, to say the least."

Though Adantia had requested no one by name, the same envoy that had entered the Great Plains war council chambers was soon stepping out into the daylight, wary anticipation seeping through their ranks. Vallya and the others had once more donned their human disguises to avoid attention from civilians and mages alike. John felt a bit awkward emerging from the vehicle in full armor, but it wasn't any more eye-catching than arriving on public land in armored personnel carriers.

The walk was mercifully short, regardless—not only was the Barrier close at hand, but they didn't have to travel far within, either. A formation of mages approached in a half-circle a dozen strong, pinning them against the outer edge of the Barrier they'd just crossed into. The guards had outfits and insignias that were all mismatched, but to their credit, they held themselves in a more coordinated formation than most of the others they had encountered along this journey.

"Arrivals, hold your positions," the raven-haired fellow at the forefront called out. His right hand raised in a 'halt' gesture while the left lingered over a gun strapped to his side. It was the first time that John had seen one of these Great Plains soldiers carrying a proper firearm, and the golden etchings along its full body hinted at a power beyond mere gunpowder and lead.

"Finally, a proper scan? Glad you lot have at least kept it together." Adantia stood with her arms crossed, a properly pleased smirk on her features. "Hey, John, tell your friends to drop their disguises. They're gonna give themselves away once we're fighting anyway."

"Could've warned us before you announced it to the whole world." Despite his grumbling, John gave a subtle nod. There was no sound accompanying the dispersion of concealment magic, but plenty of noise came from the guards as Vallya and Shishun revealed their true selves. Half the warriors gaped openly; two gasped outright as Vallya's nine tails ghosted their way into reality and the lower body of what had been a striking pink-haired woman became a lengthy, serpentine tail.

"Some of them might have heard what I can do, but seeing it really is another thing entirely." John kept his expression neutral. The satisfaction of their shock was balanced by the tension of the reveal; aside from the Order, John's family didn't make a habit of showing off their true selves in public much.

"Right. Scan away." A gesture with two fingers sent three of the mages forward, their hands alight with mana. John was able to catch Owl's Insight and Aura Reading from two of them before a third stepped directly in front of him. She was a young-looking woman draped in long auburn locks bound tightly into a bun, and the snap of her fingers formed a translucent blue square over John's head. It passed over him once, returned to its original position, then vanished again.

Affirmations were called out one by one, declarations that they were, indeed, who they said they were. John felt his muscles unclench when Vallya was declared to be exactly as she presented herself. He'd been half convinced she might have left some part of her glamours intact out of pure defiance.

"War Council's seal is right here, if you want to check that," Adantia offered, holding the seal aloft.

"No need," their formation leader declared immediately, waving her off. Despite the confirmations, his free hand never left the grip of his weapon, and there was a distinct tension to his body that never quite left. "We were alerted to your arrival shortly after you left the council's chambers, and if you can hide your identities from my best, you can fake a seal. Field Captain Worthington will want to see you as quickly as possible. Welcome back, Lady Adantia."

"Save the 'Lady' for the Warden, and show me where he's lurking."

A curt nod affirmed her request. "Watchmen, return to posts. High alert is still in effect until you hear otherwise, understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

The guards fanned out over the boundary of the Barrier. Now that they were inside, John could see that this Barrier was constructed differently than most; rather than solid black walls where its borders ended, or a distorted illusion of the lands beyond, there was a clear view of the outside world. John could still see the civilians scattered around the parking lot, going about their business as if a half-dozen cosplayers hadn't just stepped out of military vehicles and then vanished into thin air.

The guards that had been dismissed made a point of turning away to attend their posts and return to the watch, but John saw the eyes that lingered, the gazes that flickered toward them, lingering on the most inhuman of their group as they followed in the steps of their commanding officer. John's steps carried him to the edge of the group, placing himself intentionally in their line of sight. Every set of eyes he met carried a different emotion. Shock, discomfort, ambition... hope.

They were led into the community building, past the storage lockers and countless nature displays that had been shoved aside, and into the central area of the building. Seats and bookshelves were chaotically shoved to the walls, some outright sundered. In their place was a frenzied ball of activity. Men and women worked frantically around mismatched tables, attending to scrying orbs, magical runes, or in one case, a simple workstation. On the wall nearby was projected a map not dissimilar to the one Tricia had displayed for them in the van. Occasionally, one of the mages would call something out. The one working the computer would begin to work, and the lines of the map would shift, reds and blues gradually migrating further south.

Just in front of the projection, near the center of the busy communication mages around him, a man stood with a grim expression, pacing with agitation. When he stopped, it was only for long enough to bark an order or two and hear the response.

He was a towering man, nearly as tall as Sophia, and as bulky as Lord Brighton pound for pound. He wore a mixture of modern and old-fashioned armor that caught John's attention for its unusual blend—a bulletproof vest draped over chain mail, a military helmet tossed over leather, and leggings that were either padded out with some sort of synthetic plates or metal sheets. A rifle was strapped across his back, and the knuckles of his gauntlets glowed faintly with runes John didn't recognize, and his gaze was heavy with the weight of blood long dried.

When they came to a halt near the edge of the working area, the man finally abandoned his patrol of the staging area. He stepped off the ledge and hurried over, his eyes losing some of their sternness as they widened, a semblance of relief flooding through the furrowed lines of his face.

"By the gods, I'm glad to see you in one piece."

The man threw himself against Adantia without hesitation, by far the warmest greeting she'd received on this adventure. John almost expected her to shove him away, but she clasped her own arms around the approaching warrior in turn. She pulled him to her form so tightly his breath broke free of him in a wheeze, and she only stepped back when he tapped out against her spine.

"Was worried you wouldn't make it," Adantia admitted. "Things as bad as I've heard?"

"Worse, especially now that I have to look at your sorry mug." The laugh they shared was quick and sour, but there was a sincerity to it, at least.

"This is Gerry Worthington," Adantia said, turning on one heel to address the rest of the party. "Knew him from before everything went to shit."

"You'll have to be a little more specific." Gerry's gruff laugh was genuine, though there wasn't much spirit to it. "Doesn't really narrow it down much."

"They're not as dumb as they look, they'll figure it out." Adantia widened her stance a little, one hand resting on her hip. "Mundane maps don't really do much for me anymore. Things as bad as I've heard?"

"Worse, depending on who you talked to." His eyes lingered on Adantia's for a moment. "We've lost nearly five miles in the last twenty-four hours. More in certain sectors. And they've managed to kill two-dozen of our Barrier Specialists in the last week, just from our ranks. The ones still standing are practically burning themselves out with these constantly shifting Barriers; Jolyne did a twenty-four hour shift just yesterday. Every time we're pushed back, they have to rend their work apart and start from scratch."

"I can take over a few Barriers, keep them running while your people get some rest," Adantia offered. "Not my specialty, but if they've got the Barriers up, I can be the battery for a while. You've got what, a half-dozen within a five-mile radius? Seems like basic alarm wards on them, undead detection, nothing that requires an active hand in running. Get your Barrier mages to combine them into one unit, covering the same ground."

"That would increase the mana required to sustain them by almost-"

"I can handle it," Adantia said dismissively. "Just put them together and let me take over. I'll hold them for a couple of days while your people get rest.

"She can sense with such precision that far away?" Moira leaned in to whisper the words in John's ear.

"Yeah. She knows some kind of trick with her cables," John confirmed. "She can extend her aura sensing through them, I think. She can feel seismic vibrations through them, too; she saw through Vallya's best illusions once we were close, but even at longer ranges, she could still tell every time we set foot on the ground."

His eyes drifted lower, to where he could see the somewhat blurred outlines of Adantia's metallic weaponry. Already, her cables were spread out like a hundred wriggling limbs, reaching out beyond what his eyes could track, a tiny layer of Barrier wrapped around each of them to prevent disturbances back in the mundane world, just like when they were traveling.

"Impressive," Kim noted. "Her ability to survey such wide distances is incredibly valuable in its own right."

"She had a few decades to figure out how to make up for what Suula did to her eyes."

The grim reminder silenced their group. Gerry and Adantia's conversation had paused too, as the commander shouted out orders to one of the mages working the tables below. Voices rose as the commands were relayed. The map didn't shift, but John could see through the glass windows lining the northern wall of the building as two of the Barriers started to shift and distort, their edges becoming less defined, gradually starting to weave their way together.

"Oi, you gonna just stand there? Any input?" Adantia spun to face them, head tilted. "Any objections to the plan? Input?"

"I see no reason not to bring relief to the weary among our temporary allies," Kwang said. "Until the front lines are stabilized, we will not perform any major operations, and if we are **** to retreat, the Barriers can be safely abandoned regardless of who is powering them. You being tethered here should not hinder our ability to fight."

"This task could leave you quite ****, though," Lord Brighton cautioned. His eyes were locked on the window too, gazing at the distant Barriers. From here, they looked almost modest, but each was over a mile wide on its own, if not longer. "Will you have the mana to defend yourself while maintaining such a perimeter?"

"Defend myself? I'll be helping with the defenses if it comes down to it." Adantia's casual shrug showed no sign of concern. "I kept up a Barrier for years when I was alone. Mana isn't a problem, I'm just not very good at tweaking the damn things; it's nothing like enchanting a sword. Or a cable. That's the only reason this idiot could get into the damn thing without my approval."

She jerked her thumb toward John with that remark, accompanied with a glare.

"Grudge held. Noted."

Raised voices in the background caught their attention. Gerry returned from addressing the circle of mages manning the communications with a grim look on his face. The pacing of his steps set a tightness in John's mind, and he found his hand drifting to the hilt of his sword without thinking.

"Adantia!" Gerry's booming voice echoed off of every wall, overpowering the background noise of the converted community center. "We have a problem!"

"We have a lot of problems," Adantia responded. Though she didn't spin to face him, her expression did grow more serious. "Be more specific."

"One of our Barriers was compromised. When the merging began, undead started pouring out of sector four into both of its neighbors." Gerry's dark skin tightened as his lips pulled back in a grimace. "We don't know how they got in without triggering any of the wards, but they must have been in the process of infiltrating sector four when the orders went out—maybe even more than that. Your plan revealed that the Barrier was compromised, but being discovered as the Barriers started to merge means they have no more reason for subtlety. I've got squads on the way, and we're verifying the integrity of the rest of our defensive line, but it's a goddamn mess out there."

"Nothing new, then. We're on it." Adantia's stance shifted. John saw the cables beneath her warp and wriggle in response. "Which one did you label sector four?"

"North-northeast of here, three kilometers away. Barrier is eight-hundred meters by-"

"I've got it," Adantia interrupted. Her nod was sharp and decisive. The tendrils beneath her flexed and shifted, rotating in that direction. "What about the rest of you? Did you catch all that?"

"Got it." Boots called out along with John's words. Adantia fell in beside them, pacing ahead.

"Pile in the vans, but head to the neighboring Barriers. Make sure this doesn't spill over and break the whole damn line—I'll take care of the source," Adantia announced.

"If the Barriers are merging, it's all becoming one giant battleground," Moira noted.

"Worse. They clearly have some manner of concealment magic, and the ability to bypass the Barriers." Kim's feet whispered across the pavement as they exited into the parking lot once more. "If they're smart, if their control over their minions is precise enough, they may begin to weave them in and out of the Barriers."

"And if they have gained control over the alliance's Barriers, they may turn them against us, if they have the time and skill to do so. Given that they infiltrated protected Barriers, that is a very distinct possibility." Kim's frustration was evident in the slight ways she tensed. Kwang spoke with an even keel, and by the ease of his stance, he may as well have been walking through his garden.

"Adantia is not the only one who is lacking in skill with Barriers," Lord Brighton admitted. "They were always a bane of mine. The intricacies of Fateweaving are not to be taken lightly. However, the Order's magic is well-suited to these opponents. We will do what we can to even any advantage they seek to gain."

"I'm pretty handy with them," Vallya announced, her best smile on full display. A few eyes turned toward the kitsune, some warmly, some uncertainly. Her smile never wavered, but John saw the way her tails twitched under their gazes. "I mean, I'm decent, at least. I might be able to help, if they've done something with the Barriers that causes us problems."

John's fingers danced along the pommel of his sword, a plan dancing between the anxiety-fueled firings of each nerve.

"I think the Shard can help with that, too."