CHAPTER 622: ANROSH

Annoyance

The inside of Ryun’s territory had changed a lot since she had first seen it. At first, it was just a chunk of a Real Realm territory that Ryun had stolen, filled with junk that he just threw around haphazardly.

Now, it was still there. Anrosh could see his awakened item’s forge along with a large barn that was filled with all kinds of materials. He had chests thrown around everywhere. A small house was nearby that she hadn’t seen before, right next to a large open tent. The biggest change was the lack of the dark void surrounding the chunk of land. Now, the large circle of land was surrounded by a forest made out of barren and withered trees. Anrosh could feel… something from those trees. Like they were a part of her. She knew that it was connected to what Ryun had become, and what Anrosh was linked to now too. The light of the small sun shining above them seemed to be unable to pierce deep into the forest, making it look sinister, though not to her. She only felt calmness and a sense of rightness. A sense of power reaching toward her.

Ryun and Erdania were inside the open tent, standing next to a table and looking down at something. Anrosh shook her head and abandoned her sightseeing, then made her way over and glanced at what they were looking at. The table was covered by a large map of the Core, with markings and notes pinned down on top of it.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the attack?” Anrosh repeated the question she had asked outside of the territory.

Ryun didn’t raise his head as he answered. “They are spying on us somehow.”

“We knew that,” Anrosh added. They had of course been aware. Every time Ryun or Erdania, or any of their more higher-tier people really, attacked someplace, the enemy hit somewhere else. Anrosh and her people had scoured through their command base more than a dozen times by now. She had powerful formations installed; she even had people with active anti-scrying powers sitting in the meetings and using them constantly. They had also gone through all of their staff with telepaths, making sure that none of them were spies.

Erdania shook her head. “They are using a means that we haven’t thought of yet.”

“Or we just missed it,” Anrosh said.

“I don’t think so,” Erdania continued. “It is ludicrous to think that anyone could escape Ryun’s perceptions. Even a long-range power would leave a visible Essence trace to his eyes and senses.”

Anrosh grimaced. “So what then?”

“We don’t know, and that’s the point. That’s why we didn’t tell you anything. Our plan for this attack was made here, and we never spoke of it outside of this place or our bond. No written evidence, no word spoken.”

“That seems a bit extreme. You can’t think that they have someone so powerful that they can both escape all of our security measures and be able to spy on you directly.”

Erdania shrugged. “Our plan worked, didn’t it? The truth is that we just don’t know how they are doing it, but we now know that our measures are sufficient to prevent them from finding out.”

Anrosh opened her mouth, then closed it. “I concede the point.”

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Erdania smiled at her. “We should probably see about moving the command in here, and instruct people not to speak of our plans out loud. Obviously, some orders will inevitably be spoken out loud or written up, but if all the enemy gets are pieces, then hopefully they won’t have as much of an advantage.”

“That will require a lot of work,” Anrosh said. “We need to change the entire way we do things.”

“It will be worth it,” Erdania added. “As you can see by our taking this city.”

“Right,” Anrosh said, then she turned her attention to Ryun. “You achieved a great victory. So, why are you unhappy?”

He didn’t answer, and Anrosh glanced at the woman next to him. Erdania rolled her eyes. “As I said, he’s annoyed.”

“At people surrendering to us? I would hope that was a good thing.”

“No,” Ryun spoke, finally. “I’m annoyed at Zacharia.”

Anrosh blinked. “And what does he have to do with this?”

“He has everything to do with this,” Ryun bit out, his anger clear in his tone.

Anrosh tilted her head, her eyes narrowed at him. “Care to elaborate on that?”

“He instructed them to surrender. He knew how to get me to stop, how to…” He trailed off.

Anrosh raised an eyebrow. “He was here?”

Erdania shook her head. “He was not.”

“He knew about your plan then?” Anrosh asked. “I thought that you were not on good terms at the moment. Did you meet with him after the incident?”

“No,” Ryun said.

Erdania cleared her throat. “What he means by that is that, no, he didn’t know about the plan, and no, they didn’t meet since then.”

Anrosh frowned. “So how did he give them advice then?”

“He didn’t give them advice,” Ryun said slowly. “The king has revealed that Zach had visited them and told them that we would be coming. He had then instructed them on what to do in order to spare themselves my… wrath.”

Anrosh tapped her finger against the table before her. “Time? He has that Aspect, right?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Ryun answered. “Not anymore. Yes, he could predict things, analyze, but the farther something in the future is, the less accurate his prediction becomes. And that is assuming that he had intimate access to all of our plans and movements from which he could extrapolate. He didn’t have that. He couldn’t have listened in on Erdania and me plan. Besides, he had visited here months ago. Before our offensive started in truth.”

Anrosh’s eyes widened. “He had to have known somehow.”

Erdania sighed. “This is where the annoyance part comes in.”

Anrosh looked back at Ryun with a confused expression on her face. “What does she mean?”

Ryun didn’t answer.

“He means, or rather, he suspects, that Zach had visited every occupied faction in our path, and prepared the way for us.”

Anrosh blinked. “That’s… that’s good then. We will have a lot easier go of it if we have hidden allies or if the occupied territories won’t fight as hard against us at least.”

“Yes, which is why he is annoyed.”

Anrosh glared at Ryun. “Really? You are still on this shit?”

“They aided and—”

“Oh get off it already,” Anrosh threw her hands in the air. “Who are they? Like, I know that we’ve talked about this before, and yeah, sure, I have no issues with the way you wanted to go about this. But, that was when we had a reason to fight against them. If they are going to switch sides, then there is no point in fighting them. I know that you consider them guilty; I do too. But they’ve been conquered by a more powerful force, and if they are willing to rebel, then you should take that into consideration.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Wait, is this about Zacharia? Are you bothered that he did this? That he was right?”

Ryun returned her glare, but didn’t answer. Then, after a few seconds of intense staring, he sighed. “Fine, I can leave it be, I guess.”

Erdania’s mouth dropped open. “Really? She convinces you, but when I say the same thing you just smolder and brood in a corner?”

Ryun winced, and Anrosh took a step back. It was time for her to escape before they try and include her in their lover’s quarrel.

Anrosh stepped out of Ryun’s territory and was immediately met with a haggard looking sect runner.

“Eternal Master, a message just arrived for you via the command Far-link Orb, I have a transcript for you. The Triumphant Hive just attacked the northern border of the Exalted Empire!” The man said excitedly.

Anrosh blinked, then quickly took the piece of paper from the man and started reading through it.

“Well, this is going to change things,” she murmured to herself. She turned back toward the entrance to Ryun’s territory and steeled herself. She glanced at the man behind her, wondering if it would be smart to send him in her stead. She shook her head and stepped back through.