The first day had proved uneventful. The Knights Phantom rode over a thousand kilopaces to reach their planned campsite -- a natural spring deep inside one of the many forests that covered the Rhin-Lotharingie landscape. The battalion had some trouble landing due to the Reiter Support company's light wagons. Their Levitation spells allowed them to float in the air behind the pulling Phantom Steeds, but this made them about as maneuverable as huge gliders being towed behind an airplane.

Kaede continuously updated the World Expedition Map as the group made their way into Rhin-Lotharingie. And as she did so on the second day, she came to notice the first obstacle to their plans.

She had been in a private conversation with Pascal on the 'most powerful weapon' from the world where she came from. She had brought up nuclear weapons in passing to Pascal before, but her master seemed far more interested in the details this time. Not being a physicist, Kaede could only describe what she knew in general details. The thermonuclear city-killer used shaped-charge blasts to focus enough energy to split uranium in nuclear fission, which in turn created enough energy to split deuterium and tritium -- double and triple bonded hydrogen -- in nuclear fusion.

She was surprised that Pascal had enough understanding to keep up. In fact it quickly became clear that he had a better understanding of molecular chemistry than she did. Though given Hyperion's research into lightning and alchemy, perhaps she shouldn't be surprised by their grasp of electrons and atomic charge.

Then, when they were just fifty kilopaces short of reaching the expedition's next staging point, Kaede noticed a problem.

Their destination was a stone circle in northern Rhétie, just across the South Lotharingie River from Belges. It was the closest 'faerie ring' to Nordkreuz that didn't lie deep in Gabriel's domain. However, instead of unmarked ruins sitting atop a barren hill, Kaede's magical map labelled the target coordinates as the 'Lynette encampment'.

"<There must be at least five hundred troops if the map could detect and mistake it for a large village.>" Kaede noted based on past observations, when she compared scans of Nordkreuz's surroundings to the local maps.

"<The encampment is not named by unit designation either. That means that it is likely a patchwork force -- some hastily assembled group named after its commander.>" Pascal surmised. "<Good chance they are here on orders from that pretender Gabriel.>"

"<I think you're right,>" Sylviane agreed. "<Gabriel took the majority of Belges's formations with him, and those that remained still have garrison duty. This is likely a scraped-together force. Though that implies that he anticipated me coming this way.>"

The Princess left unsaid that hundreds more men could lay waiting in ambush just ahead, merely spread out enough that the map failed to pick it up.

"<He could also be covering all the likely routes.>" Major Hans Ostergalen added after Pascal weaved the intelligence officer into the telepathy web. "<Duke Gabriel's leading commander is Count Marten van Coehoorn, a defensive theoretician who pays great attention to detail even in his everyday life. My guess is that he'll try to cover all likely routes.>"

"<Then this is just a picket,>" Pascal remarked.

"<That's my thought as well,>" Hans agreed. "<They won't be the most loyal or battle-worthy. But they might be able to hold out long enough to send out a message about Your Highness' whereabouts.>"

"<In either case, let's wait here until Reynaud or the scouts return with information on just whom we're dealing with,>" Sylviane decided.

...

"<We estimate the camp to be around six hundred men.>" Kaede heard the redheaded Reynaud report after making it back to the main group. "<The soldiers are constructing wooden cabins, so they seem to be assigned here as a long-term picket. They also have the hill ringed in wooden stakes and a chest-high palisade, as well as wooden hedgehogs to deter cavalry charges.>"

"<Sounds like they have already had a day to dig in,>" Pascal frowned. "<And the next stone circle outside Belges is more than eight-hundred kilopaces away.>"

"<That's assuming Gabriel didn't picket that one as well,>" Sylviane pointed out.

"<Six hundred half-organized men is nothing for two Phantom companies,>" Colonel Hammerstein declared. "<With our strength, we can overrun them with ease before they even get a Farspeak link online. Be good exercise for the men!>"

Pascal had sounded wary as he spoke. But the Colonel? His voice wasn't just confident but also eager. It was as though the enemy was just another faceless foe for him to kill, and not the Princess' own countrymen in a realm divided by civil war.

"<Sylv?>" Pascal called out to his fiancée, who had remained speechless for the past minute as she pressed her index finger against her teeth.

"<I'm trying to remember... I feel like I've met a Lady Lynette before, who married across the country to these parts,>" Sylviane noted.

For several moments the telepathy network fell silent. Then, it was Lady Mari who spoke:

"<Lady Lynette ap Cadell de Luxeuil. Your Highness attended her marriage ceremony five years ago.>"

"<She's a Brython from Ceredigion then?>" Sylviane seemed to remember as she asked.

"<Yes,>" answered Mari. "<I believe Your Highness had asked her why she decided to marry a nobleman from across the country. She replied that she was 'tired of Ceredigion pretending it wasn't part of the Rhin-Lotharingie Empire'.>"

"<Though wasn't her husband from Rhétie?>" Sylviane wondered next. "<Why would she be doing Gabriel's bidding?>"

"<Far as I know from the Black Eagles, Duke Hugh has neither declared for nor against the pretender,>" Pascal added.

"<Maybe Duke Hugh and the Rhétie nobles are trying to walk a fine line,>" Kaede voiced her hypothesis. "<They won't openly declare for Gabriel, but they won't go against a minor request from him either. That leaves them with both options later should they pick a side.>"

"<Slippery bastards,>" Colonel Hammerstein grunted in disapproval.

"<Then, it's clear what should be done.>" Sylviane declared. "<Pascal, what do you think?>"

The Princess somehow expected her fiancé to know her plans for the next step. Though to Kaede's amazement, he did:

"<It will be risky,>" he stated. Yet his tone of confidence seemed the exact opposite, as though he was encouraging her on.

"<Nothing ventured, nothing gained.>" Sylviane seemed to take a deep breath as she steeled her nerves. "<I have to start somewhere.>"

Then, before anyone could object, the Princess raised her voice to her armigers and the hundreds of Knights Phantom behind her.

"Everyone! Form up! And follow me!"