Nissilât was fiddling with the straps on her saddle when Jasper entered the stables. He offered her a quick nod before beginning to tend to Dapplegrim. They worked in companionable silence for a few minutes before he finally broached the topic.

"So, what's it like being haunted by an eṭemmu?"

Nissilât's head whipped up. "Who told you that?" she blurted out, quickly followed by a look of horror at her words.

"Just an educated guess," he shrugged, "though, thanks for the confirmation."

"I didn't mean to say that."

"I'm sure you didn't," he agreed easily. "But it's hard to be at your best when your sleep is haunted by your failures, isn't it?"

"What would a pampered prince like you know about it?" she snarled.

"A pampered prince?" Jasper barked out a laugh. "Is that really what you think I am?"

"I'm not blind," her lips pursed. "You may not have shared your past with me, but I recognize the colors you and your friends wear. You're a member of the Djinn royal house. Granted, you don't have any horns, so maybe you're some sort of half-breed, but still, what would you know of regret?"

"Pot meet kettle," he snorted. "Last I checked, you are also royalty, so why are you so certain I can't understand where you're coming from? Besides, I wasn't royalty until about a year ago."

Nissilât's confusion only lasted a second before she drew a conclusion. "You were a bastard, then?"

Jasper shook his head. "Honestly, I'm not sure what my parents' marital status was. They were broken up before I was even out of diapers, and my mom never talked about their relationship. But that wasn't what I meant." He ran a hand through his hair, hesitating one last time before he finally told her the truth.

"I didn't grow up here."

"I would hope not. The stoneflesh can have this kruvas̆-cursed province for all I care," Nissilât snapped back half-heartedly, but he could tell she didn't understand.

"I didn't mean the province. I didn't grow up in this world. My mother was a member of the Djinn royal family, but she fled a few years before I was born. The first time I set foot in the Hareī-Miqlat, I was a full-grown adult. I know what regret is. Believe me," he sighed, "I'm full of them."

He braced for her snappy response, but the woman seemed at a loss for words, so he continued. "I'm not asking you to tell me whatever's haunting your dreams. That's your personal business. But I'm not letting you scout the Ammatu's camp by yourself while you aren't at your best."

That seemed to finally jolt her out of her trance. "You can't stop me-"

"Oh, I can, and I will." Jasper pulled the essence cuffs out of his bag and waved them in front of her face. "If you refuse to be reasonable, I will put these on you myself."

Her face paled. "You wouldn't dare."

"I would." He cocked his head to the side and flashed her a small grin. "I promised to deliver you safely to the Emperor, Nissilât, and I intend to keep that promise. I'm not going to let you get yourself killed over some misplaced survivor's guilt - or whatever else it is that's bothering you."

Their eyes met in a battle of wills, but she was the one to blink first. "Fine," she grumbled. "But I'm dealing with the eṭemmu myself."

"As long as you deal with it," he agreed. "But if there's something we can do to help…"

"There isn't."

By noon, the drizzle had died off, allowing the puddles that clogged the road to begin to drain. The four made decent time for the first few hours, but as they drew closer to the Ammatu's camp, the risk of an ambush loomed large in Jasper's mind. "We should head off-road," he suggested and, after some debate, the others agreed.

While it was the safer option, it slowed their progress to a crawl. The land to the south of the Dur-Suqerbettu had been largely domesticated, full of planted fields and heavily logged forests, but the north remained considerably more wild. The hills were steep and rugged, covered in thick pine and birch forests anywhere the slope was gentle enough for trees to survive, and sheer rock face everywhere else. The steep slopes only served to funnel the region's constant rains into the valleys below, flooding them so severely that they were indistinguishable from a swamp.

Several hours of sloshing through the cold, wet muck was enough to make Jasper regret his suggestion. More than once, they'd been forced to ford through flooded portions so high that even Dapplegrim's long legs couldn't reach the bottom, and the four of them were thoroughly drenched.

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But their caution proved well-earned when Ihra spotted something ahead. "Hold up - there's something in the trees." Jasper followed her finger vainly, unable to spot whatever she was pointing out, but Nissilât nodded her head.

"It looks like a blind."

"Might be just some poacher's hunting spot," Ihra agreed, but we should approach it carefully. Can you sneak up on it?"

Agreeing, Nissilât slipped off her horse and disappeared before their eyes. While, technically, she didn't completely disappear - with a concerted effort of will, Jasper was able to make himself look where he knew she should be standing. For a brief moment, he even saw her, but looking at her was like trying to hold onto a bowl dipped in melted butter. He lost sight of her almost immediately and failed to locate her a second time.

A half hour passed before she popped back into view. "It wasn't a poacher's nest," she said grimly. "There are two guards in the blind, although, fortunately, they were watching the road rather than the first behind them.

"Are?" Jasper questioned. "You didn't take them out?"

She shook her head. "I was planning on it, but when I got near the base of the blind, I noticed another one off in the distance."

"Crap, so they have multiple guard posts," he realized.

"Yeah. I explored a little further in each direction and saw a couple more of them. If I had to guess, the entire perimeter is being guarded and Selene only knows what their schedule is. It wasn't worth the risk to kill them."

"No, that was the right decision," Jasper agreed, "But damn does that complicate things. At least it means that Rēmu didn't lie; none of the other camps had security like this, so this must be their main base, but still…how are we going to get through?" Unless…Jasper zoned out for a moment, missing the argument sparking between Nissilât and Tsia as the Stryn woman volunteered to sneak into the camp by herself.

I could try some aerial reconnaissance? The biggest downside of his spell was its limitations; currently, Spectral Wings only lasted for ten minutes, required physical contact to activate, and could only be cast on two people at a time. It was great for scaling castle walls or for short bursts of combat, but his inability to cast it on the whole party at once prevented him from using it as often as he would like. This, though, seemed like the perfect use.

"Neither of you is going," he interrupted their debate. "I'll do it."

"You?" Even Ihra looked skeptically at him. "You're a good mage, Jasper, but you're not exactly built for stealth. Do you even have a concealment spell?"

"You know I do, unless you've forgotten hiding from a certain Atrometos in that forsaken city," he reminded her.

"That spell doesn't let you move!" she protested.

"Then it's a good thing I won't need it," he continued smoothly, turning to Nissilât. "You said the sentries were watching the road, right?"

She nodded reluctantly, likely seeing where he was headed.

"And we all know flight magic is rare. The bandits won't even be paying attention to the skies but, just in case-" he preemptively headed off the group's protests, "I'll wait till night. Once dark falls, I'll be practically invisible up there."

"I suppose that would work - which one of us are you going to take?" she asked, with an expectant gleam in her eye.

"None of you."

"What?" "You're going by yourself, after lecturing me-"

"There's no way we can finish scouting out the entire camp in ten minutes, and I have to be in physical contact with you to refresh the spell," he reminded them. "Yes, going alone isn't ideal, but I'd rather not see any of you fall to your deaths. As long as I'm careful, no one will even see me, and if someone does, I can just outfly them. Now come on, let's find a place to catch a few hours of sleep before I spend another night awake."

"I'll be back." As Jasper stepped out of the small cave they'd hunkered down in, his breath drifted up in puffs of steam. Despite being nearly summer, the temperature had plummeted once as the brief glimpses of the sun had faded away and the rains had begun anew. For once, though, he was glad of the rain, as it would only serve to hide him better.

His back spasmed slightly as he cast the spell, but by now, he was getting used to the phantom pains the wings inflicted as they unfurled behind him. With a few lazy beats, he rose above the trees and twisted around, looking for the camp. The night made it easy to spot, as there was only one source of light for miles around.

Jasper flew low above the treetops as he approached, keeping to their shelter as much as was possible, and passed above the circle of guard posts without raising any alarm. Behind the towers, he spotted the ruins of a small village.

Most of the settlement had been reclaimed by the forests, with trees pushing through the roofs of tumbledown cottages and burnt-out barns, but smoke rose from the chimneys of a dozen or so homes whose roofs had been hastily patched. Two of the barns had also been restored, if the grunts of animals he heard emanating from them were any indication.

The numbers were immediately concerning. The two previous camps had only had twenty or so men, and clearing them had already been a difficult task, but this base vastly exceeded them. There must be upwards of a hundred here, maybe more. Can we even take them on our own?

For the most part, only a few men were braving the rain, dashing between the cottages with bowls of steaming stew clutched in their hands, but there was one area where a group was gathered. The bandits had cleared out the old town's square and erected a large pavilion to serve as their kitchen. His eyes idly scanned the line of men wrapped around the edges of the tent, huddling close together to stay out of the rain, but paused as he noticed two people dressed differently.

One was a woman who wore black armor quite similar to the others, but her hood and gloves were tipped a bright blue that stood out from the rest. Next to her stood a man wearing a long, black robe, with his grey hair tied neatly in a bun, Jasper's spirits sunk. Damn it - don't tell me this is the priest they've been waiting for? There's no way we can take them out now.

He stewed in silence for a moment, unable to make out what they were talking about, but as he watched the woman, he wondered if there was tension between them. Every time the man moved closer to her, she backed away and, judging from his near perpetual smirk, he suspected it was on purpose. Huh. I wonder if there's an angle we can work there.

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