NORTHERN MARKETS
EPISODE 79: The Enemy’s New B****

“Today, after 11:00AM, the Ellinia Magic Council’s delegation departed from Victoria Air Station accompanied by new allies, the leading officials of the Kerning City Council including Mayor Dullivan, who just hours ago, signed a friendship treaty in a secret meeting. The dispute between Ellinia and Kerning were dismissed and swept aside when Dullivan agreed to meet all of Ellinia’s demands for better magician treatment in exchange for refugee aid and military assistance. At 12:00, the CCA was granted authorization to assume command and assume role as a military force rather than a public police agency. As first act in their new role, the CCA gave the green light for construction on a wall and checkpoint at Cuurs Pass 75 km to the south. Representative Symbister, the leader of the Ellinia Delegation, hopes to meet with the Perion delegation in advance of the summit meeting tomorrow. He agreed with Grendel IV that if the cities of Victoria united, the alliance would put immense political pressure on the JA….”

1:30 PM
The delivery truck’s engines roared as Jango drove down the suspended bridges of Victoria Road through the dense forests. The thick canopy of treetops above blocked out the sunlight, and in some places it was dark down here.
As each hour passed by, Jango grew increasingly nervous as he drove deeper and deeper into enemy territory and approached Ellinia. He fought off guilt of treason, and at times he wasn’t sure if he was doing the right thing. All the times he was scared in his life, the young ranger was never more scared than this, not even when he was trapped by the fires back in Panquilia.
There was a saying among the rangers and townspeople back in Henesys that God was always with you. Well, Jango thought, the deity that they believe in wouldn’t be with him today. He was giving himself up as a peace offering to the magicians, and throwing himself on their mercy. They would surely kill him, but when he made his decision to do this, and betray his hometown, Jango never really considered that his very life would be at stake. That’s a problem with JA members, they all think they are invincible, even though so many bowmen got killed by resistance forces wherever the JA tried to dominate. And if Jango ever made it out of here alive or ended up facing his family and friends, they would probably tie him up and burn him without a single word.

In the glovebox was another envelope containing contact information such as Messenger names, and radio frequencies, and hacking codes (because calling somebody in the SEA Lands even on your messenger is long distance and blocked. Special, expensive arrangements can be made, but instead, people rather use malicious codes).
English-Saskwa language books were stashed in a compartment behind Jango. He hoped they would find this stuff and call the people in New Saskatchewan-

Jango looked up and saw two black-robed mages 150 feet ahead. This is it! he thought nervously.
Both mages extended their marine staffs like an X and waved their free hands motioning for him to slow down and stop. Jango hit the brakes and slowly stopped about a hundred feet away. More archmages stood around the checkpoint, and more of them came out of the cluster of tent like structures that were hooked to the tree next to the checkpoint. They definitely got suspicious since he stopped before coming to the checkpoint. Some of them raised their staffs showing hostility, and Jango-
[“Unidentified unit, this is CCA Slandail Unit 160! As per your response to visual contact, you are seen as a threat. You are surrounded. State your name and exit the trucail* at once!”] a woman’s voice shouted on the radio. Jango jumped. No magic transistor in the radio and he shouldn’t get or send anything. Nothing from radio stations could be heard. The archmages had some special equipment that could get a signal through to something without a magic transistor in these parts. These guys were good.
Jango shook as he took the mic.
“This is…Jango Alyth, uh, guilty of treason against the Justice Arrow and Henesys. I surrender.”

The archmages heard the transmission and went apesh!t. They pumped up their staffs and threatened to blow the truck up with their lightning or fire. The captain arch mage shouted commands in Irish into her messenger, and ordered the mages in her team to surround the truck.
“Aye! An saighead fear nocht, Captain!” one of the mages said in Irish.
The door slowly opened, and the ranger slowly stepped out, his hands up.

Jango’s messenger rang and he answered it. “Hi.”
[“So you surrender, aye? Step 60 paces ahead with your hands in the air. Drop your hands, we shoot!”]
Jango walked slowly towards the enraged archmages, his hands in the air. The mages had their staffs up ready to shoot ice, or fire or whatever at him if he even appeared to take a wrong step.
A priest readied a fire arrow, and had it trained on the bridge of his nose.

“Search the forest! There might be more of them!”
The Captain archmage called HQ, and requested help. She spoke completely in Gaelic (Irish).
The guy on the other line said more help would be on the way.

Jango counted his steps in his mind.
58
59
60.
He stopped, now 40 feet away. The mages surrounded him but kept their distance.
“Aw come on, you guys! I don’t even have my bow and arrows. It’s not like I can even do anything!” Jango protested to the angry mages.
“éist do bhéal, saighead-fear!” the captain archmage shouted. (Shut up, arrow-man!)
“Why do you surrender?! Answer me!”
There was a pause, then Jango replied in a cool voice, “I wish I was on crack, that would explain this,”
It’s not like he could really say anything sensible. He knew they wanted to fillet his ass.
“Where are the others?!”
“There is no one else. I came alone. I swear it,”
“Why do you surrender?” the captain demanded. “We are your sworn enemy and you vowed to destroy us! No good can come from the likes of you, ranger! many-a-magician died at your hands, have you no remorse?!”
“Yeah, I got remorse-“
For a young poison mage, this was too much. He lost his whole family in the Panquilia tragedy.
“F*** YOU!!!” he shouted, charging in front of the captain, and hurled his staff like a javelin at Jango!
“..and f*** your remorse, asshole!”
The staff struck the ground at his feet, and before Jango could react-
!Poof!
A cloud of thick smoke exploded from the staff, envelping Jango. He collapsed as he chocked on the foul stench of the gas, and started coughing and gagging as he fell to his knees.
“Ionsai! Take him down and bag him!” the captain barked. “Tintri agus oighear!” (lightning and ice!)
The mages all charged, and fired their lighting bolts!
Jango completely seized up as he was literally fried inside out by over 66 billion volts of electricity!
“Agggh!~”
The lightning ignited the gas cloud and exploded an a powerful bang!
Before anyone knew what happened, the ice mages closed in, and sprayed the range all over, wrapping him in a thick layer of supercooled ice!
The ice wrapping broke off, and the captain archmage struck Jango in the gut with the sharp tip of jer staff. The range buckled over again as the others grabbed his hands and feet and tied them up. He was electrocuted again and now completely paralyzed.
The mages ran towards the still idling truck and approached it slowly. Who knows, could be a bomb or something.
They broke off the latch and lifted open the back. What they saw horrified the shyt out of them.
The captain archmage looked in, and her jaw dropped. “A stor Dia!” she breathed as tears came to her eyes.

Inside the back of the delivery truck were cages of half dead magicians all stacked up. Just what the bloody hell was this sick son of a bitseach ranger doing?!!!

ELLINIA INFIRMARY
1:47 PM
Madam Shuna, a youth counselor at the Academy, and a former priest herself was in charge of inspecting all teenagers who came through here. It was her job to assess the various crises that kids were going through and determine where they should go. She often met with run-away street magicians from Kerning, and gave them a future here at the Academy.
She followed the white haired doctor cleric into the room where the newest street magician was resting.
“Her name is Meeka Starla. 15 years old. All other information not available at this time. She said she was from Coqton, Kerning Co, but when I called the human resources there, the line was dead.” the doctor said.
“It’s alright. How is she doing?” Shuna asked.
“She is recovering from near-fatal mana deprivation (dehydration something like that), but she is adjusting to our mana potions, and it’s painful for her. She was rushed in this morning.
“I see,” Shuna said, taking off her witch hat, showing her long gray hair.

Meeka stirred.
“Hey, wake up. a counselor is here to speak with you,” the cleric said, rubbing Meeka’s forehead. She groaned.
“…hi” she said, still half asleep.
“I’m Madam Shuna, I’m a youth counselor here.” They shook hands.
They talked for a bit, and Meeka had to explain the last few days’ events and experiences.

“So, you and that cop escaped from the police building before the Justice Arrow destroyed it?”
Meeka nodded. “Yeah. They…they killed everyone I knew…”
She still couldn’t shake off her memory of Sharlotte being shot in the head as they were running.
“What about your family?” Shuna asked.
“I don’t know. My dad’s never around and he’s a deadbeat anyway. My mom probably got killed.” she cried.
“Poor thing, you,” Shuna said, handing her a cloth.
The cleric rushed back into the room. “I’m sorry but we have to move her to another room. There’s a medical emergency and we are about to recieve many patients soon!”
“Is she well enough to leave?” Shuna asked.
The cleric paused. Meeka shouldn’t leave the hospital, but she had no choice. The guy on the radio said the incoming patients were in critical condition. “Take her with you.”

In a few minutes, Meeka was standing at the exit door while the cleric lady brought her some mana potions, and put them in her backpack. “You must drink one of these a day and drink slowly or you’ll overwhelm your stomach, understand?” Meeka nodded. Stuff tasted like Buckleys cold medicine.
“Madam Shuna will take care of you, do what she says, am I clear?”
Meeka nodded, and let Shuna take her by the arm as they walked out into the hallways of the giant Institute building.

Cor Caomhnoir-Asarlai HQ
“After much thought, we confirmed that you are clear of the general charges, but for good reason, you are under watch.” the CCA officer told Rusty Miller.
“Right,” the cop said. They sat in an interrogation room but this time he wasn’t tied up or snapped on by the other CCA archmage officers.
“I apologise for your inconveniences, but it’s the way we do things here, and that is our process of weeding out the innocent cops from the bad cops. get me?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Now i’ll bring you up to speed on the situation. Last night, the Justice Arrow attacked a district called Middlegate in northern Kerning.”
“Wha?!” Rusty was shocked.
“Hometown?” the officer asked.
“Umm, yeah…” Rusty thought of Auntie Shauna and her family who adopted him.
“Sorry to hear that, but you’re not alone. The JA went and attacked more cops, pretty much eliminating all law enforcement in Kerning City. Now they might go after private security companies if they get the chance. Here’s the big scoop, guy: The Kerning mayor came here in secret and signed a friendship treaty. Because he wanted aid and help in fighting off the JA so bad, he surrendered all of Kerning’s powers to us. That means the KCP is under our command. Just a point of reference. As for you, you’re free to go about around town, but stay close to the refugee camps during night hours, and you are forbidden to leave Ellinia. Got it?”
Rusty nodded.
“Good. Well-“
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in!”
It was the archmage lady who stared Rusty down earlier today.
“What’s up?” the officer asked.
“Sir, team 160 just captured a JA ranger and seized a delivery truck.”
“What? When?”
“10 minutes ago. The truck was loaded with near-dead people in cages. They’re being taken to the infirmary right now, and the ranger is being brought here.”
“How did they find him? Where was he going?!”
“He was inbound from Perion and surrendered at 160’s checkpoint. Captain Ylin Arla said the bowman offered no resistance when he was arrested.”
“What about the truck?” the officer asked.
“Team 160 is driving it here.”
“Good! I want that thing taken apart and checked for any danger-“
“The mages are escorting the truck in a convoy and the streets along the route here have been evacuated.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes. the bowman said there is a package onboard the truck containing contact codes for New Saskatchewan. Slandai-Sceala Team will assess the package.

“Hmm. false surrender. Could be some kind of trap. No one from the JA would surrender so eagerly. I don’t like this. Have the alert level raised and inform the EMC.”
“Yes, sir” the archmage lady said, then walked out. The officer looked at Rusty.
“Well, boy things around here just got hairier.”
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gotta cut this short i need sleep