Lun had his head tilted back, facing the sky, his eyes closed as rain sprinkled onto his face and plinked against his helm. While he was marching through the clouds on his way down to this step, the water hadn't felt overly cold. That had long since stopped being the case.

  After the first day of non-stop sprinkling that turned into an occasional downpour, he was soaked even though his clothes were supposedly waterproof. Part of the issue was that those waterproof clothes consisted entirely of his left and right boots, but that wasn't really the problem here. The problem was his feet were cold and wet, and he hated life because of it.

  A funny fact of the 14th's existence was that, while they had effectively marched across half the realm in their recent months, their supply of gear — gear that was already late because they were the 14th legion and no one actually thought they needed on-time shipments — had been lost. It was anyone's guess whether they had been burned in Southtown while awaiting shipment to Basetown, lost in Basetown's sacking, or sold off by a greedy supply officer when the 14th was assumed lost.

  If it were the last case, Lun suspected that some auditor would eventually figure it out, as that was far too much to hide. But if the truth lay anywhere between the other two cases, the chances were that no one would learn of it. If anyone needed it further explained, the lost shipment meant that Lun's and everyone else's gear was full of holes and badly in need of replacement, so it could not withstand these weather conditions.

  The only way Lun could expect a hint of warmth was if he was standing next to a fire, and that wasn't going to happen any time soon, with his non-official punishment. Sighing, the centurion looked over at Leeroy and asked, "You feel anything?"

  The only response to his words was a sullen silence, before the man begrudgingly answered, "Yes."

  "Bloody crows," Lun hissed, releasing his frustration. Straining his voice, the man called out, "Century halt!" Earning a chorus of groans from his men that he didn't bother to acknowledge, mainly because it perfectly mirrored his own emotions.

  Pulling out a map, which was still waterproof unlike his boots, Lun found a flat enough rock and laid it out. Quickly guessing their approximate location, the centurion looked up at the legionary and said, "Okay, Leeroy, you should know the drill by now. Point to what makes you feel uneasy."

  Turning to the cliff face that disappeared into the clouds, Leeroy's head swiveled one way then the other, before He pointed off to the southeast. Head moving between the laid out map and the direction the legionary was pointing, the centurion put a pin into the map before rolling it up.

  Gathering some psy as he stood, Len released a pulse message back toward the legion camp before turning, finding a knight standing in his path waiting for him to finish. "Domine," Lun said, snapping off a tired salute.

  "We have another contact?" Knight Terrance stated more than he asked, but Lun still nodded his head. "Fucking persistent bastards."

  The centurion snorted in agreement, "Yeah. They have the numbers, but it's kind of rude to actually use them when scaling down the cliff side, don't you think?"

  "Absolutely, they should just be charging down the switchbacks and fall to their deaths like the good savage animals they are descended from." A murmur of agreement ran through the century at that, and a moment passed, where everyone wished for a far kinder reality than the one they found themselves in. As a crack of thunder boomed across the sky, they were drawn back to their cold and wet present, and the knight asked, "You planning to march another mile to get a better reading on the location?"

  "Another two if he continues to get a solid contact. I have been told that my estimated location isn't exactly accurate, and I think more points will shrink the area."

  "Reasonable and considerate of you," the knight responded after a moment of thought, "but fuck 'em." Lun blinked at the other man, unable to keep the surprise off his face, which caused the knight to smile back at him as the nearby legionaries chuckled. "Your job isn't to precisely locate every place the Kin are attempting to scale down the cliff face, but to point out locations that need to be further investigated. The scouts and knights' laziness has nothing to do with your mission, and running you and your men any more ragged will hurt the legion far more than help it."

  "You say that like you aren't right there with us marching forty miles a day," Lun commented, his tone somehow as dry as a desert, despite how the sky was pissing on them.

  The knight shrugged his shoulders, glancing over at Leeroy as he said, "Just because I have been demoted to a bodyguard, doesn't mean that I can't look at the bigger picture."

  "We're marching another mile, boys!" Lun called out to his men, signaling a chorus of complaints from them, though they shifted their gear to prepare for more marching. "The faster we march, the sooner we're heading back for a meal!"

  "Yeah, and then we'll be sent out for another twenty miles to the northwest!" Called a voice that Lun chose not to recognize, leaving Jankens to do his job of communicating his displeasure at the loudmouth. Though not too much displeasure, as everyone was tired of marching at this point and agreed with the sentiment.

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  "Actually, I have been wondering," Lun sent to the knight after forming a union with him, interrupting the minutes of their feet slapping against the water-covered stone. After the knight nodded for him to continue, he asked, "Why are you — and specifically us — marching with Leeroy? I don't mean to sound ungrateful, having a knight nearby to help my century in case of trouble, but I don't really feel that my men have to always be the ones protecting and escorting him. If this is my punishment, let my men rest while I continue on patrol."

  "No one told you?" The knight asked, his head turning to look at Lun before releasing a snort of exasperation, "Actually, I'm not surprised. Typical legion operating standard of need to know, and nobles who assume you know some esoteric piece of knowledge, so don't pass it along."

  "You say that like you're not a noble," Lun said after hesitating for a second, only confident that he wouldn't offend the knight because of their days of marching together, and even then, it was a close thing.

  "I guess technically, knights are considered low nobility, but without land, it's a status without any meaning. After all, most knights are commoners who had larger-than-average psy reserves, meaning they had none of the training that actual nobles receive. But that is a topic for another day. You were carefully probing on why your century was stuck with the shit duty of marching forty miles a day while most of the legion sits on their asses inside nice and warm tents."

  "I wouldn't say it like that," Lun fumbled, his head prickling as he felt a wave of anxiety wash over him.

  "No, you wouldn't, which is why you will probably make tribune if you live long enough." The knight chuckled, while Lun felt a burst of pride for a moment. "Anyway, it comes down to making Leeroy comfortable, so he can continue to function properly."

  "Really? To the point that he can't even switch centuries while on patrol?"

  "What do you know of idiots savants?"

  Shrugging, the centurion replied, "Little to nothing. To be honest, I didn't even know they existed until a scout told me of them. Well, told me specifically about Leeroy."

  "Understandable, most people don't. To make a long explanation short, their abilities have been studied, and the main conclusion drawn is that they are inconsistent. The abilities I know of being recorded are individuals who receive bursts of strength on par with any enhancer, elemental manipulation that is in some ways greater than a knight's, and the ability to read others' thoughts with a look. There is no rhyme or reason behind them. To make it worse, some individuals need to be in states of anger or lust for their abilities to work correctly, making Leeroy something of an outlier. And while niche in most situations, his ability is priceless to a legion on the march."

  "Doesn't really seem like it," Lun muttered under his breath as the rain picked up, releasing a torrent on them for a moment.

  "Perhaps not from your perspective, but there is a reason for this situation. An idiot savant's abilities can be affected by their mood, either becoming stronger or weaker depending on the individual." The knight said, and Lun had a moment of clarity, on the obscure orders he had recently received.

  "So the leadership is concerned that if we put too many expectations on Leeroy or change his environment, it could cause his abilities to vanish. So they are keeping everything as close to normal as possible, with just a knight given as his protection, a fact explained because we are moving well past the other patrols of our legion."

  "Correct." The knight said, approval in his mental voice that made the centurion stand a little straighter in response. "Though if it makes you feel better, we have a team of knights ready to respond to a distress call from me should I send out an alarm."

  "W-what?" Lun spluttered, suddenly looking around for danger. "Really? Leeroy is that important?" If the legion was willing to devote a squad of knights to their protection, then wouldn't the Kin be willing to use a force of equal strength to kill them?

  "Oh, you have no idea of the argument that the tribunes had when the knowledge of what they had in their legion going to waste was brought up. It was quite the sight, and heads were being lined up to roll, chief among them, yours."

  Lun felt the hair on the back of his neck rise as a chill ran through him. “Ex—excuse me?"

  A chuckle was in his voice as the knight responded, "Oh, you were aware enough of his abilities to trust his warning, and it proved correct. Worse, you didn't tell anyone. Didn't let the gears of bureaucratic corruption take their toll and make their deals as the knowledge was passed along. A mortal sin in their eyes if there ever was one."

  "And my punishment?" Lun said, his voice suddenly dry and tight.

  “Nothing… Ehh, I suppose this marching could be seen as a punishment. But Lord Fridgia was present during the meeting and shut it all down. He reminded everyone that the knowledge and importance of such individuals was not well known, and that having one in the legion at such a time was a blessing of fate they could not reasonably hope for. After all, his ability to scout allows the legion to remain at the base of the switchbacks with a far lesser threat of envelopment than what would otherwise be the case. What we are doing is a necessity, and cannot be underestimated in its importance."

  "I know that logically," Lun grumbled, "though that doesn't keep my feet warm." The words made the knight snort in amusement, and he couldn't help but send a pulse of agreement as he let the union end along with their conversation. Minutes passed, and soon enough, they had traveled far enough for Lun.

  "Stop!" The centurion called out to his troops as he knelt and rolled out the map again. "Leeroy! You still have a contact?" When he didn't get an immediate response, he looked up at the legionary, only to see him looking straight east, a frown on his face.

  Lun knew that look. Had recognized and paid attention to it long before he understood the importance of absolutely trusting Leeroy's instincts. A tremor of terror ran through Lun's body, and he stood up, leaving the map behind. "Century, form a union!"

  In moments, everyone present was linked together, and Leeroy sent, "We need to run."

  Not hesitating, Lun turned and called, "Legionaries, triple time march!" Suddenly, the centurion wished he could be looking forward to another thirty miles of marching for the rest of his day with wet feet, not whatever horror was looming at their backs.

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