Stop!" Asuna whispered, raising a hand. The hiss of her voice didn't travel far before it was swallowed up by the sounds of water gurgling in the mill run. A pair of massive water wheels, used to power the mills, sprouted from the old stone defensive walls.

The water wheels were motionless in the run, the mill was closed for the night. Up above on the walls, a pair of guardsmen paced, stopping from time to time to look out over the wall before resuming their patrol. Just as they turned to begin back down the wall a bird call echoed across the the field. Wale's detachment swept in, sixteen blue blurs racing across the no man's land between the forest and castle walls.

They reached the mill run, and as one, they jumped, vaulting the five meter channel and nearly bouncing from the stone wall of the castle. But the walls were old and weathered, and provided plenty of foot and hand holds to the climbers. Clinging like spiders, they moved vertically almost as fast they had across the flat ground, the Faeries standing out as they moved slightly faster than the mages. They climbed the ten meters to the top of the wall in the blink of an eye before slipping over the edge.

Asuna held her breath. There were so many things that could go wrong at this very instant. But no alarm was sounded. There was no noise, no signs of struggle. Finally, the signal they had been hoping for arrived. A long coil of rope spilled over the edge of the wall and Asuna gestured to advance. They made it to the wall and up the side in the space of a few heartbeats. Looking around, Asuna immediately spotted the bodies of the two guards, she swallowed. The others were nowhere in sight. They'd have already move on in their sweep.

Asuna's eyes swept across the top of the castle. She caught sight of the other bodies and briefly glimpsed a quartet of hooded figures sinking back into the shadows as the final guard fell to the ground, a hole the size of a thumb blasted into his temple by a wind needle.

If Wales' intelligence was correct, there would be sixteen guards assigned to the mill at night, rotated continuously, one at a time, so that there was never a vulnerable point in the guard rotation. All sixteen guards would have to be removed and then the men in the barracks within the castle, another thirty two men, incapacitated. While Asuna had grown to be able to stomach killing a soldier who was facing her and threatening her life, the idea of killing men in their sleep still made her skin crawl.

She shook her head. There was no time for that, if she hesitated, she'd put them all in danger. Looking around, Asuna matched the layout of the castle courtyard with the one she had committed to memory. Standing on the eastern wall. The main courtyard was laid out below her. The building in the far North West corner was the castle's keep, or what was left of it in any case. The highest floors had been dismantled and used to reinforce the building directly beneath her feet. Those would be the mill houses where the grinding mills were located. That was their first stop.

"Caramella." Asuna whispered to the other swordswoman as she helped the last of Lydels men up the rope. "Keep watch here with Ivan until we're done, Shio, you're with me."

"Right." Caramella said, giving a small nod to Ivan. With the naturally enhanced night vision granted by their observation skills, the two of them would be able to spot any signs of trouble.

A stairway along the inside of the wall granted access to the courtyard and Asuna, Shio, and the four mages soon were standing before the doors to the mill. That was when they encountered their first problem.

"This door is warded." Lydel reported as he examined the chain and heavy padlock holding the iron door shut. "Not just fire wards to contain an explosion either. They really don't want this door opened."

"Guess we didn't catch them completely unprepared." Shio muttered.

"Can you break through?" Asuna glanced over her shoulder.

The mage offered her a look of disgust. "Its warded against transmutation and this lock won't budge for any spell that I know."

"I don't suppose you brought any lock picks?" Shio quirked an eyebrow.

The mage rolled his eyes."As if a mage lock would be susceptible to some commoner craft . . . but there are ways." The mage placed his wand to the lock and began to chant.

"I thought you said it was warded . . . " Shio trailed off.

A thin stream of water had been conjured from the tip of Lydel's wand and was now directed across the surface of the lock. Lydel's chanting changed and the waters began to frost over, turning to ice. A faint creaking -pop- came from within the padlock. Another whispered chant caused the ice to once again revert to water.

Lydel gave the lock a stiff yank and frowned when it didn't budge. "This usually works." He muttered.

"Just needs a little elbow grease." Shio said, "May I?"

The mage backed away and watched quietly as the Faery swordsman got a good grip on the lock and pulled. The lock creaked then gave way, snapping open. The chain was pulled free from the door and Shio gestured for the mage to lead the way.

"I guess Faeries are good for something." Lydel said. In the dim light, his expression appeared amused.

The inside of the mill was pitch black, even Asuna's night vision ability didn't help when there was almost no light at all. The skylights above had been shuttered and nobody sane would have left an open flame in a place like this. After closing the door behind them, Lydel and one of his men magically conjured up a source of light.

Before them, outlined in dark shadows, stood a quartet of mills. Each of the four grinding mills was attached to a thick wooden axle that led to an overhead system of gears, pinions, and belts that provided power from the water wheels. The whole arrangement reminded Asuna a little of the grinding wheel in her friend Lisbeth's weapons shop back in Aincrad.

After looking things over, Lydel gave a small snort. "This should be simple enough. Look, they've left the last load of powder out to dry. By the Founder, we hardly need to help them destroy this place. Bart, Miles, help me load all of this lovely powder the Rebels have left us back into the mills, then we'll set the timer.

Asuna watched the mages work. For people proficient in magic and openly disdainful of 'commoners' they seemed to know quite a lot about gunpowder. She would have though they would viewed it the same as they did swords and crossbows. "We're sappers, milady." The man named Bartholomew explained. "Fortification, siege works, demolitions, there be no time for us to discard any tool that helps us with our work."

Their 'work' was soon finished and Lydel retrieved a small device of polished brass from his pocket. It had the appearance of a large pocket watch, but there was only a single hand on its surface and the back appeared to consist of the same sort of mechanism that Asuna had seen on the more advanced handguns. Lydel had been all to happy explain his 'ingenious' device to anyone who would listen. It had apparently taken him the better part of a year to devise and refine.

What it was, was a time bomb without the bomb. The clockwork timer could be wound and set for any period of time from instantaneously to up to an hour. When the timer finished its countdown, it would trigger the wheel lock mechanism. Lydel's igniters allowed a saboteur to get well clear before their tampering was unpleasantly, and often quite fatally, discovered. Combined with a charge of gunpowder, it represented a magicless, almost undetectable device for mayhem.

Given the size of the mill and the need to escape after completing their mission, it had been deemed impractical, not to mention dangerous, to simply destroy the powder stores one at a time. Instead, a dozen of Lydels timers would be used to detonate them almost simultaneously. With any luck, they would be on their way back to Newcastle before the Rebels realized what was happening.

Lydel inspected his handiwork with a glint in his eye. "All set. Bart, check your pocket watch. The first timer is set for sixty minutes."

"Lucane, how much time do we have left?" Wales asked

"Twenty minutes until time. Ten more minutes here." The man sounded anxious. No one wanted to be here when the time reached zero.

As Lucane, Schneider and the others vanished back into the warehouse and Kino worked at the casks with the barge pole, Wales swept the vicinity for any sign that they were being watched. But the only signs of life were a few faint torch lights from the direction of the Town and the chirping of the spring insects.

Without looking up from his work, Kino spoke. "Hey, Wales . . . Thanks for back there . . . And, you know, everything else . . ."

Wales quirked a brow. "Whatever for?"

Kino struggled to explain it. "The Royalists. They aren't doing too well. All you have left is Newcastle and the Eagle, right?" Wales winced. "You're really going out of your way to help us."

The Prince shook his head softly. "Please, Kino, I don't deserve your thanks. The truth is I am using you." The Prince smiled sadly. "Such despicable conduct on my part, isn't it?"

"I don't think so." Kino said as he pushed another cask clear of the dock. "I mean, your responsible to your people first, right? It's noble that you'll help us at all."

"That may be." Wales admitted, though he looked unsatisfied with the conclusion. "But truthfully that is little excuse." Taking a breath, the Prince sighed. "I will be gone before too long, and the remaining Royalists with me."

Kino stayed quiet. It wasn't that he hadn't known. Wales had never lied to them about the circumstances that the Royalists found themselves in. But it wasn't something he liked to linger on.

"Even with their gunpowder curtailed and this sulfur to supply us. It's only a matter of time before the Rebels defeat us. Either they'll starve us out, or they'll accept the losses to storm the Fortress." Wales smiled coldly. "I rather hope for the latter so that we might have our last act of defiance." Shaking his head again. "If I was truly as noble as you claimed, I would be able to ask nothing for your passage to the Continent and keep a clear conscience before my men."

Kino shook his head. "Couldn't you run? I mean . . . There's a lot of people in Newcastle but Halkegenia isn't too far away. And people like Captain Thorn would have helped if you asked . . . So why?"

Wales chuckled softly. "Why would we fight to the last? If only it were so simple Kino . . . The truth is, I can't run, no matter how much I might wish to." His expression softened. "I am as much as symbol as a man, Kino. To run would be to offer evidence of everything the Rebels claim about the Royalty. My men and I will fight to the last. But we aren't so vainglorious as to drag bystanders down with us. When the time comes, the Eagle will depart Newcastle one last time with our women and children. I can only hope that Tristain will offer them refuge."

"That's where you're sending us, right?" Kino asked as the last cask was pushed away. Wales nodded.

The Royalists at Newcastle still received intermittent messages by means of carrier birds, many of them the familiars of the wind mages that resided within the Fortress. The news they had received about happenings on the continent was as bewildering to the Royalists as it was encouraging to the Faeries. There were Faerie's in Tristain, thousands of them. Not only that, the Kingdom of Tristain had entered peaceful negotiations with the Fae within their borders. If the SAO survivors could make it to Tristain, they would be safe, at least for a while longer.

Schneider and the others were returning with the next load. A dozen mages and Fae using their strength and magic to lift or role the casks down to the edge of the dock and into the water. They were working up a good tempo now and hardly paused to spare Wales or Kino a glance before trotting back to the warehouse, Lukane offering a muttered warning. "Eight minutes."

Kino and Wales had fallen silent. There really wasn't anything else to say. The peace was shattered by an odd rattling at the far side of the dock. Both of them were suddenly on guard. Kino dropped his barge pole and drew a knife as Wales raised his cane-wand. A trio of narrow, rectangular wooden structures sat off to one side of the dock. As they watched, the door to one swung open.

A man, a burly looking guard, stepped out, still buttoning his trousers. The man saw the two cloaked figures on the dock, then he saw the corpses of the other guards. The Guard starred at Wales and Kino, Wales and Kino starred back.

'Oh you have got to be kidding me!' Kino thought in a very Caramella like fashion.

The silence was broken as the guard dropped a partially defaced almanac and turned to run. Wales was already casting a wind bullet like the one he had used earlier but to his bad luck, the man's unfastened trousers fell down around his ankles, causing him to trip. The blast of bone shattering concussive force washed cleanly over the man's head, blowing a melon sized hole in the out house behind him.

"Attack! Attack! We're under attack!" The man shouted as he grabbed at his pants with one hand and snatched up a torch hanging at the end of the dock with another. He was making a straight line for a wooden stand a short distance from the end of the dock. Three long wooden tubes were lined up and angled so that they would fire over the river. Flares!

"Kino!" Wale's barked, snapping the young knife user from his mystified state.

Without a second thought, a throwing dart flitted from Kino's hand. It didn't connect. Though his aim was true, Wales had just cast a wind spell, the same one he had used to trip up Kino in York. The guard stumbled, falling once more to ground and striking his jaw against the cobblestones hard enough to crack teeth. The torch in his free hand tumbled away, rolling across the dock and coming to a halt a few paces from a palette of shipping casks.

"What's going on out there?" Schneider shouted as he appeared in the wide doors of the far warehouse.

Wales advanced calmly on the man, cane-wand at his side. A look of clear annoyance crossing the Prince's face. The guard fumbled for a pistol on his belt raising it just as Wales blasted it from his head with another air bullet. The Guard screamed as his hand was shattered.

"W-Wales!" Kino stuttered.

"Kino, put out that torch before it starts a fire." Wales said calmly. "You don't need to see this."

Kino nodded and turned slowly towards the fallen torch, and then went pale. He didn't know how long he was frozen for. He suspected it was one of those moments that only seemed long but had really been very short. He recognized the logo on the casks sitting here on the dock. It was the same one he had seen back in York. As he watched, the flames licked against the side of one of the barrels with a sparking hiss.

"Get clear!" Kino screamed, turning on the balls of his feet and breaking into a run for the edge of the dock. He almost broke Wales' neck as he grabbed the Prince by the collar of his cloak and dragged him along with all of his strength, leaving the hapless guard to his fate. Just as he and Wales struck the water, all hell broke loose.

"What was that?" Asuna asked as the castle trembled faintly.

Lydel looked up from his work, suddenly growing tense. "Sounded like gunpowder."

"Did one of your igniters go off?" Shio asked cautiously.

"No . . . That sounded too far away." Lydel decided quickly.

Asuna was suddenly worried, she knew in her bones that something had finally gone wrong. "Are you sure?"

Lydel gave her a look of mild disbelief. "If it was one of ours, trust me, we would know."

"Either way, we need to get going." Asuna said, "If we felt it all the way down here, then they definitely heard it at the Fort." And reinforcements might be racing for the castle even now. They needed to get above ground and see what was happening. Wales and the others might need their help.

"Fine." Lydel said as he stood and wiped his hands on his pants. They were standing in the last of twelve store rooms built into castle's cellars. Reinforced by the castle foundations, the thick stone walls were meant to compartmentalize an explosion in case of an accident. It had taken the better part of their remaining time to break open the locks on each room and place the igniters.

"It won't do them much good either way. We're done here." Bartholomew observed as he stepped gingerly over the corpse of a guard. "Maybe if we're lucky, they'll get caught in the blast when this place goes up."

"Wait, it's going to be that big?" Shio growled as he followed the first sapper out the door.

The Royal Engineer gave a small shrug, a glint of delight in his eye. "This place was rebuilt to contain an explosion, but it wasn't designed to hold twelve simultaneous explosions. At very least, the concusive force is going to crack the castle's foundations and bring the whole thing tumbling down, and that's only if the store room walls don't start to break up and we get sympathetic explosions."

"You could have explained that in the briefing!" The swordsman hissed.

"Why? If something went wrong, we'd never know." Lydel snorted as he raced quickly after them.

"Never mind that." Asuna said, she really didn't want to think about it now that it had been brought up. "We've completed our mission. We won't have the head start we hoped for, but this was always part of the worst case scenario." They just all needed to stay calm and everything would be fine, she thought.

Reaching the entrance to the castle keep, Asuna looked up to see Caramella standing on wall above them. The swordswoman seemed preoccupied staring off to the north.

"Caramella, what's happening?" Asuna shouted. "Have reinforcements already arrived?"

"Whatever it was, it wasn't me! It came from the direction of the barge dock." Asuna could see the concern writ large on the other woman's face.

"Lydel, how much time do we have left?"

The Royal Engineer checked his timepiece. "Sixteen minutes remaining until time."

Coming to a decision, Asuna started to snap off orders. "Shio, Lydel, Caramella, do a sweep of the castle and gather up anyone from Wales' group that was left behind, then get out of here, head back to the rendezvous, do you understand?"

"Hey wait a minute, what about Kino and Blondie?" Caramella snapped. "That blast . . . They need our help!"

"I'll go find them myself." Asuna said. "Caramella, please, I'm trusting you with this."

Asuna could see the conflict in Caramella's eyes. Knowing the other woman, the odds were good that she wanted to say 'no'. After all, Kino was with Wales, and Caramella didn't really trust anyone else to look out for him. Instead, blowing air through her teeth, the older swordswoman nodded. Putting hands on hips she started shouting like a drill instructor from her perch. "Alright, what're you all waiting for? Shio, you've got five minutes, take one of the mages and make sure everyone is out. I'll go with Ivan and check the wall, we'll gather at the rendezvous. Now move it!"

Asuna was already racing off in the direction of the castle gate and the docks beyond as the group scattered to obey their instructions. Racing up the the half lowered draw bridge and landing lightly on the opposite side of the mill run, Asuna looked up as she heard the first blood chilling cry. Dark, now familiar shapes were approaching in the skies above, and she felt her stomach twisting up as she remembered the night almost a week ago. It only caused her to run faster.

When she saw the docks, she let out a small gasp. Half of the wooden barge dock had been reduced to kindling, and of the two warehouses fronting the water, one had partially collapsed while the other was already beginning to burn. She saw a handful cloaked figures emerging from the collapsed warehouse, coughing and stumbling forward.

"Schneider, Lucane!" Asuna shouted to the Faerie and Mage. "What happened."

Lucane leaned Schneider against what was left of a warehouse wall. The Faerie didn't look too badly hurt, his cloak was torn and stained with blood, but judging by the way he moved, his injuries were mostly superficial. At least, that was what Asuna hoped.

"We missed a guard." Schneider wheezed. "He tried to sound the alarm, Prince Wales stopped him . . . but the idiot . . . he set off some gunpowder on the dock. Just . . . our luck, eh?"

"Powder in a powder mill." Lukane cursed. "Who would have thought?"

Schneider snickered, wincing in pain. "You've been hanging around us too long. Caramella's snark is rubbing off on you."

"Where are Kino and Wales now?" Asuna demanded.

"I . . . I don't know." Schneider panted.

Lucane's expression grew dark. "The Prince was on the docks right before the gunpowder was set off. But I saw young Kino dragging him off the edge with not a moment to spare. Quickly, Lady Asuna we must find the Prince!" The young knight made to take a step forward and then nearly fell, clutching at his side. Probing beneath his cloak, the Knight's hand came away covered in blood. "It's but a flesh wound." Lukane offered weakly.

Asuna batted the Knight's hand aside and pulled his cloak open. She grimaced. She didn't know much about medicine, the fact that he could still stand was probably a good sign, but he had been hurt, his side sprayed with wood splinters. He needed a doctor, or at least a mage with some healing spells. "You're not finding anyone." Asuna said, looking up as the cries of dragons came once more.

The others, both Faeries and mages were staggering from the debris, Asuna counted a half dozen in all. They all looked worse for the wear but none were as bad off as the first two. "All of you, we're leaving now. Withdraw to the fallback area and head for Newcastle.

"But the Prince?!" Another mage, face covered in soot protested.

"That's right, and the others!" A Faerie tank named Lukes said. "They were inside the warehouse getting the next load."

Asuna looked up, the dragons were beginning to circle overhead, homing in on the source of the disturbance. Between the darkness and the smoke, they couldn't quite see what was happening on the ground, but that wouldn't last long, and from the sound of it, there were more on the way.

"Lukes, Eidel." She snapped off the names of the two closest Faeries. Both men stood up straight. "Come with me, we need to Find Wales and the others. The rest of you, do you think you can get Lucane and Schneider out of here?"

"Yes, Lady Asuna!" One of the mages answered swiftly. Wales had made it clear that barring his orders, his men should defer to her. The roars of dragons sounded again, followed by a sharper, high pitched noise that chilled Asuna.

"Kyuii!"