An Owl's Rise

Out of all of them, she was the one that had pretty much all of the information about the Union. Evelyn, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee knew little more than its location on the map. As owls that were members of the Roost, they did their best to always avoid human territories.

"Now this wasn\'t easy for me to obtain, but I\'ve been planning this for the last century, so I\'ve complied quite a bit of intelligence on the Union."

Wearing a proud grin on her face, Lucia pulled out a large and detailed map of the Tyrannis Union.

Unlike the large continent maps that Evelyn had seen, this map showed the borders of each of the sects within the Tyrannis Union.

Along with the borders there were also notes on each of the sects detailing their relations with the others, as well as the estimated rank of their leaders and top elders.

"As you can see, there is a pretty big disparity between the weaker sects and the stronger ones. Both in terms of size and the strength of their members."

As was apparent on the map, six of the sects within the Tyrannis Union were noticeably larger than the other sixty that made up the nation.

Each of these sects were led by at least one individual that had reached the archmagi rank, which was the highest rank a human could achieve.

Of course, Evelyn recognized one of these sects very well and stared at it on the map with barely contained fury.

"I suppose I should have expected the Deamhain Sect to be among the strongest." Evelyn growled.

She could still remember the Deamhain Sect\'s leader and the overwhelming power he possessed. As much as she hated to recall it, Evelyn could not help but replay what that man did to her, Melisandre, and Otis.

"Your anger is warranted Evelyn, but now is not the time to let it take ahold of you." Lucia said to bring her back to the situation at hand.

Sensing her fluctuating emotions, Aralee and Rehni approached Evelyn and placed their hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

Thanks to their kind gestures, Evelyn was able to take a calm breath and get back to their strategy meeting.

"So, which one are we going after first? The Deamhain Sect that killed our friend and ripped us away from the Roost, or the Apostata Sect that had a hand in destroying your home?" Evelyn asked Lucia.

Frankly she was hoping to go straight for the bastards that had killed her new parents and tortured and experimented on her,

"Sorry to say this, but we won\'t be going after either of them. Both those sects are among the strongest and far out of our league right now. At our current levels, we\'d be most likely killed or captured within a week."

"Then what are we planning to do? Those are the two sects that we can attribute to our grudges. Certainly, most of them participated in the raid on the Roost and I\'d like to see them all crushed, but it was the Deamhain Sect that instigated the attack. While for you Lucia, your animosity is directed at the Apostata Sect.

If not one of these two, then which one would we go after?" Rehni said, her eyes searching the map for a better potential target.

"Yes, you could say that those two sects are our ultimate goals. Still, it is too soon for us to go after them. The full might of the Roost was unable to defeat the Tyrannis Union and they barely managed to escape. The five of us will not be able to go head-to-head with one of the world\'s superpowers. Still, we can make ourselves quite the nuisance and grow stronger until we become a major threat."

With a confident glint in her eyes, Lucia pointed to the sect that they would be infiltrating first.

It was one of the smaller ones that sat on the edge of the Tyrannis Union\'s territory.

"Okay, were going after this Laigi Sect. To what end?" Bylur asked.

"Well, they are a sect focused on cultivating rare magical plants, and their biggest trade partners happen to be the Deamhain Sect and Apostata Sect. If we can steal the precious treasures that they have grown, and ruin their fields, we can strike a heavy blow against our true enemies while also strengthening ourselves. Of course, if any of you have another suggestion, I\'m all ears."

Lucia wore a confident grin as she waited for any differing opinions. Naturally, she knew that none of them were informed enough about the Tyrannis Union to properly choose a different target.

"I\'m sure that you know better than any of us Lucia. As much as I hate to admit it, we\'re basically just your goons right now. We don\'t know enough about the Tyrannis Union to create a cohesive plan against them. We\'ll follow your lead so long as it is obviously not leading us into avoidable danger." Evelyn said, putting her trust in Lucia.

"Thank you, Evelyn. I\'ve been working on my plans to get revenge against the Union for a very long time, but all of your help will be invaluable. I can promise you that I have no intention of leading us into anything we can\'t handle. And if something unexpected does occur, I\'ll put my life on the line for all of you.

I consider the four of you to be irreplaceable comrades already." Lucia said, sincerity in her voice.

Now that their first target was chosen, Lucia explained in detail the biggest threats in the Laigi Sect and what their first objectives would be.