Deep in the mountains, hidden inside an unassuming sheet of rock, two figures stood exchanging glances.
No words.
Just silence and the occasional look that carried everything words would have said anyway.
The war had been far more intense than they expected.
That was the part that sat wrong. They weren't just divine beings. They were Daemons. The gap between what they were and what these defenders should have been capable of was supposed to be fixed. Measurable. Something you could plan around.
Instead they were hiding in a rock.
'It's that bitch. She's been planning this for a while.'
The thought moved through both of them at the same time, Victoria's face surfacing in their minds with the particular clarity that came from someone who had made themselves impossible to forget.
At the start they had been willing to pull back and resurface, fall back, let the armies absorb pressure, then reappear when the moment was right to push. Standard. Sensible.
