There is battle and then there is battle. War and war. Most won't know what I'm talking about, and that's alright. But for those who do, I understand. I feel you, kin from the future. We are not made to raise children and tend to livestock.
Soldiers consider war their own personal Hell, and with that I agree. But my Hell made sense, and this heaven does not. And now I wield power, more power than all but four in the Empire, and for the first time in a long time, I am calm again.
There is battle and then there is battle. There is war, and then there is war. I am going home, brothers and sisters. Call me insane, call me cruel and addicted and afraid of peace.
I am going home.
Excerpt from The Beasts of the Dungeon.
REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK p^o^q REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK
"Then build the bridge," Elly snapped, taking a moment to force down her irritation. "You have the men, the mages and the supplies."
The captain shifted his stance, not quite in challenge but certainly in opposition. "The Archmage could—"
"The Archmage is busy," she replied, glaring down at the man. He didn't seem overly impressed, the fool. And oh, how she wished she could say he was a Mirranian. "Now build the fucking bridge, or I'm going to drown you in that river."
That made him indignant, somehow. "My father—"
Elly loomed over him, pulling on Life to infuse her eyes. It was just a side-effect, and didn't actually accomplish anything, but it looked great. The captain shrunk back, finally seeming to realize he was in trouble.
"Your father answers to me. So does the entirety of House Halfshield, which includes you. And that's second to the fact that I gave you an order, soldier, and I expect it to be followed. Now I'm going to leave, and when I come back I expect to see a bridge. Is any part of that unclear to you?"
The man shook his head, leaning as far away from her as he could. Elly straightened in the saddle, staring at him until he startled. "Aah, uhm. Ye—No. Yes ma'am!"
Silent Gods save her from nobility. Halfshield was fairly prominent, yes, and the man had earned his rank by acclaim, but she much preferred peasants. Those at least didn't argue when she gave them their orders.
Yet even her diminished, remarried nobles still held some power, and they were a good source of educated recruits. That just gave rise to moments like this, though, even if the man was a particularly stupid specimen of his kind.
Honestly, insisting Marcus should stand here for hours on end just so the man and his soldiers didn't have to build a bridge? If the mages had heard that, the captain was going to die a tragic death during combat. She could already hear it now.
'Such a shame, and everyone had tried very hard to save him, yes ma'am. Don't look too closely at his wounds, and definitely don't question why he was strangled to death by vines, even though we're fighting Hounds.'
Elly shook her head, watching the captain rushing his loitering company into action. This was really something their commander should have dealt with, but Kos had come down with something vile. And so had his second in command, for that matter.
Finding out if that had been bad luck or something more nefarious had taken most of the morning, and even with the level of Life Enhancement she now enjoyed, waking up two hours before sunrise wasn't particularly fun. Especially not to deal with something like this.
Still, it was dealt with. And she was going to make sure there were better redundancy plans in place, because apparently two sick people could grind her army to a halt. That, she found, was rather unacceptable.
She would love to blame the auxiliaries for that, too, but frankly they were doing well. Quite well, in fact, and she already had her pupils scouting them for promising officers. Hargraf was going to complain, and so would everyone else, but fuck them.
Five more years, maybe, and she would have the entire military of Mirrania under control. That would be glorious, and more to the point, necessary. Seeing Marcus' necromancers raise entire platoons of undead had made her realize that his power was growing.
The main weakness of his Academy was their lack of foot soldiers, and summons had only solved that to a point. But with undead? No, if they were to remain equal, the Mirranian Royal Army had to grow.
She would not lag behind, and she most certainly would not dump even more responsibility on his shoulders in the process.
But that was for later. After the Dungeon Break, at the least, and with significantly more planning. For now, it was another army she was interested in.
One that consisted of Champions.
It had briefly besieged the Eastfort, weeks ago now, and had departed after Marcus had destroyed their catapults. And now her scouts were picking up their trail, which was very interesting.
She wasn't interested in battle, not on any large scale, but she did want revenge. And those Champions might be playing at organization, but they hadn't exactly evolved. They were the same bloodthirsty, savage monsters as before, but this time under a leader strong enough to make them behave.
No leader, no army. No army, and they could be slaughtered like any other rabid force.
But the rumors were unconfirmed, so she was going to confirm them. And had this been before the Eastfort, she might have needed Marcus for that. Instead Elly told her guards what she was doing, took a deep breath, and cleared the river with a light hop.
…she might have taken a running start, but if anyone asked, she was going to say it only took a light hop.
Still, she had a general direction. The Champion army seemed to be shadowing them, which meant nothing good, and monsters or not, that many people left tracks. Tracks she knew very, very well, and it wasn't hard to pick out a trail.
Marcus might love his magic, but she had been hunting since she was a child. Tracking was easy enough even without divination, teleportation or some other 'ation' branch of magic. Or something. She was sure they existed.
Whatever. The point was she didn't need them, and she almost regretted not bringing Marcus when she found her prey. Not because he was required, but smiling smugly at a tree wasn't nearly as satisfying.
Elly shook her head, glancing down at the army. This was a minor side quest in the larger war against the Dungeon, and so she wasn't going to waste too much time, but so far finding them had only taken a few hours. Singling out their general shouldn't be too hard, after which she could pull deeply on Life, bypass the guards, and kill them.
Fleeing would be a tad harder, but these weren't Hounds. Their speed was nothing compared to her own, and when they lost sight of her, they would disperse. Hopefully after a significant amount of infighting.
Climbing a tree, which had been stripped of its bark but somehow still stood upright, Elly watched them. They had clearly come into more weapons since she last saw them, polearms and axes and more in the hands of even the common Champions, but worse than that were the tools.
Shovels and hammers and saws, all being used in—admittedly crude—construction. At the moment they appeared to be building a wagon of some kind, and though they didn't seem to be getting very far, the sheer size of their horde meant dozens of groups were trying.
Had she been less hardened, or more inquisitive, she might have found that fascinating. Champions didn't do this, not on such a large scale, and it represented a shift in their thinking. And maybe it was just their leaders forcing cooperation, but then maybe it wasn't.
Instead of any of that, all she saw was a threat, and one she could deal with before thousands of her soldiers had to die. She still took the time to scout out the entire force, of course, and double checked for any Calamities, but nothing.
The sprawling camp was too large for her to see the leader, and even if he had been outside she didn't trust her aim that far, so instead she ghosted inside. A knife in one hand and years of stealth training in the other brought her past the outer sentries, who sucked at their job. The sheer mess of the place aided her once she had passed them, too.
And Silent Gods, it was a mess. Their army might be vast, and it might be unheard of, but once she looked past that, it was just tribes smashed into a larger, slightly more technologically advanced tribe. There were still the usual chieftains, from Orc warlords presiding over a hundred of their kind to twisted Elves dancing their war-songs.
Cannibalism was frequent, and so was a lack of hygiene. Not that either seemed to be spreading any disease.
Once she was four, maybe five tribes deep, she barely had to sneak at all. Guards were too busy glaring at other groups to wonder about the strange Elf ghosting through their ranks, and even when one did recognize her as human, their shouts of alarm were quickly drowned out.
Elly took her time, but this was almost too easy. So easy she almost, almost, got lured into a false sense of security, which vanished when she finally found the Champion's leader. It was, to her surprise, a Giant.
It had three eyes, stood about twice the size even its long extinct forefathers did, and was laying flat on its back. The creature barely even noticed her presence, eating a whole goat like it was an apple.
She shook her head, quietly drawing her sword. Surprise or not, she had found the strangely stealthy leader of the Champions. After a moment's deliberation she pulled out her bow instead, shifting the quiver on her back.
The Giant finally looked at her, throwing the corpse it had been nibbling on aside, and a pair of Hounds snapped it up. Pets? Elly didn't really care, breathing out slowly.
"Welcome, Hunt-Mistress," the creature rumbled, waving its massive hand towards a chair. "I have been waiting. We should speak—"
Elly let Life roar through her veins, pulling on it hard enough her body almost groaned at the stress, and put her enchanted arrow through its skull. The Giant toppled backwards, never even having fully risen, and she blinked in mild curiosity.
Really? That was it? She hadn't exactly been expecting a Calamity, but one arrow?
The Giant's guards, guards she had bypassed easily enough not a minute ago, rushed inside. A shout of alarm went through the air, one that managed to cut through the general chaos of the camp, and she shrugged.
Well, alright then. That was that taken care of.
REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK p^o^q REPLACE WITH LINE BREAK
"And then I fled, the tribes already starting to tear into one another by the time I made it out, and came back here," Elly finished, enjoying the way Marcus' jaw was flexing. That man was far too good at having something to say, so stupefying him into silence was rare. Rare and precious. "I expect a good ten, maybe fifteen percent of them to die, and the rest to disperse. They'll probably form into a few smaller hordes and go do whatever."
Marcus hummed after another long moment. "I was worried about you, is all. We're supposed to do stuff like that together."
"You were busy," she demurred, an involuntary smile taking over her face. He'd missed her? "And I handled it. I also might need some healing."
He frowned and closed the distance, half looming over her. His eyes closed when he touched her forehead, the only part of her currently not covered by armor, and Elly purred. He flinched and glared at her, which only made her grin wider, and got to work a moment later.
That rib she had broke by turning too fast—again, yes, shut up—slipped back into place, and the general soreness in her bones eased.
She let out a sigh, a genuine and normal one this time, and rolled her shoulder. Silent Gods, she loved good healers. And Marcus. As in she loved that he was a healer, not that—
Elly cleared her throat, turning to pour herself a drink. Which she didn't do to hide her face, shut up. Marcus was staring at a notebook when she finished, anyway, so crisis averted. "I've gotten that sixth-tier spell to work, by the way. The spatial arc one. I'm thinking of calling it the 'fuck you and everyone close to you' spell. What do you think?"
"It's a horrible name and you lack imagination," she replied, humming and taking a sip. Damn good wine. "And I thought you were working on portals?"
Marcus waved his hand dismissively. "Working on multiple projects helps me clear my mind. Anyway, could have been nice to test. If only someone had invited me to hunt Champions, or something."
"If only." Elly snatched a small bone thingy from the table, sniffing it. Pine and… ash? "So no luck yet on the portal business, then? Not beyond your initial success, I mean."
He grunted in annoyance. "No. I'm probably going to take another dive into the Mirror Dimension soon, see if I can't find someone to talk to."
Elly grimaced, wiping the expression from her face when he started turning back to her. His last visit had ended with him killing another him, which despite his lack of complaining, she knew bothered him. Best she could guess was that it had been a place of exploration, of something purely magical and fun, which had been tainted.
Not that he was much of a sharer. Not unless she asked, but then she felt bad for forcing him to talk about something he didn't want to.
"You thought I forgot, didn't you?"
Elly startled, looking at him in confusion. Marcus frowned, appearing upset, and she cycled through four dozen things he could mean without settling on any of them.
He sighed. "You forgot, didn't you?"
"No I didn't," she denied instantly. He didn't seem to believe her. "Alright, maybe I did. What are we talking about?"
Marcus rolled his eyes, and a bundle of cloth rose from behind his seat. "It's your birthday, stupid. I thought that was why you did the hunt, but never mind. Here. Gift."
"Thank you," Elly said automatically, taking the bundle when it was presented to her. She blinked. "Its not my birthday."
He tsked. "Yes it is. I triple checked. You have an official one about two months from now, but today is the day you were born. Therefore, it's your birthday."
"That's stalking," she accused lightly, a grin forming on her face. "I love it."
"You don't even know what it is yet."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll love this too. I meant the stalking."
Marcus groaned. "Just look at the present."
Elly opened the bundle of cloth, not quite able to remember the last time she'd gotten one. Before leaving home, most likely, and even then they tended to have strings attached. Or be tied to responsibility. She still wasn't sure why her mother thought that made for a good gift.
But that was sad to think about, and this was a happy time. So she looked, and found nothing. She pushed aside an ugly impulse to accuse him of toying with her, because that would be so out of character as to be basically impossible, and sharpened her senses.
When she still found nothing she looked at him, and he was grinning. And not 'I got you' grinning, either, so she looked deeper. It was only when she stretched them to their limit that she smelled a hint of magic, and she found the bundle of cloth was actually a cloak.
"It isn't a strong illusion," Marcus explained, watching her inspect it. "It can't be, since that would defeat its purpose. But it should help with stealth, make you blurry, harder to hear, harder to smell, that kind of thing."
Elly ran her fingers over one of the stitched runes, and her senses prickled. That. That was his magic. "You made this yourself, didn't you?"
"I did." He shifted on his seat. "If you'd like I can have a proper enchanter redo it, but I thought that maybe—"
She rolled her eyes, interrupting him by joining him on his seat. Which was only meant for a single person, so she ended up kind of draping herself over both him and the armrest. It was easy enough to do with her sense of balance, and it made him shut up.
And freeze, for that matter, but good enough. "Shush. I love it. And yeah, it's technically my birthday. But it fell too close to my brother's, and since he was the golden boy, mine was changed. How did you even learn about it?"
"I tracked down some children of your nobility," he replied, doing a remarkable job at seeming casual. "They were happy enough to answer my questions. Had to kill time while you were away breaking armies, didn't I?"
Elly snorted. "Oh, I'm sorry. Are you not being kept busy enough inventing new spells, creating Empire changing portals and whatever it is you do with your necromancers?"
"Nope. Now thank me for your present, you feral goblin."
She kissed his cheek in retaliation, and his newly rebuilt composure shattered again. That really was far too much fun, and to make things better, the tent flap opened.
Vess strode inside, and actually froze when she looked at them. Elly shrugged while Marcus promptly pretended nothing was happening, and the succubus smiled lightly.
"I'm not interrupting, am I?" the demon asked, sounding positively smug. "I could always come back later."
Elly felt Marcus shift in the seat, and when she looked at him, she found him looking back. Damn, he was recovering more and more quickly. "I don't know. Is she interrupting, Elly?"
Damn that man. She cleared her throat and looked anywhere but at him, forcing the blush—which didn't exist—to go away. Vess giggled, the Hellspawn that she was, and Elly huffed in annoyance.
And she had been winning, too. Damn that demon.
Xathar arrived a few minutes later, bringing a miraculously untouched cake with him, and no one seemed to question where he'd gotten the thing. Or why he was carrying it in a basket, which he in turn was carrying with his teeth.
Still, she got a few more minor presents, like a brush made from what appeared to be fangs—Thanks Xathar, how thoughtful. And good at scrubbing blood from my skin? Interesting.—and a potion from Vess that apparently combined all known haircare products into one. Somehow.
It was nice, and small, and it never touched on politics. No simpering nobles, no saluting soldiers, not even a drunken uncle. Just the four of them; two demons, an Archmage and herself, eating cake and drinking very good wine.
It was the nicest birthday she'd had in a long, long time.
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