An odd thing happened about three weeks after the army split. One of the guards who had become a semi-regular patron of Xethram prayed to me about something peculiar that he had seen. I didn't understand it either, so I asked Alanna. That was far easier than it would have been for anyone else, because as god of eyes, I could just review what he had seen, "take a screenshot" of the image, and pass it along. It was, I suppose you could say, this world's first chain of people texting a picture back and forth with the caption "wtf is this".

There was a confused period of a minute or two before Alanna got back to me. We met again in that shared white space, and the metaphor-version of Lucile that showed up was sitting in a chair surrounded by books, with a framed picture of the image I sent hanging on an invisible wall. She turned a book around for me to see the illustration on the spread pages.

"Goblin," she said. "I think, anyway. The lowest form of Rakshasa, these things reproduce wildly and have only animal intelligence. They're little problem if that's all there is nearby, but Rakshasa evolve to higher levels if you leave them alone. The next higher level are intelligent and have the ability to command goblins. After that, they only get more dangerous."

"So... report it." I pressed my lips into a line. "The problem is, I wasn't the one who saw it. And it's been a good ten minutes since then."

"I'm pretty sure the goddess of blades will answer your prayers." Alanna gave me a grin, but I couldn't muster one in return.

"The army split, and we're in different areas now." I paused, realizing that that probably didn't actually matter, and shook my head. "You're right, though. But in general, big danger? Little danger? I'm not sure I understand."

"If it's just goblins, small danger. But if they have even one leader, they will act like a small army on their own. Depending on how your forces are split, that might be a big danger. Any more than that? Definite danger."

I nodded and backed out of my meeting with her without any more pleasantries. My first actual prayer to Ciel'ostra ended before it began, and I got what was essentially an answering machine message telling me I was praying wrong. More specifically, the Lady of Blades would only answer prayers from those who dedicated themselves to the blade, or pledged themselves in her name.

That confused me for a bit, so after a moment I tried again. This time, instead of a prayer, I simply left an offering--of knowledge. Specifically, the captured image of the goblin and a short bit of information describing where it was last seen. Almost after the fact, I added a faux signature on the end so she knew where it came from, and a bit of flame in tribute.

It was another good fifteen minutes before General Murn bothered to reply. As someone who was still learning to deal with leading two lives, I definitely understood the delay, but it was a little weird to me that she wasn't better than this. Couldn't she afford to do more than a few things at once? Or did her duties as goddess of blades take up all of her time?

When she did reply, I discovered that instead of a joint mental "call space" like I had with Alanna, she had summoned me as a shadow in her tent, the way Xenma had repeatedly forced his way into mine. It was... a strange perspective. I was at once clearly beneath her, but also appearing in the real world. Nor was she alone; I was a bit alarmed to recognize one of the other generals standing by her, as well as members of Murn's harem. So, this was definitely a real thing where I was giving a real report, as a god, and not just communicating with her. Lovely.

"You," said Murn to me. "As I recall, you are Xethram, god of Eyes. Yes?"

It occurred to me just before I spoke to make sure I was using the voice of my Avatar, and not myself. I was pleased to find it came out a smooth baritone, much better than my own. Somehow, along with the new voice, I seemed to slip into a smooth, jazz-line cadence and style at the same time, which suited me fine, since I didn't want to be recognized.

"Yes, my lady, and may I say what a pleasure it is to make your acquaintance, General Murn, Vicar of Blades."

"I am honored to be known among the gods," she replied with only a hint of amusement. "My lady says you have a message--"

"Of course, my lady, and I shall not delay any further, for I know your time is precious. One of your soldiers, in my care, witnessed a thing I had not expected south of the Guardian Camp." I gave my shadow-self a little step to the side, as though I were pacing around her, but I stopped when the shadow was about to encounter a table leg. "A goblin, in fact. I was so surprised it took me a moment to understand what I was seeing, but now I've little doubt."

Murn's face was impassive, but the other general reacted with genuine alarm. Murn held a hand out to him and kept her eyes on me. "Only one?"

"There was only the one report, but I didn't pry into the man's business. I am not a military man, my lady, and not usually keen on prying into the affairs of others, but in this case I will happily carry a message if you so desire...?"

"No. The Lady of Blades will handle this." Murn bowed, and I felt a genuine appreciation and a bit of flame from her. "Goblins are a scourge in this part of the world, my lord Xethram, one we thought we had purged. If we are wrong, then perhaps we should correct that."

I felt I was dismissed, and returned to her shadow, letting the connection break. That left me back in the camp with nothing but my normal duties and a piece of information I wasn't supposed to have.

Well, that wasn't exactly true.

I sought out Bard urgently, finding him on patrol around the camp, as many of the commanders do when there was no particularly urgent need on their time; I suspect having a commander around keeps problems away, even if Bard is human and therefore looked down upon by his peers. The army being the army, they do seem to respect the pecking order.

He was surprised to see me seek him out, but stopped and gave me his attention. "Quatermaster Ryan. Some trouble?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Yes, ser, or I think so." I paused. "You know my connection to the God of Eyes..."

"I know of it, but not the details," he said, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm not entirely clear myself, but the General used the term Vicar." I hoped that would sidestep the conversation. "The point is, sir, with my connection to that god, I was told... about a report..." I am a terrible liar. Why can't I just speak bald-faced lies? Why do I have to try to make it half-true? Whatever. "A creature I didn't understand, but I'm told it was a goblin. Somewhere to the south, from one of our people."

Bard gave a look that told me he only knew goblins by reputation. It wasn't the panic that the general had shown, but it was definitely a "something stinks" face. He gestured for me to follow and made a quick trot to the command tents, where he sent messengers for the rest.

Then he turned to me beckoned me closer. "What other details do you have?"

"I don't know who prayed to the God of Eyes, but I was shown a vision of what he saw." I glanced south, but I didn't see anything that looked like the hill in particular I had seen. "I don't think it was here... I definitely felt it was to the south, sir, though I couldn't tell you how I know. A low hill, perhaps twice the height of that one," I gestured at a low hill we could see from the tent, "with a rocky gash in it. A reddish, gangly creature, that looked all skin and bones, with an odd-size head..."

By this time, two other commanders had shown up, and in turning to look at them, I noticed at least one responded immediately to the description I was giving. "It was scurrying around the rocks, in the ...vision I saw sir. I was only given a brief look at it, so I can't tell you more than that."

"Any other landmarks? The river?"

Come to think of it... "I saw the river in the image, but it was a ways away." I glanced at the shadows in the tent, trying to piece together what I had seen. It was difficult because it was noon-ish, give or take a couple hours, so the shadows weren't exaggerated. "From the shadows, sir, I think it must have been on this side of the river, ...the south or west side of whatever hill he was looking at. That side of the hill was mostly gravel, not grass."

"What's going on, Bard?" The other two commanders--I realized after a moment that three was all we had, if one was on patrol--were now clearly on edge, but they also... didn't necessarily believe my story? I buried my godly insight and tried to live in the moment for now.

"A message from the God of Eyes, if you believe in that. A sign that goblins were sighted--"

"You can't expect me to believe that your quartermaster is some kind of prophet," interrupted the avian commander, the one that Mietra constantly bothered with reports about me. "He can barely keep our food safe, and you trust him to tell you what is happening miles away from here?"

I had to admit, from a certain perspective, that was a damning accusation. Of course, I wasn't without tools of persuasion, but...

"I'm not saying to mobilize the army," replied Bard smoothly. "But the report deserves some attention. There is no question the God of Eyes has blessed us recently. Besides, we have all too many people sitting idle in camp right now as it is. We could spare a couple squads to reinforce the patrol."

Something about that suggestion struck me as wrong. I did my best to tap into my godly intuition again without letting it show on my face, but even my godly half couldn't put a finger on exactly made me nervous. It was less that I didn't trust the feeling, and more that I didn't think now was the time for me--

Ah. For me.

I let the generals argue for another minute about the merits of listening to a (human) quartermaster about military matters, then when there was a brief lull, cleared my throat and offered, "If I may, sers... I believe I can contact the God of Eyes directly, if you would prefer not to trust me...?"

Bard looked hard at the avian commander, who sighed and took a step back, putting his hands up in a sign of mock defeat. "Yes, fine," he said testily. "By all means, Mr...?"

"My name is Ryan. I am quartermaster for the Olesport half-company... and Vicar of Xethram, God of Eyes." With that, I willed the second shadow out onto the floor, requesting as much help from my Avatar as I could to handle both of me at the same time.

Fortunately, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, not least because nobody was paying attention to the "real" me after that.

My shadow, I noticed immediately, had very piercing eyes, ones that gave a very distinct impression of who they were looking at, even though the shadow should have been two-dimensional. Knowing my own avatar, I could tell that the outline was "correct;" it showed exactly the outline it should if my avatar were here, casting a shadow. I could also tell--and I was sure nobody else could--that I could change the eyes of the avatar if I needed to for dramatic effect. I hadn't needed to with General Murn... but who knows what this crowd might need.

"Gentlemen," Xethram's shadow said smoothly. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, although I must say your doubts about my Vicar are a bit out of place. An odd man to be sure," and even I shivered when Xethram's eyes fell upon me, which was a nice touch, dramatically speaking, "but not a liar. He represented himself, and me, fairly, from what I have seen--and I do make an effort to See." The shadow gained a bit of a smile, but hard as that was to see, it could only be conveyed with a tone of voice and a vague sense.

Bard, to his credit, kneeled down, bowed his head, and closed his eyes for a moment in respect. "Lord Xethram... what do you know of the goblin sighting that was reported?"

"As of now, I know little enough, and much of it has been reported to you already--and to your General Murn, Vicar of Blades, who seemed to appreciate the information. She and her goddess did not ask my help in this matter, and so I haven't looked any further into it... as of yet." I really wanted a cheshire cat smile to appear on Xethram's shadow, but alas, no such luck.

"Could... perhaps you look into it for us? Only to know how much danger we are in." Bard raised his head to look at the shadow, but remained kneeling.

"Hmm... well, there are a number of services I could provide, but we will start with this." As I spoke, I reached out to connect to those in the patrol who had prayed to Xethram before. Doing this immediately made one thing perfectly clear, and I showed the three commanders the image of a slain man whose chopped-up body parts were being carried through narrow tunnels in stone. The image itself, not being something seen by Eyes that I controlled, was pretty vague, but it was clearly the work of many hands. "This is the fate of the man who made the report in the first place, Eglare was his name. Remember it, if you would."

There were four others in the patrol group who had enough of a connection that I could verify that they were, in fact, still alive. I pushed against them slightly, finding one who was willing to turn and look in what I felt was the direction of Eglare's body. I captured what he saw and showed it as well; it just appeared to be a normal stretch of low rolling hills, with nothing obvious or suspicious. "The rest of the patrol seems to be moving north. I'm not in contact with them, but they aren't fighting the creatures at the moment, and I don't believe they are aware of them."

By now both of the other commanders were also kneeling, and they were studying the image dutifully. Gone was the racial tension and the doubt; they were military men, and in front of them was an unpleasant truth. They didn't get to command armies without learning when to focus.

"I am not a being of unlimited power," Xethram said quietly, letting the image fade. "I am not a god who has been in favor any time in recent history. But you sheltered my Vicar, and you have seen the value in what I do. I will put some effort into assisting you, so long as that is true. You will give me my due, won't you?"

"Of course, Lord Xethram!" The three made very similar takes on the same exclamation at about the same time, bowing their heads again. When they looked up, the shadow was gone.