It should be no surprise that the report of goblin activity got the whole camp in a tizzy from the top down. Messengers were sent, and two of the three sitting companies of the camp were readied to march south. Technically, the Olesport Half Company should probably have stayed behind, but they apparently decided bringing me along was worth more than half a company's worth of soldiers.
That was a very pleasing compliment but I did worry about whether this was going to put me into mortal peril.
It meant several other things at the same time. Since I had been de facto overseer of the supply cache, that was now a responsibility moved to someone else, and I had to go over it one last time with him--and it was not the bat woman Mietra, she was coming along.
And because I was being recognized as more than merely a quartermaster, for the most part, control over the two company's supplies was in Mietra's hands now, with me being her supervisor. This at once made her elated and completely furious, because she had more responsibilities, but I was still above her. It likewise made me both happy and sad, because on the one hand, I didn't have to deal with that woman anymore, but on the other hand, I had to deal with her more than ever.
Life, it seemed, was an ongoing series of contradictions.
The short version was that I had work to do as logistics officer, but I was given room and explicit permission to deal with godly matters, whatever that meant. So after ensuring that Mietra and I were on the same page (again), I found an empty spot in a supply wagon and settled down to meditate.
The first and least important thing was soulflame. I had received a very large quantity of "standard" blue flame from the commanders, with much smaller quantities of other colors mixed in. Because of that, I discovered very quickly that blue flames were very clearly the weakest flame--they had very little weight to them. As it was supposed to be the type of flame given out of duty--in other words, standard, unemotional worship--this both made a lot of sense and was fairly disappointing. It also explained Alanna and Xenma using blue flames to attack the necromancer on the beach instead of anything else; likely, they had more of that than anything else, and it was not as precious as the others.
It did make me wonder a little about green flame, that given out of hate, but that was a question better asked than meditated upon.
I pushed again at the worshipers south of me, but got the general sense that they were in good health and not upset by anything. I really wanted to be able to get a look at the site, though; it was upsetting to not have any handle on the situation, in spite of being a god. After some thinking, I came up with the thought of finding a wild animal in the area whose Eyes I could use to investigate the site. It wasn't yet a well-developed power, but if the god of Eyes was going to do reconnaissance, I couldn't just materialize an eye in midair and do satellite photography with it.
Or, well, I probably could, but that would cost a bunch. I would probably need to materialize an Eye the way I had materialized my own Avatar, and that had cost a bunch of gold flame. Most likely, borrowing a bit from animals would be a lot easier.
In any case, I tried to press into the area around where Eglare had died, but it was not easy to find much. Eventually, though, my magic caught onto a spider living in the very mouth of the cave. It was an odd sensation, connecting to a spider as a god. The spider was not merely small, it was unambitious: it would eat, sleep, wait for prey, hoped to someday lay eggs, and someday would die. This one had no real territorial squabbles to worry about, and was extremely bored.
It was easy to manipulate such a small creature. It had many eyes to begin with, and I could easily trade it a blessing in exchange for a favor. One of its eyes could suddenly see very well, and with that eye, I examined the cave entrance, and after that dived into its very limited memories.
It was like very poor security video. Goblins had gone out, and come back. It was hard to tell, but I was pretty sure nothing had left recently without coming back, which meant that they as a group had not left the cave. There was nothing moving in front of it now, and the most recent memory of motion was something coming back in.
That was... about all I could hope for, really. I gave the spider a perfunctory thank you, and was surprised that it understood the concept of thanks and repeated it back to me. It didn't seem to have any greater intellect than that, but I was pleased in general by the whole experience.
I'd never actually been all that into spiders, but as a god, I had no reason to dislike this one. Or any of them, really. Maybe if they started nesting in the Avatar's dwelling I would change my mind on that. In any case, I wasn't really interested in being Rythva, God of Eyes and Spiders. That just made it sound like I would put spiders in your eyes, and that was a bad move from a marketing standpoint.
Anyway, moving on.
I couldn't do all that much from this distance, but I tried to find a larger animal in the area--a bird would be ideal--that could give me a look at the situation. As it turned out, I had to increase my range by a whole lot to find anything, and just extending the range (plus blessing one tiny spider) consumed basically all of the blue flame I'd received. The animals I did find didn't want to move towards the goblin's cave, not even for a god's blessing. Which was... fair. The things had just dismembered a human corpse and dragged it into the depths.
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Before going back to my normal life, I suggested mildly that my Avatar half should spend some time thinking about how to make the "see through animals" trick into a more well defined godly power. I could probably have just tried to have him do the whole thing for me (have me do it for me? Whatever, the point is, it's more like dedicating my subconscious to it, somehow) but it seemed like it needed more thinking before I spent serious flame on it.
When I woke up, there was a someone walking beside the cart, a human I didn't recognize except that I knew he had prayed to me before. I would need to start memorizing more names, even though I was terrible at it.
As I tried to come up with his name, he noticed me stirring and thumped the side of the car in acknowledgment. "Hey boss," he said with what sounded suspiciously like fake enthusiasm. "Your boy Clent here was sent by the brass to ask you to make it up to the van on th' double. Of course, I saw you were busy with your god-business... I'm sure they'll understand..."
It took me a moment to recognize Clent as one of the first people I tried to spread my religion to in the first place. He had commented blithely that he wasn't 'fond of gods' at the time. Perhaps I should have taken that personally at the time, but I didn't; somehow, now, it felt a little more personal.
Nevertheless, if the message was to go talk to the commander, that's what I would do. I hopped off the cart and advanced forward at a jog, which Clent matched.
"Seems t'me y'got exactly what you were looking for, now, didn't you?" Clent kept the pace evenly, since he unlike me, Bard had actually trained him as a full guardsman. I did most of the endurance and some of the strength training, but he would likely outpace me if the need arose. "Awfully convenient, this godly stuff. Seems like there are a number of things you could... just make happen, eh?"
I grunted, sure he was digging at something, but I felt the whole conversation was greasy to me somehow, like I wasn't supposed to understand it. Most likely, he wanted to be able to claim to be my friend, and there wasn't a lot I could do without shutting him down hard. But right now, he was just a nuisance.
"One thing I know for sure, though... there are secrets, right? Secrets everyone keeps. Gotta be a way to just take them, right? To just, I dunno, see them." Clent scratched at his head. "I know if I could just see things, that's what I would do. Always gotta know people's secrets..."
I resolved privately to not answer any such prayer from Clent unless I had good reason, but said nothing as we approached the front of the army. The vanguard proper was at the top of the next rise, so there wasn't much that I could see about what was ahead, but we were going to run into our company before we ran into anything else. The commanders were a little behind that, shielded by the vanguard but ahead of the main companies. It was easy enough to spot Bard, and I made right for him.
As I approached Bard, I got a weird feeling from somewhere ahead, and pushing mentally against my new spider friend found that he had been squashed. Somehow, I was sure that the death of one tiny (if blessed) spider wasn't what was bothering me, especially since I hadn't noticed Eglare's death. But... something was definitely off.
Also, not to be ignored, "goblins" were supposed to be stupid, but more evolved forms weren't. Alanna had told me that if they were led, they were a lot more dangerous. Somehow I couldn't see a "stupid" goblin squashing a spider that they had previously overlooked immediately after it got my blessing.
Bard and the other commander were on edge, and I knew my news wouldn't help, but I saluted as soon as I had their attention. "Commander Bard, sir," I said without preamble, "until a moment ago I could swear things were safe, but I suddenly get a bad feeling. The company ahead should be alright, but..." I paused. How do I say what I want to say without revealing too much? "I think they may be coming."
"Forward!" The owl commander's shout was clear. "Set up on the rise." He turned to me. "Go ahead to the other company and get them up to speed. If you see anything, raise an alert."
I nodded and hurried forward, Clent following behind as though that was where he belonged. Which again, I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but I didn't go out of my way to object. Two other guards joined us, although neither commander had demanded it; maybe they were normally the messengers? Or scouts? I should have paid attention.
The vanguard was pushing slightly past the top of the hill now, and the majority of the other company was in between there and the next rise. We hustled forward at a mild jog, with me wondering idly why there didn't seem to be any riding horses on this continent; the few that were pulling the carts were not chargers by any stretch of the imagination, but even they would have been better for a messenger than hoofing it on foot.
One of two, as though answering my earlier question, directed us immediately towards the commander of the scouting company, which told me that he, unlike me or Clent, actually knew this company, and maybe he came from it. I felt an increasing tension that I couldn't quite pin down, but it felt like blood as we got fast-tracked through the company to see the commander, whom I had seen but not been introduced to. In so many ways, I was as yet just a small player in everything that was going on.
I saluted as best I could as soon as I was nearby, and spoke up urgently. "Sir, I bring a message from Commanders Bard and Jurr, and from the God of Eyes. One of your scouts, sir, Eglare is his name, was killed by goblins. There is reason to think that they--"
"Eglare is not dead," replied one of the commander's aides. "I saw him not five minutes ago."
A creeping sensation washed over my skin, and I immediately grabbed at my godly power and looked around, urgently searching for the thing that was freaking me out.
Not ten feet away, a soldier watched me, and his form, I realized, was a lie--it was magical, a magic made of red flame that looked, smelled, felt like blood.
Unbidden I heard Xenma's voice in the back of my mind. Blood flame is that which was stolen, and is a crime amongst gods. Barely thinking, I drew forth my power as Xethram to summon the Eye of Mars to my left eye, hoping I could turn the thing to dust like I had turned Xenma, Alanna, and the earth god to dust in that dream space.
The man--the creature who must have taken the place of Eglare--raised a hand and blocked it as though it was nothing. An ear-splitting shriek that I barely noticed split the air as I pushed again, burning every scrap of green and silver flame I had to power the ability. It had an effect, but not what I would have wanted--the blood flame illusion shattered, and what was left was a gruesome red creature about five and a half feet tall, standing firm and proudly, one that seemed to exude an aura of heat and ash.
It bared ugly teeth at me, teeth that seemed to be made of solid fire, and with a gesture, the remaining blood flame aura around it exploded, turning everyone nearby to bloody chunks of meat.