Humans are already monsters, Kazere.

I’d certainly seen enough evidence of that in my life not to dispute the fact, but it rang hollow anyway. I was sure Keric believed it, knew there were plenty of people who did. But, despite everything, it wasn’t a pill I could quite swallow. There was something inherently different about humanity, about mortals– something beyond the beasts and the plants, something that made us more than monsters, even when all too many of us had a propensity to fall back into monstrous habits.

There was something worth fighting for in the sons of men.

At least, I hoped so. I didn’t have much left, if not.

I headed back to the inn and found Hector, Jes, and Raesh already sitting around a table downstairs, eating some breakfast and playing cards of some kind.

“Hey, Leon. We were just going to head out to help you finish the temple.” Hector looked down at his full plate of food and then at his hand of cards. “When we finished breakfast.”

I smiled and took a seat next to them. “Take your time. It doesn’t have much left, and we still have a few days before we can expect to hear back from Aeron.”

“You’re getting all your troop reports by tonight though, right?” Jesne checked.

I nodded. “Assuming they actually do as I told them. If not, I’m going to have to go around them and talk to Ialdi and the Captains.”

“Cutting it a little close then, aren’t you? if you have to do it all manually?” Raesh asked.

“Eh, I should still have day three to get it done, even if the generals fall through. I don’t think they will though. Losing the support of three of the major houses isn’t something any of the generals want for themselves and their legacies.”

“You think the nobles will really pull that weight for you?” Hector asked, somewhat dubiously.

“Yeah. I trust Ennis, somewhat at least, and Faolain and Whelan seem to have good heads about them. They’re not going to let the generals screw this up for them.”

“Great. So we’re trusting nobles to keep generals in line. This is wonderful,” Hector muttered. He laid down his cards. “Also, I win.”

Jesne shrugged.

Raesh huffed. “He keeps winning. Are you cheating?”

“I would never. It’s not my fault you’re bad at this,” Hector smiled beatifically.

I rolled my eyes and stole some of his breakfast. “Did you give Berd some of the money?”

“Yeah. He didn’t want to take it, but considering that it wasn’t even mine, it was easier to talk him into it. As you probably predicted.”

“Yeah. I am going to want the rest of it though.”

“Really? I’m kind of surprised.”

I shrugged and took a bite of food before changing the subject. “I went to visit Will this morning.”

“How’s she doing?”

“Pretty well. Angel’s a bit of a miracle worker, but I think she mostly needed rest and nourishment. She’s moving out of the city once she’s recovered.”

“That’s probably for the best.” Hector fell silent, undoubtedly thinking about what we had witnessed. “They, uh, filled me in on everything that happened after I left.”

I nodded. “That’s for the best.”

He cleared his throat. “Yeah. So, when are we killing Dahl?”

“After we win the war.”

“That’s probably going to have some negative impacts on your social life,” Raesh said mildly.

“I’m bringing a case against him,” Jesne said, looking between Hector and I warily.

“Yeah, and I would bet the rest of the money I was given that he’s going to snap somewhere during that. If not, I’ll wait until he’s on his way back to Isaria.”

“I can’t let you kill him when he’s going back to face justice,” Jesne protested.

I rolled my eyes. “You really think Isaria is going to give him justice?” And then I shook my head. “Never mind. You should think about your answer to that, but I don’t need to hear it. It’s moot, because, like I said, he’s going to snap anyway.”

“You seem very sure of that,” Jesne said quietly.

“I’m pretty sure of that,” I confirmed.

“It’s still not going to do anything for your social life,” Raesh repeated.

“Well, I’m pretty much resigned to that at this point,” I said wryly.

“Are you planning to leave Ildanach then?” Raesh asked.

I paused. “I don’t know. Probably.” I considered the job offer we had received weeks previous, what felt like ages ago, to join General Ilyes Shogail. “Might head to Morrigan for a bit. See if I can track down a job offer.”

“Shogail?” Hector asked.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

Raesh glanced between us. “Sure, be all cryptic.”

“You should come with us. You’d like the job,” I said mildly.

“Hard to say considering you’re continuing to be all cryptic.”

I chuckled softly. “Fair enough. Respectable elite mercenaries.”

Raesh paused, arched an eyebrow. “That’s the whole pitch?”

“Pretty much.”

“Huh.”

I looked at Jes. “We’d be visiting our own sort of justice at our discretion.”

“That doesn’t sound like justice,” Jesne said mildly.

“Well… good works that pay seems like a pretty good deal to me. Particularly for someone who knows how to fight and might not be quite certain where their place in the world is yet.”

“You’re not subtle,” Jesne noted.

“Not even a little,” Raesh seconded.

“But you’ll both think about it?” I grinned.

The girls rolled their eyes, and I took it as an affirmative.

“So, that’s it?” Hector asked. “We save the city again, state our case against Dahl, potentially kill him if necessary, and then… we just leave? Pack up and start all over again?”

I shrugged. “Weren’t we always going to do that eventually?”

Hector paused. “I guess we were.”

I tilted my head at him. “Unless you weren’t? You don’t have to follow me.”

Hector scoffed. “Like I’d let you get off the hook for all those drinks you owe me.”

I smiled, but it was slightly fainter than normal. I knew, always had, that he wouldn’t follow me forever, that someday he would find his new home and move on with his life. But I supposed I didn’t have to face that quite yet.

Breakfast was finished relatively quickly, after which, we all headed back to the Temple. Putting the last few finishing touches on completing the project ended up taking another good chunk of the day, but we weren’t as single mindedly grim about it this time, taking the occasional break or cracking a joke here and there. All of them looked at the graves as we arrived around mid morning, but none of them said a word. I was grateful for it, all of it: their help, their company, their jokes, and their silence in equal measure.

Once we were finally done, we headed back to the inn. I stopped at Ennis’ Manor on the way to let some of his servants know that the leftover lumber was stacked outside the completed structure. The servants wanted to grab Ennis for me, but I refused. I was grateful for his help, but I didn’t have much interest in seeing him just then. Besides, I was a bit concerned he was going to be upset with me for not immediately capitulating to saving Ildanach in front of the other lords, after I had already hashed out terms with him. It had worked out, but still.

Then it was back to the inn to rejoin my friends, old and new.

I walked through the door to the lobby, and General Garret Anders was mid-conversation with Hector, immediately stopping upon my arrival.

“Kazere,” Garret greeted me gruffly.

“Anders,” I responded in kind.

“I brought those numbers for you. Infantry, weaponry, available riftslivers. Also a terrain map of the border, just north of the Aldras River, closer to the Nechtan border,” Garret said, putting a small stack of parchments down on one of the tables.

I glanced outside at the sky. “Few hours to spare. Nice to see everyone’s playing nice. I’ll have the strategy wrapped up by tomorrow afternoon to pass out to everyone.”

Garret scoffed quietly. “Sure you can’t get a life-saving, army leading, single handedly made strategy out any sooner, Elyon? Need a whole solar cycle for it?”

“Well, no, but I want to make sure Hector has a chance to look at it first. It’ll be done by dawn,” I responded chipperly, ignoring the disdain in his tone.

“Leon,” Garret said, taking a deep breath, “I…. I think you’re a good soldier. An amazing fighter. And I think you mean well. But we have more experience than you! The five of us generals have been doing this for years. Don’t let your arrogance get people killed!”

“Are you done?” I asked, voice cold.

“Leon–”

“Captain. You don’t get to pull the “friend card” after you walked me into the dungeons, knowing it was wrong. We made a deal. Thank you for fulfilling your duty. Now get out of my inn.”

Garret ground his teeth. “People are going to die because of your foolish–”

“I think the captain told you to leave,” Hector said, quiet, and both Garret and I looked at him in surprise. “I consider us friends, Garret,” Hector said softly, “but you are the one being a fool if you think his confidence extends past his abilities here, and you are the one letting their ego get in the way of saving lives. I hope you can see that soon. Until then, Captain Kazere has work to do, and I would imagine you have some last minute training with the troops that would be beneficial.”

Garret took a deep breath, letting it out in a short huff. “Fine. I hope you deserve his faith, Captain.”

“The first wise thing you’ve said since you walked inside,” I said quietly as Garret stormed out, the door slamming behind him.

“Hey, Leon?” Hector asked after the echo of the slammed door had lingered for a few moments.

“Yeah?”

“You really going to have it done by dawn?”

“Probably.”

“And it’s going to be good?”

“Better be.”

Hector paused and hummed. “Alright. You heading off to do that now then?”

“Nah, I’m going to get some dinner first. Cards?”

Stolen story; please report.

All three of them looked at me for a moment and then shrugs went around the group.

There was something distinct about having the kinds of friends who, two days after watching horrific experiments being performed on people that they knew and two days before the joining of a massive battle that would likely define the history records about this time period for years to come, could laugh and eat scalding hot stew around a table while playing a dumb card game, simply enjoying the time that they had. Part of me felt a little guilty about it– how easy it seemed to have been to find people to do this with again, where I would have been sitting with my team before, but part of me wondered if maybe the Fates were just finally giving me a break.

Even as little as I knew Jesne and Raesh, I was beginning to wonder how I would have made it through this without Jesne’s quiet laughter and occasional scathing comments that came almost out of the blue, how I would have continued on without Raesh’s and Hector’s nigh constant bickering about issues that ranged from serious ones of society and morality to whether or not stew was better with carrots in it. It was familiar and hopeful, and there were more than a few times when all I could think was: they had better all be fine.

I stayed and continued to play with them until well after nightfall, when Jesne had been yawning for a good twenty minutes it seemed and Hector was starting to give up on wakefulness as well, though claiming he was fine to stay up all night due to Raesh’s goading. She was clearly more of a night person, and her fortune had increased in the games as the others had grown tired.

Eventually though, they called it a night.

“So, do you sleep?” Raesh asked me bluntly as they picked up the cards.

“What?” I said, taken off guard.

“Do you sleep? Because you didn’t last night– you clearly worked on the temple the whole time. And if you plan to have that strategy done by dawn when you haven’t even started yet, then you don’t seem to have any intentions of doing it tonight. So, do you sleep?”

“Humans have to sleep sometimes,” I said with a shrug and a half smile, attempting to dodge the question.

Raesh just looked at me, and I sighed slightly, a bit annoyed with the fact that she knew the truth, a bit more annoyed that I still wasn’t sure how I would have escaped without letting her know- unless I had just killed her, that is. Maybe I shouldn’t have invited her to come to Morrigan with us after all of this; it was somewhat irritating having someone around who could call me on my half-truths.

“I sleep sometimes,” I answered the actual question.

Her eyes narrowed a bit further. “How often is sometimes?”

“Why do you care?”

“You ask us to put our lives in your hand with some frequency. I feel like it’s fair to want to know just how sleep deprived those hands are.”

“I get enough sleep,” I told her flatly.

“By whose metrics?”

“Raesh,” Hector cut in, somewhat exasperated, Jesne having already headed for the door, watching our exchange rather oddly, “just let it go.”

“No! He won’t answer the question!”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe the better question would have been, how long is it actually going to take me to draw up this strategy? The answer is not more than three hours. It’s not like you’ll actually be back here at the crack of dawn either, so I was being at least a little dramatic for effect. I have plenty of time to sleep tonight.”

Raesh narrowed her eyes yet again, but she relaxed after a second. “Fine. Could have just given me a number though.”

“It’s a bit irregular, I will admit,” I said wryly. “Not that you can talk in that regard, I suspect. Besides, you saw me in the jail.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Raesh conceded. “Have a good night, boys. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“See you all tomorrow,” I echoed, waving to both girls.

“You slept in the dungeons?” Hector asked me casually once they were both gone.

“Not a wink, but I looked like I did a few times,” I said, shrugging.

Hector snorted and shook his head. “Have a good night, Leon.”

“You too.”

“I’ll be here early to look at the plans.”

“I appreciate it.”

“You really only expect it to take you three hours?”

“Or less. Strategy isn’t hard. It’s reacting in real time that causes problems.”

“And that’s why you have me sitting on a hill,” Hector said with some measure of disgust.

I shrugged at him. “I need you on that hill.”

“Yeah, I know. Happy to help; just wish I could do it differently,” he said wryly and then shook his head mildly. “See you tomorrow.”

“See you then.”

He headed out into the night and after taking a short breath, I gathered up the parchments Garret had brought and headed upstairs to spend twenty minutes or so looking over the numbers and reports before pulling out the map, lying it out across the small table in my quarters, and beginning to work out the actual strategy. It didn’t look like anything much– wasn’t much, in fact. All I did was stare at the map for an hour. But in my mind, I played out troop movements, moving them across the map in front of me, attempting to predict the movements of our opponents, still left with a very significant wild card of if Tirnaog would indeed refuse to fight if I were present.

I can make sure they won’t.

I paused and refocused my attention as Teris’ voice slid into my mind. I looked over and found him sitting at the window, clearly waiting to be let inside, which I did after rolling my eyes.

“What did you have in mind?” I spoke to him aloud. I preferred vocal communication to whatever the other thing that we did was; it made me feel less like I was insane and talking to myself. Speaking to a bird that was perched on the back of the chair across from mine was considerably better.

Teris, on the other hand, seemed to prefer mental communication, perhaps because it had to be some work of magic on his part to make a human voice emanate from a bird that did not have human vocal cords. Superstitions and rumors of you being demonspawn are what’s keeping them away. I could make the rumors feel a little more real.

“I feel like that’s just as likely to backfire and get them to decide even more firmly that I need to die.”

I’ll be subtle. Besides, I’m not a sign of demons. I’m a sign of Death.

“So, your plan is to make them think the Sisters themselves will rise to punish them if they stand against me?” I asked wryly.

Essentially. People are really quite stupid when they’re afraid.

I rolled my eyes but didn’t argue, playing with a writing implement between my fingers. “We are, aren’t we?” I mused softly and then sighed at him. “I’m sorry I was so upset with you.”

It’s alright. I didn’t intend to communicate with Keric at all, but he… saw me. Somehow. Once he was offering to take me on a tour, I was hardly going to say no. I’m sorry I couldn’t help them though.

“Wasn’t your job,” I said quietly. “It was mine.”

It wasn’t a possibility for either of us.

“I could have. If I had played it all differently.”

Many things are within the power we have been granted. Time is not one of them.

I took his point with another sigh, leaning back in the chair. “I know. No point in dwelling on it.”

Do you want me to disrupt Tirnaog’s common sense?

I snorted quietly at his phrasing. “Not yet, but if you’re willing to make the trip, a spy would be pretty valuable.”

Teris ruffled his wings. I’ll get going then. Do you want me in Aeron, Tirnaog, or at the gathered military encampment?

I took a breath. As useful as it would be to know what Aeron was planning to respond to our letter, we were prepared for war either way and an extra day of heads up wasn’t going to do all that much for us; it still wouldn’t be certain until the reply actually arrived at our door. “Tirnaog,” I said firmly. “But if you can fly by the military encampment and give me an estimate of how many of the troops are flying under the boar flag, I’d appreciate that too.”

Do my best. Good luck with your stratagems.

“Thanks.”

With that, he took off through the window, and I was left alone with my thoughts again.

Dawn arrived, as it tended to do. I collected the map, the statistics, and my hand-written plans, heading downstairs with my arms full to dump them all on the nearest table. Berd wasn’t even awake yet, and the downstairs of the inn was dim and eerie, the cheery fire on its last embers. I stoked it to save him some work and started rearranging his dining area, pushing a few tables together so that I could spread the map across them, setting up little paper figures to represent troops, creating a battle map.

I was putting the last pieces together when Hector walked inside, yawning, just an hour or so later. He clearly hadn’t been kidding when he said he was going to be there early to look things over.

He blinked at my little display. “Going all out, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been informed my visualization skills are pretty good, and I don’t think it makes much sense without them, so,” I gestured.

Hector chuckled. “Thanks for taking the time to make your intellect understandable for us mere mortals.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not what I meant.”

“I know, but it’s fun to mock you anyway.”

I shook my head mildly with a slight smile on my face. “Notes are there. Everything should be where it’s supposed to be per the beginning.”

“There’s a lot of arrows on this map,” Hector noted, arching an eyebrow.

“It’s color coded.”

“You’re kind of obsessive, you know that?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, in another life, I’m probably holed up in a library somewhere with no concept of the actual world around me.”

“Too stuffy.”

“Books can be taken and read outside.”

Hector conceded the point with a slight nod and then picked up the paper with my notes and started reading.

I was good at this. It was fun to do, once you managed to get over the fact that lives were hanging in the balance, and I was good at it. Nevertheless, as Hector started to look things over, moving troops along their designated lines once in a while to see what I was talking about in the notes, I found it unbearably nerve-wracking and almost immediately started pacing.

“Leon,” Hector said after ten minutes or so.

I startled slightly and looked over. “Yeah? Did you find something wrong?”

“No, because it’s really hard to read with you pacing over there,” he said wryly. “Go be nervous somewhere else?”

I smiled a bit sheepishly and then ducked outside to pace out there instead.

I was still pacing as the first sun fully crested over the horizon, flooding the world with a brighter, softer light than the constant glow of the sky. I finally stood still, taking in the view, as the city started to spring to life around me in the light of day. The forest was alive, with critters running here and there, and the wind gently rustling through the trees, and for a few moments, I remembered why I had liked it here so much.

Was it really impossible to resolve this in a way where we could stay? Would I be forced to travel north when this was all over, or was there another route? I partially closed my eyes and sighed. Even after everything, I wasn’t ready to leave yet.

“Captain!”

I opened my eyes to see a messenger running towards me, coming from the inner city and dressed like a noble’s page, and, as the weariness of dealing with all this politics came back, I thought maybe I’d be plenty ready to leave by the time we were done. “Can I help you?” I asked with a sigh.

“There’s been a reply from Aeron! Highlord Killough sent a return letter.”

“And it says?”

The boy gave me a blank look. “It had only just arrived, sir. The nobles have invited you–”

I cut him off with a somewhat vehement and uncharacteristic curse.

The boy stared.

I took a breath. “Apologies. That was not directed at you.” I ground my teeth to avoid explaining exactly who and what it was directed against– those lazy, time-wasting, prissy, rich, entitled nobles who couldn’t be bothered to just send me an ashen summary instead of making me walk the entire length of the city and back again for their own bloody amusement. I took a very deep breath. “Could you please let Captain Wolfe, who is inside, know that I’ll be back in a few hours?”

The boy nodded.

I started walking, muttering insults under my breath for a solid chunk of the journey, until I strode into the all too familiar grand hall of the Highlord’s Manor. Why we were still meeting here when Rufais wasn’t even present, I would have liked to claim ignorance in understanding, but of course the answer was politics. Couldn’t pick a house closer to the outer rim, because that would mean favoring one of the nobles over the others, and that would be just the worst.

“You couldn’t have just opened it and told me what it said?” I demanded immediately upon entering, before the doors have even shut behind me.

The assembled nobles and generals looked up as though it were an absolutely novel idea that they had never considered.

“We thought it would be offensive to exclude–” Whelan began.

“You know what’s offensive? Making me walk this whole way for what could be summed up in a single sentence and then walk back because my partner is still looking over my battle plans. That’s offensive. What does the letter say?”

The nobles blinked for a moment and then seemed to shrug off my strange mannerisms as a collective.

Whelan gestured to Faolain, who had the actual letter in her hands.

She opened it.

I took a deep breath to avoid going off again on their stupid moronic standing on ceremony; they hadn’t even opened it!

Faolain took a breath and began reading aloud. “To Highlord Rufais Ildanach and all in attendance, while House Aeron acknowledges your counteroffer and desire for peace, we are afraid that without the meeting of our original terms, no such truce can be reached.” There was silence for a moment as she finished the sentence, and we all acknowledged the grim reality.

Killough was going to war.

Faolain continued, “The murder of heiress Seria cannot be overlooked without price. I would offer a plea one last time for the head of her murderer, the demon-spawn known as Kazere, but your last letter made it quite clear that you have thrown yourself into full alliance with his heretical ways. As a result, I, Highlord Killough Aeron, on behalf of my House, do hereby formally declare war upon House Ildanach, its people, and its lands. As part of our alliance with Tirnaog, the battle will be met north of Iyer Lake, upon their soil and yours.

“Khane’s curse be upon you.” Faolain finished with a sigh, wincing faintly at the polluted traditional sign off of the lords to one another– “Palados’ light shine upon you”. Even when entering into war, the Houses liked to acknowledge their shared roots, religion, and heritage, their mutual bowing to the Chantry. But, of course, Killough was accusing us of parlaying with demons, claiming an abandonment of all shared ground.

This wasn’t going to end without someone’s destruction.

We stood in silence for a moment.

And then I shrugged. “Well, alright then. Nice of him to let us know where he’ll be. The strategy will be finished with its final review in the next two hours. Mobilize all forces and have the Captains at attention. We’ll reconvene here in that time, and the generals will get their direction to pass on to the unit leaders.”

“That’s it?” Berne said flatly.

I arched an eyebrow at him. “What else would there be? We did what we could. Now it’s settled. We’re at war. No use fretting about it; let’s wrap it up as quick as possible.”

And with that, I left the building to run back to the outer ring, smiling the whole way.

Despite everything else, there really wasn’t anything quite like war.