Chapter Eighty-Two

The Dice Gods Play With

Jack, Amekot, Klaryah, Lain, James, and a dozen or so other fortress officials, were all sat around the War Council table as Archie and his friend and fellow blacksmith, Willem, burst through the doors.

Amekot was at the head of the table, idly glaring at them and Jack was on the opposite end with Sidney by his side.

Archie and Willem stuttered and signed several apologies as they took their seats beside Lain, who flushed with embarrassment. “You’re late.”

Amekot cleared his throat and announced, “I suppose I’ll start again, now that we’re all here.”

Willem Wrought was a short, naturally tanned blacksmith with a military buzzcut. He was from the city of Aega, which for Aegans meant nothing, but for everyone else in Talisatia, meant he was sharp-witted and generally unafraid to cut people with it.

He signed firmly, Hillborn, next time you shout at me through spellcraft while I’m working with molten steel, you won’t like where it ends up.

Amekot’s look of disgruntlement crumbled a tad and he wisely chose not to respond.

On the other side of the table, Flinn and Marken buried smiles behind their hands.

Willem was a blacksmith, in charge of weapon’s development beside Avery. He was born without a tongue, so he was one of the few people in Fort Guardian who only spoke Sign but wasn’t Riniglacian or hearing-impaired.

After recovering a portion of his dignity, Amekot began by saying, “We need to finalize our defensive strategy today. We know our major points of issue- their numbers and magic-craft -but thus far I’ve been underwhelmed with the tactical approaches suggested for repelling them.”

Jack waited for a window and noted, “We have no understanding of what kind of siege Nikereus intends on employing. If we knew that, we could appropriately combat it. So, step by step, what do we need to know?”

Lain, thoughtfully pulled at a dark braid in her fingers, and asked, “Well, what kind of weaponry did they have, James?”

Klaryah frowned from her seat, pushed out from the table and leant against the wall. “What does that matter?”

Lain’s rounded face wrinkled in thought, wondering how best to explain. “There are two kinds of Shanii, right. The ones who craft weapons like us, and the ones who rely on magic to summon their weapons. James, what did they haul?”

James, sat midway down the table, anxiously clicked his knuckles as he thought. Without Carter and Michael, he always felt like he was saying the wrong thing. “Their main host didn’t seem to have weaponry, but certain soldiers did. Only the ones who actively needed them.”

Lain leaned slightly across the table toward him. “What kind of weaponry? Summoned or crafted?”

James rolled his spear in his hands and glanced at its emerald point. “Stone. Summoned for sure.”

Klaryah swept her thick head of hair over one shoulder and let her chair creak back onto all four legs. “Which means Nikereus will intend on having ten thousand soldiers summon ten thousand weapons. Do we think they’ll do that the night they arrive, or the morning they attack?”

Amekot huffed and said, “The morning,” as Sidney said, “Night,” in the same moment.

The Fortmaster looked at her and scoffed, “Not to infringe on your military experience, Miss Selene, but why would they conjure earlier than need be? It only shows us their hand.”

Sidney nodded seriously. “They want us to be scared. To know exactly what we asked for. It’s not just a siege, it’s a show. That pricks thinks we can’t win and wants us to see every moment of lead-up, right until they break down our gates.”

Willem sat up and openly signed, She’s right. The Stone Monarch thinks we’re doomed, so they’ll savour it. Also, the earlier their armies summon weapons, the more time they have to recover from the damage of the magic.

Archie translated quickly for those who didn’t know Sign,

Lain said slowly, “We might have an opening. There is a Shanii practice. It’s a kind of war ritual. They call it Kharaga. Anyone heard of it?”

Jack nodded, recalling the murmurings of some of the Shanii within the Murk. “A little. Its almost like a code of honour for certain Created, right?”

Lain pointed at him in the affirmative. “Yes. Prior to premeditated conflict, some Shanii separate themselves from their weapons. Its part of their practice of being more than the violence, but taking responsibility for the choice. They put their weapons down in the depths of night, and with the clarity of dawn, must make the choice to pick them up again-”

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Amekot rolled his eyes. “Remind me of this story’s relevance, Miss Sparrowson?”

Jack scowled. “The relevance? Hillborn, there are good odds that Nikereus’ army will lay down their arms for a significant portion of the night prior to the siege.”

Amekot huffed, gesturing in confusion. “What are you suggesting?”

Sidney she sat up. “He’s suggesting maybe with some luck, we can curse or disable a good section of their weaponry. Forcing them to re-conjure their arms and weaken a good portion of their forces.”

Jack watched Amekot weigh up the idea and in the end he stayed silent. Jack took it as a win. “In that case, we’d need a sabotage force, staffed by Legacies with Cloaking Arcancy and Destructive Arcancy, so they can sneak in and them erode some of the arms. And if we’re going to deal any kind of real damage, then we’ll need a good amount of power.”

Amekot smiled nastily. “Quite a lot of power. Continuous power. So, how would you plan on sneaking up to a dozen or more squads into an enemy war-camp?”

Sidney pounded the table in a fit of realisation. “All we need is a good diversion. We draw their forces off, go in, sabotage, leave. Quick and quiet.”

Amekot looked snidely at her and said, “Nikereus won’t redirect their entire host for anything less than our entire fort’s populace, and if we try to bait them with everyone inside these walls, I doubt we’d be able to retreat fast enough.”

Sidney bit her tongue and thought on it for a moment. She glanced to Jack and muttered, “There’s also the other stuff everyone should know...”

A murmur of confusion ran through the table.

Jack nodded and looked to Amekot, who gave a bored wave of permission, and the maceman forged ahead. “The Immortal Flame exists. It’s being used to keep Nikereus’ soldiers from descending to the Dark Lands. It was confirmed by the venturing company.”

The table fell into a horrified silence, in which Archie went paler than usual, Willem fumbled something in Sign, and Flinn knocked over Marken’s coffee.

After a long beat of silence, Marken stood up and grabbed his empty cup, muttering in his thick, deep voice, “It’s too fuckin’ early for this, guys.”

Jack rather admired his method of coping with new information. “Where are you going?”

“Coffee.”

Flinn raised his hand guiltily, mopping up the mess. “Can I get one too?”

“Sure.”

Kresta, the sour-faced captain of the gate, cleared her throat and said, “Bring me one, too.”

Marken called back, “Three coffees, then. Two with sugar, and one with a spoonful of go-fuck-yourself.”

Sidney stifled a laugh and Amekot told Kresta she could file another complaint when they weren’t on the brink of war.

Jack waited for the noise to die down and added, “Additionally, James and his company confirmed that Nikereus has bewitched the entire Soiltorn creation-group. They are being puppeted or controlled in some manner. We don’t know how.”

This time, the room erupted. Legacies shouted. People threw up their hands. Soldiers stood from their chairs and a couple even stormed out. As the chaos filled the chamber, Willem pulled an iron smithy’s hammer from his belt and slammed it into the table, cracking so loudly that it silenced the room.

Amekot mumbled, “This used to be a nice table.”

Willem made a series of calming gestures and signed slowly to Jack, Elaborate.

Jack raked his hair back in gentle frustration and shrugged. “I’m afraid there’s very little to say.”

Lain waved her hands, cutting him off and blinked. “There’s only one way to bewitch an entire creation-group all at once with total control. Come on, I thought you guys studied Gargan history.”

“What do you mean?”

Archie could hardly keep himself from chuckling as he looked over the circle of confused faces and said, “Heart St-Stones?”

Amekot and Jack had both been still with tension, but upon hearing the proposal they both sighed in resignation and waved him off, gathering much of the crowd up in a similar reaction.

Archie somewhat retreated into his chair but Lain’s face bloomed with fury. “Can I ask why we’re being brushed off?”

Jack softened his disposition but Amekot did not, and scoffed, “Give me one plausible location where Nikereus would have found a Gargan Heart Stone, and I’ll treat it differently.”

Lain crossed her arms, not breaking eye contact with the Fortmaster even once as she said bluntly, “Probably the same place they found the Immortal Flame. Last I recall, you two didn’t believe that really merited any investigation either and where the fuck would be if we’d chosen to remain that goddamn cynical about that?”

Amekot’s smug face fell away but he rallied behind a scowl. “Watch your tone, Sparrowson.”

Lain sat back in her chair but didn’t break her stare.

As the room soaked up the information that their foe had not one weapon of mass creation, but two, Marken walked back into the room, yawning and holding three coffees. He gently set one down in front of Flinn, who nodded numbly, and then messily slid another over to Kresta, who sat in a similar kind of shock.

Marken waited, but when she said nothing nor even acknowledged it, he muttered, “Oh feel no need to show any thanks, you prick.”

Marken then glanced about the room and saw nothing but awkward faces of the officials and Lain looking smug as a prophet on doomsday. “Did I miss something?”

Jack swallowed the hard truth, as he was known to do, and grumbled, “Getting back on track… Let’s assume Lain’s right. About the Heart Stone and about the Shanii practicing Kharaga. That means we’ll need one distraction force, large enough to bait Nikereus’ entire army. A dozen teams of saboteurs to disable or destroy their primary weapon stores. And two small retrieval units. One to find the Immortal Flame, and one to find the Heart Stone.”

His words hung over them like a fog, and when no one looked relatively close to having any kind of input, Marken leant forward and asked, “I hate to be that person… but can we go back?”

Sidney ignored him. She dug her fingernail into a splintered edge of the table as she asked, “If we get the Flame and the Heart… and we find a way to dispel the Flame… and sever the control of the Heart? Do we actually stand a chance?”

There was a long beat of quiet. Jack waited only to realise even Amekot was waiting on him.

At last, Jack said, “We are playing with toys that were not made us. There is no answer to that question other than I fuckin’ hope so.”

Lain nodded and took a tight breath. “I’ll take it.”