There are seven more blasphemies before dawn, and a further eighth before I am satisfied, finally passing out in Renee's warm embrace. It was, I must confess, 'pretty fucking magical', even if I wonder how I picked up such language. I used to be such a good girl too, and now it seems like I am a dedicated defiler of the divine dogma... Maybe that's why things go so wrong for me, maybe my wrongness is yet another thing causing issues for the whole army.

... But it feels so right... Which means there must be some good reason why it’s not really blasphemy against Her Majesty. Blasphemy shouldn’t feel this good after all, shouldn’t feel this correct, which means that, just like with Pasche, I clearly didn’t blaspheme! … Even if this is practically a textbook example of something I should only be doing with Her Majesty, and thus should be content to never do at all… There has to be a reason why this is okay. There has to be a reason.

As I wake I feel the Sun's warmth bearing down on me, reminding me very much of my native Kerska. I find myself wrapped in a lovely blanket… A nice gesture, one which preserves my modesty a bit, and yet I can't help but be a little confused. I thought I’d wake up wrapped in Renee, and yet she’s nowhere to be seen… Given the position of the Sun in the sky, it’s mid-afternoon at the earliest, and I must’ve slept the better part of the day away. Plenty of time for a woman to go walkabout... I should simply accept that she left me in my sleep, and yet I can’t help but get to my feet and search the grove for any sign of her and where she went. After all, I don’t think I’d have been able to sleep that night without her… I thought I’d made a new friend.

I quickly find something that wasn’t here the night before, a painted canvas lying on the altar in the grove. And on that canvas is a painting of a sleeping girl, with mousey black hair and a Carthaginian skin tone. It's... Me. And in spite of my plainness, my unremarkability, she has made me look beautiful, depicting me in a field of white flowers, errant petals covering certain... Awkward parts of my anatomy. Renee knows what she’s doing, not simply finding and depicting beauty, but making it.

"Was... Was this a gift? Or should I leave it here, or... I have no idea what to do with this."

I stare at the painting, trying to figure out what it means for it to be here and for Renee to be missing.

I stare so long that I don't even notice Pasche entering the grove until she’s already sharing the space with me. "Oh, thank the gods, there you are, we've been looking- AAAH!"

Oh right. I’m naked, aren't I?

I tilt my head lazily Paschewards, I am still far too sleepy for this. "We've shared a bath together, mademoiselle Pasche. How are you this-"

"Th... This is different! ... Your hair is a mess, Serena, and you look... Genuinely, actually relaxed." Her voice is rather small, like every word is effort and every bit of power behind it was agony. "I... Um... I'm here to give my report on the battle, but I can wait until you are dressed, General!"

"... Did you see a beautiful blonde woman on your way here, Pasche?"

"I can't say I did, General-"

"Serena, please."

"I can't say I did, Serena."

It’s a silly hope to hold, but I have to ask. It seems Renee is just gone, and it’s time for me to be the Steel kind of grown-up again. I look around for my scattered clothing, not much bothered by Pasche's eyes. She’s my second best friend after all, it seems reasonable to me for this to be normal, even if she doesn't seem to understand it.

"Give your report then, Pasche."

"S... Serena-"

"Your report?"

"R... Right!" She seems to be trying her absolute hardest to look at anything but me, does she maybe not think we're best friends like I do? "S... So! Xena, Katarina, and the priests are still hard at work. We've counted almost 20,000 Coalition dead already, and there are still many bodies to go… Even working through the night with Xena’s chemical solution, there’s probably still a lot left to count and… Process.”

I really don't want to start any morning discussing the number of bodies I am responsible for, least of all this one. "There certainly did seem to be a lot of them..."

"Best estimates put the enemy force at over 40,000, outnumbering us at least twice over. The Coalition losing the initiative here really is a fantastic accomplishment, one that should keep Avernia safe until reinforcements arrive at the very least. It was a frankly stunning victory."

"Please don't-" I bite my tongue, the word ‘victory’ remains as unbearably bitter as it was the night before. "Please don't give me hagiography. Just the numbers and the situation, Pasche, I beg you."

Pasche hesitates for a moment, her voice becoming even smaller somehow as she tries to excise the praise for my 'victory' from her tone. "We have about four thousand battle-ready troops, another two thousand walking wounded, eight thousand in the field hospital, of which we believe our medical staff can save about two thousand... And six thousand dead in battle, including the entire 68th regiment holding the hill on the left flank."

To the last man and the last heartbeat, my chest hurts when I remember what I had them do up there. "And the cavalry?"

"Of the about two thousand we had, about one thousand are battle ready, about four hundred in the hospital, about six hundred dead."

"And the civilians?"

"... About four thousand in hospital, about two thousand dead... And many in the hospital, including the mayor, refuse to be treated by our priestesses of Cotton. Which works out I suppose, our support staff is too busy with army regulars anyway. The best they can get is to die in relative comfort, Xena's produced some other 'chemical solutions' for those less likely to recover."

"... Steel is a hungry god, isn't he?"

"That he is, Serena. That he is..."

Part of me knows I am too tired to cry about the sheer scale of death in the wake of my 'victory', but I want to return to sleep and mourning.

And I can do that, once I get the answer to one more question. "And the Icenians. Have we seen any sign of them?"

"Not a sight of red banners, not a hint of the Stag's Head anywhere in Avernian territory. I suppose the Teutons marched ahead of their Icenian allies and got separated from them."

"Thank the gods for that small mercy I suppose... I'll need to organize the men, prepare for a possible Icenian attack when they arrive, rebuild the fortifications, build more traps-"

"Please put your dress on first, Serena!"

I look down to see my various articles of clothing in my hands, which I have utterly failed to even begin to put on. Pasche is entirely correct, even if I feel something of a reluctance to dress that I don't fully understand. As if, the moment I put on the officer's dress again, my night with Renee will be truly and completely over... But hesitation gets you killed, so I begin to put on my underthings.

"So... Serena... You mentioned a beautiful blonde woman. Did... Did uh..." Pasche is stammering, I’m sure I'd find it cute any morning other than this one.

"She left me all alone with only a blanket and a portrait for company...” It’s beginning to sting in honesty, being faced with her absence. “If she hadn’t been so wonderful I'd probably be less upset."

"Oh... Wait, portrait?"

Pasche finally notices the painted canvas upon the altar, and she immediately averts her eyes, covering her mouth. I personally think it’s a nice painting, why’s she having such a violent reaction to it? Maybe Pasche just has weird taste in art…

"General Pollineux!" A voice I've not heard in almost a month, a fellow student of the Military Academy, someone else I don't know well... The woman behind that voice is entering the grove where I am still getting dressed. "We have been looking everywhere for you- ..."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I stare at my comrade witch, who stares back with a sense of clear confusion at finding me in such a state. "... Please tell me you're with an Avernian relief army to reinforce us here."

"I am with an Avernian relief army here to reinforce the Army of the East. They're still on the road, I was sent an urgent message via the message witch to ride ahead." She takes one final look around, it finally occurring to her where she has found me. "... I hope you got a receipt, General Pollineux-"

"Serena, please!"

The comrade witch pinches the bridge of her nose, it seems she has something of a problem with me beyond the ‘me being half-naked’ thing. "If this were a social call then I would happily call you Serena, but I'm afraid this isn't that..."

This raises an eyebrow from me and almost raises a fist from Pasche, who moves between myself and the comrade witch, as if trying to act as a human privacy curtain. "Then what kind of call is this, whoever you are? My girl- My General has received too much bad news this morning as it is."

"I'm afraid that there's no such thing as too much bad news... General Pollineux, the Convention of Humanity has voted to recall you from the Army of the East in light of your shameful withdrawal in the Battle of Canstatt."

"... Th- That happened two nights ago, how did you-"

"Testimony from General Malmo was-"

"But Malmo is dead!"

"Not nearly as dead as I imagine you would like, General. Abandoning him on the field of battle to flee with the bulk of the army, according to his account of things-"

"We were going to be surrounded, I was saving the army! He offered to stay behind and cover our retreat… How did he even get back to Alesia fast enough to report this?!"

"I am not the one you need to argue your case with... Serena." The comrade witch relents just a little bit, and I soon realize that I’ve been screaming. "You will need to return to the capital and report to The Convention and The Royal Family. Both of them have publicly condemned your retreat."

"... Even the Queen-"

"Even Her Grace."

I feel light-headed all of a sudden, like I might pass out onto the altar and simply die there. Here I am, doing only the best I can, and now... I know for a fact that I have upset Her Majesty. My own personal goddess… Is this because I blasphemed against her in this Grove? Did I do wrong? This is when the tears start, maybe I’m inured to the deaths of tens of thousands, but the ire of the Queen? There is simply nothing in me that could resist that pain... This day can’t possibly be worse-

"Little Plain General Girl of Avernia!" ... Avernian, but accented with Icenian, another woman is entering the grove from the other end... An enemy.

I turn to face this newcomer, a blonde, svelte young woman wearing an Icenian dragoon uniform and a seemingly permanent scowl. Her face is well suited for it, I don’t think anything else would fit her severe features.

Slung across her back is a cavalry carbine, on her hip is a sword, and on a bandolier on her chest there are three different pistols. This woman is a walking arsenal, and now she is in this grove with us three Avernians... While I am so unarmed that I am literally half-naked.

It’s all I can do to try to stop my tears in the face of this newcomer and try instead to match her ire. "Lapdog of the Coalition. What are you doing here?"

Pasche shifts herself over to form her little privacy curtain between me and this Icenian, this time infuriatingly acting as a human shield. Her hand is on the hilt of her saber, ready to draw it at a moment's notice and escalate things.

But the Icenian isn’t interested in escalation, she instead produces a letter from one of her jacket pockets, trying to hand it to me through Pasche. "My mistress, Anastasia Delphine, would like to present you this letter to congratulate you on your victory. Gods only know why she would bother showing an Avernian such respect, but my mistress' commands are absolute. She let me know I would find you in this grove."

I reach over Pasche's shoulder to accept the letter, a rather fancy thing with a seal and everything... But the letter doesn't interest me as much as the Icenian's last statement. "How did she know I was going to be here? No one saw me come here, no one knew I'd be in a Grove of Velvet! The only one who could have told her was Renee and... And I pray she didn't."

The Icenian looks about ready to spit on me in sheer disgust for my speculations. "Do not dare imply my mistress is so base and rakish as to employ spies! She has her own methods, ones you would not even begin to understand the elegance of! You will apologize to my mistress at once!"

Pasche meanwhile looks about ready to forgo her sword entirely and punch the Icenian in the face. "Hey! You will treat my girl with respect, or I will fuck you up!"

"Such vulgarity! Are all Avernians like this or has the Plain Little General Girl taught you bad habits?"

"Those are fighting words, you frosty bitch!"

"Avernian sow."

"Your mistress is a coward, sending a letter instead of an army. She knows Serena would send her packing home to that cold shithole you call a country!"

"How dare you?!"

“Don’t like it? Come over here and shut me up then!”

“Gladly!”

The Icenian slips off her jacket with all its guns, sliding her carbine free to let it fall and join them, and then leaps at Pasche with her fist raised. Pasche, apparently feeling sporting, slips her gloves off to fight this Icenian bare-knuckle, and soon the two are grappling in the grove of the goddess of beauty and absent priestesses. And I simply can't deal with this, it’s one indignity too many. I quickly put on my dress and turned my attention to my comrade witch, trying to avoid looking at the catfight on the ground behind me.

"... So, if I'm being recalled, who is going to command the Army of the East? Malmo?"

"No, he has requested leave, he took some minor injuries in the Battle of Canstatt and wishes to recuperate at home in Alesia... It's going to fall to me to pick up the pieces you've left behind."

"You? ... The army is asking a lot of us comrade witches."

"It's merely asking for loyalty to the crown, competence is something we have to want for ourselves. Still, I suppose I have you to thank for leaving me something resembling an army to work with if nothing else. I don’t know if I should tell you this, but my own troops aren’t all that substantial in number."

I try to ignore the sounds of someone being choked behind me, those two are still at it. "I'll make sure they know who the new commander is then. And I'll leave you with some of my brother's dispatches, they might be good reading... You'll be expected to learn a lot on the job here."

"... I expected you to be more displeased that I was taking over your command."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly upset. It's just that upset is overshadowed by-"

"Your impending castigation?"

"Having disappointed the Queen."

"... Maybe less than you might think… You might want to get that... Officer? Bodyguard?"

"Second best friend."

"You might want to get your new sapphic off the floor and prepare to return to the capital. It’ll reflect better on you if you are punctual."

"My punishment for my retreat to Avernian territory is to be sent deeper into Avernian territory. Isn't the world a stupid place?"

"I guess it expects us to become stupid enough to understand it."

I give the woman a nod before turning my attention back to Pasche and the stranger, who seem to have tired each other out, laying on the grove floor together and panting.

And whispering amongst themselves, Pasche managing a little power in her voice for having gotten a good fight. "You're good. I bet your mistress is happy to have you."

"And I can tell that, whatever else you are, you are almost as dedicated to your General as I am to Mistress Delphine. There was devotion in that chokehold."

"And love in that punch you gave me... I think we're quite alike, Mademoiselle Siobhan."

"Certainly alike enough that us hating one another was inevitable, Miss Pasche."

"Here's hoping we hate each other forever then."

There’s an odd look to Pasche's eyes, and that of the stranger, this apparent Siobhan. Dear gods, I recognize those eyes, she gave me similar eyes back at the castle after she was shot! I quickly kick Pasche in the back, I couldn’t handle it if she and the Icenian started kissing.

This manages to shake Pasche out of whatever moment she and the Icenian are sharing on the floor, and she gets to her feet with obvious difficulty and exhaustion. She tries to offer the Icenian a hand up, but I won’t allow it, and instead I take Pasche’s offered hand in mine. Siobhan can get herself to her feet... Which she does, before reclaiming her jacket and carbine, and making her leave.

But not before a parting comment. "My mistress expects great things from you, Miss Plain General Girl. She wants someone with a little fight in them to be her greatest rival."

"Rival? I barely know who this woman is, why would I care?"

One last sneer from the Icenian was the only answer I got before she made her leave, ending at least one of the headaches this morning had given me. The comrade witch sighs in relief, while Pasche tries her best to look presentable, her attention back on her fellow Avernians.

She gives the Comrade Witch a look, looking like she’s about to fight someone else for my honor, possibly with the gloves on this time. "So, remind me again, who precisely is this woman? This woman who dares accuse you of cowardice for saving Avernia."

I give Pasche a gentle pat on the shoulder, certain that the next part is probably going to hurt her as much as everything this morning has hurt me. "She's your new boss, Pasche. She is now commander of the Army of the East."