Over the next few weeks, Dad would take us to see the construction of the new walls and towers. A great many furnaces were constructed to turn rock, dirt, clay, and other elements of the earth into bricks, which were then placed onto a square wooden pallet as long as a man. Once the bricks were stacked into a cube, a worker at the top of the wall would pull up the bricks with rope attached to the pallet at its corners. Since Dad had taught us the basics of counting, Id and I were able to assign meaning to the sheer scale of the operation; there were perhaps hundreds of pallets of bricks going up the wall at any one time.
This routine went on for a month before one day it changed. Dad was speaking with Leander when a look of concern suddenly crossed his face and he asked us, “Now that the battle is only a month away, can you see what will happen?”
I looked to Id. “On it,” she replied, going silent for a few seconds before continuing. “Okay, so in the immediate future, we lose,” she told me.
I relayed this to Dad and Leander.
“First, the Sahalians destroy the aqueducts,” Id explained. “Then they construct a giant mirror and focus the sun to start fires in the city. In the ensuing chaos, they construct another mirror that no one notices. They point this onto the main Sahalian force, gathered at the opposite wall, and…” Id sounded confused, then continued a moment later, “The whole Sahalian army jumps over the wall. That doesn’t make sense, does it?”
When I told this to Dad and Leander, neither of them looked confused but instead surprised when I mentioned the Sahalians jumping over the wall. When I asked how they could perform such a feat, Dad answered, “The Sahalians are the children of Light, just as we are the children of Gravity.” At my confused look, he elaborated, “They gain strength from Light as we gain strength from Gravity.”
“We gain strength from Gravity?” I inquired.
“You see those workers over there?” Dad pointed to the workers lifting the bricked pallets up the wall. I nodded and he continued, “Despite Humans and Sahalians being roughly equal in strength, it would take perhaps seven or eight Sahalians to accomplish what he is doing with ease.” He looked to see if I understood, then changed the subject. “Back to the matter at hand, what does our future look like now that you’ve made your prediction?”
“We win now, but just barely,” provided Id. “If Leander would keep those defensive weapons out of sight until the battle starts, we will win without contest.”
I relayed this to Dad and Leander.
“Defensive weapons?” asked Leander. “I don’t think we have any weapons for defending walls or anything else during a siege. Do I invent these weapons? What do they look like?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. In our head, Id gave an exasperated sigh.
“Right, that would complicate the future, wouldn’t it?” he responded to our unspoken objection.
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As the day of the battle approached, Id narrowed the precision of her prediction from a specific date to a specific hour to a specific minute. The Sahalians had chosen noon of the Summer Solstice to launch their attack, maximizing the efficacy of their mirrors and the blessing of Light. When all preparations had been made and the day of the battle dawned, Dad brought us to the command headquarters where General Aegeus would give a speech to his soldiers.
Once he saw us arrive, he began. “Let me begin by acknowledging that you are afraid,” he said. A nervous whisper drifted through the defenders.
Aegeus continued, “You are afraid of what it means for the Sahalians to attack so soon, after only a century. You are afraid that Gravity will not perform a miracle to save us. More simply, you are afraid for your own lives. I understand these fears, though I do not share them. This fear of yours has blinded you to a simple truth: there is someone else who is scared. There is someone who sees their end soon approaching and has lashed out in desperation. I do not presume to speak of the green scalies themselves – I speak of their master, Light.” Many of the men exchanged confused looks with each other.
“Think about it. A mere twenty years after the discovery of magic, and the enemy is at our door. Light knows the potential of Nomos and seeks to snuff out this discovery before we can fully realize it. Pay heed: we are the sole holders of this power. So should we fail – should Sofia be destroyed – Light’s fears will be assuaged, for Nomos will be erased from humanity’s knowledge and our people’s eventual demise will be carved into history’s stone.” Many of the soldiers hung their heads while others swallowed nervously.
“Do not look so unsettled. We will not fall here,” Aegeus assured them. “Today is the day we solidify our victory! Once the Sahalians are repelled, the strength of Nomos will grow, and humanity shall gain the upper hand. I promise you, Gravity will perform no miracle for there will be no need – Aristocles has ensured it. Who here remembers his grand promise of something greater than Nomos? I do, and I can tell you that his avowal stands on solid ground, for it was the fruit of that which has warned us of this attack” The General point to me. “And it is that same fruit which will secure our victory!” The Sofian soldiers gave a hesitantly confident shout.
I settled in for another argument. “Okay, Id,” I told her, “today you are going to need to make a lot of predictions. I hope you will cooperate with me, father, and the rest of the city.”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” responded a confused Id.
“Well, it’s just that you have been difficult at making lots of predictions,” I said, taken aback.
“I refuse to make predictions that don’t matter,” explained Id with a sigh. “Who cares what side a coin is going to land on?”
“But these predictions do matter?” I questioned.
Bewildered, Id answered, “Yes! Do they not matter to you?”
“No, of course they matter to me,” I assured her. “It’s just that the predictions you made a month ago insisted we would win handily. Are you now uncertain of our victory?”
“Oh no, we will win. A defeat is no longer possible,” confirmed Id.
“Then why care?” I asked her, confused at her nature despite having shared the same body for two months.
“I want as many Sahalians to die as possible,” Id stated flatly.
“Well, I want as few of the Humans to die as possible,” I said.
“Those two futures are the same,” insisted Id.
“Good, as long as our motives are aligned,” I assured her.
“I just wish Mom were here,” Id whined. “This battle is going to be a while and I’ll need food.”
“That’s reasonable enough,” I conceded.
I conveyed Id’s request to Dad. He complied, having a messenger go to fetch her.
“Can I please have control? It would make this whole process so much simpler,” complained Id.
“Absolutely not,” I said, putting my figurative foot down. “I’ve witnessed enough of your behavior to know that giving you control under any circumstances would lead to disaster. You care for only yourself, which means you must be kept in check.”
“Why do you have to be such an obstacle?” whined an exasperated Id.
In the hours leading up to the battle a tense patience settled over the city, Aegeus ordered me to give him an update on the location of the enemy.
“They approach from the south and will arrive here at the foretold time,” reported Id. “Although, there is something strange,” she added. “They are marching in two columns. There is a distinction between them.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her.
“Well, they are both green,” she told me, “but the ones on the left are lighter.”
When I relayed this to the room, Aegeus answered the question about the difference in the Sahalians color. “It’s the men and women. Unlike us Humans, there is no real difference between the two within Sahalia. The only differences they have are the obvious reproductive parts and the females are a lighter shade of green so they can tell each other apart.”
“What are reproductive parts?” I asked.
Dad gave a look as though he wanted to kill Aegeus, who looked to him and back to me before answering, “When you’re older.”
After a few more tense minutes Aegeus asked, “How are our troops doing?”
At this, Id projected what she was seeing into our shared mind for me to see. Our vision swept over the city. We could see the men who were of fighting age: all had been given arms and armor. They were along the wall with most either guarding the aqueducts or where the Sahalians were predicted to make their great leap. However, if one were to look from outside the wall it would appear that the Sofian forces were evenly spread.
The spirit of the Sofian soldiers was a mix of anxiety, determination, and anger. Id turned our perspective from the defenses to the interior of the city. We could see the women and men who were not of the right age to fight all waiting by the various distribution points where they could get water from the aqueducts. Armed with buckets, they were ready to put out any fires.
“The defenders are all in position,” I told Aegeus. “The water brigade is at their places, too.”
“Good,” Aegeus replied.
“Why are you so nervous?” Dad asked him.
“Only fools are not nervous before a battle,” answered Aegeus.
After a few more minutes, Mom arrived.
“Can Mom hold us? We’ve been spending a lot of time with Dad lately,” requested Id.
“That’s okay, I guess,” I answered.
I gave Id’s request and was handed over.
“Sure,” answered Dad before picking us up and handing us to Mom. “Here you go, dear.”
Id shifted our perspective to the Sahalian army. Sahalians were creatures entirely unlike Humans, except for the fact that they also walked on two legs and had two arms. Instead of tanned skin, they had green scales. Their black tongues were thin and split into two points. The shape of their pupils was that of snakes with golden irises. The ends of their fingers had black claws. The Sahalians were also clad in bronze, like Human soldiers; however, instead of single-plated armor with shaped abs and pectorals, theirs was made of bronze scales. They had oval wooden shields that had semi-circles cut out of the side to the left and right of the center, unlike the Human circular bronze shields. In contrast to Human swords which had a bulge near the top of the blade, Sahalian swords were widest at the base and got consistently narrower to the tip.
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The Sahalians marched up the last of the southern hills. Once over the crest, they would be visible to the defenders. Before that happened, the female contingent of the attackers broke off from the males to enter the forest that was to the east of Sofia. Both sides were carrying equipment clearly meant for the construction of a giant mirror.
“The enemy should be visible any second now,” I reported.
A few seconds later, a yellow flag was seen waving atop the southern wall.
“The enemy has been sighted,” came a shout from one of the scouts.
“That’s just the men they are seeing,” I said. “Their women went into the forest and will emerge once enough fires have been started to distract us.”
“Noted,” said Aegeus.
The male Sahalian contingent continued to march north-west to the foot of the mountain directly west of Sofia. They were careful to stay out of range of the defenders’ slings.
When the male Sahalians arrived at the point where the aqueduct met the foot of the mountain, a yellow flag was waved from the west section of the wall.
“Order the counterattack,” Aegeus told a messenger, who went off running.
The male Sahalians had placed enormous ladders on the side of the aqueducts, to then climb up to the top. Some of them began the construction of the first giant mirror.
Then, the messenger arrived. The Sofian captain yelled, “Charge the saboteurs!”
A division of defenders climbed down from the wall to be on top of the aqueduct and ran along the top to meet where the Sahalians were attempting to destroy the pipe. Axes and hammers were their tools of destruction. When they saw the charging Humans, they hastened their work; however, they only accomplished a few leaks – nothing that would hamper the efforts of the water brigade – before they were forced to drop their tools, pick up their shields, and draw their weapons to meet the defenders in battle.
The initial impact the Humans had was to drive the Sahalians a few steps back, but the lizardfolk managed to push the Humans off them long enough to form ranks. Even though the Sahalians far outnumbered the counter-attackers, the advantage was negated by the shape of the aqueduct. Both sides were forced to only have three wide ranks: one on top of the pipe itself and two on either side, on the bricks that held it in place. However, the Sahalians were empowered by the strength of the summer sun and so began to drive the Humans back.
Once the mirror was a quarter to complete, the Sahalians on the ground turned the assembly to face the city. The giant mirror was made of several smaller mirrors attached to a support structure. They could rotate to a limited degree and were controlled by Sahalians turning cranks. However, only a quarter strength was clearly not yet enough as no fires were started.
One of the Sofian soldiers in the left rank, while waiting for his turn to join the melee, saw the partial mirror aimed at his city. His face first showed a look of desperation, then determination. He sheathed his sword, put his shield on his back, and dropped to hang from the ledge. From this position, he shimmied his way forward until he was at the feet of the lead Sahalian. He drew his sword and stabbed him in the leg. The invader’s eyes went wide with pain and confusion before falling over the edge. His claws scratching the aqueduct, but failing to stop his decent.
“So much more satisfying seeing it in the present!” exclaimed Id with glee.
The next Sahalian had a look of surprise and took his place at the front. He was forced to protect his legs with his shield from the hanging soldier while parrying the attacks from the human directly in front of him with his sword. This effort was ultimately futile and the standing soldier stabbed him in the throat, causing the Sahalian to double over and fall. A soldier on the right flank decided to copy the hanging soldier on the left; the Humans now had five ranks to the Sahalians’ three, effectively outnumbering them at the front line. This forced the Sahalians to copy the Humans’ new tactic. This would mitigate the Human advantage, but not eliminate it.
There was a new melee. Those hanging off the aqueduct were now engaged in a fight for which no one on either side had been trained, though the best techniques soon revealed themselves. While the goal of striking an exposed vital point remained, there were two new twists: first was that shields could not be used; any incoming attack would have to be defended against with one’s own sword. Second was that the arm and hand holding onto the aqueduct was now a vital area; if enough damage was dealt to their load-bearing limbs, the soldier would fall from their perch to the ground – though this was only a concern for the Sahalians.
This caused another stalemate, but one that did not last long. While the hanging Sahalians on the sunny side of the aqueduct could keep up with their human opponent, the Sahalians on the side in shadow were without their Light’s blessing and needed to expend energy in order to hang. The Humans, however, did not; they began to win by attrition, and the front line was slowly being pushed forward. Too slowly.
Suddenly, a fire broke out in the city. It was quickly spotted, and the water brigade put it out before it had a chance to spread.
Aegeus saw the smoke and told a messenger, “Order the use of the ballistae.”
“Tell him to call off the order,” said Id, showing me that if the ballistae were used now then the Sahalians would retreat and not much damage would be done to them. I saw this as a good future, but Id had said that the future where all the Sahalians were killed was also the future where the fewest Humans died.
“Don’t send that order,” I told the General.
“If we don’t destroy that mirror, the city will burn,” retorted Aegeus.
“The water brigade can handle delaying the mirror’s destruction a while longer,” said Id. “It is imperative that the female Sahalians begin their attack before we destroy either mirror.”
Id changed our vision to the female Sahalians hiding in the woods to the east of the city. They had assembled several large pieces of the mirror but were clearly waiting out of sight for when the city was at its weakest.
“Total victory requires us to wait,” I said aloud.
Aegeus hesitated for a long moment before looking at the messenger standing in the doorway. The messenger looked ready to bolt the second he was given the order.
“Cancel that last command,” Aegeus told him.
The messenger stepped back into the room, uncertain.
Id turned my attention back to the battle on top of the aqueduct. One of the Sahalians on the ground turned from his work of constructing the mirror to see the gradually-approaching fight above him. In an act of desperation, he abandoned the mirror to pick up a pickaxe, thinking to use it to tear down one of the support arches of the aqueduct. A Human in the back saw this and jumped from his position to land on the ground in an attempt to stop him. Empowered by Gravity, he rushed forward at considerable speed; despite the sizable distance between them, the man closed the gap with the Sahalian before he had a chance to exchange his tool for sword and shield. With one stroke empowered by the blessing of Gravity, the Sahalia was decapitated.
This got the attention of the other Sahalians on the ground; several of them drew their arms and charged. The man knew that while he was stronger than any Sahalian on the battlefield at the moment because of Gravity, he could not defeat this threat. If they wouldn’t simply overwhelm him, they could outlast his blessing. The man decided to use his remaining blessed energy to regain his place atop the aqueduct. Knowing that he couldn’t reach the top in one jump since he had already used some of the energy, he aimed for the nearest hanging soldier, squatted down, and released all he had left. He flew away from the ground at first, but his ascent began to slow. He reached out, and at the apex of this flight, grabbed the ankle of one of the other Sofian soldiers hanging from the aqueduct. The hanging Human looked down in befuddlement for a moment, confused at the sudden yank, before remembering he was in the middle of a battle and parried a strike at his face before he could lose an eye. The once-grounded soldier, with a violent pull, rose the remaining height to rejoin his place in the formation.
The battle on the aqueduct raged on while Id kept changing our vision from the city itself to the Sahalians hiding in the forest, then back again to the aqueduct. By this point, the sun had passed its zenith, which was beginning to have a noticeable effect on the Sahalians as the Human advance began to increase in speed – until the Sahalian men completed the mirror. New columns of smoke began to rise from the city at an alarming rate, which drifted into our room filling it with an acrid stench.
The captain of the female Sahalians gave the order to charge, and they emerged from the forest. The remaining work to complete the second mirror was done in minutes; the shimmering surface was now focused on the advancing Sahalians.
“Use the Ballista! Now!” Id screamed.
I relayed this to Aegeus.
“Raise the red flag now!” he shouted.
The messenger ran outside to the flagpole and raised the flag in a hurry.
The Captains of the eastern and western defenses had both been waiting anxiously for this and gave their orders the moment they saw the red flag flapping in the wind. They ordered the ballistae, which had been placed out of sight, to be deployed.
Leander’s newly-invented defensive weapon was a very large bow aligned horizontally. The arms, when undrawn, were as long as two men placed on top of each other. Of course, no one man could draw this behemoth; a system of pullies, levers, and weights pulled the string back. The bolts were long enough to come up to a man’s shoulder and two inches wide.
The Captain of the western defense got out his speaking trumpet and whistle. He brought the trumpet to his mouth and blew the whistle as hard as he could. The Captain of the forces on the aqueduct looked back to the ballistae being prepared and ordered all soldiers to hang over the side.
The first shot from the defenders on the wall was aimed at the mirror. The arrow sailed through the air, covering the enormous distance with tremendous speed. It crashed straight through the mirror, causing it to shatter and the support structure to collapse.
With the primary threat dealt with, the ballistae was loaded with a bundle of smaller, but still large, arrows and aimed at the Sahalians still remaining on the aqueduct. The wave of arrows flew and killed many Sahalians. On and on the bombardment went. In front of them, the Human army remained hanging, ready to cut at them should they advance, and to the side was a drop so great that only a Human with Gravity’s blessing could survive it. The Sahalians who had recovered from their shock tried to form a shield wall. However, the beefy arrows easily pierced their wooden shields. Eventually the enemy decided their best chance was to run toward the mountain in hope of getting out of range of the ballistae. On the arrows flew, taking out another handful of the retreating Sahalia when they found their mark, before the remaining Sahalians escaped the ballistae’s range.
The Captain on the aqueduct ordered most of his men back to the top and to charge the fleeing enemy, and ordered the remaining Humans to finish off those who remained on the ground. The Humans who dropped from their perch quickly closed the distance and cut down the rest of the male Sahalian ground forces, thanks to the blessings of Gravity. Once they were fully defeated, the ladders were destroyed to trap any Sahalians remaining above.
The Sofians remaining on the aqueduct chased the Sahalians in their retreat. The enemy fled the length of the aqueduct, coming to a stop where it met the mountain. There they turned and reformed their ranks to meet the Sofians. A repeat of the previous engagement commenced, only now the Sahalians had nowhere to retreat and had less than half their original numbers.
When the Sofians on the ground caught up with the melee above, some climbed the aqueduct while others scaled the adjacent mountain. The Sahalians quickly found attacks coming at them from all sides as the Sofians on the mountain made their approach. All the Sahalians were either cut down or thrown off the aqueduct to be killed by Gravity.
Meanwhile, the Captain of the east defense ordered the men who were not operating the ballistae to jump from the wall to land behind the female Sahalians waiting to gather enough blessing of Light for their great jump. The Humans formed ranks when they landed, thus pinning the female Sahalians against the wall.
“No where to run now!” said Id with great revelry.
It only took one shot for the second mirror to be destroyed, collapsing it and killing most of its operators. The few remaining tried to flee into the woods; some of the men remaining on the wall jumped down and gave chase to them, killing all the Sahalians.
The battle abutting the wall was going terribly for the Sahalian women. The position of the sun now put them in the wall’s shadow, preventing them from receiving any more blessings of Light. They had to rely on their own strength, which was no match for the blessing the Humans had from Gravity. Every last one of them were butchered by the considerably smaller Human force. It was a total Human victory. Not a single Sahalian that had come to destroy Sofia was left alive.
Jubilant, a chant went up in the headquarters, carried throughout the rest of the city: “Victory! Victory! Victory!”. However, there were still fires to be put out. Once Sofia was no longer burning, funeral arrangements were made for the fallen soldiers. Those who had died in the defense of the city were carried up the mountain to be entombed in stone so that they may be closer to our creator. In total, around six hundred men and a dozen or so members of the water brigade had died in fighting the Sahalian assault. During the funeral procession, several questions occurred to me.
“Id, did you not say that the future where the most Sahalia died was the one where the least humans died?” I questioned.
“I did say that,” answered Id.
“Look at these corpses, Id. Was this the minimum deaths?” I demanded. “Surely not. As you said, if we used the ballistae too early it would result in the Sahalia retreating – but that would surely have resulted in fewer human deaths.”
“In this battle, no one would have died if we had used the ballistae immediately,” Id confirmed flatly.
“So, you lied to me?” I said, aghast.
“No,” Id explained. “If we had used the ballistae immediately, they would have retreated and returned later with better siege weapons. Sofia would have fallen. With this battle, Sahalia cannot hope for another attack for several years.”
“We could have devised better weapons of defense by then,” I argued.
“You aren’t seeing the big picture,” Id sighed. “Humanity will never be safe until Sahalia is no more. This battle was a great step in that direction – twenty thousand of them in exchange for six hundred of us is an excellent trade in the long run.”
I was appalled at Id’s callous treatment of human life, but then I realized something was off about her. “You are usually so full of passion, but now you are calm,” I questioned.
Id was confused at first, but realization came over her and she said, “Ah, it must be happening again.”
“What is happening?” I asked.
“Something similar to this happened leading up to you separating from me,” she explained.
“So, someone new will join us?” I repeated. “How long will that be?”
“I’ve only had this happen once before, but last time it was a week,” Id told me.
Instead of a week, it took four years.