“What’s our plan now?” Sam asks. “Head to the village to get a sitrep, and then head straight for wherever the main group of enemies is?”
“That’s what I was assuming too.” I nod.
“Yes, that’s pretty much what we had in mind as well.” Veanya smiles. “Whatever you decide, we will follow your lead, Amicia.”
“Then I guess that’s what we are going to do...” I start walking in the direction of the village with a rather unsteady pace. But before I can set three paces, Gamma already stops me.
“Are we going to go on foot?” Gamma. “That will take quite a while wouldn’t it? V can just conjure us some horses.”
“Oh… that’s probably not a bad idea.” Especially since we left our dogs back at the mansion. Which reminds me that Sam and I forgot to greet them. It’s weird how being under pressure seems to harm short term memory.
With a snap of her fingers Veanya summons five stallions in the center of the crossroads. “These are just manifestations of my magic. So don’t worry when they get ‘killed’. They are not exactly living beings, although they do look very lifelike.”
Sam takes the reins of the white stallion and then brushes her other hand over the horse’s side. “Remarkable. If you hadn’t told me I would not be able to tell the difference.”
“Thanks for the compliment.” Veanya gloats as she takes one of the horses by its reins as well and gets herself in the saddle. “They can also fly, but let’s keep that for when we need it.”
With extraordinary imaginary horses carrying us to the village, it doesn’t take long before we see the outskirts of the village doom up in front of us. It looks very different from the last time we saw it. And busier. The villagers seem to have evacuated, with reinforcements, both soldiers and adventurers, having taken their place. At first no one is really paying any attention to us as there is quite a lot of activity on the road. People carrying axes heading into the forest, others carrying shovels and wheelbarrows, people hauling supplies and big military kitchens set up near the houses. When finally a couple of people look in our direction however, it doesn’t take long before almost all eyes get trained in our direction.
Soon after that a soldier who I recognize from our previous visit runs up to us and gives us a salute by tapping his chest twice. “Ma’am, it’s good you are here, the officers will like to see you.”
I mimic his gesture and nod. “Where are they?”
“In the officer’s tent, same spot we used for the tribunal.” He points down the road towards the town center.
“Okay, thank you, we’ll go there then. But tell me. How has the situation been here since we left?”
“Hard to say, ma’am.” He begins. “All the civilians have been moved to cities further away and we’ve had a lot of reinforcements as you can see. It was quiet at first but the enemy has been pressing our forward positions lately and the engagements we were in didn’t really turn out in our favor. Casualty rate is lower than usual though, thanks to adventurer healers. That IS boosting morale, but we’re getting pushed back and they can only do so much. Doesn’t take a wizard to figure out with the way it’s going we won’t be able to hold this position for too much longer…”
I grimace. “That doesn’t sound good.”
To my, the soldier’s and Sam’s surprise, Sidolphus puts a hand on my shoulder and with a reassuring nod addresses the soldier. “We’ll do what we can, friend. Thank you for the info.”
The soldier, seemingly contemplating whether or not to ask who this man is, eventually performs the same salute once more and then runs off to start delegating some people who are running around with building materials, apparently having decided he has more pressing concerns.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Looks like they are building up defenses.” Sidolphus notes. “That attack must really be imminent judging from how antsy they all are.”
“Yes, I don’t think we came a moment too soon.” Veanya looks around. “And the feeling in the air is also starting to unsettle me.”
“Mhmm.” Sid nods. “The Diaboli probably have realized we have arrived already.”
Sam looks at me with a questioning look but whatever Veanya is feeling, I can’t really sense it myself yet, at least not as strongly as it appears to be affecting her. Leading me to look at Veanya as well.
Veanya, either reading our mind or just anticipating the question, gives me a slightly uncomfortable yet friendly smile. “My magic detection is quite a bit better trained than yours, Amicia.” she explains.
“Don’t worry, we are on par with you, Amicia.” Gamma replies. “Mana, aether, magical energy, it’s kind of Veanya’s specialization.”
“And do you really think we have been made already?” Sam asks.
“Without a doubt.” Sid replies. “With four gods here, our energy is sticking out like a sore thumb to anyone looking for it. And you already got caught near their main base so… They are looking.”
“That means we should probably get going?” I ask.
Sid just gives me a single affirmative nod.
“Okay… then let’s not waste time and see what the officers have to say before we make our next move…”
Making our way to the center of the settlement delivers us more and more gazes. So it’s not a big surprise that, by the time we get to the officer’s tent, the word of our arrival has already made it there. Their entire delegation is waiting on us outside. The officers are all the same people who we encountered last time but the adventurer delegation has quite a few new faces, not too surprising considering the little handicap players have in this world.
One of the new faces bears a symbol that I recognize in an instant. It's a symbol that belongs to Crystal’s guild. After hearing that the situation was even more serious than they thought, they must’ve sent their people out to provide support, especially now that the conflict between soldiers and adventurers had been somewhat resolved.
“Good to have you back, Amicia.” One of the officers greets me. “We can definitely use your help right about now.” He gives my party a look over and gives a nod to Sam as well. “Who are the new faces?”
“The others had other pressing matters…” I lied. “But these adventurers are very capable people.”
The officer goes over the three of them and rests his inspection on Sidolphus. “They definitely look capable. Well, it’s regrettable the others aren’t here because we can use every hand we can get, but I trust your judgment, of course.”
As to direct the attention away from our three gods, Sam starts asking questions. “We heard from one of the soldiers that there have been attacks?”
The officer looks at Sam and gives her a nod. “Yes, they’ve been testing the perimeter defenses and we’ve had to give ground in quite a lot of places.” The officers and adventurers lead us into what looks to be a war room with one of those big maps at the center spread over a huge table. I recognize some of the markings as the markings that were on the map that we handed over. “To say it like it is, we are spread way too thin. We’ve tried attacking some of the camps you’ve pointed out to us and some of those attacks were successful. However, when we tried to pacify the area completely, we would get reports from attacks on farmlands and that’s pretty much how it’s been going ever since. Our war parties are constantly on the move trying to quench whatever is transpiring on the fields, paralyzing our offensive capabilities. We can’t hunker down too much either or the enemy is going to start starving the nation by destroying all of our crops. This is the only place we’ve really been trying to make a stand as it’s obvious this is where their main force is situated thanks to your scouting actions.”
“If you know this, why are there not even more people here?” Sam asks, pointing at the map. “Sure you have more soldiers here now than last time, but this is surely still not a big part of your army, right?”
Another officer takes the lead this time as he points at one of the neighboring countries, quite a lot of flags are planted near the border on the map. “That’s the issue right there, ma’am. The centerpoint of these attacks lie within our borders and our neighbors have been left alone. That’s a very clear sign of weakness. If we pull forces away from the border, as imminent as the danger posed by this internal foe seems,...”
“Your neighbors are likely to pounce to conquer territory?”
The officer nods. “The border is well-fortified. Leaving those positions to deal with this threat… Even if we manage to quench whatever is attacking us… We are going to get run underfoot by our neighbors afterwards. Once you start running…”
“Even if this might become a threat for them too?”
“The fact that it isn’t for now is enough reason for them not to care too much.”
-Geopolitics might be the end of them all, and yet…-