Tirnaog has surprisingly decent bird defenses in place in their capital, Teris commented, sounding a combination of impressed and miffed. It doesn’t look like they’re planning to pull their troops back though, at least not yet.

Yeah, I can tell that, I thought wryly, considering I’m staring at the army right now.

It had been a day and a half since we had received the letter. Hector had made a couple of adjustments to the strategy, though nothing major, and we had headed back to hand it down to the rest of the men. So far, the generals all seemed to be complying, but I was still glad they were Hector’s problems and not mine. My problem was sitting in front of me, bordering Iyer Lake that was fed by the Aldras River, north of where I had fought them before. It was a solid sized army, despite how many of them I had slaughtered, and the flags of a brown boar charging out of the flag with a battleground behind him still dotted the encampment just as much as Aeron’s emblems.

Mobilization had been quick, faster than expected, and now here we all were. While the tail end of the army was still making their way across the plateau, I was here, the generals were here, their war tent set up on a raised hill overlooking what would soon become a battlefield, and most of the soldiers were here.

Perhaps more importantly, Aeron was here, just over the border, their calvary troops leading their horses to drink from the Iyer, close enough that I could make out individual figures, yet still so far.

My strategy was really not complicated. It mostly involved using Ildanach’s men to attempt to funnel the Aeron troops down to me, where I could more easily kill them with abandon. But nothing lasted under the stress of true conflict. Plans would be thrown out the window, and that’s why Hector was up there. His primary duty was to keep friendly soldiers away from me and as much out of harm’s way as could be managed in a war zone. 

And my hope was that there was enough general chaos to cover for my “demonic powers”.

I wondered if I should even bother caring anymore. The Chantry already hated me, and there would always be enough doubt of the supernatural that not everyone would believe it. I didn’t really want to get myself banned from all civilized Houses though, which was a distinct possibility if the rumors got too big.

You want me back? Teris asked.

Might as well. At this point, I don’t think you’re going to be able to tell me much that I won’t be able to see for myself.

Teris sent me a quick affirmative, and I knew he’d be back within the hour, giving me a better vantage point of the battlefield from above.

“Nervous?” Hector asked, coming up beside me from my right.

I shrugged. “Not particularly. You?”

“Nah. Walk on the shore, this.” He flashed me a smile that very nearly convinced me he meant it before we went back to looking over the field. “Tirnaog’s still there.”

“Yeah.” I confirmed. “I’m going to see if I can’t talk to their leader when the conference is called.”

“They’re still going to bother with a conference? The letter seemed pretty definitive.”

I shrugged. “It’s tradition. A conference is always called.”

“You planning to try to intimidate them?”

“It depends on who’s there.” I took a deep breath. “What’re you doing down here anyway? Don’t you have generals to be managing?”

“I’d rather herd cats,” Hector said immediately and with some vehemence before sighing. “I needed a break. They’re taking every opportunity to jab at you, you know. It gets tiring.”

I smiled a bit. “You take offense?”

“Of course! I have better taste in friends than that.”

I breathed a laugh. “I don’t know; I’m pretty awful.”

“Not with a sword, you’re not. Besides, I know you have my back. More than I can say about any of these morons.”

“Even Garret?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I consider the man a friend, but he’s starting to get on my nerves too,” Hector groused. “You sure I can’t come blast people’s faces off with you? It’s so much more relaxing.”

“Unfortunately, no, but I’ll be thinking of you as a I slice some heads off.”

“You should really try one of these heavier models sometimes. They have an immensely satisfying punch to them.”

“You should try a sword sometime,” I told him, smiling sweetly.

“I like being alive, actually.”

I chuckled. “That’s reasonable, I guess. If you want to be one of those people.”

Hector laughed and shook his head slightly before sobering. “What do you think Dahl’s doing?”

“No idea. Probably nothing good.”

“You think he might try to run?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me all that much, but no. At least, I don’t think he’ll try to run until he hears that we won, and then I think it’ll be too late.”

“The girls will stop him?”

“The girls, and Faolain and Ennis also agreed to lend them security muscle. Dahl isn’t to leave the city before the accusations against him have been officially brought before the courts.”

“And then we get to kill him.”

“And then we get to kill him,” I confirmed.

“Well, I suppose I should get back to let them annoy me some more,” Hector said after a short moment of silence, sighing.

“Probably.”

“Hey, Leon?”

“Hm?”

“We’re going to be fine, right?”

I blinked. “Of course.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

“Me too,” I seconded dryly.

Hector nodded once and then headed back up the hill.

I took a breath and ran a hand through my hair. We’d be fine. At the very least, Hector and I would both be fine. It wasn’t much, but it didn’t have to be. It was enough.

I looked back out over the empty fields and across the border to Tirnaog’s land, from which they were launching their assault to avoid having to cross the Aldras, and noticed some figures moving towards us. Looked like it was already time for the pre-game conference.

I turned and jogged up after Hector, tapping him on the shoulder as I arrived just a few seconds after he did.

“Miss me already?”

“We’re having company. You’re coming with me to the conference.”

Hector blinked but accepted it with a quick nod, turning to place his gun on the ground, leaning against a support pole for the tent that shielded them from the suns.

I turned to the other generals and glanced over them real quick. “Barnabas, you’re with me also.”

General Barnabas looked surprised by the declaration, but, following Hector’s lead, just nodded and removed the weapon from his back. “Are you disarming, Captain?”

I put my rifle next to Hector’s gun. “Not any more than this.”

“They are well aware of your proficiency with your blades, Kazere, don’t you think–” Garret started.

I knew he meant well, I really did, but I was getting awfully tired of him second guessing me. “I think frequently,” I said, probably with a little more menace underlying the cheery tone than was strictly necessary. “Perhaps you ought to instead consider the possibility that I just disagree with your advice. Ready?” I turned to Hector.

“Yeah.”

Barnabas nodded, and we started walking to meet the soon to be invaders.

“What’s your first name, Barnabas? If you don’t mind me asking?” I inquired as we made our way across the plains at a leisurely pace.

“Alaric,” he said, sounding rather surprised to be asked.

“I appreciate your help, Alaric.”

He regarded me for a moment. “I’m glad to give it. The men seem to greatly admire and respect you, even when their generals do not.”

I grinned. “I’m glad to hear that. I find them respectable as well.”

“Your strategy seems to put a great premium on their lives and a… shall we say, significantly smaller value upon your own.”

“Isn’t that the mark of good leadership?”

“Only when it works.”

I breathed a slightly surprised laugh at the blunt and utilitarian answer. “Fair enough. It will work– at least, the me not dying part. Hopefully it also works in terms of keeping the others alive.”

Barnabas hummed softly, and we approached the emissaries from our foes.

I didn’t know the Aeron general who stood in the middle, but he was flanked by two soldiers that I did know– surprisingly, both of the same generals from the last time that I had faced off against the Aeron army. Nyle Jervas stood on the right side of the Aeron general who led them, and he no longer seemed to have any sort of cheerfulness to his disposition that had been there upon our first encounter, which was unfortunate. I did wonder, though, how he had come to survive when Seria, the Highlord’s daughter herself, had not.

The Tirnaog General, Benji Coyle, looked downright sheepish to be standing in front of me again after the advice I had given him when we had parted ways, which I found rather humorous.

“Generals!” I greeted cheerfully. “I am Captain Elyon Kazere; you may have heard of me, apparently you have a desire for my head on a pike. This is Captain Hector Wolfe and General Alaric Barnabas. I’m afraid I don’t think we’ve met, specifically,” I said to the man standing in the middle, outfitted in a similar fashion to Jervas but neither as broad nor as tall.

“My name is Faermir Mosse. It’s wonderful to meet you, after everything I’ve heard,” he said smoothly, and I began immediately to question my opener– it seemed this man might not have been a general at all.

“Wonderful? really? Not the normal kind of reception I get from people I’m about to fight,” I said wryly.

Mosse only shrugged. “These are Generals Nyle Jervas and Benji Coyle, though I believe you’ve met before.”

“Well informed, aren’t you?” I asked rhetorically, tone chipper and the smile staying right where it was on my face. “We have indeed met, though Jervas looked less sour.”

“You killed the Highlady Seria and slaughtered the army,” Jervas growled.

“Yet somehow seemed to have missed you. Curious, that,” I noted.

“You consorted with demons,” he hissed.

“And yet you came back! That makes you very brave. Or potentially very stupid.”

Mosse held up a hand before Jervas could respond to my goading. “You can imagine that perhaps Highlord Killough wasn’t terribly happy with any man of any station who returned alive when his daughter did not.”

I struggled not to snicker; it was a real challenge. “Killough is more scary than demons then?” Before anyone could begin got answer, I turned to Coyle. “And you! I thought we talked about this.”

“And I mentioned not having the authority to put an end to the war,” Coyle pointed out, sounding partially apologetic about it regardless. “I did try to get them to put your head on a pike first.”

I breathed a laugh. “I appreciated that; it was flattering.”

“Yet alas, here we are anyway,” Mosse redirected the conversation, inserting himself with decently good timing, “at war.”

“Technically, you could all still turn around and march home. You’ll probably be banished or thrown in the dungeons for treason, but you’d save a lot of lives. You should consider it.”

Coyle looked down; he was considering it. Or, at least, he was considering making the same call as before and watching his comrades be slaughtered. It was different this time, though, because I did bring an army.

Jervas wanted to run; he didn’t want to be anywhere near me. I wasn’t sure if he had been on the battlefield for any part of the previous slaughter, but it was clear that he had been shaken by what the Riftlings had done and how they hadn’t touched a hair on my head. He truly thought I was something beyond this world, and he was terrified of me. But he was also proud.

I was having a hard time reading Mosse. 

“I don’t think so,” Mosse said simply. “Is there anything you would like us to be made aware of before we cross blades?”

I blinked. “Be aware of?”

“In what expression you would like your decapitated faces to be arranged after we mount them on our pikes, for instance?”

I paused for a short beat, truly taken off guard by the casual threat. And then I breathed a laugh. “I quite like you. You didn’t offer a title before your name. You don’t believe in them or have you somehow come to control a Highlord’s army without one?”

“It seemed somewhat pointless considering you are here as a Captain, speaking for both your generals and your highlord.”

He did have a point. “Even so, I am terribly fascinated in how you came to lead all these men.”

“Perhaps I’m a general in Aeron; do you really keep such close ties on other Houses’ internal politics?”

“Not at all, but that would beg the question of why you aren’t dead on the banks of the Aldras like the rest of Aeron’s generals.”

Jervas immediately looked away, and Coyle also shifted in slight discomfort.

Mosse, though, just smiled. “I suppose it would. You could say that I’m from a bit outside of the normal political avenues. You have my word, though, that you’ll have figured out who I am by the end of this battle. Of course, you’ll also be dead, so it won’t do you a whole lot of good.”

“You seem very confident of that. Haven’t you heard that I consort with demons?”

“I don’t think you’ll have the fortune of randomly attracting a couple of Riftlings to your aid this time around, Hero,” he said with a disdainful note. “But if you do, my people will take care of it.”

My eyebrows raised slightly, and then I smiled. “I look forward to seeing how this plays out then. Shall we engage at dawn?” It was a bit of delay, considering it was only mid-afternoon now and there were plenty of hours of light left, but we also didn’t have all our troops out to the field yet.

“Why the delay?” Jervas asked with a sharp smile. “Are you not prepared?”

“I just thought you might want to fight more than me this time, and we’re still waiting for a few stragglers. I’m ready any time though.” I smiled broadly.

I could feel Barnabas’ disapproval like a physical force in my skull through the sideways glance he gave me at admitting all our troops weren’t yet at the field, but they would be able to figure that out themselves easily enough. It was more important to remind them that it wouldn’t make a difference either way. Either they could beat me, or they couldn’t.

“Dawn is fine,” Mosse said smoothly before anyone could say anything further on the subject. “We’ll enjoy a night of easy rest.”

“I hope you do,” I said in a friendly and chipper tone. There were a lot of snips I could have added on the end of it and, at least three of them, fully formulated, passed through my head in enough time that I could have tacked them on without it feeling weird. I didn’t, though. Posturing wasn’t going to get us anywhere any more. Either we would win, or we wouldn’t.

“Have a good day, Captain,” Mosse said with a smile of his own, turning to head back.

“Have a good day,” I echoed and then turned to Jervas and Coyle in turn with a nod. “Generals.”

Jervas just sneered at me and walked away.

Coyle, oddly, did not budge.

“Can I help you, General?” I asked him mildly.

Coyle first glanced at those flanking me and then seemed to fully give up on any attempt at maintaining face, looking at me and asking earnestly. “How soon do we have to turn back for you not to pursue us?”

It took me a few solid seconds to realize exactly what he was asking me, out loud, right after a pre-war conference. “Before it becomes a rout,” I finally said. “You’re considering turning in the middle of battle?” I asked blankly.

“I’m considering what I can do to save the lives of my men, yes,” Coyle snapped back. “It wasn’t my decision to be here today.”

I shrugged slightly. The potential betrayal definitely rankled my sensibilities, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth over it. “Do what you think is right. I’m not promising you anything, but I will point out that we’re here in the interest of defending our home, not pushing forward anywhere.”

Coyle nodded once, slowly. “I understand. Thank you.”

I gave him a slight nod, and he turned to walk after the other generals.

“Do you think that was a trap of some kind?” Hector asked me, sounding utterly baffled.

“No, I think he meant it,” I said, still looking after them. “But he doesn’t just want to turn around and leave Aeron a second time if they have a chance to pull out a victory.”

“Why would he think he can win when he seems so assured of your skill?”

“Good question. Mosse sure seemed confident too,” I noted, turning and starting to walk back to our own encampment. “Did you notice his mistake?”

Hector honestly didn’t even bother to answer, just giving me a look informing me of how little attention he had been paying to the nuances of a boring required conference that wasn’t going to change anything.

Barnabas arched an eyebrow at me though. “Mistake?”

“Mosse let something slip that I don’t think he would have told us intentionally,” I said. “He said that if Riftlings attack his people would take care of them.”

“And?” Barnabas said blankly. “He just means the army, surely.”

“I don’t think so. That’s not the phrasing you use for an army of generalized soldiers. Maybe you say “my men” in reference to troops. “My people” is more personal. He’s an outside contractor, and he brought a specialized team with him. They’re competent enough that Coyle thinks they have a chance to kill me, and he doesn’t want to run if that’s the case.”

“I think you’re inferring a lot from one word,” Barnabas said, sounding downright annoyed.

I breathed a laugh and shrugged. “That’s reasonable. I might be.”

“Since we’re on the subject though,” and Barnabas’ tone was biting, “what was he talking about when he claimed your fortune of randomly attracting Riftlings?”

“Precisely what he said. Two Riftlings came and attacked the army at Aldras. I kept my head down, and they did a fair bit of slaughtering for me once night fell,” I openly admitted. “We were relatively close to the Rift south of Ild-Iyer, the one that kept eating their stray sheep a year back.”

“You claimed to have single handedly—”

“I said I had no human help,” I corrected with a slightly bemused smile. “Also, I don’t necessarily think it really diminishes the fact that I was, you know, still alive by the time the midnight moon was overhead after fighting a six hundred person army on my own. Hundreds were already slaughtered. It just would have taken longer.”

“You still deceived everyone,” Barnabas said, quiet. “And how did you survive the Riftlings?”

“I stayed out of their way while they ate their fill of hundreds of soldiers. That bit doesn’t seem all that terribly complicated to me.”

“I can see how they’ve come to call you demonspawn,” Barnabas said stiffly.

I turned to him and blinked before bursting out into laughter. “Oh, come now. Don’t be so dour! We’re about to be at war!” 

“One would think that would be precisely the moment to be dour.”

“Bah. There’s nothing quite as glorious as the rush of a fight.” I grinned.

Barnabas looked at me for a long moment. “You are… young. And reckless.”

“But I’m also terribly good at this,” I said with a faint smile. “We will win this fight.”

“And men will die.”

“That is what they do,” I said bluntly but with a hint of compassion nonetheless. “Yes, men will die. But less so than if we simply allow the city to be sacked. Surely that is not what you would suggest? We will fight, and we will live, as is our fortune as mortals who yet live under the suns.” 

“How poetic,” Barnabas commented, but he was looking at me with less aggression now as we reached the edge of the camp. He inclined his head. “I look forward to seeing your prowess on the field come dawn.” And then he walked back up to rejoin the other generals.

“He got a little snippy there,” Hector noted, watching as he walked away.

I shrugged. “It’s a stressful time. It happens.” I turned to my friend. “You ready for this?”

Hector shrugged back. “As ready as we ever are, I should think. What do you think Mosse’s game is?”

“I’m not sure. He seems very confident though, and apparently he’s demonstrated enough competency to make Coyle think they have a chance.”

“Do they have a chance?”

“Of course not. But I’m worried it’s going to be harder to contain.”

“I know you don’t want people to die, but some people will. If you have to trust them to fight a normal war so you can take care of something more dangerous on the horizon, then you can trust them to fight a normal war.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“Like you said, you can’t be everywhere at once,” Hector reiterated, giving me a meaningful look.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll attempt not to be too much of a hero, or whatever,” I muttered, waving off his concerns.

Hector smiled slightly and then glanced up at the hill. “I’m going to go run through the strategy one more time.”

I arched an eyebrow. “It’s really not very complicated. At least, not until they start reacting to things.”

“Yeah, I know.” He shrugged a bit sheepishly. “Nerves. You know how it is. Or maybe you don’t.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know how it is. Don’t overthink it and get some rest tonight.”

“I’d say you too, but we both know better.” And off he went, to deal with his nerves in his own way.

Unfortunately, him doing so left me without an outlet for my own. I looked around and spontaneously decided to call out, “Hey, what’s your name?” I jogged over next to a soldier, a young man of the regular infantry, who had been standing by himself a little ways away from the nearest campfire.

He stared at me with wide eyes. “Um. Brenden?”

“Nice to meet you Brenden. I’m Leon.” I held out my hand.

He looked at it for a moment like it was going to bite him before visibly shaking himself and taking it. “I, uh, know who you are, sir. What can I do for you?”

I shrugged. “Nothing much. I’m just a bit bored and antsy. You know how it is?”

He looked at me blankly for a moment before giving me what seemed to be a grudging nod. “Yeah. You still get nervous?”

I wondered briefly how old he thought I was, bemused at his phrasing momentarily. Then I nodded. “Of course. I don’t think you ever stop getting nervous. This isn’t your first battle, then?”

Brenden shook his head. “My first was Lorni, actually.”

I winced. “I’m sorry to hear that. Lorni was a mess.”

He nodded. “It was. It was absolutely awful. I hadn’t wanted anything to do with any of it to begin with, and then that….”

I arched an eyebrow. “Yet here you are?”

“I wanted to fight for Lord Callian. And for what they did. He saved us at Lorni, him and you.”

I shrugged. “Callian was a lot better at the saving than I was; I freely admit that.”

“You were a lot better at the killing though.”

“Yeah, I have about three talents and that’s one of them,” I responded, voice wry. “I’m glad to have you here, Brenden. Callian would be glad to have you here too.”

He smiled at me slightly. “I always wanted to thank him. Never had the chance.” There was silence for a moment as we both thought of the late princling. Then Brenden glanced up at the hill where the generals were still gathered. “How come you’re not up there with them?”

I followed his gaze and then made a face. “It’s not where I belong. They don’t want me there anyway.” I wondered if I were supposed to say that to a normal soldier. Oh, well.

“You don’t get along very well with the higher ups, do you?” Brenden asked bluntly and then paused. “If you don’t mind me saying, sir.”

I chuckled. “I liked it better when you lost the ‘sir’. And no, I don’t. Never really have. People who like rules and structure tend to have a hard time with me. I’m very good at what I do, but only when you let me do it my way. But I also don’t like to lead massive forces or things like that. It’s an unfortunate combination that manages to make everyone mad on a good day.”

“Why don’t you like to lead large forces? You didn’t seem to have a problem with small teams.”

“Lack of flexibility and need for constant oversight. The bigger the force, the more of your time has to go into management of said force. The management itself becomes a full-time job, and pretty soon you’re not actually doing any of the work. That’s not a particularly good use of my talents. It’s also really irritating.”

Brenden chuckled. “So you break all the rules but refuse to accept a promotion?”

“Pretty much.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’m just… some guy.”

“Honestly? I’m bored. I’ve got hours to kill before I get to do anything, and the only person here who likes me is off coping with nerves in his own way. You should feel free to tell me to go away at any time. My purpose right now is basically just to waste time, and I understand if you’d rather I not waste yours,” I said wryly.

Brenden looked at me for a second and then breathed a laugh. “Come hang out with my squad then.”

I blinked and then tilted my head.

“That is what you want, isn’t it?”

“Maybe,” I drew the word out while smiling.

“Well come on then. I’m sure you’ve got some stories.”

And just like that, I found myself spending the next few hours regaling the soldiers of the Fourteenth Ildanach Squad of war tales while sitting around a campfire. It helped just a little to dull the pain, helped to distract from the fire I should have been sitting around, and, more importantly, the people with whom I should have been sitting.

I was going to have to thank Brenden personally after this was all over. Assuming he lived through the next day.