“Two days.” Ashni said.
“That’s it?” Eli asked.
“Aye.” Gradumir confirmed, turning the glass ball over in his gloved hands.
“It just seems like a remarkably short time to retrofit all of the golems to use these things as a power source.” Eli replied. “If it’s a choice between having it done fast or done right, I’d rather them not fail in the middle of a battle.”
“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to choose.” Ashni assured him. “Your gold hired the best dwarven blacksmiths anywhere. It’ll probably drain the rest of your account, but…we’ll get it done.”
Eli leaned back in his chair and let out a slow breath. The three of them sat around the kitchen table in their suite of the castle with steaming hot mugs of coffee in front of them. His mind slowly worked as he listened to the domestic sounds around him: Lilly out in the greenhouse humming as she tended to her plants, Vespera taking a shower downstairs, and indistinct conversations coming from the bedrooms upstairs.
“Do it.” Eli decided, turning to the blacksmiths. “Let me know as soon as it’s done.”
“Aye lad. Ye can be sure o’ that.” Gradumir replied.
He embraced both of them as he walked them out of the suite, only to see Aria and Freya coming down the stairs as soon as they left. With a wide smile he gave each woman a kiss before pulling out chairs for them so they could sit. With an extra flourish he tucked Aria’s chair in for her before sitting between them and pulling her feet up to massage them.
“You know, just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I need you to wait on me hand and foot.”
“Who said anything about doing it because you’re pregnant? I’m doing it because I love you.” He replied as he switched feet. “Besides, I’m doing Freya next.”
Freya chuckled. “He’s got you there.”
“Fine.” Aria rolled her eyes dramatically, but never stopped smiling. “Was that Gradumir and Ashni that I missed?”
“Yeah, they were looking at the glass balls we brought back from Purgatory. They think they can retrofit the golems to use them, and according to their couple of tests they should be able to provide a lot more power.”
“How long do they need?” Freya asked.
“Two days.” Eli replied, slowing down for a moment. “Fuck.”
“What is it?”
“That’s… the last thing we planned to do before the attack on Origin.” He replied slowly before looking at Aria. “Unless you can think of something else?”
“No. You say that like it’s a bad thing though.”
He paused for a moment, thinking as he pulled his other fiancée’s feet into his lap. “No, it’s not bad. It’s just… we’ve spent all this time pulling everything together. And now that it’s done, we have to decide: do we go now? Or do we try to keep accumulating forces? Is there more we could do?”
Aria pursed her lips. “I can try to reach out to anyone who hasn’t committed forces one more time and see if they’ll change their minds. We could also look for military forces from different countries on Earth – I’m not sure who else would have survived, but there must be some left.”
Freya shook her head in response. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. The longer we delay, the longer the Titans have to come up with countermeasures, or figure out how to remove Ares from the Underpath, or come up with a new version of the plague.” She clenched her fist. “We should hit them as soon as we can.”
“We’re only going to get one shot at this.” Aria reminded them. “But if you’re sure, we should send out the orders now. It’ll take at least two days for everyone to meet at the rally point on Earth.”
He hesitated for a moment longer, giving just enough time for Zee and Nyxie to burst through the front door. They both found him immediately and grinned, kicking off their shoes and moving towards the table. Zee collected a kiss from his lips as the mousekin resistance leader took a seat opposite them.
“You’re just in time. I could use both of your opinion on something.”
“Oh?” Zee asked, sitting next to them.
“The golems will be ready in two days. We’re trying to decide whether it’ll be time to hit Origin when they are.”
“I think it’ll be the perfect time to do it.” Nyxie replied. “Especially after what we just pulled off.”
Eli’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “The bombs?”
“The bombs. We destroyed one of their magical academies and one of their factories.” Nyxie confirmed. “Went off without a hitch.”
“We even dropped the pamphlets, like you suggested. It was a mass exodus of civilians, complete chaos.” Zee added. “They were absolutely terrified after the blasts.”
“So we decided to use that.” Nyxie grinned as she finished the story. “The mousekin resistance has decided to ‘helpfully’ relocate the survivors to dozens of different realms. In the next day, stories about the new human weapon are going to spread across the Titan’s empire like wildfire, paralyzing them with fear.”
“You two are kinda brilliant when you work together, in case nobody’s told you that.” Eli replied.
Zee smirked and Nyxie blushed, but they were saved from responding when Aratessa emerged from one of the bedrooms upstairs. “Are we having a family meeting?” She asked.
A moment later, Naz’s door swung open. “Someone say family meeting?” His orcish bond mate asked.
Eli chuckled. “I guess we are. Someone want to go get Vespera from downstairs, Minerva from the library, and Lilly from the greenhouse? We’ve got a decision to make.”
When Freya left to collect the stragglers Eli stood and started pouring more coffee. A few minutes later all of his bond mates were gathered around the table, with Aria quickly catching the rest of them up on everything they’d missed. As she finished she looked over at Eli, who nodded.
“Aria summed up the heart of the problem.” He said. “Do we launch the attack now? Or do we wait longer?”
“How are we going to decide?” Lilly asked.
“We vote. Everyone close your eyes.” He instructed before waiting a moment. “Now, if you want to go in two days, raise your hand.”
He waited a full three second before opening his eyes once more. When he did, he saw that all of them – even a reluctant Aria – had their hands in the air. He waited an extra few seconds to give anyone a chance to retract their vote before speaking again.
“Open your eyes.” He instructed.
“Well, I guess that settles it.” Aria said as they looked around. “I’ll tell my father to give the order. The clock is ticking now.”
“In a way, it’s always been ticking.” Zee reminded them. “It’s just closer to midnight now.”
“What do we do in the mean time?” Lilly asked. “I don’t love the idea of sitting idle for a full two days, especially with this looming over us.”
“Today, we train.” Eli answered. “Now is the time to share any final insights we can with each other and our troops. Practice your magic, your melee, your hand-to-hand. Make sure your weapons and armour are all in good working order. Anything we can do to prepare now might make the difference between life and death.”
“And tomorrow? We have two days, after all.” Aratessa asked.
“Tomorrow, we make time for each other.” Eli replied. “I want one-on-one time with each of you, as well as with all of us as a family. Let’s have that be the thing we’re thinking about when we go into battle. It’ll remind us why we’re fighting so hard for this.”
With the decision made, Eli waited for a round of nods before adjourning the meeting. Knowing he didn’t want to get distracted he made a beeline for his room, quickly strapping on his armour and grabbing his weapons. When he emerged he saw that he was the first to be ready and jogged out the door without waiting for them.
“Eli.” Ziran and Sira greeted him in the hallway.
“Come on, we’re going to do some training.” He waved them on as he entered the castle proper.
“But… Talaedra’s dungeon is that way.” Sira said, confused.
“We’re not going to Talaedra’s dungeon. We’re going to the main outdoor training arena.”
“It’s being used right now though, by the combined high elven armies.” Ziran pointed out.
“All the more reason to train there.” Eli insisted. “They can learn from us, and we can learn from them.”
They emerged a moment later into the brilliant sunshine of the castle courtyard. To their left was a stone barracks that was currently full of high elven warriors from the various nations of Eldamar. Ahead of them was the main castle gates, flung wide open to welcome a steady stream of runners, soldiers, and dignitaries. Finally, to their right was a sand arena ringed by small stones, in which a trio of elves were currently sparring with blunted weapons.
He diverted to the right just in time to see one elven warrior wielding a spear catch one of the others by the foot, lifting it so she was overextended. A moment later the third warrior barrelled into the two of them with his shield raised, knocking them both down. When they tried to roll away he lashed out with his magic, throwing them out of the ring to claim victory.
“Very good.” Eli called out from the side as he addressed the two elves who lost. “What was your mistake?”
They looked at him and scrambled to salute him but he waved them off. “Stop. I’m here as a soldier, just like you. Now tell me: what was your mistake?”
“I wasn’t aggressive enough?” The elf with the spear hazarded a guess.
Eli turned to Ziran. “What do you think?”
“Respectfully, no.” Ziran said, striding forward and drawing his halberd in front of him. “Your aggression was appropriate. You saw an opening and took it. You should have maintained situational awareness – your tunnel vision caused you to lose track of the second opponent.”
“Real battles are chaotic.” Eli nodded as he triggered a transformation into his high elven form and strode into the arena. “You’re going to get separated from your unit at some point. You’re going to have to learn to watch your back, even as you focus down opponents.” He stopped in the middle of the arena and turned to his retainers. “Can you help me demonstrate?”
What started as a sparring match quickly grew into something larger. He spent time with dozens of the soldiers, collecting a new set of bruises which he quickly healed over using magic. Each session ended with him shaking their hands, dispensing more practical advice on fighting against Titan forces, or just getting to know them on a personal level. It wasn’t long before a crowd started to form – one that divided between Eli and the rest of his bond mates as they slowly trickled in.
After over an hour, Eli heard someone calling his name over the din. He turned to see a tall wood elf riding a majestic stag through the main gates, flanked on either side by dryads, dactyls, and other wood elves. Excusing himself from the conversation for a moment he moved through the crowd to embrace the man as he hopped to the ground.
“Sylvarian.” He grinned as they looked each other in the eye. “I see you finally found your way out of the forest and into the city.”
“If you’ll recall, I was busy working with this group to solve your plague problem.” He replied, a teasing note in his voice. “But when I heard the great and powerful Royal Blood was giving free sparring lessons I thought I’d better gather enough life magic users to heal the bruises he’d inevitably end up with.”
Eli laughed before responding with sincerity. “I’m glad you’re here. We need all the help we can get.”
“We just received the rallying orders. We may be fewer in number than some of your other allies, but I promise you that our healers, alchemists, and archers will be there. And we have more than a few denizens of the forest who are willing to help.”
The vision of wood elves riding wyverns as they bombed the ratkin army from above crossed his mind and his grin grew. “I look forward to it.”
“Keep doing what you’re doing.” Sylvarian said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll ask my people to start healing bruises and restoring stamina so you can keep going.” He chuckled softly. “They’re going to need it.”
He realized what the elf meant by the confusing comment when he moved aside, allowing Eli to see the next group of green-skinned soldiers marching into the castle. Unlike their dryad and dactyl cousins they were boisterous, muscular, and ranged anywhere between eight and ten feet tall. Naz led the group forward next to an old orc carrying an enormous magical axe.
“Eli, you fuckstick!” The orcish man shouted, silencing the nearby soldiers. “Did you really think you were going to hold sparring matches and not invite me?”
Without missing a beat Eli shouted back as he triggered a transformation into his orcish form. “Azrak you old bastard, I was just worried about breaking you before the battle!”
The orcish man roared with laughter before clasping him on the arm. “You remind me of a younger version of myself, you know.”
“If I manage to be anywhere as ferocious as you in battle, this’ll be over by lunch.” Eli replied, releasing his arm.
Azrak smiled at the compliment before turning to his own, larger orcish tribe behind him. “I want to see every one of you with a sparring partner! Teach these elves that battle is about more than just having a staunch line of spears!”
As the day turned into evening, more forces began to join them – Aratessa appeared alongside the elite warriors of her house and hundreds of dog-sized spiders, Vespera summoned hundreds of rage and lust demons to the castle, and Zee used portals from Earth to bring Admiral Wilson, his contingent of marines, and the few remaining Coldwater guards to them. While Eli knew those in front of him were only a fraction of their total forces, seeing at least some of the various groups learning to work and fight together gave him hope that the knowledge would be passed on to the broader armies.
He was in the middle of overseeing drills involving marines learning to shoot over the shoulders of orcs and demons when the final group representing their forces arrived and quite literally tapped him on the shoulder. Turning, he saw a familiar-looking petite woman with black hair remove the pendant she was wearing only to grow several feet taller. She quickly grew an enormous tail, and prismatic scales covered most of her body. Shouts of surprise echoed through the crowd as dozens of lizardkin and naga mimicked their leader’s performance, shedding their disguises.
“Everyone be cool!” Eli shouted as he looked at the reptilian hybrid woman in front of him. “They’re friends.”
“Of course we are.” She replied before embracing him tightly.
“I’m glad you’re here, Seline.” He said as they broke apart. “But was the dramatic entrance really necessary?”
“They let me in.” She protested, turning and pointing at the Hightower royal family – all of whom had snuck into the courtyard unannounced at some point. “And it was easier to move through the crowd in our smaller forms.”
“Fair point.” Eli conceded. “As you can see, we’re all still learning to work and fight together.”
“Then it appears I’m in the right place.” She said before stepping into line for a set of drills. “We’re in this together, after all.”
“That we are.” Eli nodded.
The rest of the combined lizardkin and naga forces followed her lead, and soon the training exercises were back in full swing. Even the leaders of the respective forces joined in, demonstrating a clear example of their importance to all those who followed them. When the various forces began to design joint drills of their own while sharing war stories across broken languages, Eli stepped back to the castle front gates to let them work.
After a few minutes of watching, Nyxie and his bond mates found him. “We’ve got a suggestion, if you’ve got a few minutes.” Minerva started.
