by Eric Vall
Aurora smirked as we both caught the glint in Cayla’s eyes. “You’ve been dying to see them with 1911s.”
“So much,” Cayla moaned as she clutched the rifles against her chest. “Four hundred semi-automatic pistols. Four hundred! And every one of them under my command. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for ever since Mason got my father to hand me our army, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”
“Or for the wrath of a god,” I mused.
“Rekekis can kiss my pregnant ass,” the princess snorted. “I’ll have Nulena unravel his precious domain for him if he so much as sends a breeze in my direction that I don’t care for.”
I stared as Cayla’s pregnant ass strutted down the stormy lane with a bundle of AR-15s in her arms, and Aurora chuckled at a bolt of lightning jetting above their heads regardless of the fact it was heading directly for our home.
Maybe it was the elf in her that made her suddenly cocky about the wrath of Rekekis, but I knew damn well my women wouldn’t be half as smug if Nulena hadn’t told them about saving my life.
I tried not to think about what all of this would mean the moment Deya heard about it, though, and while I began transferring crates of pistols to the train station, I tallied up the wins of the day to stay on track.
Shoshanne’s stance on her magic and lack of control had taken a one-eighty, and not only was she worrying about someone other than me for once, but she was well on her way to becoming our strongest mage again. The healer even credited me and our Lux baby for helping her embrace the unpredictability of her first pregnancy, so there were bonus points added here on account of the cuteness. Stan was officially fully loaded for his stealth mission, too, and his dragon seemed ready to take her training as seriously as I could have hoped today. Our numbers were only increasing while our arsenal continued to expand, and in the next couple days, we’d have two thousand Halcyan rockets and two hundred Defenders added to our army.
There was also the fact no one who’d heard about Rekekis’ involvement had bolted in the opposite direction yet, which left me with a mixture of utter confusion and some relief.
Sure, the number of women determined to disrupt the fabric of the universe for me was increasing by the hour, but what mattered right now was none of my pregnant lovers had resorted to hog-tying me up in the house and banning me from my own war efforts.
Did these last few points make sense to me? Hell no, but I added it all to my list for the sake of my sanity.
By the time I finished loading the pistols and ammunition into the train, the Ignis driver was getting anxious to head out on account of how much lightning jetted within feet of the engine, but only a few minutes later, my women joined me at the station. They were sopping wet as they laughed and chided each other over how ridiculous they looked, and when they turned their careless smiles my way, I couldn’t help returning the gesture.
“What did Urn have to say?” I asked the half-elf as she shifted her dripping braids over her shoulder. “Did the instructors send us anyone promising?”
“They’re looking good, Mason,” Aurora assured me. “Urn said their magery was on par with most of our other Defenders, so I had him bring them out to the fields to run a few tests. Cayla and I decided to go ahead and start them with the 1911s, and Haragh volunteered to take over their training until the siege. That’s twenty extra Defenders added to the roster. Five Ignis, seven Flumen, and eight Terra Mages.”
“Excellent,” I sighed as I turned to Cayla. “How did the generals do with the rifles?”
“Wonderfully, of course. I taught them.”
“Glad to hear it,” I chuckled. “You’re all loaded up here, and I made sure the engine driver isn’t making any stops, so you should be in Cedis in only a couple of hours, but he’s anxious to get going.”
“As am I,” the princess said with a giddy smile.
Then I took her arm to lead her to the passenger car, but she redirected me straight to the stock car filled with four-hundred pistols instead, and Cayla perched herself on a crate of pistols like it was as good as any velvet cushion.
“I’d like a throne made of firearms one day,” the princess sighed. “Mason, will you make it for me when we rule Cedis? Preferably one that appears to be decorative at first glance, but is actually capable of firing on any nobles who irritate me during our meetings.”
“Anything you want,” I assured her.
“Wish me luck,” Cayla purred.
“Try not to terrify your soldiers,” Aurora snorted.
The leather-clad princess just let out a happy sigh while she stroked her fingers across a pile of 1911s, and once my half-elf sent a few orbs of flames into the car for her, I smirked and slid the door shut.
Then I gave the Ignis driver the all-clear, and once the train headed out of the station, Aurora and I jumped down from the platform and into the muddy lanes.
“Should we check on the training at the Oculus?” the half-elf asked.
“Actually, we’re driving out to the fortress,” I told her. “We have to get our silencing runes in place, and since I need your flames to do it, I want to be finished before nightfall to avoid drawing any attention.”
“You were able to alter the branding irons?” Aurora said with a grin. “That’s the first time you’ve tried to, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was an interesting process,” I replied. “The elements of the sight rune resisted my efforts to alter them just like the rune we removed from Dragir. It wasn’t made of combative elements, so it wasn’t a big deal, but it does make me wonder if it might take more effort than I anticipated to clear the Master’s grounds. The elements I sense in his personal rune didn’t strike me as easy to deal with.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing the Infamous Lava Man can’t handle,” Aurora mused, and I smirked at her teasing grin before we entered the mansion.
Stan and Solana whizzed by in a streak of silver while I retrieved the branding iron and engraving tool from my shop, and once I made sure Deya was safely back in her elven form, I checked in at the infirmary.
Nulena sent me wry smirk from where she was laid out on a table in her lace lingerie, and she had some poultice smudging her face like a spa mask while two healers massaged her slender feet. Shoshanne was hovering so intently above her belly with her healing staff that I decided not to interrupt her work, and the Baroness only shook her head at my amused grin. Then I mouthed the words “thank you,” and the ebony woman puckered her lips into a kiss before I headed back out into the storm.
Five minutes later, Aurora and I were driving Bobbie out of Falmount, and only a few miles outside the village, the sky was clear, and the breeze was only strong enough to rustle the grass. We ended up having to pull the Mustang over on our way to the foothills, though, because the mess Shoshanne had left behind on her way home from the Oculus, blocked anyone from being able to travel beyond this point.
The two of us stared for a while in silent appreciation at the crater the Aer Mage had blasted across the hillside, but part of me was so proud, I didn’t want to fix any of it. It looked like giants had come through here with massive hammers and torn the whole place to shit, but picturing my caramel beauty giggling and patting her belly while she did it all with a wave of her hand made my chest swell with pride.
“Getting that woman pregnant was a fantastic idea,” the half-elf muttered when we dropped back into Bobbie.
“It was,” I agreed, and I worked on repairing a few stone walls and old mills as we continued down the road. “I don’t know what Aloshi’s fully capable of, but Shoshanne causes more of a mess with a swipe of her hand than I saw at any point after the battle in Tellish.”
“Did you really tell her to coax out her powers and destroy as much as she could?” the half-elf snorted.
“Technically, yes, but I didn’t expect her to take it so much to heart,” I admitted.
“You’re just that effective of a leader,” Aurora mused. “One lesson with Defender Flynt, and the I
llarian countryside will never be the same.”
“Let’s hope the rest of the world doesn’t pay the price for my actions, too,” I muttered, and the half-elf furrowed her brow at me as I brought Bobbie to a stop in the forest outside the Master’s grounds.
“Wait, are you actually more worried than we are right now?” Aurora checked, and I shrugged while I resealed Bobbie’s doors and secured the branding iron in my back pocket. “Mason, if Shoshanne isn’t worried, you definitely shouldn’t be worried.”
“Shoshanne is misinformed and riding on a baby high,” I clarified. “All of you are biased about the situation, but the fact is, I’m not just leading a war against the Master anymore. I’m leading our allies and our Defenders into a minefield of immortal wrath none of us can comprehend the extent of, and no one seems to understand the gravity of that except for me.”
“Maybe no one doubts your ability to handle whatever comes your way,” the half-elf countered.
“Then Haragh’s right, and it’s a sickness,” I snorted. “I know he was only joking when he said it, but the man has a point. What if I’ve brainwashed all these mages into thinking they’re untouchable, when they’re as mortal as anyone else? I’ve created an army of minions, which makes me no better than the Master.”
Aurora stopped me short, and when she turned me around to face her, her emerald eyes studied mine carefully. “How can you say that?”
“I only handed them better weaponry, Aurora,” I pointed out. “I might have encouraged them to study their craft from a different perspective, but I didn’t make them impervious to injury, and their lives are still on the line. If these mages are just looking at this siege as some test of whether they can handle as much as they assume I can, then they’ll die out there, and that’ll be on my conscience alone.”
“They’re not careless,” Aurora firmly countered. “Quite the opposite. You’ve given them something to stand for, Mason. Before any of this began, mages studied their craft for their own interest and so they could be trusted with as much power. That was our inner drive. We were appreciated if we could keep the beasts at bay, but otherwise, the citizens struggled to accept us as members of society. We stuck to the Oculus and did as we were instructed, but now, every mage in this Order understands what they’re truly capable of, both as a collective, and as individuals. They’re not afraid to push the limits of what’s been done before, and they’re eager to see our world change because of it. Being a mage doesn’t only translate to having a responsibility beyond the norm anymore, it’s a science, and an endless search for betterment. Your leadership did that.”
“It sounds better when you put it like that,” I allowed. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around a lot at once, I guess, but you’re right. I know our mages aren’t careless, and I do appreciate their dedication, as confusing as it is in this particular case.”
“Then I don’t want to hear another word against your leadership,” Aurora said as she set her jaw in defiance. “You made this Order look at the wrath of a god like Rekekis as a challenge rather than a threat, and if our mages don’t hesitate to stand behind you, then you’ve clearly done everything right as a head of this Order.”
I smirked. “Starting with having you lead it with me.”
“Obviously,” the half-elf agreed. “None of your other decisions would have gone half as well without me.”
I chuckled as Aurora slid her arms around my waist, and when she kissed me, the spark of our powers meeting made me instinctively lock her in my hold to keep her there for a while. The half-elf never failed to keep my head on straight no matter what was jumbled around in there, and while I knew she had a lot of solid points, I was positive I owed her support for a lot of what she considered my god-like influence within the Order.
Then the half-elf slipped her hand into mine as we continued through the forest, and when we arrived at the tree line, her blue eyebrows fell into a hard line as she considered the smoke billowing from the towers.
“Do you think he knows we’re coming for him?” Aurora murmured.
“Yes,” I answered, “but he has no idea what that means. Let’s do this side of the clearing first, and then we’ll work our way along the Nalnoran border. We’ll finish up with engraving some more runes in the mountains just north of where his enchantments end, but we only have a few hours of daylight left, so we’ll have to work as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, master,” the half-elf purred, and I sent her an unamused look while we turned toward the nearest tree.
“Did I say you could call me that outside the bedroom?” I checked.
“You didn’t bother much with technicalities at the time,” Aurora chuckled. “You gave me that smoldering look of yours and ordered me to do it, and you know me. I just do what I’m told.”
I cocked an eyebrow, and the half-elf blushed while she formed a plume of flames in her palm.
“Well… I do what I’m told when you’re looking at me like that,” the half-elf corrected.
I nodded in agreement as I pulled the branding iron from my back pocket, and the Ignis Mage heated the fire in her palms to a deep blue while I placed the runed end into the flames. In only a couple minutes, the iron was red hot, and I angled the tip on the easternmost edge of the trunk so the silencing rune would be facing directly at the Master’s forces.
Then I burned the elemental design into the trunk until it seared through the outer bark and down to the sapwood, and once I’d finished, I stayed on the runed side of the tree while I sent Aurora into the forest by a few feet. I immediately noticed I couldn’t hear her footsteps across the twigs, but when I told her to say something, not a word reached me, either.
I could tell she was enjoying the test, though, because she had a seductive grin on her lips while her hooded gaze drifted lower on my frame, and as I crossed the threshold of the silencing rune, I caught the last few words.
“… until I’m too limp to make it through another round,” the half-elf finished.
“The rune works,” I informed her, “but you should probably start over at the beginning because whatever that was sounded like something I’d be into.”
“It was,” Aurora sighed lightly, and then she stalked off without telling me a damn thing. “How far apart do you want to space these runes?”
“The Master has his silencing runes placed about every forty feet,” I chuckled. “Ours are slightly bigger, but I don’t want to go beyond fifty feet just to play it safe. We’re gonna have a lot of heavy machinery rolling through these woods when it comes time to station the troops.”
Aurora nodded as she led the way along the tree line, and I summoned my fleet of snatchers to us from where they were currently roaming the wilderness east of Serin. We were instilling our fourth rune when the three automatons reached us, and I ordered them to patrol the forest ahead, behind, and to the side of us while we continued making our way toward the Nalnoran border.
The work went quick enough with Aurora heating the iron on our way between stops, but it wasn’t long before my mind was churning with alterations I wanted to make to the layout my generals and I came up with for the siege.
It wasn’t that I doubted my initial plan, but after learning Rekekis had it out for me now, I began to form a theory that seemed more plausible the more I considered it.
Nulena had said I wasn’t supposed to be here, and that Rekekis sent for her when he sensed my soul within the realm. Which meant the god must have been lurking in the area when Nemris sent me to this world, and since his storms showed up in time for the Master’s mass-branding efforts, it seemed likely the Master had become a pawn of his.
If this was the case, I had a feeling the upcoming battle would be different than the others in a prominent way, but if I played my cards right, I could use this to our advantage. It would mean putting myself at a greater risk, but I’d organized this siege with the intent of keeping my troops out of the red zone as much as possible, and if a god’s wrath had just ente
red the battlefield, it was more important than ever that I remain dedicated to the task.
When I mustered the courage to run the theory by Aurora, though, I noticed she looked anxious while she waited for me to finish another rune.
My first thought was her mommy demon could have read my mind already, and I studied her expression carefully while I casually cleared my throat.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Do you think our baby will be as impressive as Shoshanne’s?” the half-elf mumbled.
I tried not to smirk at how serious her tone was, but at least she wasn’t sniffing out the questionable plans I was working through in my head.
“Have you been thinking about babies this whole time?” I checked.
“It’s just… I haven’t completely lost control of my powers yet,” Aurora admitted. “What if our baby isn’t an amazing conqueror of worlds?”
“First of all, I don’t think we should assume all our offspring will be conquerors,” I pointed out. “However, I would expect a baby of ours to be one of the most defiant, short-tempered, and magical kids I’ll have in this life. So, we’re probably working with a rebel or a low-key villain at the very least.”
Aurora smiled from ear to ear. “You really think so?”
“Sure,” I chuckled, “but not the branding type. Any kid of ours will be expected to earn the loyalty of his followers without copping out by possessing them.”
“A fair compromise,” the half-elf mused. “You know, I did feel kind of villainous at the matches last night. I bet our super baby was doing that. I almost lit Grot on fire four times, and normally, I don’t mind following combat rules. I hardly remembered to respect authority at all! Well, aside from yours in bed.”
“That’s… good?”
“It’s definitely promising,” Aurora decided. “My motherly intuition is already sensing something rebellious in my womb. I wonder how old it’ll be when it burns its first victim alive.”