by Billy Wong
Jets of flame shot from the bottom of the armored suit's feet while it leapt. It got about half its height off the ground, floated towards her for a few yards—then the flames stopped and it fell forward, forcing her to jump aside as it crashed down. "Scott, are you alright?!"
"I'm fine," he said dazedly from inside the machine which lay facedown.
She crossed her arms. "So, I guess it can fly for about forty feet."
"We got it to go farther before. But yes, that is one of the last clinks we're trying to work out."
#
That afternoon, Allen visited her in her office. "What is it," she asked barely looking up from her own work, "are people giving you trouble about documents again? If so, you just have to be a bit patient. There will always be folks who make a fuss over little things like that, but if you take it slow and reassure them, you should be able to get through it."
"It not that," the retired warrior said in his slow, deliberate voice. Oops. She was so busy these days, many of her responses had grown to be nigh automatic. "When the monsters come, I want help fight too."
She hesitated. He wasn't old, being in his early thirties, but his past head injury would increase the danger to him of participating in combat—hence his retirement in the first place. Yet he retained enough skills to be more than competent, and they could use all the able-bodied fighters they could get let alone above average ones. "Maybe you should discuss this with Lars. I'm not completely against letting you join the fight, perhaps in a more auxiliary role, but he might not approve. Out of consideration for your friend, I think the two of you should talk it over first."
"All right. Can I help practice with the guard? Some volunteers look too new, I could show them few tricks."
Now helping rookie fighters with training was something he could do without undue risk. She wondered if some would have trouble accepting him as an instructor due to his handicap, but figured they'd come to respect him after seeing the knowledge he had to offer. With a smile, she replied, "That, you would be most welcome to do."
Though she didn't have a lot of spare time, she made time to research some things that might prove helpful in the days to come. When Lars arrived likely after speaking with Allen, she had to slide one out of several towering stacks of books on her desk to the side just to properly see him. He regarded her curiously. "That's a lot of books. I didn't know you were such an avid reader."
"You know that I'm normally not. I'm not reading just for enjoyment, but trying to learn as much as I can about how other rulers have acted after a war and precedents for behavior in such circumstances. Specifically, I've been thinking if the elementals surrender after we defeat them, it might not be right to kill them all considering some of them have humanlike intelligence." She exhaled. "It's hard, though. Many past policies for treatment of a losing side seem pretty irrelevant, for example disarmament. Some victors disallowed their vanquished enemies from keeping arms, but how would that work when elementals generally don't wield weapons and fight using their own power?"
"I think you might be overthinking it a tad. If we manage to beat the elementals, I doubt they'll likely surrender so much as flee and scatter. They can fly too, so I don't see why they would do that unless we really have them cornered."
"You're probably right about the elemental army as a whole, but it's possible some that are too injured to flee might surrender. It would be unwise to release them to rejoin the horde unless we're sure it's completely broken, but I don't know that executing all of them simply for being our enemies would be just."
He frowned. "It'd be tough to hold a bunch of hostile elementals in captivity without resources like what the empire had. If we could convince them to turn to our side or at least neutrality, then we could spare them, but if not finishing them off might be the only practical thing to do."
"Maybe you're right, though I don't much like the sound of that. I'll ponder it some more, and hope the rest of these books give me more help than the ones I've gone through. I doubt this was what you came to discuss with me in the first place though, so what's going on? Is it about Allen?"
"Yeah, he told me what he asked you."
She couldn't discern much from his flat tone. "And?"
"If he wants to help, I won't stop him. He's still a grown man, and while it scares me to think of him risking another blow to the head, this isn't just any old battle. It's a fight for our very home, and if we fail humanity might lose its last chance too. So with the stakes this high anybody who's willing to help, we shouldn't deny for the sake of their own 'protection.'"
Cart-Dragger could still detect the ambivalence in his words, but was glad that on a rational level at least, he understood. "I'm grateful for both your support. I'll let him fight, but try my best to put him in a position of less danger."
"There's no need for that. He wants to fight with me, and I'm probably not going to be anywhere besides the front lines. It might be a little more dangerous all else being equal, but we work well together. So you needn't deny him."
"You'd rather protect your friend yourself than entrust him to others." She grinned. "I can certainly understand that. Then, I wish you two the best of luck."
#
A couple days later, Cart-Dragger went to Jen's grave in the evening only to find her friend's mother already there. Knowing the thin older woman still hated her for causing her daughter's death and not wishing for a confrontation, she tried to creep away thinking to return another time. But the frail widow, last survivor of a family that had once included three sons and a husband lost in the war, looked up and saw her. "Willow. I see you still try to excuse your actions by expressing guilt. Yet what are you doing now but the same thing only on a much greater scale? Instead of luring one hapless young girl to her doom, you'll throw away countless more lives by dragging our whole city into this war."
"I'm not trying to excuse anything," she said softly. "I do feel guilty, but that's not the reason I come here. Even though I know I bear a lot of the blame for what happened to Jen, I visit her because despite everything, being near her comforts me. I hope she can hear me somewhere, and if she can't, well, it still soothes me to imagine she can." She held out the bouquet she carried. "I brought flowers for her... if my bloodstained hands aren't worthy to place them on her grave in your view, you can do it for me."
"Was that sarcasm?" She hadn't meant for it to be, but it sounded a tad overplayed now that she thought about it. "I don't want to touch anything held by your bloodstained hands, so you can put them yourself after I leave." Although she didn't say it, her hard expression seemed to imply, I don't want to see you put anything on my daughter's grave either, so you should wait until I'm gone. "I notice you have nothing to say about you risking the lives of Galantria's citizens bringing us into this war."
"I, well..." She took a deep breath, reminded herself she shouldn't view her decisions in the same biased light Jen's mother did, and steadied herself somewhat. "The New Elemental Order isn't just waging war against a particular area or city, from what we've seen it looks like their vendetta is against humanity as a whole. If that's so, they'll come for us sooner or later. Since we're the ones most equipped to battle them, it might be a good thing to draw their wrath now instead of having a bunch of other people suffer first."
"Are we that equipped? You have no standing army, just a bunch of glorified town guards and volunteers with limited to no training until recently. Just like you led an unprepared Jen to a pointless end, perhaps you'll do the same to Galantria itself."
Acknowledging her point, Cart-Dragger swallowed. "We're still the best equipped out of the places known to us."
"Be that as it may, would it hurt us to have a little more time before rushing into things as you always do?"
"How did I rush into things? Should I have stood back and watched Athendar, with whom we were at least tentative allies, get battered and possibly destroyed just to buy us some time to strengthen ourselves?"
Jen's mother didn't
have an immediate rebuttal, making her think she might have gotten through slightly to her. "I tire of your voice." The woman started away. "Do what you want to make yourself feel better, but remember nothing will ever change your responsibility for what happened to her."
"I know. If it's any consolation to you, Jen taught me something important even in death. I think I've become a bit less whim-driven and more careful now, in no small part due to that."
She glowered. "You mean to imply my daughter's life was a fair trade for making you a smidgen wiser, if still not wise? Your selfishness knows no bounds."
"Wait, that's not what I meant! Of course it doesn't make up for her loss, I was just saying that since Jen liked to see the good in all things, I think she might've wanted us to recognize that even in this, we could gain some small benefit..." But Jen's mother pretended not to hear, her back receding uninterrupted down the path. "Dammit Maximilian, do you see what a travesty it was for you to murder Jen? That woman probably hasn't had a happy moment this entire year."
We were at war. In war, there are casualties.
"We were not at war! You didn't even have a country at that point, you and I were in a fight and just because Jen was in range of your attack, you..."
You were in a vulnerable state and I intended to take advantage, I was hardly obligated to stop when she threw herself in harm's way in her foolish attempt to save you.
She would have spat, but held it back due to being in a cemetery. "Then I'm glad I ended up killing you, you remorseless butcher."
I see no reason why I should regret the natural actions of battle. But also, do you think you are the only one who has lost people? The Overseer raised me and Resolve helped train me into the man I am, so I had some attachment to them. You killed both and yet constantly whine to me about your weakling friend?
"Since when do I bring her up all the time? It only comes up once in a while. Besides, they were both trying to kill me, and technically it was Allen who speared your caretaker through the back. Forget it. I have better things to do with my time than waste it arguing with the shade of my former, now irrelevant nemesis. I need to make sure those newly drafted forms are to my liking, after all..."
#
As weeks passed, the drills conducted by Galantria's defense force grew more intricate, pitting humans against elementals and elementals against other elementals in mock battles intended to prepare them for the real thing. Cart-Dragger watched one morning with Strength while the best of the guard practiced riding winged God Soldiers in combat, as Russ figured a flying elemental and skilled man together would have a significant advantage over a flying elemental alone.
"They've improved a lot," Strength said. "Before, Galantria was just a carefree city with a few towering champions—now it's starting to feel like a military power, albeit small by old standards."
Cart-Dragger clapped heartily after a God Soldier did a loop in the air and came up behind its faux opponent, then the soldier on its back shot true with a blunted crossbow bolt in an approximation of a kill shot. "Yeah, they look good. I know this may sound a little selfish, but I'm kind of relieved to have some of the pressure off my shoulders now that this place has more formidable defenders besides just myself and a handful of strong friends."
"Do you think they look good?" Strength asked in a hard to read tone.
"I, uh, I guess so? For people not as dedicated warriors as us, just keeping their wits about themselves during such dynamic maneuvers is pretty impressive. You said yourself they've improved a lot, didn't you?"
The former general gave a short laugh. "They still don't look half as coordinated as the empire's troops doing similar exercises back in the day."
Atta girl, Maximilian said. So you have not forgotten your imperial pride completely after all.
"But for people just starting to train seriously for war, they are learning well. Given the context, far from being disappointing, their progress is something to be proud of."
Cart-Dragger nodded. "I just hope it'll be enough."
"So, about my pay, given my contribution to this..."
"Nope. Whatever you've done since, your misstep deserves to be punished, and you're most of the way through your month anyway. I'm definitely not going to retroactively pay it back."
She shrugged. "Suppose I can't complain too much. Though you should let me get into more of the big fights."
"You had your shot at Tentacle Nest. Not my fault you weren't there for Maximilian in his new body, and especially the last fight against the tentacled one. You can always try your hand at the new King Elemental of Air, if you get there first."
For once, Strength looked less than totally enthusiastic. "It can probably fly, can't it? Maybe if it lands. My big self isn't the most suited for aerial combat."
"So we finally found something the battle-crazed legendary general is afraid of, huh?" Cart-Dragger smirked, then took on a more sober expression. "It's not something I don't sympathize with. Let me guess—being so high up, making everything you know look so small, must make you feel small. I'm the same way about the King Elementals, and I bet they feel that way about something too. No matter who we are, there's things out there that can remind us we're not so big after all."
"Actually, I just don't trust a lot of things to catch me if I fall. But that's an interesting take. I'm pleased you shared it with me, boss. By the way, have those druids still not learned anything from studying the core?"
"If they did, we haven't gotten word of it yet. Maybe they just don't have an easy way of delivering a message to us, and we should send somebody to check."
After the exercises had finished, Cart-Dragger walked towards Russ along with Strength, having noticed some things she thought could be improved. "Maybe it would be better if they flew farther apart-"
A guard who hadn't participated in the drill ran up to them. "Duchess Willow, a massive cloud is approaching the city, flying unnaturally low to the ground! We can't see a thing inside it, but what sounds like thousands of creatures can be heard from within."
"-since it could help fewer of them get hit by an area attack and reduce the risk of collisions among themselves," she finished softly. She had hoped they would get longer to prepare... but it was about that time, she supposed.
Chapter 9
"Bring all the refugees inside the gates!" Cart-Dragger shouted, switching to what she passingly thought of as leadership mode. "Tell Abaddon to get into that space we made for him too." If they hadn't cleared away some ruined buildings to give him room to move and fight inside the city, that would be bad since staying outside would be too dangerous for even him.
She climbed atop the wall where the defenders waited to see the great cloud drifting towards them from the east, a gray blob that looked like it could swallow Galantria whole. It stopped before them, a jumbled cacophony of buzzing, hissing, screeches, roars and other noises emanating from within. Then they quieted, as if for someone to speak. "Before you lies the race of evil!" boomed a powerful female voice unfamiliar to her, but which she guessed to be the one many elementals had heard that day not so long ago.
She stepped as far forward as she could, putting hands on her hips. "Why do you people—well, elementals—call yourselves evil, anyway? I can't imagine that's very motivating for your cause. Or do you not actually believe you're evil and just say it to invoke fear in those who oppose you?"
"You tiny fool, you really are dense. Does 'lies before you' not give you a hint? We who fly do not lie before you, you lie before us. You humans, who have all but destroyed the world and stand to ruin it forever, you are the race of evil."
Cart-Dragger sighed. "I'd considered that might be what you meant, given I've heard a similar line of thinking from the previous King Elemental of Water. What, do you all inherit memories from your predecessors?"
"We do not. But, we are born mature. To awaken to what you humans have done to our world—that is all we needed to judge that you are the cancer that must be purged from existen
ce."
"Cancer? How overdramatic. On a serious note though, we're not the people who put the earth into the state it's in. Most of them are long dead. And despite all the harm you've already caused, I don't want to keep fighting you. Can we make peace?" With a meaningful look at E perched on the wall nearby and other God Soldiers scattered about, she added, "See, even some of your brethren have joined forces with us. Doesn't that tell you maybe we aren't the despicable fiends you believe?"
The voice paused, and Cart-Dragger held out a sliver of hope she would change her mind. Then she said icily, "Those corrupted children of nature, our brethren? They have also grown complacent, accepting of servitude. They are no longer kin of ours. Though perhaps not through fault of their own, being victims warped by humankind's tampering, they as well no longer belong in this world. With sadness, but no regret, we will bury them along with every other trace of that which should never have been."
"You mean humans... why should we never have been, though? We were born into this world the same as any other creature, only with a special knack for making tools. Is that alone what justifies none of us deserving to live? Again, we're not the would-be conquerors creating terrible war machines whose deeds inspired your hate. At this point, those of us who remain are struggling merely to survive. We just want to live. Can't you give us a chance to prove we won't become the same as those who erred in the past? Neither humans nor elementals have to die out." She put a hand on her chest. "We can make a world where all will be able to coexist, I truly believe that."
For all our differences, Maximilian said, I actually liked that speech. But the behavior of this... whatever she is... just goes to show how lesser beings need to be kept in check with a firm hand.
"By that standard the rulers of your Red Empire needed to be enslaved more," she replied in a whisper.
Even my father did not seek to wipe out a sentient race. One could argue the subjugation of the elementals was nearly as bad, but she admitted he had a slight point.