The Veiled One

Chapter Twenty-Two: I fight with my wife

Ailen and Agor have done a good job setting up a proper camp for all of us. There are five tents arranged in a semi-circle around a fire pit lined with stones and equipped with a tripod for hanging a kettle or pot of some kind, a few logs for sitting, and a larger tent that must be for strategy and armor.

"Right. So we make camp here tonight and strategize, then attack tomorrow morning," I decide, assuming control. Fulmenarius casts a sideways glance at me, like he's disappointed that I'm the one who's calling the shots and not him. But the other gods seem to accept my leadership, and they nod agreement.

Maybe, on some level, Fulmenarius is right not to accept me. Grim never took me into battle, but I'd planned on joining the army when I got to be of age. A tour as a general could end nicely for me, possibly with a cushy diplomatic job like my father's, or so I thought when I was young.

"Wait. Shouldn't we scout the land? See where she is?" Agor points out as the other gods start to spread out, preparing to claim their own tents.

"We don't know what kind of magic traps Lisentia might have set up," Sibyl argues, and Fulmenarius nods his agreement.

"We could go underground," Mor offers. "I could make us pathways beneath the earth so that we could tunnel to the top and attempt our reconnaissance that way. I don't think Lisentia would expect such an unorthodox attack."

"Probably not," I agree, though as a fellow Arcana, I'm more than sure Lisentia knows what each of the other gods is capable of doing. "All right, we'll do that. Agor, Mor, you two go out and scout the area. I want to know where Lisentia is, if she's got forces, and what sort of supplies she has."

The two gods nod, then disappear into nothingness. I turn to Fulmenarius.

"Come with me into the main tent. I want to inspect the armor and the weapons in case we come to hand-to-hand combat. Got it?"

The god stares hard at me for a moment, then replies, "I'll meet you inside."

And the thunder god heads off, his steps literally rumbling throughout the sky. I make a mental note to tell him to knock that off. If he continues like that, Lisentia will know exactly where we are.

"What are we going to do?" Sibyl asks me, laying a hand on my arm.

"Why don't you pick a tent for us? I'll come to you in a bit. In the meantime, why don't you draft up a list of spells that might be useful, or a list of weaknesses your mother possesses?"

"I'll do that right away." Sibyl strides off, and Endor makes as if to follow her, but I put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Wait, Endor. I want you to stay with Agramina. The two of you ought to go foraging, see if you can find any spots that might be useful for attacks, or roots and mushrooms for us to eat."

"We can magic any food we want," Agramina sniffs.

"Not really," I retort, rehashing the same argument I had with Sibyl months ago in her castle when she first taught me about magic. "Food and water are tricky. Even with magic, you can't just make something out of nothing. You sort of borrow elements from elsewhere and put them all together. But food is sometimes made up of pure elements, which makes it extremely hard to magic into place unless you've got an enchanted kitchen or something."

"So we're better off eating whatever rations Ailen and Agor brought," Agramina surmises disappointedly. I nod, and she sort of deflates. Even though I know the rations will probably suck, this is a battle. It isn't supposed to feel like a vacation.

Endor looks all too happy to go off in search of food, but Agramina seems pissed. When Endor slips his hand into hers though, so trusting and carefree, she appears to change her mind and instead walks off with him, bending her head low to converse.