The Tiny Emperor's Great Wall (Revised)

Chapter Eighteen

Inari stared at the mirror in confusion. While most of the divinities had left to eat, drink, and groom themselves, she had stayed by the mirror. Hours in the divine world translated differently to those in the mortal. For an entire day, Fenghua's forces had surrendered the wall's valley in favor of the high slopes. Their forces scaled high up the slopes before creating platforms to station themselves on.

Returning to the green valley up in the mountains, General Ba trenched a large canal to connect the river with the tunnel. She worked in unison with the army below, using flying messengers to ensure nobody was drowned. Flooding the valley behind the wall, she created a large man-made lake at least twenty meters deep. Yet Inari doubted the general planned on fishing.

Chewing on her nails, Inari had foxes sending and retrieving messages. One fox brought her the smith's package. Inari slipped the weapons into her robes as quickly as possible. The break from action had left the room empty for the most part, making it easy to store them away. Just in time, too, for the first sounds of people returning from the break tickled Inari's ears.

The soft tapping of feet drew Inari's attention to Shiva. The pale god glared at her as if she had killed a newborn. Showing her hands, Inari gave a small smile.

"There's nothing wrong with self-defense," said the fox goddess.

"Just remember your place." Shiva marched off just as other divinities came in.

Returning her focus to the mirror, Inari begged the sun to hurry up. She could just see some activity outside the castle, no doubt the army getting ready for some sort of plan. Yet what were they doing? Inari could just make out the gleam behind the wall. The only thing she could think of was the valley had been filled up and ...

"Oh no!" exclaimed Inari. Clawing the wood, she tried to think of another situation where this couldn't end in a disaster. Yet all paths led her to one conclusion. "Lady Amaterasu, we've got a problem!" Darting up to the platform, she found her lady stretching an arm while she sat.

"We do," responded the lady. "My butt is going to fall off if I sit here any longer!" Cracking her back, the sun goddess gave a sigh.

"I'm serious!" Leaning over, Inari cupped her hand around Lady Amaterasu's ear and whispered. A deep frown crossed her lady's face as she gave a shrug.

"Short of going straight to the mortal world and warning them, we can't do much," noted Amaterasu. "I mean, it will be a terrible loss, but maybe we can send them a dream or something. A warning to—"

"Too late," stated Sorte. Materializing to the right of the duo, the Patron reclined on the railing and stared at the mirror with a smirk. "History is about to be made, ladies. Just sit back and watch."

Confused, Inari looked back to the mirror to see the daily birthing of the sun. Lines of Imperial and Acciro soldiers marched toward the wall. Shinko, mounted on a huki, led from the front, his lord and Menkonnen staying back to watch. Yet when the mirror looked to the wall, there was no one on it.

"No," growled Inari, "no, no, no!" Her fingernails sharpened as she studied the length of the stone serpent for life. They found Faita, staring out a porthole in the tower. Right behind her was General Fenghua.

The general's droopy eyes struggled to stay open, but he smirked. Oh, that smirk boiled Inari's blood. Faita stood beside the gate's opening wheel, echoing with the tapping of her fingers. Tight columns of troops made their way up to the wall, none of them aware of the lake just behind the gates. The only thing keeping them from the icy water, glazed with thin curtains, was a set of solid doors.