Benroy stalked after Yifat on their way out of the command centre. “Hold up.” He called out. The female general halted in her tracks, her hand straying to the pommel of her sword. Benroy sniffed with disdain. New nobility, always so quick to reach for their sword, pathetic. “Keep it in your sheath Yifat there is a matter we need to discuss.” Yifat tilted her head, going by the red and orange flecks streaming through her eyes both angry and wary. “I highly doubt that General Benroy. I have nothing to say to you.” Even though she had addressed him with his rank as was proper, from her it sounded like an insult.

Benroy repressed the familiar anger rising, he was here to make a deal. “Oh I think we do, I know about your little operation in the south.” Yiftrat stiffened, her hand clutched around the pommel of her sword. “Even so, that is a matter between me and the field marshal, it is of no consequence to you.” Benroy’s nostrils flared. “It wouldn’t be, if the field marshal was aware of it, but we both know he isn’t.”

Yifat gave him a look of disdain. “I doubt you are within the field marshal’s inner circle of trust. Wasn’t it your brother who put him in chains? It isn’t strange that he hasn’t entrusted you with the privileged information of the confidential project down south.” For a second Benroy doubted himself, what she said was plausible. “Oh but we can easily verify that, can’t we?” He said as he resolutely turned around and started walking back towards the command centre. He hadn’t taken more than ten steps before he felt on his shoulder. With a sneer he turned around. “Yes General Yifat?” The taller female general’s eyes were empty, devoid of all emotion.

He looked and noticed that her sword had left its sheath, lying loosely in her hand. His smile grew wider. “Are you going to kill me? Here? Without a plan or an explanation?” He snorted. “Put it away Yifat, I got you and you know it. Laying claim to territory before official crown lands have been established is treason, punishable by death.” He could see the gears in her head turn, see her reach the same conclusion he had reached the second he had seen her scouts camped out by the native village. “You don’t understand?” She hissed.

Benroy waved the comment away. “You’re new nobility, you have some territory, but no subjects. It is the same for all of you. Had your bloodlines been purer you wouldn’t have had this problem. Now, you hope to muddy your bloodline further by bringing in this foreign element. Truly, the depths you filth sink to is utterly detestable.” He spat on the ground. “Wat do you want?” Yifat asked, the hatred in her voice clear. “There is going to be a vote soon, when it comes, you will vote my way.” He turned and started walking away.

“After it we will never speak of this again and I will forget it happened.”

Ɏ

General Lazar quietly stood on the platform that had been raised for him. Quietly he surveyed the great forest that started at the foot of the mountains. The wind tore at his clothes, but he was rather comfortable. His lieutenant generals were similarly at ease. This wasn’t their first campaign, in fact they were all rather experienced and used to his way of doing things. Lazar wasn’t a man who needed the council of others, at least not when it came to matters of war. His staff knew that, so they left him to his own thoughts. The task in front of him was challenging and he needed the quiet.

During his career he had only fought other Visius, there had never been any need to call upon the assimilation act. Then again, there were very few commanders who remembered the one and only time it had been called upon. Only one, if his memory served him correctly. General Sakeen was the last one alive who remembered the wars beneath the Cardumian mountain range and he was ancient. Blue ghostly lights rose to the surface of his eyes. He was about to make history, but not in the way he had wanted to.

“I came to secure the future of my race, not to destroy the futures of others.” He softly said, inaudible over the sound of the wind. It was right that he spoke the words out loud, but it was necessary that only he could hear them. He had always done the necessary things and accepted the losses that came with them. His family, especially his nephew, knew that better than most. Perhaps that was why Mordechai had ordered him to take command, even as Lazar had given up the right of first blood. Benroy had not been pleased about that, which meant that air support was out of the question. Such an angry man.

This presented him with a problem. The enemy seemed to be more organized than expected and he couldn’t just burn the entire forest down. He had sent several small forces into the forest over the last few days, followed by scouts to gain intelligence. Only a single scout had returned, which was either an indication of the falling standards of the academy or the enemy was well versed in the use of guerrilla tactics.

That however was going to be their downfall. The last time Lazar had had to deal with guerrilla tactics he had been up against his nephew. Since then he had developed a tactic to deal with them. “General, another company has been decimated.” Lieutenant General Hassan said quietly said. “Duly noted lieutenant general, as you were.” Lazar’s voice was calm and collected. That put casualties at about a thousand regulars now. An acceptable margin considering that his plan was almost complete. “Special Lieutenant Omar, have preparations been made as I instructed?” He asked, louder this time, to be audible over the wind.

“They have been general, exactly as instructed.” Lazar nodded. “At my command special lieutenant I want all the spells to activate at the exact same time.” The mage saluted. “I will instruct my men to be ready.” The mage saluted and turned around to go and inform his command when Lazar stopped him. “Special Lieutenant, use the captives, not your own sacrifices. The assimilation act doesn’t allow long term prisoners.” Without missing a beat Omar nodded and went on his way.

In the distance the sun was slowly setting. An appropriate allegory, Lazar thought.

Ɏ

The sun was setting and Thomas was getting more and more nervous. They were going to be late. Followed by Anna he ascended the hill they had ascended together a couple of weeks ago. As the they neared the fairy tree his anxiousness grew. He was going to ask the question tonight. It was too soon. Or maybe not soon enough? He had had pined for Anna ever since he knew what the word pining meant.

Just as the sun was about to dip beneath the horizon they reached the top of the hill. He was sweating, his palms were clammy and his mind was a mess. He couldn’t go back now, could he? A mass of red hair passed by him, an excited grin on her face. “Oh it is beautiful.” She said, looking at the setting sun. The ring was burning in his pocket. She darted back to him, looking up with a bright gleam in her eyes. “Unlike you to do something like this out of the blue. Has William put you up to this?”

The answer to that question was of course yes, but he wasn’t going to admit that. “No, I haven’t spoken to him lately, his dad is keeping him and the rest of his family in the house.” It was only partly a lie. The head priest had been keeping William in the house, but that hadn’t stopped Thomas from seeing his best friend. A place were something meaningful had happened, which also happened to be beautiful. That was the place to pop the question, William had said. Well, this was the only place he knew off that fulfilled those criteria.

He had tried to talk about with Jared, his new friend. They had spent the last few weeks in each other’s company and Thomas had come to like the Visius. When you learned to look past their looks and different customs, the Visius were just like other people. They reminded him a little of the traders that came north during the summer to buy maple syrup. They too were different, with their darker skin colour and winding tattoos, but people all the same.

Jared hadn’t been of much help though. Where he came from the women asked the men and everything seemed to revolve around something called vimarharas. Vimar meant blood, but the other part was harder to translate. Haras seemed to mean something like family or fathers, but the exact meaning of the word remained unclear. Jared had said that he wouldn’t have to worry about it, as far as he had seen the only people with better vimarharas was his father and possibly William’s dad. The statement had been followed by a very confusing ten minutes in which Jared tried to explain the situation to him in about a thousand words he didn’t understand. He had eventually led it go.

The last rays of the day reached the hill they were standing on, the blossoms of the fairy tree reflecting the light beautifully. He didn’t notice any of it, he only had eyes for Anna. Too soon? Such bullshit. They were both of marrying age and known each other their entire life. Why would he wait? He leaned down to kiss her.

Ɏ

The world around Lazar turned dark as the sun disappeared. Good. What he was about to do, shouldn’t be done in the light. He looked towards the moon, which gained in power what the sun lost. “Special lieutenant, now is the time.” A row of captives was brought towards the edge of the platform, each followed by one of the mages under Special Lieutenant Omar’s command.

Lazar looked into the eyes of every single one as they passed him. He saw hatred in the animal like eyes, but the faces remained serene. It was very hard to read the faces of these creatures. They weren’t aesthetically unpleasing, with their bark like skin, long pointy ears and wooden protrusions from which long strands of grey and white fur sprouted. If only they had responded to offers extended to them. He wondered why they hadn’t. He had seen intelligence in their eyes.

“On your knees.” Special Lieutenant commanded. The creatures were forced to their knees, the mages kicking their legs from under them. “Present blades.” As one the mages drew the sacrificial knives that they always had on their person. “Steady soldiers, this needs to be done with precision.” Omar said. “On my signal.” The next words he spoke sounded alien to Lazar. They entered his mind, but didn’t stay long enough for him to get a grip on them. The air filled with the putrid smell of magic.

Ɏ

Thomas broke of the kiss, softly pushing Anna a little backwards. She was so light in his hands, as if she weight nothing at all. He fumbled in his pocket for the ring as he slowly sank to one knee. He couldn’t even feel the cold snow. He was entirely focussed on getting the bloody ring out of his damn pocket. He finally managed to get it out and presented it to anna. He smiled as he saw her gasp, her cheeks turning red. It was a good look on her, but then again everything was a good look on her.

“Anna, the sun may have set, but with you here I see more clearly than if it would be midday.” He said the words he had rehearsed over and over again without stuttering. His heart was racing. Her eyes were becoming wet. Was she about to cry? Was he doing this wrong? Was it too soon? And a thousand similar questions shot through his mind. “Would you shine your light on my path forever?” His mouth asked even as his mind fell apart.

Ɏ

In one smooth motion the throats of the captives were cut open. Blood streamed over the fingers of the mages, giving their chants the weight it needed. Omar’s face split open into a wide grin, golden flecks ablaze in his eyes, as the magic ran through him. With a snarl he pushed the body over the edge of the plateau.

Lazar ignored the sound of bodies hitting the ground below the platform. His eyes were fixated on the red lights that rose up over the forest, like small suns. They surged upwards until they stopped in the shape of three great circles. Each ball of light had originated from a fallen armour which he had ordered to march into the forest, searching for the settlements these creatures had to live in.

“The enemy is within the centre of each of those circles.” Lazar calmly said. Now that the moment was here his regrets disappeared, his moral objections dying with them. As always he would do the necessary thing and this was it.

Ɏ

“Yes.” Anna said breathlessly as she sank down in the snow with him. “A thousand times yes.”

Ɏ

“Kill them all.” Lazar ordered.

Ɏ

As the couple sat beneath the fairy tree cradling each other they were too absorbed in their happiness to notice that the tree’s red leaves were slowly becoming black. Anna’s eyes gleamed in the light of the moon as she held up her hand to look at the ring. “It is beautiful.” She whispered. Thomas wanted to respond, say something romantic, but he found that he had nothing to say, so he just smiled instead.

“We should go tell the others.” He said as he became aware how cold the snow really was by the stiffness in his joints. Slowly they started their descent. Everything was going to change now, Thomas thought happily.

Ɏ

Saeval ran. He ran like he had never before done in his life. It wasn’t a good run either, like the one you did when hunting a stag. It was a run of pain and fear. He was wounded, blood running down his side. He didn’t know when he had gotten hit, but he felt the exhaustion seeping into his body. There were too many and they were everywhere. In the darkness he saw the gleam of black armour and quickly hid behind a tree. The armours marched passed it, never noticing him. His ability to become with the landscape was the one thing which was saving him from death.

He didn’t understand what hat happened. They had been holding their own really well. The casualties had been so low that the elders had scoffed at calling this a war. Compared to the human wars this was nothing, or so they had said. Clearly they had been wrong. Not that it mattered now that they were no longer saying anything. He ran onwards. He had to get out of the forest, go south. After he had gotten out he would figure out what was going to be next.

Abruptly he halted in his tracks, he had seen something in the moonlight. He pressed himself against another tree and watched. At first he thought it was another set of armours, but when he looked again he saw that this was something else. The armour was similar, but it had an open helmet, from which a long feather emerged. It leisurely strolled through the forest as if it wasn’t filled with enemies. After a few seconds Saevai understood why. The creature was closely followed by an entire host of similar creatures and armours.

As the creature came closer the smell of blood coming from his was overwhelming. The creature shouted something at his companions, who responded with laughter. They smelled of something else as well. Something which made Saevai recoil in disgust, something he knew to be wrong. Instead he remained as still as the trees around him. When the creature passed him he closed his eyes, praying to Padha that it wouldn’t find him. More shouts, more laughter. The other creatures also passed him. They too smelled of this same stench and blood.

As the party of demons moved on, probably to slaughter and brutalize, so did Saevai. The other warriors would be able to find their way out as well. They would regroup, go south together, gain support of the other tribes and retake the forest. They had survived the human wars, they would survive this as well. So, he ran. It wasn’t a good run, but he ran it nonetheless.

Ɏ

High on his platform Lazar watched the destruction unfold. Special Lieutenant Omar and his mages had left hours ago, which he considered a good thing. He admitted the usefulness of magic, but mages tended to be unpredictable after using it. He turned to his lieutenant generals, who were quietly giving orders to runners. “Commanders, I will be leaving the rest of this to you. We’ve achieved a resounding victory, only the mop up is left. I believe that honours will be bestowed upon our return.” It spoke to the professionalism of his staff that he didn’t see any golden lights dance through their eyes. There were only crisp salutes as he left the platform and returned to his yurt.

Inside his yurt he sat down on the edge of his cot. He felt weary and very old.