It was smooth traveling through the rest of the city. The Malagost forces had failed to entrench themselves in any of the more inhabited parts of the city, with guards constantly patrolling the area in shifts for access. We had coincidentally run into Lenny when trying to run back to the barracks, his honed sense for blood drawing him easily to our location. Even if we had tried to discard the blood into the absorbent earth, his nose was sharp enough to discern the faint scent still lingering behind.

If that meant that Lenny had discovered our presence and we could get escorted to Amalarys, perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all.

Most of the scouts were let go, so that they could finally rest. Betty, her two favored allies Reggie and Archie, and myself were still required to meet with our fierce leader to an update on what had transpired in our absence.

“So our messenger didn’t get through to you?” Betty inquired. “Can’t say I’m surprised by the timing, although I’d like to hope he didn’t die, given I haven’t seen him since.”

“It’s very likely Norbert was caught by the enemies, as per the timeline you shared, they were already at our doorstep,” Amalarys said. “A shame, but war doesn’t come without cost.”

The Mistress sat off in the corner, sneering at those words. “Easy for you to say. I feel like my pit fighters have been at the forefront of each conflict with the Malagost army. Where have your guards been, Amalarys?”

“I don’t know if this is the right place for this, Mistress,” Amalarys started. “We’re trying to get a better understanding from Betty of what her scouting party went through in their time outside the city.”

“If now isn’t the right time, then when is the right time? When my men are all dead and you only have to apologize to their memories?”

“Mistress, I’d like to reassure you that this hasn’t be unevenly slanted towards your forces. Lenny has been helping me allocate fighters to different parts of the conflict territory. Would you prefer to speak with him over this matter? He should have come back from patrol when he escorted Betty and her troops in. We can reconvene after you’ve gotten a sense of the allocation of our troops from him, alright?”

“Don’t think you’ve successfully tabled this, Amalarys,” the Mistress spat. “Fine. I’ll have a word with the oaf.”

She ran off out of the room, stomping furiously, not even pausing to greet me.

Amalarys let out a heavy sigh, slinking to the ground. “This is not an easy circumstance to work with, but don’t let me get started on that. Start from the top again, Betty. Given there are no more distractions.”

Betty gave a curt nod. “We were in our designated scouting position, when Perry here noticed there was a lack of life within the woods in our area. I sent Perry, Archie and Reggie out to check for any activity further from the road. When they didn’t return, I sent my scout, Norbert, who is probably dead now, off back towards the city to inform you. When they returned, they told me that they saw remnants of an encampment in the woods.”

“Evidently they had already left when they had harried that refugee group,” I added, before being beat down under the weight of Amalarys and Betty’s glare.

“Please wait for when I ask for your input, Perry,” Betty commanded.

I swallowed my words and nodded, not willing to cause another fight in this room.

“When they returned we hastened back to the city, but by that point the fight was already at the walls. It didn’t seem like an easy endeavor to try and break through, so instead we tried to sabotage their supply lines, perhaps to mixed effect. We had no real losses in our skirmishes, but that may have pushed them into the city faster.”

“That does explain their urgent moving. We had expected more time spent outside of the city, but they were fighting with a reckless zeal that last night. We may have appreciated more time without them being merged into the city, but there’s no way we can undo what has happened.”

“Sorry, Amalarys. I wanted to punish them for their insolence. However, that didn’t necessarily make it the right choice to make.” Betty had covered the top of her forehead with her hands, shielding her eyes from the light of the room. Her face was gaunt, drawn into the shadows.

“No use getting upset over it. It’s already done. You did what you thought was right from your position, and I want you to still believe in that. Not all of your decisions can be perfect, Betty, but making them is how you can move towards making the right ones.”

“Well, I hope you’ll say the same about what we did last before meeting with Lenny. I had my fighters split up and cause some terror amongst the enemy forces. They were casually moving about in the slums, carelessly existing without any regard for their lives. We brutally tore apart some of their stray soldiers and then retreated before they caught on to our campaign.”

“That, I don’t hate as much,” Amalarys noted. “They can’t really get further entrenched, and their fear may lead them to making a mistake. Before they didn’t have anywhere to go, but with their loosely held stronghold behind our walls, they can feel like they have some measure of safety, which means any further instances of action should have the benefit of lacking that life-or-death zeal they exhibited when breaching our walls. Hopefully the violence you all committed will make it harder for them to sleep, but I think that’s quite enough for the moment. Archie, Reggie, Perry, you’re dismissed. I’ll have a few more words with Betty, but the rest of you should take the chance to get some good sleep while you still can. You’re about to be on patrol once you’re refreshed.”

We nodded and broke out, heading for the residential parts of the barracks. “I hope that Betty doesn’t get yelled at,” Archie said, a nervous twinge to his voice.

“Calm down, Archie. She’s just getting more instructions or debriefing on what went on in Titan City. She wouldn’t be attacked by Amalarys so soon after being told to own her decisions,” Reggie said, resting his hand on his buddy’s shoulder.

“I hope you’re right,” Archie said, his words trailing off.

“You won’t feel so uptight about it in the morning.”

The two parted from me, heading to their own sleeping quarters, leaving me to trawl up to my bedroom and wondering what I would see on the other side.

The bedroom was empty, meaning that I could peacefully pass into oblivion instead of meeting the questions of my good friends. It was bliss to be met with sleep.

In the morning, I was met with a note by my bedside, signed by Vera, Mia and Alain. They already had to go back on patrol for their shifts, but the thought of their concern was neatly captured in each letter. My cheeks grew warm as I read line after line, feeling even more rested than I had just from my sleep. It was a blessing to know that I hadn’t lost anyone else in my life.

I headed down to the mess hall, hoping to get some good food inside of me, noting the highly visible sign in the corner of the room. I took a glance at the list while chowing down on some food, brows winkled. It was some sort of timetable, but I couldn’t fathom how I was supposed to read it. It was gibberish to me. Unintelligible lines of text.

“That’s where you’re supposed to go, and that’s the window of time you’re on patrol,” Reggie said, surprising me with his sudden entrance. His finger pointed to the line with my name, making it self-evident what my eyes had missed.

“Evidently my brain isn’t quite working yet.”

“That, or you’ve never seen one of these before. Not a big deal, although you may need to hurry up and finish that food. You’re set to go out in about thirty minutes, and it takes at least ten to get to that part of the city.”

“Fuck, you’re right. Thanks, Reggie.” I scarfed down the rest of my food and cleaned up, before booking it through the city streets.

The prior night had no signs of life barring the sole person we ran into, Lenny, but this morning it was as though there was no war on the footsteps of the city. People were out and about living their regular lives.

I had been drafted to join a squad composed of Mia and Vera, to my relief. We had already spent enough time apart. We didn’t need to spend any more.

“Do they know there’s a war going on?” I asked Mia, as we kept an eye out for the Malgast forces.

“Of course they do, but they can’t stop living just because of that. Those who can help are already helping. Those that cannot are existing as though the world is fine, as if that helps them keep from panicking. At least, I hope that’s why they do so, because this is certainly enviable compared to what happened when that spike feeder attacked, if you would recall. How many of the lives we lost were taken by their fellow man trampling them as opposed to the beast’s invasion? I don’t want to know, but we both know it was far too much. If this is how things are going this time, then we’ll certainly embrace it.”

I nodded, swallowing any further curiosity or reservations. I was back to work, my electroreception honed to focus on the outer perimeters of our guarded territory. We had to be prepared for them to breach and attack. They couldn’t just wait forever in the slums to get picked apart by our forces. This was our home turf. We understood the alleyways, the underground passages to the old city, what was intact and what was ruined. While they could be entrenched in the slums, it only provided a veneer of protection.

“Do you know what is going on today?” I asked Vera as we walked around the block for the seventh time by my count, although I was sure she had done it quite a few more times than I had with my slumbering state.

“You didn’t hear this from me but—” she said, leaning in to whisper conspiratorially, “— Alain and some others are tactically striking at more of the enemy’s forces. With Alain bringing them along in shadow, it’s fairly easy to eviscerate a few of the fighters and then safely retreat, not unlike what you were doing the other night, albeit with a more directed intent. This should agitate them to strike, so keep your eyes peeled. They should be coming sometime today. They can’t afford to be whittled down in the midst of our territory. They can only move forward if they want to win this war.”

I nodded, committing the sentiment to my memory, wishing the best for Alain wherever he was in the city. I was sure he would be fine, but I didn’t want to believe otherwise.

The sun continued to beat down on us as we rang around the block for the eighteenth time. It was nearly time for Mia and Vera to return, and another crew to stagger on in. “Take care, Perry. One more rotation and we’re off duty. Well, you know. Off duty until the worst happens,” Vera started.

“Don’t be reckless. Just because you’re strong doesn’t mean the enemy is weak. The ones that are careless will always die first. Those people don’t count, although they can still harm you if you don’t treat them with some measure of respect,” Mia added.

“I know, I know. I’ll be safe, I promise. I’m back here with you all. I won’t let that be the end of things.”

It was brave words. Words that could incite havoc, and yet, fortune smiled in that my companions could rest for the moment, no longer summoned to the call of battle. They retreated back to the barracks and I was reinforced by the presence of Archie and Reggie, my stalwart new friends.

“The sun is dropping lower and lower,” I said, glancing at the sky. “Be prepared for action to break out. I imagine they don’t want to risk things with the onset of night. They’re not that stupid, right?”

“Don’t doubt the enemy’s capacity to be foolish, Perry. That’s a flimsy path towards suffering,” Reggie said, admonishing me. He wore his jackal hide, already prepared for combat, unwilling to be caught unaware. I didn’t necessarily disagree with his mindset, but I was reluctant to put any of the other civilians in the area in the mindset of running into harm. I hoped that we could shelter them until the very end, where they would run away, knowing that fragile peace for as long as it stayed intact.

“Reggie, your propensity for negativity never fails to inspire,” Archie replied, chiding his friend. Their candid speech relieved me. It was as though I was still surrounded by the specters of Mia and Vera. I still had the familiar presence of those who cared for me around, and that was enough to keep me going through the long anxious hours.

As I had been doing by rote, I flashed my electroreception at the top of the block, scanning the vicinity for any strange activity. My heart fell to the bottom of my stomach, breaths struggling to enter my lips. My knees were pulled to the ground, body slumping over, skin clammy, palms sweaty.

“No. It couldn’t be. They’re already on the move?” I choked out.

I couldn’t see Archie nor Reggie’s expressions, but they crept over to my hunched form and heaved me to my feet with a hearty pat on the back, before issuing declarations to the locales to retreat from our vicinity.

“There were too many of them. It was as though it was their whole force. Why didn’t we notice them until this point?” I cried.

“Don’t you fall to pieces, Perry. We’re not quite alone ourselves. Those aren’t all civilians you’re counting on our side.”

I turned back and saw the vaguely familiar faces of the guard behind me, amassing down the street. Off to the sides were remnants of the Mistress’s fighters, faces wearing heavy scowls. This was the engagement that couldn’t be avoided.

More strikingly, however, was Amalarys heading up the flank, striding with purpose. She saw my weak gaze and nodded. My body trembled and ran down towards our fighters, unwilling to be in the midst of the mass violence. I had killed people, I had massacred spike feeders, but to be in the middle of an engagement where blood would be spilled on both sides like that was still untested grounds.

I wouldn’t look away though. I would face it head on. I had already endured so much. This was just another facet I had yet to master, no matter the cost. I already had to live with the lives my hands stole. This would just increase my burden to bear.

The Malagost forces grew closer and closer, the noise of their army audible even to my human ears. Concurrently, all of the Titan City army donned their strongest forms, preparing to launch their techniques on the enemy forces. I even saw Mia and Vera’s return, their weary faces coated in grim acceptance. I hurried to their sides, unwilling to let my my friends, no, my family be in danger while I was present.

“You quite alright?” I asked, drawing them into a brief hug. They smelled of sweat and exhaustion.

“I hoped we had more time to recover, but there’s no real time to rest during a war, I suppose,” Mia said.

“I just hope Alain is alright wherever his forces are,” Vera added, her mind evidently elsewhere.

“We can’t focus on that. Just hold onto the belief he’s safe. We need to care about our own lives, Vera. We will beat in the stark reminder that Titan City was never up for the taking.”

I stared at Mia and swallowed, taking her words into me. I could sense the forces about to emerge from around the corner, but that was already a foolish belief. The walls exploded with debris, the forces unwilling to be deterred by our city’s architecture if it meant that they could win over our forces. The only rule in war was that the winner made the rules.