Nathan hadn’t explained to Leopold how he planned to seize Fort Taubrum. No doubt the old Bastion had a few ideas. Nathan doubted that any of those ideas were close to the mark. Then again, maybe Leopold had a more active imagination than Nathan gave him credit for.
“How long will it take Theus to get down to Fort Taubrum?” Anna asked.
“Realistically? A day. Maybe two.” Nathan waved a hand in the air as if to dismiss the concern that his words raised. “A better question is: how long will it take Theus to panic after Seraph tells him the bad news about this battle?”
Sunstorm scoffed. “He’ll panic immediately, but he won’t act straight away. The Regents have ordered him to hold Forselle Valley, so he’ll be loath to retreat.”
“Would he be likely to attack us if we besieged Fort Taubrum?” Anna asked.
“Unlikely,” Sunstorm said. “Given the Federation is losing, he’ll revert to his cowardly self. The regents can’t exactly threaten him with death if he thinks he’s going to die anyway.”
Leopold chuckled and shook his head. “If there’s one thing that idiot appears to be good at, it’s recognizing when he’s lost. He pulled out of the battle against my Champions in Forselle Valley far earlier than most Bastions would.”
Sunstorm and Leopold exchanged smirks. Their shared disdain for Theus forged a bond between them.
“So that means we have a few days to reach for Taubrum?” Anna suggested.
“At most,” Nathan said. “I’m assuming that you want to use all of those ‘few days.’”
“If I can, then yes,” Anna replied. “Unless we have anything pressing that requires us to march tomorrow or the day after, then I’d appreciate if we have three days encamped here. Fort Taubrum is only a day or two’s march north, isn’t it?”
After further discussion, they came to an agreement to give Anna the three days that she wanted. Nathan didn’t know why she needed three days specifically. He didn’t especially care. In the end, Anna had her reasons—presumably noble reasons—and she was lending him her army.
Sunstorm kept an eye out to the north and patrolled significant distances to look for any errant Federation forces that might be of concern. Other than a few small patrols from the towns and nearby forts, she found nothing of interest.
Smaller forts and watchtowers dotted the region. With the time they had available, Nathan sent out Fei and Sen to chase away any Federation soldiers using these defensive positions. Anna’s soldiers then took over some of the more heavily fortified locations. They would serve as supply depots and potentially future defensive positions.
Nathan sincerely hoped that they wouldn’t need to be used to defend against the Federation. That would imply a major Federation counteroffensive in the future, or that he had failed to push farther into Federation territory before things turned against them.
The three days passed. Anna kept herself busy with her nobles. Additional wagons carrying supplies arrived toward the tail end of the third day. This wasn’t what Anna was waiting for, but she took credit for it anyway.
A report from Sunstorm indicated that additional soldiers were traveling through the pass, bearing Anna’s emblem. Anna gave no indication to Nathan that they would join the attack on Fort Taubrum. Presumably, these soldiers were here to hold Gharrick Pass and to capture additional Federation territory. Nathan let her do what she wished.
He had his own job to do. His battle with Seraph grew closer.
Chapter 40
Sen ducked her head through the flap of Nathan’s tent. She raised an eyebrow at the noises coming from within, especially now that she saw the source.
“Standing outside, I expected to see both of you wearing much less clothing,” Sen said.
Fei mewled. “It just feels so good.” She arched her back and her bushy tail stuck out straight.
“What have I told you about moving while I’m grooming you,” Nathan said, patting Fei on the ass. She fell back into his lap and flicked her tail against his chest.
Nathan gestured for Sen to enter the tent. She slipped inside and let the flap fall shut behind her.
Glancing back at the entrance, Sen said, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to place some sort of noise suppression spell on the tent?”
“Easier said than done. The tent isn’t made from the sturdiest material, and it doesn’t provide a proper seal from the outside air,” Nathan explained. “Furthermore, spells need to be powered, and I have better things to use my magic on than preventing others from hearing Fei’s moans.”
“Hey,” Fei whined.
Nathan ran a hand along her tail, and she quietened down. Or at least as quiet as she got while being groomed.
Sen took a seat on a nearby crate and closely watched Fei’s reactions. The beastkin moaned, mewled, and let out more than her fair share of obscene noises.
“Yeah, definitely still sounds like sex.” Sen shook her head. “Not that I came in here to perv or anything.”
“Then what did you come in here for? We’re taking the fort tomorrow, so it’s a good idea to get some sleep,” Nathan said.
“I should say that to you,” Sen replied. “It seems like you’ll be up all night keeping this little kitty company. She’s raring to go, judging by the smell. Are you sure you…”
Fei tried to glare at Sen, but the effect was muted by the way her eyes curved and the moans that escaped her lips every few seconds.
“I don’t plan to do anything more after this. As always when I’m campaigning, I intend for this to be an early night,” Nathan said.
“It’s impossible to get him to have any fun,” Fei complained. She pushed herself against Nathan, rubbing her scent into his clothes.
He ignored her and continued to stroke her tail and rub her ears.
“Is that what the glass is for? I thought you didn’t drink while campaigning,” Sen said. She pointed to a small tumbler full of amber liquid.
“That’s not for me,” Nathan said drily.
Fei pointedly ignored Sen’s stare.
“Is that to calm her nerves?” Sen asked Nathan.
“I’m not nervous.” Somehow, Fei’s denial made her sound more nervous.
Nathan shook his head in response to Sen’s question. “Less nervous, more hyperactive. I have no doubt that she’ll be fine in the battle tomorrow. What I’m worried about is that she’ll try to keep me up all night. And we both know exactly what she’ll do when she gets bored.”
“The exact same thing that she’s trying to do to you right now?” Sen grinned.
Their banter continued for several minutes, and Fei complained the entire time. Nathan idly wondered what the soldiers outside felt about this. No doubt it sounded like he was having sex with one woman, while joking around with another.
Assuming any soldiers were out there to begin with. He was a Bastion—not exactly high on the list of targets that needed protection. His soldiers were more likely to be killed by anybody powerful enough to harm Nathan. Most people that tried to stab him would find their blades shattered on impact with his body.
“I’m surprised that you’re not with Sunstorm right now,” Nathan commented, changing the subject.
Sen grimaced. “We’ve been together most the day, but she tends to get a bit awkward at night.”
“I was going to ask about that. Things haven’t improved?” Nathan asked.
Sen held a palm up facing flat toward the ground and shook it back and forth. “Kind of? It doesn’t help that what we think of you and each other is vastly different. She’s very keen to pick up where we left off. I am much more in tune with ‘old me’ then she is, so I feel that she is falling back on our relationship more.”
The look that Fei gave Sen was strange, but that was understandable. Not only was the relationship between Sen and Sunstorm confusing, but there was the memory situation to contend with.
Fei didn’t know about the alternate timeline. Sen and Sunstorm did, even if their memories were incomplete. At the sa
me time, Sen and Sunstorm remembered their past from this world, which included a sexual relationship between the two of them.
“If you’re not interested in her, you can say no,” Nathan said.
“The thing is, part of me is interested. I just have difficulty making sense of that part of me.” Sen closed her eyes and leaned backward, careful not to topple over. “My memories are a mess, but Sunstorm supported me through a rough patch. But right now, I’m much stronger. I can’t help but think that relationship was a crux and that I shouldn’t rely on it. For Sunstorm, I think it meant something more.”
Sen continued to hedge around the situation. The more she talked, the more Fei looked at her funny.
Fei knew about the relationship between Sen and Sunstorm. Sometimes, she walked in on the two of them doing things in Nathan’s room, while they waited for him. That was to say nothing of the activities they sometimes got up to together with him.
But that likely confused her more, as she probably didn’t understand why Sen had difficulty with Sunstorm. Fei’s understanding of relationships was simplistic at best, so far as Nathan could tell.
Realizing that the situation had grown awkward, Nathan gave Fei a pat on the back and pushed her off his lap. Fei whined in response. Slowly, she crept off his lap and found a new seat.
Right next to him.
Nathan held in a sigh when Fei leaned against him.
“She knows what she wants, doesn’t she?” Sen commented with a smile.
Putting on an innocent face, Fei picked up the glass from the nearby table and swirled around the whisky within it. She began to sip the amber liquid.
“It doesn’t hurt anyone, so let her be,” Nathan said. “I’m assuming you came here for a reason other than sating your curiosity about Fei’s moans?”
“I did.” Sen nodded. Her hands fidgeted in her lap. “I want to ask you about what I should be doing in battle.”
Nathan blinked. “In battle? Well, you have your orders, don’t you? They change from battle to battle, sure, but I think you know how to fight.”
“No, no, that’s not it.” Sen shook her head. “I mean, how should I be fighting in battle? I’m a spellblade, right? And you’re a spellblade?”
Nathan nodded in response.
“So why do we almost never fight our opponents with our swords? Why do we spend so much time standing back and pummeling them with spells?” Sen asked, exasperation evident in her voice.
Nathan tried not to laugh. Unfortunately, he wasn’t holding anything with which to cover his face, so his smile was visible.
“Don’t laugh at me!” Sen demanded.
“I’m not laughing at you.” Nathan held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “But I asked this question myself when I was younger. And I’ve been asked it many times since.”
Sen’s eyes widened. She asked, “Really? Then what’s the answer?”
“Complicated. A spellblade is simply a sorcerer that also uses a sword. But why do we use a sword?”
Sen dithered before answering, “isn’t it so that I can defend myself in case a Champion or someone else attacks me in close range?”
“How would you summarize that?” Nathan responded.
Rolling her eyes, Sen said, “Oh, I see what you’re doing. This is one of those ‘make me give you the answer because I should already know it’ situations, isn’t it?”
“Then humor me.” Nathan waited and crossed his arms.
Fei watched the two of them with wide, curious eyes, while continuing to drink her whisky. She had a taste for the stuff, Nathan noted. While brandy was the favored drink in the Empire, Nathan had always preferred whisky, given it was much more common in his homeland of Falmir. Perhaps Fei liked it because it was exotic to her.
He didn’t recall her liking it in his timeline. She had always been more of an ale person back then.
“Having a sword gives me options,” Sen said. “If I’m attacked at close range, I can defend myself with it. At long range, I don’t have to use it. But is that really all a spellblade is?”
Nathan shook his head. “If that’s all a spellblade was, then it would just be a fancy name for ‘sorcerer who uses a sword.’ Your sword channels magic. You can use it to direct spells, defend against attacks, and use it as a weapon when you go on the offense. What you’re experiencing now is a growing pain. When you were a bandit, you used your sword more often than your spells from afar, correct?”
Sen nodded, a frustrated expression crossing her face. Clearly, she was not at home with the shift in focus that Nathan and Ifrit had forced upon her.
“Ifrit has mostly been teaching you long-range spells, hasn’t he?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” Sen blurted out. She blinked. “Wait, how do you know that? Can you talk to him in my head?”
“Of course not. I know because that’s the traditional way to train a spellblade,” Nathan explained. “Or at least, one with as much talent and power as you.”
Sen remained silent, although her eyes wandered to the whisky in Fei’s hands.
He got the message. Nathan dug up another glass from his trunk. He poured a couple of measures of whisky into it and handed it to Sen. Now that he had produced the bottle, Fei asked for more. He gave her a finger more, and ignored her complaint that he was being stingy.
“When you are less powerful, the gap between sorcerer and spellblade is readily apparent,” Nathan explained as he placed the bottle back in his trunk. “But as a Champion, the gap often appears invisible. The spellblade is—to an untrained eye—a sorcerer that uses a sword. That isn’t true. But that impression lives on because most opponents are not strong enough to make a powerful spellblade go all out.”
“This has to do with the fact that you’re always holding back,” Sen said, comprehension dawning on her face.
Nathan winked at Sen but didn’t confirm her comment. He continued with his earlier explanation, “Being up close and personal with an enemy puts you at risk. It’s usually smarter to bombard them from range. Most of your best spells will be more effective at a distance. Until you can cast high rank spells quickly and efficiently, you cannot use them in close-quarters combat.”
“Right. So I can only use low rank spells in melee,” Sen said. “Ifrit has explained that. But isn’t getting up in their face often more effective?”
“You misunderstand,” Nathan said. “The point is to learn how to use high rank spells in melee. That’s what is truly effective.”
“In other words, I’m focusing on long-distance spells as a means of training?” Sen clarified. “That makes it sound like I’m not ready to be on the battlefield.”
“If you aren’t ready to be on the battlefield, most of this army isn’t either,” Nathan drawled. “There’s no harm in having room to grow, Sen. The same goes for you, Fei. Nobody expects you to be capable of defeating a duogem or a trigem Champion yet. I’m here to train you and help you grow, until you are able to do that.”
Sen’s eyes widened. “You really think that we will be able to beat a trigem?”
Nathan didn’t hesitate, even though he had no confirmation that Sen ever achieved a level of strength equal to a trigem. “I do. I’m here for you. You have Ifrit, and I trust in you.” He smiled at Fei and Sen. “Both of you.”
Fei squeaked. Her arms wrapped around him suddenly, and he felt something wet splash against his side. He had a bad feeling that was the whisky in her glass. She rubbed her face against his chest. He scratched behind her ears and held her against him.
Sen didn’t join in the celebration, however. Concern marred her face.
“If I’m going to be drawing on enough power from Ifrit to oppose a trigem Champion then what will I look like?” Sen asked quietly.
Nathan stood up, shaking Fei off him. He stepped over to Sen.
Bending down, he gave her a kiss. When he pulled away, she stared back at him. He found her expression cute.
“You’ll look like yourself,” he said.
<
br /> Sen rolled her eyes. “Of course you would say something like that.” But she smiled anyway.
Nathan quickly learned that he had made a mistake by giving both women whisky that night, especially as they demanded more after his pep talk. Maybe he shouldn’t have given more to them, but he was feeling good.
He managed to avoid being kept up all night by the two, mostly by dint of the fact that Fei fell asleep halfway through trying to pull his pants off. Her snoring convinced Sen to give up on the idea.
Nathan got a good night’s sleep in the arms of both women. He hoped that tomorrow’s battle against Seraph didn’t ruin his memories of tonight.
Chapter 41
A strong wind kicked up around Fort Taubrum. Nathan’s army formed a defensive perimeter to the south, but it was unnecessary. The defenders remained firmly ensconced within their walls. Seraph made no appearance.
The sun shined down harshly on Nathan as he looked at the fortress. He noticed that it had been awhile since the fortress’s moat had been topped up. The water level seemed oddly low, likely because of the lack of rain on this side of the mountains. The ground was arid, and vegetation was sparse.
“I’ve checked the perimeter,” Sunstorm said after she ran up to Nathan. “There’s no sign of Federation forces nearby.”
“Good job. Get some rest, then join Fei with the rest of the troops,” Nathan said.
He watched as Sunstorm trotted off into the mass of troops nearby. They were busy building the encampment. Siege engines were erected. Patrols ran around the perimeter of the camp. The army settled in for a long siege. Normally, that would be a good idea.
But Nathan had no intention of letting this drag out. He needed to end this soon. Seraph was a wild card. Sunstorm knew little about the duogem Champion’s powers, beyond the fact that they were powerful. What she could tell him was that Seraph had some sort of force blast ability. She could blow away objects and people from a distance. And she seemed sturdier than a Champion normally would with her level of enhancements.
Given Seraph had two jades, Nathan found her powers rather odd. Jades were gems related to nature. A Champion with these gems usually had powers that relate to the natural elements. Control over wind, fire, water, and earth was common. That said, jades were rather flexible, and Nathan didn’t understand them in any real depth. No doubt they held secrets that were only known to those from the Kurai Peninsula.
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