Gula POV
A small eternity passed in idle silence. When the nervous priest coughed once, the sound blared like an intruder barging in. A notion her colored cheeks and embarrassed expression only emphasized. It took only a minute after that before lips started puckering, matching eyes that flitted between me and the door with increasing impatience. Sally had since made herself presentable and seemed on the verge of saying something when a long creaking swing on the right announced the two humans' return.
"Sorry for the wait," Kev announced to the room as he moved past my left and his men to sit at the last chair on the left before the one opposite of me.
Relief to finally get on with the proceedings showed on the priest's faces, even as they regarded the figure in a white shirt, leather jacket, and black pants walking by them, with particular attention being paid to the brown cloth face covering. The two ignorant men on the left went pale like death had come knocking a second time. Eli paid neither group much attention as he came up to the seat at the opposite end of the table and plopped down, making the two harried men flinch backward like they had been stung. A casual brush of his grey hair was all Eli got in before Sally finally spoke.
"And who might you be?" She asked wearily, looking him up and down with pensive lips.
Eli opened his mouth but it was the blonde man's frantic words that made it out first.
"It's him." He croaked with panic unblemished by any attempt to disguise it.
The priests raised eyebrows at the interrupting man. It hit me that the guards would know what he looked like as they had probably been his escort at some point whereas these women had never so much laid eyes on him. Kev coughed into a leather-covered hand.
"The plant mage. The man whose wall you brought down."
Red and gold eyes shot toward Eli with suspicion and fear. While they may have stood still as statues, the fresh beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads gave away the pounding hearts within. The skittish priest was heaving, her hands squeezing the arms of the chair with near-white knuckles. She showed how strong her grip was when she suddenly rose and brandished the furniture like a shield. Everyone turned to the scared woman moving back as she hefted the chair in front of her with its legs protruding towards the terror lying at the end of the table. Eli merely crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.
"If I meant you harm, you wouldn't have been given enough time to realize it. Nor would you have gotten so close to my domain." He stated with a small smile.
Whatever haze of panic and adrenaline the priest was under, the simplicity of that statement seemed to penetrate. Her feet stopped and the chair made into a weapon was slightly lowered. That didn't make the sweat on her face dry up or wide eyes shrink, but she stood still all the same.
"You...." The brown-bearded man started, those mud eyes shifting between the harried priest and the mage. "When we came up with that story about a craft taking out the wall, you knew it was a lie?"
The quad mage slightly nodded as he held the Orc's gaze.
"If you're going to lie to a mage in the future, don't make it involve crafts they made," Eli instructed. "Introductions such as these are best given at the start of the relationship. Of course, polite society would probably have some things to say about me outright working with Orcs."
"Oh?!" Kev asked, placing a red-leathered elbow on the table. "Have you been working with the Council before all this mayhem? Or was this a more recent affair?"
Sally gave the captain of the guard one sidelong scowl before returning her eyes to the quad mage. Her old companion, however, never wavered and got in the first words of the group.
"Work?" The small priest wheezed out. "You've been working with Orcs?"
I gave a light cough, interrupting the glares between Kev and Sally to turn their gazes on me.
"He has. You lot, specifically. That you were doing it in ignorance doesn't change that fact."
The nervous priest took a gulp so deep it was heard from her position off to the right while the others just sucked in their lips. Her nerves now a bit steady, the panicked woman put down the chair and brought it back to the table. She reluctantly sat down before looking at me.
"And y-you weren't?" She asked with a clasp of her palms together. "In ignorance, I mean."
My simple head shake made Sally's chest heave with panicked breathing.
"Not in ignorance." I offered with a pensive smile.
The Bishop shot straight up, sending her chair crashing into the floor.
"Yeah?" She snarled towards me, an unsteady crack in her voice as she bared teeth with furrowed grey eyebrows. "So all the food you've been selling has…. It's all magically grown?"
I slowly nodded, making her bite her lip white.
"Not much of a smuggler if you just have to walk down the road." She scoffed.
Gears turned in her mind for a second longer.
"A smuggler that got his crafts for us to use."
I sat in silence, unable to find the words to diffuse the woman's anger. The face of impotent rage contrasted with the amused demeanor of the captain of the local guard.
"So you knew? Right from the very start?" Kev asked Eli with a small smile peeking out from his black beard.
"Knew what, specifically?" Eli responded with a casual lean back into his chair. "That they would dig towards my domain and made sure the stone supporting the road between here and Crasden was large enough to support a tunnel? Or that it was they who brought my wall low? The latter, I assure you, was realized at the bridge."
Flickers of impatience made me bite my lower lip. I was eager to get on to the portion of the conversation that would save all our lives, but a revelation like this demanded its own time.
The moment of irritation had distracted me from the fact that the two sides of the table were staring in opposite directions. While the men were looking at Eli with some relief, even a bit of joy from Kev, the Orcs were not similarly enthused in their inspection of me. Puckered lips and narrowed eyes regarded me with worry.
Sally had bits of sweat running down her forehead that the cramped closet and certain death hadn't been able to produce. Some of which dripped off when she stalked towards me around the table with a right hand outstretched. The expected slap across the face or grab of the chin instead widened into an open palm that pulled up my shirt to grope the stomach beneath.
"Has your bleeding come at its regular time?" She demanded as her hand ran up and down my belly.
"Yes," I offered with a forced smile.
"Ah."
Eli's disappointed tone carried clear across the table, drawing amused looks from the men and rather severe scowls from the priest. Mine was a bit of both that emphasized the lean forward onto the table.
"What?" The quad mage offered with a shrug as he crossed his arms in front of him. "A love so pure, so viral, that not even Yook Root can stop it is a rather romantic notion."
The women puckered lips at him, making Sally pull away to walk back to her seat. Picking it up off the ground, she placed it properly under the table before sitting in it. Her white-sleeved elbows rested on the table while some great struggle ran through the Bishop's mind. Grey hair stuck to the forehead where sweat still gathered.
That nervous demeanor made it all the more surprising when her left hand suddenly went towards Eli's. Not a blur but fast enough most would only react with their faces in time. Eli allowed the green hand to brush his with a raised eyebrow. Sally looked at him with wide eyes as they regarded each other and the realization that she was testing his reaction came later than I would have liked.
"Love? Romance?" Sally almost whispered to him. "Mage, are we worthy of such things in your eyes?"
"I'm sure some of you aren't, but that's for the same reasons as some humans aren't," Eli mused. "Otherwise, sure. As my wife will hopefully attest to with great enthusiasm."
A bit of heat infused into my cheeks but no one was going to commit the effort to turn their necks towards me at this pivotal moment.
"And if we die, will that death be as sharp to your soul as a woman of your kind? Our pain, as offensive to your sense of decency as any humans?" Sally asked. There was no pleading in her voice, just the measured words of someone long used to speeches and careful debate.
"Yes," Eli answered firmly.
Sally let loose a deep breath.
"Then why do you endanger us so? Surely you know what the humans will do if you're discovered. What they will do to us. Our daughters. Is it worth risking all our lives just so you can have a nice little spot to rut?" Sally asked as calmly as the hint of anger in her voice would allow, at least until the end.
The ingratitude on display made my fist curl on the table. This time the sharp-faced priest noticed with a slight turn of her head, though she said nothing of it before looking back towards Sally.
Eli regarded the Bishop for a second that felt like minutes before he crossed his arms and broke the silence.
"When God spoke to King Solomon, he offered him whatever he desired as a reward for his good deeds. What was the young king's answer? Wisdom. Not wealth, long life, or power. God, so pleased with his answer, gave him that and all the others besides. Because wisdom is the source of all good things. Tell me, lady of Christ, is wisdom angry? Is it quick to judge and slow to reason?"
Despite everything preceding it, a smile broke out above Sally's sharp chin as her gold eyes tried to not look amused.
"You dare twist scripture against me, mage?"
The tips of another smile broke out above my husband's brown cloth face covering, showing fully in his jade eyes.
"I have contorted text no more than Jesus did when he debated the Pharisees."
It all sounded very sage and hinting at deeper meanings, but the poetry slid in and out of my ears with little comprehension. My ignorance of what they were saying didn't leave me blind to how impressed the priests were, who now looked at him with an air of amusement and tolerance as his lecture continued.
"And what wisdom is there in refusing your only means of mortal salvation? I hope I don't have to remind you what provided the impetus to start digging under my domain so recklessly." Eli asked with a lean back into his chair.
Sally opened her mouth with some words on her tongue. They stopped for a moment, leaving her jaw agape. After a few seconds of cold silence, she finally spoke up.
"Even if we are crushed under the governor's plan, it would only be us. If you two are found, they will scour all the surrounding settlements for every Orc. No chances will be taken. And if she should conceive, it may spark a wider persecution against not just us landbound but also the Waveborn."
Eli solemnly nodded as he rested his rested his left hand on the table.
"Whatever impression my bout of male pride may have given, we don't intend to start a family for a while. But-"
"When?" The older priest on Sally's left demanded with narrowed red eyes that made a spiderweb of wrinkles pull around her face.
I felt venomous words dance across my tongue and hands clench into fists yet again. Absorbing the situation was one thing, this circle of endless questions was quite another.
"A few years, at least. At a time when we are all more established."
It was the blonde man who leaned forward this time.
"Must you make the child with Gula? Could you not take a few wenches from the local bars? Your bed would be full to bursting with opportunity for heir-making and no one would kill you for it."
Surprisingly, it was the priests who looked the most offended at the idea. Their deadly glares made the man shirk back. Eli merely got a tight lip as he rejected the proposition.
"I'm afraid Gula must bear my child at some point. Love demands it and siring a small country of human children wouldn't dull that need."
He then turned back to the now more receptive women.
"As for endangering everyone else. I will ask you this; Has anything ever been gained by taking no risks?"
Sally took a deep breath, making sure to meet his gaze.
"Risk requires consent to be taken. We have no right to decide for hundreds of thousands of people."
"No, it doesn't," I growled with a slap on the table, thin patience finally snapping. That sudden smack on wood drew everyone's gaze to me. "Not everyone consented when the first Orcs dug beneath human cities and all the retaliation that might have followed. The risk to humanity from our existence didn't come with their agreement."
I made sure to scowl at the women, meeting their eyes as prickly thoughts and a guarded tongue were finally let loose.
"Risk?" I scoffed at Sally with a raise of my finger towards Eli. "He risked more than mere death to set this place up. You find out a mage is working to help our kind and all you do is scour for ways to be ungrateful. If you can't find it in yourself to be useful, at least stop getting in the way of people who are."
The women sat still with stiff expressions. A second passed before the elder priest huffed.
"A wife's anger." She stated with a smile. "But not unfounded. The ways of their bed are for a less pressing time. Am I to assume our former captors are also formerly living?"
Eli merely nodded, while Kev's black locks almost swirled with how vigorously his head bobbed up and down.
"A bigger question," The quad mage put in. "Is what they were doing before this meeting."
I nodded with the men glancing back at me before returning to Eli. Kev, as the leader of the guard, assumed his station by going first.
"They broke the water scion out of the mage prison with the help of the new guard, no doubt. Security is pretty lax at night but come morning…. It's going to be a city-wide manhunt. Fessel told me that the other mages were supposed to be heading out on a ship specially marked as under the protection of the mage associations so that the pirates would know to not attack it and we were to set up extra guards along the dock to keep it safe. While keeping order on the harbor is part of our responsibilities, his insistence on having so many men on standby to thin our eyes here was quite clever. "
I took a deep breath before adding what little I knew.
"They said something about bribing the captain and walking over land after all this. Though how they would take credit for revealing our stock of earth crafts isn't clear."
"They wouldn't." Kev put in with a puckering of his lips that pulled at his black beard. "Fessel would lay out the charges. Having it known that three mages who hated Tilvor had helped would only draw suspicion. My guess? They would tell the truth about the Watch member finding the crafts in the rubble and he took it to Fessel. The lie is that they concluded who it was taken from on their own and will only reveal the other mage's help after it had been irrefutably established that Tilvor had indeed aided Orcs through neglect. I suppose that neglect proved to be the biggest lie, however."
"And the pirates escape? How would they explain the coincidence?" Eli asked with a raise of his grey eyebrow.
Kev bit his lips, looking back and forth over the table before sucking in some air.
"No coincidence. They did it for protection. You're a scion and they broke the only other scion here out of prison so that they would have a chance of surviving your retribution. Once this gets out, no one will complain about what they did." He speculated.
Eli nodded in agreement. It was at that moment that a terrible idea bloomed.
"Are there any messages sent out that we need to worry about? Could there be a hawk delivering the truth of these events right now?" I offered.
Kev's look of skepticism eased my heart.
"The Watch doesn't do written messages. Too easy to have the correspondence snatched. Fessel hasn't sent any letters and doesn't bother seeing as how all communication from here has to go out on boat. Not that there's much he has to say to the outside world. Everyone knows the game. He has all the authority on paper, but that paper is stored in drawers we fashioned. We built the station he works at and the house his head laid in. This wasn't the first time some high and proper outsider came in to break the Orc shagging dredge into shape and it…."
A small laugh contorted his lips beneath black bush.
"Well, it might very well be the last time."
Eli drummed his fingers on the table.
"In normal times, I could accept that. Revealing a mage helped the Orcs is anything but a normal day in the guard. The pirate wretch talked about having some evidence in Fessels' quarters. We should assume he wasn't content with just that for such an explosive accusation. That bribed captain probably also took on something besides two empty beds."
Kev leaned forward a hair while his men put almost their entire torsos across the table.
"The captain? You imagine he handed off some parcel explaining these events?" The blonde man asked.
Eli bobbed his head back and forth.
"Or to some member of the local government we don't know about. Being a mage, Percy probably lent him some assistance getting the word out in avenues and ears your kind couldn't reach. There are too many ways for evidence to have been handed off. Even a single page explaining everything with an official seal could be the death of us all."
The brown-haired man on my direct left huffed, sending a small cloud out of his beard.
"Fessel was an arrogant bastard. A dick like him has a member of the Watch give him an investigation that would send him shooting to the top and he's going to leave anything to chance? Nah. I'd bet my life he's probably left sent so many messages he's had the boys running back and forth all day."
"So," Eli put in with a tired sigh. "Let's assume the general story about me helping the Orcs through neglect is going to get out."
A dead silence crept into the room while Eli stared at the ceiling for a solid minute, leaving us to languish in our own wranglings before he finally spoke.
"Hmm," He hummed for a second before looking down towards Sally. "How many people are aware of the crafts you've been working with?"
Golden eyes bounced back and forth before Sally spoke.
"The council, which is three. The workers and select guards are about ten, including the Overseer of the mining operation. We have been strict in keeping them under the greatest secrecy."
"If I gave you, say, fifty more, could you perhaps let that fact slip out among the human guard?"
Everyone at the table looked as lost as I was during the Solomon bit. Something which Eli sat upright and attempted to relieve.
"Percy and the Mountain Top representative were tasked to give me a hundred crafts to aid in the construction of my city. Right now, we should assume that someone with power will be reading a letter explaining this sordid story either now or in the weeks to come. The way to counteract this is to present a new story and make it bigger than the truth.
I'll hand off fifty of those crafts I 'received' to you lot. You will explain to your superiors that they were acquired through the negligent security of those mages. When this fact gets out among the human guards, I'm sure some Watch spies will hear of it. This will present a new sequence of events; Realizing that they just destroyed Ashe's grand project and any reputations they had spent their lives building, Percy and the earth caster forced Fessel to write these lies and freed the water scion to get in the good graces of the pirates who would be taking them in. The trip to which no one has any hope of tracking down."
"That's all?" The sharp-faced priest asked incredulously."They lost FIFTY magic crafts? Like a child dropping a favored rock?"
Kev strummed his fingers on the table for a second in contemplation.
"Maybe." He finally said "Moving a lot of goods is tricky. We could say they handed them off to some of my men, not realizing they weren't a part of Fessel's crew." Black hair dipped towards the other two men with Kev's bobbing head.
"Who could say otherwise?" The blonde man offered with a shrug. "People will have questions and doubts, but who could call us liars when we've got a cart full of magical wonder?"
That got a thoughtful nod from the old Orc.
"Having so many crafts will do wonders for our efforts here."
"Speaking of," Eli cut in. "I would like to see your plans for the excavation. It's time we started working more closely, especially with how quickly you'll be expanding after I've finished the new crafts."
"We're going to lie to everyone?" Sally asked with her first note of trepidation all night.
The other priests got an understanding frown. Eli leaned back into his chair with a deep breath, looking at her with sympathy in his green eyes.
"Some have said the first sin was Satan lying. I'm more inclined to say it was the pride and greed preceding the act that were the first true sins. Tell me, when you look them in the eyes and say things you know aren't true, will you be proud of it? Are you doing it for your personal gain?"
Sally stared at him for a second before shaking her head.
"If someone asked where a vial of poison was, someone you knew was going to drop it in a well to kill thousands of people, would God look favorably upon you for telling them the truth?"
She sucked in her lips, chewing them before releasing them in a whisper.
"I….Don't think so."
Eli only nodded as he leaned forward.
"We can recite all of scripture from heart and lay plans of meticulous detail, but sometimes one must make the hard choice. For all that I have done and will do, I will explain to God why I did what I did and can only hope that he finds my justification satisfactory."
This time the philosophy stuck in my skull. Having to defend how I lived my life to some higher power after death was so odd yet intriguing. A courtroom of the afterlife. Would I also have a perfect memory of everything? Because having to justify things I had no recollection of seemed unfair.
Sally stared at the table with golden eyes going back and forth. Her fingers strummed on the table as the battle raged on inside. When the clacking of nails finally stopped, she gave a slow nod that ended with a release of breath had the same finality as the men whose hearts my blade and arrows had pierced in a past life.
"Nersa and the rest will worry about using them, but I'll make sure they understand it's this or death."
"For now," Eli said, puncturing through the silence "There won't be any lies but the plain sharing of information."
With that, everyone got up. The guards went back out to retrieve their various pilfered items while I checked on the Keltons guarding the outside. They were fine and when I came back, various pages were scattered about the table, with Sally retrieving yet more from the desk's drawers.
A quick look over them revealed a lot of numbers scattered about and various symbols whose meanings were totally lost on me. Content to sit back in my chair and watch Eli work his hands over the large papers with a crude pencil, idle boredom continued as the three other humans waited on my right by the door and the Kelton guard stood at attention to the left. Our uselessness only stopped when two words broke through the low grumblings of numbers.
"All right," Eli announced to the room, looking at me and then the men. "This is to satisfaction. Crafts aren't quickly molded into wood, no matter how simple they are. Kev, I'm going to be taking a rest tomorrow to get them finished, try your best to act surprised when the announcement for a lazy day comes."
"You'll be letting everyone take the day off?" The guard asked, looking a bit impressed as he rubbed the steel helmet under his left arm.
"If I can't work, then no one else will. Well, the meals and cleaning still need doing but I'll make it up to the support staff later. More importantly, coordinate with the priests on when to release the rumors. We need to make sure the Orcs are properly dug in before the Watch first hears of the fifty new crafts."
The rest nodded before awkwardly getting up one by one. Eli hung a bit back to let the others, including the Kelton, leave the building. It ended with the nervous priest trudging out with an air of exhaustion. When the door behind me was closed with a terrified squeak from the sharp-faced priest probably realizing what the ash piles were, he walked up to me. I was getting ready to ask him something but Eli took my open mouth as an invitation. One he accepted with a quick side pull of his face covering.
His kiss was forceful, needy, and only matched in power by the manly hand pulling on my lower neck. I didn't retreat and our duel continued for a few moments longer before he released me.
"I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not." He offered with a smile that seemed to warm the winter air as the face covering was kept to the side.
His brutish affection agreed with me, though a coy smile and lean backward was all I'd give him.
"Apparently there's many uses for my body you're rather unapologetic about. Even ones you said you wanted to hold off on." I chided in a voice that hopefully didn't sound too pleased.
A slight shrug was the only regret he showed. Even that small concession was undone by the smug smile above his strong chin.
"I can say one thing, but a twenty-or-so years old male body often says something very different. It'll cool off around the early to mid-thirties. Though, I wasn't making babies at those times. Even if that drive chills, I've found that I need you for other purposes."
I raised my eyebrows in expectation of some new mission or great danger we would ride out to meet. When his eyes trembled a bit, my muscles tensed at what horror could make a man of such ability quake.
"I need to wake up with you in the mornings again," He intoned like a dire prophecy. An askance look at him was forming but his hand gently placed along my left cheek had me leaning my head into it. "These nights are cold and all things need their companionship. With Kev now somewhat in the loop, it should be easy to have you visit me some nights or I you when the ship is in port."
Trying to think about anything beyond how good his hand felt was hard yet one thought did push through.
"With Sally and the others involved, it may be even easier than that."
He raised a grey eyebrow.
"I don't remember if I told you, but the church wants to be the ones around you so that they can keep anyone from trying to snatch a child from you and bring all the destruction that would follow."
"A small tunnel into my abode, then." He mused.
The way his thumb idly rubbed my cheek, making my spine tingle with each stroke, kept me from continuing the conversation. After a second his hand fell away with a regretful look.
"I have fifty crafts due. We'll have this conversation….properly in the future."
Feeling a bit better from his affection, I got up and retrieved the sword from the desk while he held the door open for me. As I was fastening it back around my waist, I noticed how intently Eli was staring at the skin exposed to the chill. The slight drop of my pants revealing a bit more was purely a coincidence in getting my weapon in place. His eyes flared a bit as I finally stood straight and walked up to the doorway but he said nothing as I walked out into the open cave. Around the rock walls were the torches still dutifully giving off an orange glow. Their debris was spotted in black flecks sprinkled around the floor though the bits from charred bodies would need to be swept up.
Eli moved ahead of me with stone gloves to pick up the few weapons still laying about and placed them in a pile near the tunnel he had taken in. I saw the others standing off to the left near the building, with the humans near the building's wall and the Orcs a bit closer to the curtain. The priests looked on with pensive expressions that didn't match the relieved men's faces. None of them seemed to register my walk up to them nor did I attempt to make them. Seeing a mage work their divine blessing was something most never got to see once, at least not before dying from it.
Rings of water pooled out of nothing to surround the bodies. Even after learning how magic worked, there was still something offputting about how water stood upright for no reason. As they always did, the laws of the universe handed the reigns over to their better and the magic liquid sloshed over the dead with cracks and sizzles. All the corpses were brought into the center of the room in the same manner that I had arrived in. When a body arrived, they were dropped into the pile with a soggy splash from the release. By the time the next one came, the water had disappeared with whatever magic was keeping it present, allowing the newcomer to land on a dry bed.
"Careful," Eli called back as the last bundle was placed down. "My fire crafts are from an old friend and it's not always easy to control them."
Ah, so that's going to be the explanation for his fire element. Not that anyone here knew much about magic anyway.
A round of nods greeted him, lasting only a second before a great blaze suddenly engulfed the ashen piles. Burned bodies and bones quickly mixed with the ash, being helped along into oblivion with a pulverizing cube of summoned stone until nothing but black powder remained of the untold wealth and power of three mages. The magic-less members of the dust pile would never be mentioned in any retelling, as was tradition.
Eli conjured a ball of water, holding it above his hand as he plunged it into the pile. The black sphere was soon joined by a snake of water scrounging up any other bits of black mass before slipping into the ball. He then took a right past the building, apparently intending to send the remains somewhere off into the night sky.
When the last footstep could be heard going through the tunnel, Sally turned towards her two compatriots.
"Get ready for a big push to be near his house. Any thoughts of sharing the space around his abode are no longer worth considering. If for no other reason than we can't afford to have anyone else rummaging around our back end."
A bellow of laughter suddenly filled the cave. It was so pure I would call it childlike if not for the deep base. The brown-haired man was almost fully bent over on my left yet it did nothing to impede his cheery tone.
"Do you know?" He choked out with the last hearty laugh, his brown eyes brimming with tears. "Do you know how many years I've put up with my wife going on and on about how stupid the Christians are for crushing any attempt to get mages?"
The blonde man got a similar smile of mischief.
"It's the opposite with Vera. Stupid woman almost got in a fistfight arguing with someone about how we can't risk our daughters for a magical man's pulp. Love her, mind you, but she's quite prickly on the subject. Who would have thought the Church would be the first ones to use a male mage."
The three priests didn't seem amused at the conversation happening a few feet away. Their faces of regal indifference held firm only until Kev sucked in his lips with a bemused look. Something that finally sent Sally over the edge.
"His COCK isn't the point, now is it?" She growled with furious gold eyes.
"Sister!" The older priest scoffed, swatting her superior's side like a wayward pup.
All three men went wide-eyed, pulling back their heads like children who had just heard their first profanity. Even I raised my eyebrows at Sally's darkening cheeks.
"Apologies, esteemed men of the guard," The holy bishop intoned with borderline sarcasm and a slight bow, "My years as a barmaid have a habit of sneaking up on me now and then. But if the fine and delicate sensibilities so typical of your profession aren't well suited for these coming events, I could perhaps bring more members of the clergy to fill in the gaps. Such-"
"No," I stated firmly, drawing all eyes to me. "We're not bringing anyone else into this."
Sally shook her head.
"I'm the current bishop and these two are heads of the logistics and architectural department. We alone cannot pull off the needed moves without drawing questions from those outside the church, forget those within. To say nothing of having a direct connection to his house, as I assume you'll want.
Cassie will likewise have to be brought in. Being the main overseer of coin means we'll need her to help….tinker with records in case we should need some material aid from your husband. Besides which, her department will be the one closest to our main area, which is where Tilvor will be. The woman runs a tight business and getting anything in or out of her domain without her knowledge would be a fool's hope. That is besides the fact that she'll want to know what the plans for those girls she's been giving you are."
A pang of guilt at deceiving the kind woman came and went. Those kids were safer now than they ever were in the city. Whatever else was going to be said between us stopped when steps announced Eli's return. His turn around the building was met without words, though the attention on him was no less intense or immediate than a king come to visit.
"Tilvor," Sally put in with a small bow on my left. "If we are to go through with this, we will need to bring more of the priesthood in on the scheme."
Eli didn't immediately answer. Instead, he looked towards me with raised eyebrows that seemed to demand my opinion. I could only shrug at the unspoken question.
"Have you suffered any infiltration by the Watch?" He asked with a turn back to the Bishop.
"We're all Orcs. Men who live with our kind don't do it with the aim of chastity."
The nervous-looking priest hummed, her gold eyes looking somewhere distant in the ceiling before coming back down.
"I believe a few men work in some of the churches out west. We had an older man a while back, but god has since brought him home."
"Yes," Sally said between gritted teeth, "For those present, however, it is all green women."
"Sadly it is not only humans who might betray us." Eli put in with a small smile. "I've heard that your church was quite opposed to hunting mages. Of course, there can be different reasons for reaching the same conclusion. Are there any who might object to not taking my seed now that it is possibly within reach?"
"No," Sally reaffirmed with a head shake that her two fellows matched. "The hardest part will be convincing some of the sisters to go along with it. Giving them all the choice of everyone immediately being killed in the new governor's plan or possibly in the future will give us the best purchase. Still…."
Sally's moment of hesitation finally ended with a pensive look towards me then back to Eli.
"After everything settles down, there is an argument to be made that killing you would be the safest route."
Hairs on the back of my neck stood straight while Eli only slightly nodded. Surprisingly, it was Kev who spoke next. He had a grim frown and the looks of trepidation the men were giving the priests were not too different from the ones they had given Eli at his introduction.
"That rumor, about the injured mage in the slums. It's true, then?" He asked with a bit of white seeping into his cheeks, matching his fellows.
Sally took a deep breath, only turning towards the guards with its release. Her face was stone with golden eyes brimming with a defiance that matched her snarling lips.
"The truth of what happened that night and to who is not a matter that would help anyone. And any more than that will not leave my tongue, even under the hottest pincers."
We all took a moment to absorb the barely obscured admission. Eli didn't linger, instead coughing into a fist.
"I would counter that the land this city is on belongs to me and no one else. If Ashe's plan works, there won't be too many people left in Crasden who would take command of this place with kindness."
The Bishop did a slight bow, making her short, grey hair sway above the red shirt.
"I will make sure this fact is central in our discussion."
With only a nod from Eli, we all walked towards the curtain blocking the cave from the rest of the tunnel. Kev followed behind with his two men in tow. Not to be left behind, I came up behind the column with my Kelton guard in attendance.
Crossing the cloth curtain revealed a long tube of stone wall, specked with flickering torches. The two Keltons keeping watch remained silent as the small procession went by, only moving when I came through.
"Hmm," Eli mused, looking up and down the curved walls. "Decent. For a structure potentially facing erosion from the sea, I would recommend a special outer layer of stone with easily replaced bits that stick out to break waves. I'll draw up some plans to be dropped off later. Right now, we need to get going. Do try to hold the workers off for a few minutes while I clean the mess left behind by our former hosts."
A round of nods was all he got. My legs then made it known how objectionable this trip had been and the logistics for getting back reminded me of something.
"We were led here," I announced to the group. "Seeing as they're no longer living, we'll need another to see us over the stone fields."
Kev looked towards the blonde man, who nodded back. Our new guide then broke out of the line and walked along the left of the tunnel while others stuck to the center. Making it to the crude opening where we had been kidnapped came far quicker than expected. An unfortunate thing, as Eli had made his way to my side during the walk. He took our time together to sneak a groping palm in or give a loving rub along my sides and arms. The only thing keeping me from scolding his lecherous dealings was the possibility that it would work.
Arriving at the hole in the tunnel wall, our little group split. It was dark in the cave, with only bits of flickering flame showing the contours of the hole and faint starlight above where we had dropped down. Eli fashioned a crude stairs for us to walk up into the night sky. When the blonde man and the last Kelton had vacated the cave, I turned to Eli waiting on my left by the stairs.
I didn't know what to say, despite the massage I had received on the way here. No thought or decision was made when my hand moved his cloth mouth covering aside while my head moved forward. Lips puckered for a kiss, I was about halfway there when some notion that I should let the man make the first move sprouted.
It would have been so romantic if I hadn't fumbled the move into an awkward head bob that suddenly pulled up short. Eli was not so uncertain in his desires. Strong hands grabbed my hips with a pull, closing the space that had been between us. Any thoughts about how he felt against my chest, thighs, or stomach evaporated as Eli also closed the space between his tongue and mine.
Warm buzzing ran up my spine, matching his hands trailing over it. Seconds passed too soon until Eli broke the kiss. Iron willpower, hardened by years of fighting for life and death, only just stopped the left hand from reaching to pull his head back into position. We stood there panting away the chill winter air, pressed together tighter than any rope or steel band could manage.
"I didn't see any marks from your crafts on the bodies or walls." He whispered with a soft blow on my left ear.
Hair stood straight on my neck. Eli followed it up with a soft kiss on my cheek. I was quite grateful the embarrassment at what I had to say blotted out the groan of pleasure fighting for release.
"I put them down. Somewhere. Probably in a drawer or rack back at the Base."
If the absence of such unfathomable treasures upset the most powerful man in the world, his groping palm on my left breast didn't squeeze hard enough to make me feel it.
"We will have to make some that aren't so easily displaced. Ones....Form fitting enough that you won't be inconvenienced by having them on in the day-to-day toil." He offered in between kisses down my neck.
My jaw opened of its own will to finally give him the moan he clearly wanted. I was only saved by the smack of rock against rock from the right. Our eyes drew to the pebbles tumbling down the stairs, courtesy of the men waiting above.
Grasping palms released my skin to the bitter chill. Eli pulled back about a step to take me in like a piece of art. His bit lip and heaving chest sent fire into my ears and cheeks, this time accomplished without him using any magic. Obligations, however, pulled me further away.
"Love you," I offered with a step onto the crude stairs.
"Same," He responded with a small smile.
My foot smacked against the side of the step, forcing me to choose between walking up or continuing to look at Eli. A sour smile played across my lips when the quad mage pulled the face covering back into place and started working his hands over the wall. Taking the turn around took a moment, though the call of fresh air helped make the walk up easier. Two hands reached down through the hole to pull me up, which I accepted from the two goat-headed men.
For a weightless moment, the stars rushed up to greet me before rock crunched beneath my feet. A solid mass of stone behind me stretched on in my peripheral vision. Its projection of strength and power undone by the rubble further ahead to the left where it met the larger wall of the main settlement.
"This way, Gula." The blonde man said with a look to the right, "Or should I say, Lady Laperict."
I didn't attempt to keep a smile down. Looking backward, the hole I had just been pulled out of was now smooth stone. A crunch further ahead announced our guide's departure, which I reluctantly turned to follow. The Keltons dispersed around me as we trudged behind the guardsmen like ducklings.
Bitter cold blew over the endless rocks and through my coat to rub away any warmth still lingering from Eli. Leaving this place proved worse than coming. Moving around rocks demanded constant attention yet thoughts of people and places elsewhere barely allowed for anything else. So much had happened in less than an hour. Years of future moves and plans had to be decided in less time than I took to get breakfast and a shower.
We had prepared for the worst possibilities and no obvious faults presented themselves to me. For all that, I still couldn't stop the ball of worry churning in my gut. About halfway back to the ship, I decided to focus on how I was freezing to death. My Kelton sailors said we should pass winter's peak for the far north soon or had already done so. The bitter ice working its way into every crevice and bit of exposed skin didn't seem to agree.
As the complaints in my legs were starting to work their way to my tongue, we finally made it to a recognizable stretch of path that experience placed between the hidden entrance and the ship. The human led us off to the right and after a short walk endless rock gave way to a shore of equally limitless sea, complete with a boat of sailors wading onto land.
"It appears we've finished here," The blonde man said, standing in attendance off to the left. "However, I just wanted to say….thanks."
He emphasized the words with a deep bow that didn't hinder the rest of his speech.
"Whatever happens or reasons you have, I'm sure it would have been easier to just live out in the woods with no care for our fates. Though they may not know it, my children and beloved owe you their lives in more ways than they will probably ever know. So, I thank you for them even if they don't."
I gave him a small nod, stuck between wanting to get onto the boat and not brushing aside his gratitude. He did not linger, however. The instant the boat hit the rocky shore, our human guide made a turn toward the field of boulders we just vacated. Clambering along the rocks dulled by the waves, tired legs managed to get me into the wooden vessel before the men rowing it could help me in. Our only injury in departing was the black-furred Keltons left leg, which made an intimate acquaintance with the freezing sea up to his groin. Squelching shoes were barely heard over the smacking of waves as our escort rowed us out to sea, plying their trade in cold winter's night without a word of complaint.
It was a cramped trip with so many present, only made bearable by how quick the mass of wood among the waves approached. In what felt like a few minutes, our dingy was being hoisted up the side of its mother with ropes tied to hoops on both ends. The instant we made it up over the lisp of the deck, I looked around for the leathery face of the second-in-command. When all I found was a small mix of regular crewmen, I coughed to clear my throat.
"Someone get Geoff to my office," I announced to the few lookouts still scattered about the ship. An iron grip on the right side of the boat held firm as we angled into place towards the left. The instant our boat stopped moving, I hopped out onto the floating mansion. The jump nearly sent me into a guardrail on the left, but no thought of injury came. This long night left the bed up the stairs calling me and there wasn't a shred of resistance in the sore feet, cold skin, and tired mind currently defining my existence.
Walking up the wooden steps only made the pain sharper until I hobbled through the double doors leading into my office. No attention was paid to anything save the red blankets of the bed to the left, which I promptly scurried towards as fast I could while undoing the sword holster. The instant my butt hit the bed's softness, I released a long sigh of relief that followed my placement of the weapon against the bed. Getting the shoes off took a bit of hard tugging, but soon sore feet were chilling in freezing air before being shoved beneath the blankets with the rest of me.
Aches in my joints and soles cried in relief with the pull of the sheets up to my neck. Laying there felt magnificent. Even when the old leathery-skinned man came through the doors, I barely paid him any attention, instead closing my eyes to try and prepare my brain for sleep.
"Captain?" Asked the black void.
"The priests and most of the human guards know we're working with Eli," I answered with a small shift sideways in the sheets.
A sharp intake of breath cut through the crashing waves.
"How did they react to a new ultimate mage?" Abyss inquired.
"They know we're working with Eli, who we will call Tilvor Laperict. As far as they're aware, he's a plant scion whose trying to establish a place for me and him to hold up in. They don't know about the Base, our real long term plan, or our connection to Salamede. Tell the crew these facts and that they should be as silent as possible about this situation, especially around our young recruits."
"The last I've already beaten into their heads. Night, Captain," The nothingness said before the long creak of a closing door filled the air.
Sleep came almost immediately to wipe away all aches and pains.
The morning was better and worse than expected. While the bed was more comfortable than my land-bound one, washing and cleaning were trudged through with a warm bowl of water and rag. A quick brushing of teeth followed by a breakfast of fish soup got me back in the mood to look over more orders and messages. Cold air slipped through my white shirt and brown pants, now unobstructed by the red coat being washed in a pan with the rest of the dirty clothes. Not that the frantic energy in me cared.
*Knock*
*Slam*
*Knock*
A few choice curses rolled on my tongue before being forced back down.
"Come in," I shouted to the impatient intrusion.
Placing the page off to the right, the guess of who would be so impudently slamming on my door proved correct as a plump priest came through. Cassie's hair was all tucked into her head covering of black cloth with inner white. Her plump body beneath the black dress contrasted with Sally's thin frame covered in a white shirt, black coat, and dark pants behind her. Their eyes also provided an immediate distinction. Golden fury boiled in Cassie's eyes to the point the mole under her left eye was unseen while Sally's gold irises looked tired.
Despite that demeanor of exhaustion, she was quick to close the door behind her companion who was slowly stalking up to the desk. The portly woman came about a foot to the desk, standing in front of me with a heavy breath. Her small mouth puckered and her hands squeezed like she would very much like to strike me. Instead, she let venom-tipped words land the first blow.
"Do you have anything you want to share?" She hissed out between gritted teeth.
"I remember-"
"Before we draw blades," Sally interrupted with a step to the left of Cassie to stand between us like a mediator. "We need to establish some things."
A murderous look from Cassie only made her stick a sharp chin out.
"He is not using them for spreading magical talent."
"Yet," Cassie growled with a raised finger before turning to me with a louder voice. "Perhaps when the fruit has ripened a bit he'll have a good time plucking-"
A hand slammed onto the oak desk. It took the pain in my palm to realize that it was mine, not that I much cared. The hair on the back of my neck rose with the rest of my body out of the chair.
"Be VERY careful about what you say next." I hissed back.
"Cassie!," Sally whispered, "We don't want the crew hearing-"
Golden eyes looked away from the plump priest before slowly turning to the wall. She stood there in silence, taking in the woodwork directly ahead. Even her companion stopped brooding to give a questioning raise of an eyebrow. The slow turn of her head towards me with a stone face didn't make it immediately apparent she was still breathing. A long release of clouds from her lips answered that question and the words that followed carried a shocked tremor.
"Gula. Is the entire crew….Aware?"
Cassie's eyebrows shot up with a quick head snap to me.
"Yes. And each would be equally upset to hear you speaking of him in such a way."
The plump priest puckered her lips. Her dour expression only made the slight relief in Sally's face more pronounced.
"Well," The bishop announced with a turn to her companion. "At least we know his appeal is not just a girl's whimsy."
Cassie's golden eyes were still fiery but the tight jaw relaxed with the rest of her face enough to show the mole beneath her left eye.
"Power obscures many failings. Things that may not be suitable for growing girls to flourish in. Not-" She put an open hand to me. "Just in the crassest ways either. We could be handing them off to a personal cult centered on an old mage."
I took a deep breath, pulling back the anger trying to push past my lips.
"And that power is why you entrusted them to us in the first place," I said, drawing the two gazes towards me. "If we had come in on a shoddy dingy held together with string and tar, would you have handed them over? Before you start indulging in panicked ideas of what those girls being here means, I would remind you that their stay here wasn't my idea."
Sally turned towards her companion with an expectant raise of her eyebrow. Cassie at least had the shame to look downward.
"I remember you begging her to take on more, but is it true having the orphans brought here started with you?" The bishop asked softly.
"Yes," The plump priest almost whispered. Rather than getting angry, Sally put a firm hand on her friend's left shoulder.
"Do we have anywhere else to put them?"
Cassie stood still for a moment, staring down at the floor. When the shake of her head came, it was so slight I almost placed it as a movement of the ship. Sally nodded with a knowing sigh.
"I allowed your visit to help lessen the poison in your soul over this issue. We're now in the territory of directionless anger, another malady of the spirit. Do you have anything else you would like to say? Something that might change the decision you already made." Sally consoled with a stern look one often had for a wayward child.
It took only a moment for the plump face to turn up to me. Her soft features clashed with the hard look in those golden eyes.
"Your husband seems to be our only hope. Are his shoulders up to carrying almost everyone in Crasden?"
"His arms are strong enough for anything this place could throw at him."
Bemused smiles broke out on the women's faces. I didn't dignify their expressions with a rebuttal or embarrassment. Instead, I slid back into my chair and meshed my fingers together my stomach.
"You should be happy," I declared. Their response of raised eyebrows didn't stop me.
"We are wed and that means our times together aren't tainted by f-"
The half-remembered word struggled to form on my tongue.
"Fornication. And isn't that what really matters? The purity of our souls?"
Cassie puckered her lips. Sally stalked forward with a scowl and golden eyes trying to be angry.
"Listen, whelp," She scolded with a pointed finger at me "I am the Bishop of Crasden. I put in the work at Sunday School when I was a pup. This is the second time in as many days that the bible has been wielded against me, and by God, I've had quite enough of it."
"Oh? Who was the other?" Cassie asked with a folding of her hands together in black sleeves.
"The mage!" Sally scoffed in exasperation. Her exaggerated eye roll forced the hint of a smile onto Cassie's reluctant face. "When we first found out, we were furious. Then he mentioned King Solomon asking for wisdom. About how it's slow to anger and such."
The bishop's hands clenching into fists made Cassie bite her lip.
"Of course, I asked if he was going to use scripture against three priests. And you know what the cur says?! 'I twist scripture no more than Jesus did against the PHARISEES.' Uh!"
"What a terror!" Cassie extolled with a grin pushing out any bit of anger left on her face.
"It was devastating," Sally scoffed. "I can only offer a prayer for the poor soul that had to instruct him growing up."
"That is the least of his talents," I cut in, drawing both their gazes.
Cassie was a bit more relaxed now as Sally stood patiently off to the right, though she wasn't the object of my current speech.
"You sent me those kids because I had the resources to provide for them and judgment that you trusted."
Her plump lips moved like they wanted to say something but she couldn't find the words, so I did.
"You relied on my judgment when you put them under my care, even if my ship and food is what first attracted you. Otherwise, you would have had them come back after every meal."
Shoulders beneath black dress sagged and a low breath slipped between her lips. The deflation of her spirit was so total that even her rounded frame seemed to shrink inward.
"Those same instincts are saying we should trust Tilvor." I offered in earnest truth with a cough before continuing.
"And I assure you that we worked together before our bodies became entangled and I can be hard with him when needed if some concerns about being led about by lust is any concern to you." I half-lied.
There was no way I could be objective when it came to the man resembling my girlhood dreams of a husband, who made my heart pound like a days run, and whose molding hands I yearned for.
If either of them detected any deception, they made no fuss about it before slowly nodding with a slight heave of the ship. Cassie's long sigh was partially obscured by the crashing wave outside, but her next words came through clearly.
"The decision is made then." She said with the resignation of an execution before turning to Sally. "We'll need to bring at least two more from the department in on the big secret."
The bishop nodded.
"Not as many as I feared." She stated with a turn back to me.
With nothing left to say the two did a light bow, which I returned with a slight bob of my head. Their turn and exit was a billow of black cloth that let in a gust of biting wind when they opened the doors. I grit my teeth as the intrusion of the outside lasted barely a second longer before the doors were again sealed shut.
A long release of air escaped my lips. So many plans spanning years and decades had been woven or changed in a single night. Even as I returned to my work among missives and invoices, it was hard to ignore the sense of momentum. For the rest of the day, urgency coursed through my signatures for shipments, I broke my routine by personally overseeing the onboarding of cargo, and meals were washed down without tasting the ale or food.
Frantic energy poured into every boring task the day gave me. The crew didn't know everything about last night, but I was certain they picked up on my anxiousness. No one said anything in earshot nor did Geoff confront me, leaving me to stew in an adrenaline rush that seemed to rise and fall throughout the day while never fully fading. When the only light left was from torches and the blur of toil and pent-up anxiety ended with me face down on a pillow, sleep seemed to be a far-off thing. Even laying in bed made blood pulse in my ears until finally, mercifully, exhaustion had its due and black void scattered the worries coursing through my brain.