Mage's journey 10

Not my best work, but it's on time, damnit.

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As had helped with every spirit so far, Tanya immediately bowed deeply. “I am Tanya, honored spirit.” She said in Japanese, as the spirit had spoken to her with that language. “Retainer to Princess L’Arachel, who granted me permission to move about the forest and gather small amounts of herbs for my research.” She gestured to the unicorn who was placidly staring at the spirit. ”This is my friend, Opalis.”

The spirit considered her explanation, but settled down, resting their head on their arms at the water’s edge. “Calm down, I’m not one of those arrogant rain spirits. I work for a living. Come on, have a seat.” They said, patting a rock on the pond’s shore. 

Tanya removed Opalis’ saddle, took the saddle blanket, and laid it on the rock before settling down on it. The unicorn wandered off to a nearby patch of common flowers to lay down and probably snack a bit. 

“There we go.” The spirit said, “I’m Menti, by the way. Official guardian of the Shrine of the Fire Emblem.”

“Charmed.” Tanya replied politely. Okay, this seems rather casual, so… skipping a few levels of formality… “What does a job like this pay?” She decided to ask. “Do spirits have money?”

“It’s a prayer economy.” Menti replied, “Sacrifices and devotion give us power that we can use and trade. The big guy hoards most of it and doles it out if you do your job. I get paid pretty well, given that I just sit here doing nothing most of the time.”

Interesting. “So, does the Fire Emblem do as the legends purport? Does it let you speak with…” Tanya gestured towards the sky vaguely. 

“If he answers, yeah.” Menti confirmed, waving their hand equally vaguely. “I wouldn’t do it if I were you, unless you’ve got something important to say. Which you don’t.” Fair; now that she thought about it, deliberately speaking to Being X didn’t sound like a smart thing to do. “Dude’s kind of a grump if you don’t catch him in a good mood. Which is never.”

“I appreciate the Candor, ho- Menti.” Tanya said, deliberately including the slip. Menti smiled at the combination of respect for both his status and wishes. The Shrine had enough of a break in the canopy that Tanya could check the sun. “I’m due back soon.” She informed him, which made his smile shrink two sizes, “But I can stay for a few more minutes.” She added, which brought it one size larger. 

“Awesome.” Said the apparently extroverted but quite lonely spirit. “So what’s the deal with your soul? It’s huge!”

“That’s too long of a story to tell today, I’m afraid.” Tanya deflected, “But I suppose I could summarize… Tell me, what happens to a spirit when it dies? I already know what happens to mortals…”

“You do?” Mentis said, surprised. “Well, no one really knows if there’s anything for sure, but…”

It was an interesting lesson on how spirits saw themselves…

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It was pretty interesting, seeing how armies deployed themselves before the advent of the railroad and automobile. Tanya knew a lot of it in theory, Sun Tzu had a lot to say on the subject, but magic added layers of complication to the whole thing. 

The army was about five hundred professional soldiers. Three hundred were infantry, sixty of whom were heavy infantry, one hundred and twenty were cavalry, and the remaining eighty were mages and priests, and as Tanya understood things, this was considered a magic-heavy formation. An equal number were purely support personnel, cooks, porters, stablehands, farriers, and numerous other professions for maintaining the gear and morale of the troops. 

The pegasus knights were organized in five wings of three knights, to be deployed as scouts more than anything else, although Syrene was clear that they worked best when allowed liberty to harass the enemy by selecting targets of opportunity, usually other scouts. Pegasus knights were frankly terrible at engaging fortified positions, if you thought a horse was the most fragile war beast you’ve never met a pegasus, but those situations were rare when hunting monsters. 

L’Arachel was nominally in charge, of course, and issued the top level directives such as ‘where they were going’, but there were three commanders on top of the royalty plus retainers that handled how those directives were fulfilled. L’Arachel was simply completely new to command, so was instructed by Emperor Mansel to just watch the experienced commanders at work instead of countermanding their decisions. 

The infantry were led by a middle-aged man by the name of Sir Graves, a burly swordsman who was apparently a champion axethrower, with a very well-made throwing axe that was enchanted to return to hand like L’Arachel’s old one was. He also functioned as L’Arachel’s second-in-command, being the highest military rank among the gathered officers. 

Beneath Sir Graves, the cavalry were commanded by Sir Doren, an older knight that apparently had been disgraced at some point, but had managed to convince the General to be given the role. Tanya put high odds on him getting people killed with gloryseeking, and would be making sure that he kept that nonsense far away from herself. Also L’Arachel, but she also didn’t plan on leaving the Princess’ side for the most part, as she was Tanya’s employer, so that was just a given. 

Finally, the magical contingent was led by Father Hodah, a portly Bishop that seemed competent enough; he seemed quite concerned about logistics and morale, which Tanya could respect. Even if he didn’t seem too educated on the subject, he tunnel visioned on food while ignoring other critical supplies. 

Beneath those men were varying numbers of subcommanders and lesser priests, of course, but those were the men that advised L’Arachel and executed her orders. 

Well, them and Prince Innes. “Are you sure you don’t want to ride on the wagon, your Highness?” Tanya asked, feeling a little awkward as Opalis trotted next to the prince who kept pace with his own two feet. An army marches at the pace of their slowest soldier, and Rausten had largely taken the opportunity the expedition provided to blood some of their greener troops, so they were not exactly making good time. 

“I’m sure.” He said, eyes scanning the skies with an intense stare. Every two minutes, without fail, his gaze tracked each of the pegasi that were currently in the air. They hadn’t left Rausten yet, so while they were still drilling on the march, there wasn’t any trouble expected until after they reached their first notable stop. It spoke of admirable discipline on his part. 

“We must set an example for the troops!” L’Arachel declared, astride her new horse. Emperor Mansel had taken the opportunity to upgrade L’Arachel’s previous steed to one that could handle a heavier load while still being fast, given how she was a growing girl with enough muscle that concealing it was a spoken-of concern among her dressmakers, “If they are drilling, so will we!”

Prince Innes grunted in approval. “Hn. Well said.” His bow was half-strung, as keeping it strung constantly was bad for it. His quiver was positioned on his back as well, unavailable for immediate use but able to be switched to his hip if needed. L’Arachel beamed at the compliment. 

Well, speaking as someone who knows a thing or two about esprit de corps… that actually checked out, for the most part. While Tanya was sure that the soldiers wouldn’t particularly care about something as small as riding in the wagon, because they still had things much easier than the common infantry, it was important to avoid the impression that the commanders were enjoying luxury at their expense. 

Wait a second, one of the pegasi were approaching. Do they have a message? Tanya was told the names of all fifteen Pegasus riders at some point, but she doesn’t quite remember this one: Flora? Fori? Finra? Foreal? It had an F and an R, she was sure…

F-r- settled down on the ground lightly enough that it had shocked her the first time Tanya saw it; as it turned out Pegasi flew more by magic than physics, and this included some excellent brakes. She first turned to Prince Innes, but a raised eyebrow by him caused the soldier to remember the chain of command and she spun to face Princess L’Arachel instead. “Bandits are sacking a nearby village!” She reported, “The enemy numbers fifty, your Highness!” So close to the capital? Sure, it’s been a week of marching, but that’s still rather surprising… She supposed that they’d have to be that size to be successful, and those mountains are pretty good at hiding criminals, lots of good forage this time of year… Okay, maybe it does check out. 

“We ride!” Was L’Arachel’s immediate response. “Sir Graves, send only those who can keep up! Yah!” Holding off only long enough to pull Prince Innes onto her saddle, she directed her steed, and with a crack of her reins, L’Arachel’s horse bolted off. 

Tanya, of course, had seen this coming and shouted: “Make way, maggots!” In the direction of the village, which sent dozens of professional soldiers scrambling to open a path for said horse. Heh, still got it. 

Dozla laughed as he ran at a full sprint, still slower than the horses but not by as much as one would think. Behind him, some cavalry was being organized to follow; Sir Doren was of course leading them personally. From the previous wargaming they’ve been doing every night to tutor L’Arachel on tactics, the cavalry would likely be bringing a few monks and priests along, and there would probably be an additional detachment of light infantry: spearmen and archers primarily, following them. Hopefully a few of the monks and priests would be with them. 

As they rode, the Pegasus knight flew low and started shouting more tactical details. The village was about two miles away, which was a bit too far away to handle at a full gallop for anyone but Opalis, but there was a solution to that. 

“Tanya! Heal Harold!” L’Arachel commanded, but Tanya had already unslung her Heal staff. 

Using magic while on the move was harder, so she likely wasted more energy than she needed, but by firmly imagining the buildup of lactic acid in the horse’s muscles, Tanya soothed the aches of overexertion on the Princess’ horse. She did it again after another two minutes. 

After about six minutes of hard riding, the village’s walls, probably about ten feet tall, came into view, columns of smoke having been visible for a while beforehand. “Dozla should be six minutes behind us, Princess.” Tanya informed her liege, as the man was superhumanly athletic. “The cavalry should take about the same amount of time.” Assuming they took a saner pace. “At least six more for the full response.”

“It’s almost a shame!” L’Arachel boasted, “They’ll have nothing to do!”

Two more pegasus knights settled down with the one that led us here. “Firai!” Admonished the oldest of the three. So that was her name… “Why did you bring the Prince and Princess alone?” Hey! 

“The rest of the army is coming!” Firai protested, waving her hands wildly. “We just need to wait!”

“How many pegasi are nearby?” L’Arachel asked with a sharp, commanding tone. 

“Two more wings besides us.” The leader of Firai’s wing said immediately, saluting. 

Prince Innes spoke up: “We can reduce the damage to the village by drawing attention. If they think they have the advantage, they’ll attack instead of retreating.”

“Exactly!” L’Arachel said happily. “Bandits are cowards, they only fight when they see profit.”

“An animal sees only risk until starvation approaches, but a man’s greed is an endless hunger.” Tanya opined on the subject. “Shall we announce our presence?” She hopped off of Opalis, drawing the Clarion staff, and the unicorn took a few steps away, eager to charge. 

“We shall!” L’Arachel said, gesturing in the direction of the village. When the magic was active, she shouted, which was amplified even further by the staff. “Attention criminal scum!” She announced, the sounds echoing across the village. “I am Princess L’Arachel of Rausten, and I demand you stop your villainy immediately and present yourself for judgement! Else, me and my retinue will engage and send you all to God in a much more violent manner!”

With a twist, Tanya reversed the staff’s projection, allowing sounds from the village to reach them. It was a cacophonous riot of sound, but Tanya was by now quite practiced in filtering the sounds down so that spoken language was more apparent. “Can you see the Princess, Joza?” Asked one thuggish voice. 

“Yeah, boss!” Said another, whinier voice. “It’s just three pegasi like the ones before, plus three more with two horses. One’s a mage? The axe girl’s armor is really shiny.”

“They face us with just six troops?” The first voice said, indignant. “Alright men! Start gathering everything ready to go back to base! Half of you come with me and we’ll catch ourselves a Princess!”

After a minute, a couple dozen men walked out of the village’s broken gate, with little armor and low quality weapons. Another wing of three pegasi arrived at the same time, and L’Arachel instructed one to carry Prince Innes to a better firing position on top of a nearby ridge, while she took a stand in front of it. Two of pegasus knights dismounted and took formation at L’Arachel’s left while Tanya was at her right with Opalis, and the last directed the pegasi and Harold away from the fighting. Prompted by her gesture, Tanya switched the Clarion staff to projection. “Throw down your weapons or be cut down!” L’Arachel demanded. 

Switching back, the leader demanded from the back of his men. “The Red Blade Gang’s not going to get scared of one girl with expensive toys! Get her, boys!” After a beat, he added: “You boys stay with me and aim for the pegasi.” The four bow-wielding bandits followed instructions, readying their aim. 

The fight began. Prince Innes fired an arrow, while Opalis reared back and launched some arrows of light at the formation, while Tanya brought out a tome and launched a fireball. 

The enemy archers tracked the pegasi that remained in the air, who flew around their formation, but they kept enough distance that the archers didn’t attempt to hit them. The enemy footsoldiers, mostly axemen but some with swords, balked at the magic being thrown their way, even if only two of them got hit. “You morons!” The boss shouted, “Rush them!” They started to charge. 

Tanya withdrew one of the staves that Opalis was holding in her saddle-sheathes. “You sure you want to do that?” She shouted, “Bonfire!”  A wall of fire, which admittedly looked more dangerous than it actually was when it was spread as thin as this, erupted in front of their mediocre defensive position, which caused the charging horde to halt, stumbling over each other. She halfway expected some friendly fire with that one, but alas, they managed to avoid stabbing each other. Another fell to Opalis’ light magic arrows (well, they were really more copies of her horn…) along with a wooden one from Prince Innes. As they were closer now, L’Arachel flung her throwing axe at one of the axemen, and one of the now-infantry knights had a javelin drawn from a small bundle on her back that she threw at a swordsman. 

Growling, the leader pointed at them with his sword. “Start shooting the mage!” 

The archers sneered at the pegasi, who had kept their distance still, and redirected their arrows to point at Tanya before firing, an upward arc sending the arrows above their fellows. Opalis shoved Tanya aside and took the arrows, grunting as two deflected off of the unicorn’s armor and two more embedded themselves in her flesh. 

“Go!” Shouted Prince Innes, and the four pegasus knights each dived on the archers, impaling the lightly armored bandits before getting trampled by the flying horses. The prince fired an arrow at the bandit leader, but the man deflected it with his sword, a lucky break if Tanya had ever seen one, and started to retreat. It was his last mistake, as the last three pegasus knights flashed down in formation and impaled him from three sides simultaneously, killing him instantly despite the man managing to deflect one of the attacks. He didn’t even have a chance to fight back, as the long spears the pegasus knights carried allowed the knights to engage far beyond his reach. 

The bandits didn’t quite panic at the loss of their leader, but morale broke quickly when the pegasus knights started harassing them from above, using the length of their spears to avoid retaliation as they stabbed downward into the press of bodies. Once broken, L’Arachel charged through the now-extinguished fire wall, decapitating men with her axe as they fled, too disorganized to gang up on her now that she had left the defensive position. 

By the time the allied cavalry arrived, all they needed to do was chase down the scattering bandits, and while some got away, they weren’t the ones laden with plunder, and most were executed on the spot. Battle over, the loot was returned to the people along with some of the expedition’s supplies, healing magic was applied to the wounded (the cavalry brought three priests, and L’Arachel brought out her own Heal staff to help), and the fires were extinguished. They couldn’t spare much, but L’Arachel increased the amount by ordering messages to be sent ahead, informing the forts they were to stop in to resupply that the amount required had risen. 

Really, Tanya wasn’t sure what else to expect: of course the Princess could turn a simple exercise of overwhelming force into a pitched battle with barely adequate forces, requiring a dramatic bluff to turn the tides, all to save just a few minutes. 

To make matters worse, there was an eight year old boy who was seconds from getting killed before they intervened, so L’Arachel knew for a fact that her reckless actions saved at least one life, encouraging her to continue this nonsense. 

Maybe taking this job wasn’t as good of an idea as she initially thought…

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Despite the dramatic rescue, the army kept an acceptable pace along the trail to the Fairy Falls, and the army made camp about ten miles north of it at Rausten’s easternmost fort, allowing Tanya to travel alone to the Falls while the soldiers were given a day to rest before they went into hostile territory. 

Tanya did have her nearly-depleted Dig staff ready to enter the falls, but she needn’t bother: the instant Opalis entered the clearing with the waterfall, a rock jutted out and revealed the temple’s entrance, Verdune stepping out of it. “You’ve grown.” She commented, looking Tanya up and down. “I see you’ve taken good care of Opalis, as well.”

“As promised, I have returned, honored one.” Tanya said politely. 

“I knew you would, even if you are a bit late.” Verdune said confidently. The deadline was technically two months ago, true. “Now, let us be off.” With a gesture, the rock sunk back into the cliff face, and the water covered the entrance back up. “I’ll teach you on the way.”

Ah, good: Tanya was rather nervous about the possibility that learning how to analyze the seal would take longer than she had budgeted. “Would you be riding as well?” Tanya asked delicately. 

“No, I’m plenty fast on my own.” Verdune said dismissively. “Lead the way.”

…Right. “Back!” Tanya said, pulling Opalis’ reins to turn the unicorn around and then going off at a steadily accelerating trot. Verdune walked alongside, somehow managing to cross more distance with each stride than was apparent. As Opalis accelerated, Verdune skipped the pretense and started skating along the ground, but Opalis stopped going faster than a light jog, which seemed to be Verdune’s speed limit. 

About halfway through the trip, Verdune hummed. “So, how many people did you get to come along?” she asked, “I doubt you plan on doing this with just us, even if we probably could.”

“You overestimate me, Lady Verdune.” Tanya said humbly, “But I was invited to become one of the Princess’ retainers a few months ago, which I accepted on the condition that she assist me in this quest.”

Verdune seemed a bit disturbed by that answer. “Princess? You’re bringing a pampered noble to the Darkling Woods?”

“L’Arachel is rather dedicated to martial pursuits.” Tanya said defensively. “More importantly, she brought a small army with her. We’ll be well prepared for the Darkling woods.”

“I should hope so; this is a serious matter.” Verdune lectured, “Depending on how infested the woods are, you could need hundreds of men to set up a defensive spot.”. 

They crossed the forest’s border, only now getting a clean look at the army camp. “Good thiing we brought that many.” Tanya said, smiling. 

“...This should work.”