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A Thousand Years To War	By : reddragon Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > General Views: 1784 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Millenium War Aegis, nor do I make a profit from this.

Chapter List
- 2
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- 4
Chapter 3
Prince Xal waited until the next morning to decide what to do with the prisoners. The youth hadn't been the only one they had captured; his men had managed to run down two more before they could make it to the trees, and one of the corpses had turned out to be not quite dead. That had caused a bit of an argument with Alissa, who insisted it was her duty to heal the man. Xal hadn't agreed, not wanting to add another mouth to feed to the growing list if he didn't have to, but the priestess was adamant. If Xal wanted her to continue healing his troops, then the bandit was going to get healed as well.
“Well, what did you expect?” Soma asked later that night as they kept watch together. “She's priestess from an order of mercy. Me-r-cy. You know, that thing where you help the helpless? She'd be pissing off some pretty big names if she hadn't stood up to you.”
“I know,” Xal sighed. He leaned back against the tree they were using for shelter. “The problem is, we're going to be facing a supply situation sooner rather than later. There's only so long we can eke out the rations we took from that farm. So the question is when, not if, we'll start having to cut down to starvation servings. If the temple has supplies we should be able to put it off a little longer, but there's only so much we can expect them to have. Anna told me that she was one of the people responsible for making sure they were supplied, but she didn't know when the last time they had received a shipment of food was. They could have plenty, or they could be nearly out themselves. And since they were dependent on a city that's no longer there...”
Soma reached over and patted him on the leg. “It will be okay. We can keep augmenting our stocks by hunting and foraging. Besides, do you really expect our tiny little army to keep growing? By the time we get reinforcements, we'll probably be speaking to another kingdom and on our knees begging for help. If they're willing to send us soldiers, I don't see why they wouldn't be just as willing to send us some hard tack and salted beef as well.”
Xal had nodded then, but the thoughts were still at the front of his mind as he went to confront the captives. He motioned to the two men standing guard. The one on the left nodded, then they turned and hauled the youth who had seemed to have been in charge to his feet.
“How's the knee?” Xal asked as he forced a fake smile into place.
“Your healer does a good job,” the youth admitted. Judging from his voice, Xal pegged him at being somewhere around his early twenties. He spoke with a slight accent, almost musical. It reminded Xal of some of the bards who had performed at court for him and his father. Odd, considering the size of the ax the youth had been carrying and the ferocity with which he had fought.
“She does, and she's not very particular about who she heals.” Xal shrugged. “Lucky for you, I suppose, and lucky for me, since that means I get to ask you questions. We'll start with your name, if you don't mind.”
“Eunice,” the youth snarled.
“All right, Eunice, how many of you are there?”
“We outnumber the starts themselves! We are all armed with the finest of Covarian steel, and the cast of our arrows shall blacken the earth with their flight.”
“So, what? Fifteen, twenty all told?” Xal scratched his chin. “I'd prefer if we could work with some actual numbers here. And I'm doubting that bit about the Covarian steel, considering two of the other guys we captured were armed with nothing more than some sticks. Big sticks, I admit, but just sticks.”
“It matters not what you think!” Eunice laughed. “Who cares what the cow thinks when it is slaughtered by the herdsman? Does the wheat need an opinion when the farmers come to harvest it? Our tribe shall trample you and your dogs into the mud, then leave your bones to rot beneath the weeping sky.”
Xal blinked. “Okay. Stop. I have to ask, whats with the poetry?”
A bit of pink tinged Eunice's cheeks. “Er. I'm the apprentice to the tribe's lorekeeper. He said I should practice my pronunciation and theatricality. Apparently I kept losing the audience's attention at the last moot.”
“Well, I must say you've been doing a fantastic job!” Xal said with a false cheerfulness. “Great performance, stuff of legends, really. But if you're some sort of bard, what were you doing at the front of the attack? Shouldn't you be off somewhere, memorizing an epic or tuning a lute or something?”
It was Eunice's turn to shrug. “My father was a berserker, and his father before him. The blood madness is a family trait. So when Mortimer asked for volunteers to come attack you, I thought it would be a good way to earn my bloodname.”
“Bloodname?”
Eunice nodded. “Each warrior takes a bloodname after their first successful battle or raid. Granted, some have it easier than others. Vuzkill the Boneripper, for example, took his bloodname after stealing some chickens from this old widow's farm. But I wanted a worthy name, and so here I am.”
Xal frowned. “Then why not fight the dragonewts? Surely they are as much a threat to your tribe as they are to the rest of the kingdom.”
“I don't know,” Eunice replied. “For some reason, they have been leaving us alone. As long as they were willing to ignore us, then the chiefs didn't see any reason to antagonize them.”
Xal paused to consider that. Why would the dragonewts avoid the bandit tribes? It couldn't be out of fear. He was expecting the coming battle to be fairly easy, despite having a reduced number of troops and supplies. Rousting the bandits was something that they sent green soldiers out into the field to handle, after all. Was it possible that the dragonewts saw some sort of kinship with the bandits? Or were they just waiting until they had finished cleaning up the established kingdoms?
“Would you be willing to fight the dragonewts?”
Eunice shook his head. “The tribes wouldn't-
“No, not the tribes.” Xal pointed to his prisoner. “Would you, personally, be willing to fight the dragonewts? I'll be honest with you. Alissa won't let us kill you, but I don't have the ability to be dragging prisoners around behind us. That leaves me with only two options. Either you join us, at which point you'll be stuck in the vanguard until I can be sure that I can trust you, or we dump you in the woods somewhere after stripping you of your arms and armor. I can't kill you, but I will make you as much of a burden for your tribesmen as I can.”
A pair of squirrels dashed by overhead as Eunice considered his answer. A pair of sparrows chirped back and forth, until a raven's cawing drove them into hiding. Xal had to fight the urge to shift on his feet, but didn't want to appear weak to his potential new recruit. It was, after all, a very large ax.
“I will do it,” Eunice finally announced. “My ax, my honor, my life. All three are sworn to your service, to chase the darkness from your lands and bind the evil back into its forsaken realm. I shall speak with the others. I am sure that I can convince them to join your service as well.”
“Sounds good.” Xal nodded. “I wasn't joking about that position in the vanguard, though. Expect to be on the front lines for a good long time.”
Eunice grinned. “I may have a poet's soul, but I am driven by a warrior's spirit. I promise that they will not be put off by such a fate. Indeed, they may even take it for a compliment. After all, should not the strongest lead the way, so that they might have the glory?”
'If that were true, I'd have you guys stay in back and guard the wagon,' Xal thought. His soldiers had taken the bandits apart like a butcher cutting up a chicken. The problem was that he didn't trust the bandits not to runaway, or worse, turn on them. After all, if a man was willing to change sides once, then there was nothing to stop him from doing it a second time. Putting the bandits in the vanguard meant that his own formation would be solid behind them, rather than trapped between the enemy on one side, and potential hostiles on the other. Xal didn't explain any of that, however. Instead he forced his smile wider and clapped Eunice on the shoulder. “Exactly! I expect your bravery and courage to serve as a lesson for the others. Show these city boys what it means to be a real man!”
*
They reached the temple by mid-morning. The temple sat in the middle of a clearing, almost as wide as one of the city blocks back at the capital, though the temple itself didn't need even half of that space. The temple proper stood at the very edge of the woods on the far side of the clearing, with a stand of towering oaks flanking it to either side. The building was in no way enormous, but was roughly the same size as most farmhouses. What made it stand out from those common hovels was its construction. The vaulted roof was supported by solid gray walls, formed from four individual slabs of marble. The front arch was flanked by four columns to either side, and the center facade had been carved with images of the great Champion and some of his more epic deeds; the slaying of the dragon Farkilas, the defeat of the Demon Lord Viasask, and the Stand at Qifalin.
And sitting on the steps right below those scenes was a cluster of half a dozen goblins chewing on the raw corpses of various forest animals.
“We are too late,” Anna whispered as they peered at their target through the trees. “They have already taken the temple!”
“But they're not finished here,” Xal answered as he peered over the top of Soma's head. There was only so much space between the trees, and he had to sort of crouch over the petite ranger. That also meant her head was about level with his crotch, a fact that Xal was acutely aware of, especially when she turned around to speak with him. Soma didn't seem to mind the position at all, but Xal had never imagined that his biggest worry right before a fight would be getting aroused.
It wouldn't have been an issue if he was wearing heavier armor, but his father had stressed that a Prince's place was never in the front line of battle, and so had provided instructors more apt to dueling than warring. Mobility played a big part in their lessons, and while normal armor wasn't that restrictive, it was still too hampering for Xal's style. He wore a breastplate and pauldrons, and greaves out of necessity, but the latter was strapped around his normal breeches.
'You still could have worn a codpiece.' The dark little voice had returned, prompting Xal to wonder if it was going to show up every time he was about to get into a fight. 'Of course I will, silly. Speaking of, why aren't you wearing a codpiece? I'm just as attached to our man bits as you are, and frankly, your lack of preparation in this department has me absolutely terrified. You do realize those are goblins over there, right? Tiny little bastards with sharp little teeth and a hankering for soft, tender human flesh? Chomp, chomp, and suddenly the Prince is a Princess.'
Xal couldn't stop the shudder that accompanied the mental image of a goblin dangling by its jaws from his groin.
He snapped back to reality as Soma started poking him in the thigh with the tip off her finger. “Hey, Xal, care to rejoin the rest of us in the real world? You didn't answer my question.”
Xal blinked and shook his head. “Sorry, what?”
“What makes you sure they are not finished here?” Soma nodded in the direction of the temple. “They look pretty relaxed to me.”
“That's just it,” Xal said. “If they were finished here, why are they still hanging around? There's nothing to keep them here, but there is a village only a few miles further up the road, and then northern forts beyond that. They'd have trashed the temple and left, moving on to richer targets. My thoughts are that those are supposed to be the guards, left there to keep an eye out just in case while whoever is in charge does...whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing.”
“So you think we still have a chance?” Anna asked.
“I don't think we have a choice to believe otherwise,” Xal said with a shake of his head. “Everything hinges on Aegis aiding us. Without her help, we don't really have anything to offer the other kingdoms. They'll each go their own way, and the darkest reaches take the hindmost. Never mind that as each one falls, they will become the hindmost.”
Soma nodded. “So what's our plan?”
“Straight up the middle,” Xal quickly decided. “Don't give them a chance to react and set up a defense. Spread the word, we go in five. Eunice and his partners take the lead.”
“Gotcha. Meat shields to the front, everyone else behind.” Soma grinned. “Its the sort of plan that every girl dreams of.”
Some crawled out from between Xal's legs and slipped off into the woods to spread the word. Xal watched her go, then silently began counting the time as he fingered the horn hanging from his belt. A curious butterfly flitted about the side of his face as the seconds ticked by. '...sixty-six...sixty-seven...sixty eight...' It alighted on his shoulder for a moment, its wings slowly fluttering. '...three and twenty-two...three and twenty-three...' The butterfly took wing again, disappearing between the leaves. 'Five hundred!'
The blast of the horn shattered the routine of the forest. Birds took flight as small animals ran for cover, terrified of the unknown threat that had appeared from nowhere. Two dozen voices rang out as the Prince's men shouted their defiance at the invaders who had defiled their holy ground, shouts that mixed with the panicked screams of the goblins as they watched the woods erupt in a wave of polished steel, with the bandits at its head. The monsters scrambled to their feet, fighting over weapons in confused haste.
Soma and her small cluster of archers claimed the first kills, as she had taken the time to carefully assign each man their own target. A second flight had already taken to the air before the first had even crossed the clearing, because when it came down to poking holes into goblins, there could be no such thing as overkill. The goblins were dead before the second salvo arrived, but the solid thunk of metal striking flesh was just as satisfying.
More goblins came piling out of the temple, right into the waiting arms of the charging bandits. Eunice had taken the lead, holding his ax low and to the side. He swept it up as the two sides collided, cutting the arm off one of the monsters with a single blow. Blood trailed out behind the limb as it went spinning off into the grass, but even though the wound was mortal, the goblin still kept coming. It slashed at Eunice's leg with its sword, wobbling back and forth from a loss of balance and blood. The edge of its sword sliced across the top of Eunice's thigh. The barbarian howled as pain flushed through his body, but it was a roar of anger, not agony. Fortunately, the cut wasn't too deep. Eunice lashed out with his wounded leg, punting the goblin just under the chin. Bone cracked and teeth shattered as the monster's head snapped backwards.
The strength of the rage fueled kick was enough to launch the goblin's corpse into the air, sending it flying into the ranks of the goblins behind it.
“DIE! DIE! DIE!” Eunice chanted the word with each swing of his ax, punctuating each shout with another kill. The bloodfury had taken hold, wiping all sense of rationality from his mind. In a way the world ceased to exist, as everything condensed down to focus on the single point through which his ax needed to pass. Pain no longer existed. His allies no longer existed. There was only the rage, and the occasional splash of color as his blade ripped blood and gore from the bodies of his foes. Here and there a goblin would survive long enough to make a cut of their own, but Eunice was absolutely unstoppable, even as the blood poured down his arms and legs.
“Should...I do something about that?” Xal had stopped his own charge to watch the carnage unfold. The Cervalian troops had formed a kill box at the base of the temple stairs. The surviving goblins were too stupid to avoid the obvious trap, but the soldiers were also being careful not to get too close to the mobile slaughter working its way up the wide stone steps. Even the other bandits had dropped back a couple of paces, allowing their leader to carve his own path through the enemy.
“I am not sure that anything can stop that.” Alissa spoke in a horrified whisper as they all watched Eunice grab a goblin with his free hand and slam it into another before chopping them both in half with his ax.
“You're going to want to have your healing spells ready either way,” Soma replied as she nocked an arrow to her bow. She didn't see any reason to stop fighting, not when there were still plenty of goblins to kill. The only problem was that the battle had fully gone to melee, and friendly fire really wasn't. She held the arrow down as she looked for her shot, even as she kept the string tight. 'There!' One of the soldiers had raised his arm for an overhand cut, briefly exposing his opponent. In the span of a second Soma had the bow up and the arrow released. It hissed across the glade, flashing under the soldier arm just as he started his downward stroke. His blade faltered as an arrow materialized in the center of the goblin's throat. Blood appeared in a small trickle as the stunned monster dropped to its knees and flopped lifelessly into the dirt. The soldier turned back for a brief moment and flashed Soma a rather crude two-fingered gesture, but he did it with a smile. Soma returned it with a smile of her own and even added a half bow before she started looking for another target.
A moment later, it was Anna who found them for her. “Look, above the trees! Gargoyles!”
“Damn, not these things again,” Xal muttered as he fingered his sword. The pair of gargoyles looked a lot like goblins, only with gray skin instead of purple, a pair of massive, leathery bat-like wings, and a long scaled tail that they used as a sort of rudder. Barbastroff's abduction still haunted his dreams, and Xal wished there was some way he could pay the flying monsters back in kind. Alas, he knew that it was unlikely the gargoyles would get withing sword range, unless they were sure they could get away with another snatch-and-grab. Barbastroff had been an old man, or easy prey in other words. There was no chance that the gargoyles would dare to attack an armored soldier, especially not one holding two-and-a-half feet of sharp steel in his hand.
“I've got 'em,” Soma murmured as she drew back her bowstring. The gargoyles were weaving back and forth across the sky, dipping up and down as they alternated between flapping their wings and gliding. 'They look almost too big to fly that way,' Soma thought as she followed her target across the sky. 'I wonder how much they really weigh. Xal mentioned them grabbing people, so they must have incredibly strong muscles, but that would just add more weight. They don't really seem to gain any height when they flap their wings, though. Its more like they're gliding, and just using their wings to hold the air and change their direction. Which means...”
She waited until one of the gargoyles started to beat its wings, and sure enough the creature paused for a moment as it stirred the air around its body. In that moment Soma took her shot. The gargoyle shrieked as the barbed arrowhead struck just under its shoulder, fouling the wing and arm attached to the joint. It tried to flap away, but each beat of its wings only tore more of the muscle the arrow had penetrated, until both limbs fell limp and useless. It tried to correct with its other wing, but the thick membrane couldn't hold enough air to keep the gargoyle aloft. It plummeted from the sky, shrieking all the way. The trees it landed in did nothing to break its fall, but instead battered and stabbed at it with their branches, as if the forest itself was looking for a way to fight back against the invaders.
The second gargoyle screamed in disbelief as its mate died, but it would never have the chance for revenge. Soma's small group of archers had paid close attention to their leader, and a half dozen more arrows followed up in the wake of hers. Their accuracy wasn't as great, but what they lacked in skill they made up for in numbers. One of the arrows went wide and a second fell short, but the remaining four all hit to one degree or another. One glanced off the gargoyles kneecap and spun off back into the woods. Two more plunged into the soft skin of its belly; painful, but not entirely mortal. The last shot struck true and pierced the gargoyle's right eye, driving deep into its brain. The monster was immediately struck dead, but its wings were still stretched wide to catch as much air as possible. They carried the corpse for quite the distance before it, too, smashed to the ground.
A cheer went up from the soldiers as it fell. A runner broke loose from their formation, and cut straight across the field towards Xal and the rest of the command squad. “My lord, we've taken the entrance! The bandits have pushed their way inside, and report that the enemy is broken. They're down to clearing individual rooms. Apparently the goblins came right at 'em, and didn't even bother with order or nothing. They say there was a woman up to something in the altar room, but that they didn't touch nothing or anything.”
“We'll take it from there,” Xal said with a nod. He returned the soldier's salute with one of his own, then turned to the women. “Alissa, see to the soldiers first. Make sure everyone is as patched up as they can be before we go any further. Anna, you and Soma come with me. We'll see to the prisoner.”
*
“Defiled” was probably the best word for describing the interior of the temple. Dead goblins, or at least parts of them, were scattered across the floor, the furniture, and in the case of one particularly badly mangled body even part of the ceiling. The plaster frescoes had been washed away by blood, and more than half of the statues decorating the alcoves lining the main chamber had been smashed beyond recognition.
“Alas, most of the destruction had been wrought before we could intervene, but we may have been a bit less...cautious than we should have been,” Eunice admitted as he rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly. He refused to meet Xal's eyes as he gave his report. “I told the boys not to take anything, though! So if it anything is missing, you can blame the fiends who have desecrated this holy place.”
Xal cocked an eyebrow. “And you've been watching them this entire time?”
The look of horror was plain on Eunice's face as he opened his mouth to try and explain, but Xal had the rare privilege of watching as words failed the normally eloquent barbarian. Eunice tried to bolt after his missing men, but Xal quickly stopped him by grabbing the bigger man by the shoulder. “Don't worry about it! I don't think anyone knew what was here to begin with, aside from the Mother and Deacon who were responsible for maintaining the temple. I'm fairly sure the dragonewts killed them almost as soon as they got here, and I doubt the Goddess is going to be complaining too much considering the damage the monsters had already done. Tell us about this woman you captured instead.”
If the thought of missing artifacts had scared the berserker, the mention of the prisoner seemed to absolutely terrify him. “Ah, about her...”
“Yeeeees?” Xal prompted when it became clear there wasn't going to be an ending to that sentence.
Eunice stared at the floor as he began to twiddle his thumbs like a naughty child caught stealing cookies. “Well, um, I sort of know who she is, and I don't think she's been working with the dragonewts.”
Xal scowled at the berserker's evasiveness. “Is she another member of the tribes?”
“Cecily is...Cecily.” Eunice's voice turned angry, with a faint trace of bitterness. “She is of no tribe, and she is of all the tribes. She is the nagiva, the Swallowing Dark. She answers only to the chieftains, and is sent out after those who have violated law or custom. She seduces her target, ending his life in a moment of passion before the final climax.”
Xal's scowl turned to a frown. “How can she be effective as an assassin if everyone knows who she is?”
“Because of her...techniques the nagiva is forbidden by the women of the tribe to ever take a husband, even after she has been replaced.” Eunice had gone back to being uneasy with his explanation, and looked ready to clam up again.
“Aaaand?” Xal prompted again. Sokin's hairy ankles, lifting the castle with his pinky seemed like it would be easier than getting Eunice to just cough up an answer!
“My Lord, these are some of the most secret traditions of the tribe,” Eunice whined. “To even speak of them in private is to risk death, often at the very hand of the one we speak about! Are you absolutely sure that she cannot hear us?”
“Eunice, today you have proven yourself to be a courageous warrior, one who has earned his bloodname in fair combat,” Xal gravely pronounced. He patted the berserker on the shoulder, much the same way his father had done when Xal had been younger and performed well for a tutor. “But now you are my warrior. The traditions of the tribes no longer hold any sway over you. As your lord and commander, I order you to speak. What knowledge you share with me may be more important than you realize in the coming moments. My conversation with the prisoner will be its own form of battlefield. If you hold anything back, it would the same as if I were to send you out into the field unarmed and unarmored. Now, speak.”
Eunice took a deep breath and sighed before continuing. “As I said, the women of the tribe forbid the nagiva from ever taking a husband, which means there is no steady hand to protect her identity among those she might consider a target. Instead the nagiva is allowed to sleep with any available man she chooses. She will often spend a night or two with a man before moving on to the next, sometimes moving between tribes when they gather. No man is allowed to pursue her, but she is allowed to hunt as she wishes.”
Xal's frown deepened. “What happens if the man says no?”
Eunice opened his mouth, but for a second time was at a loss for words. His frown matched Xal's for several minutes before he finally shook his head. “I don't know that anyone ever has, actually.”
“So everyone knows that this woman is some sort of semi-mystical assassin who might have been sent to kill them in the middle of sex, and no one ever says no?” Xal shook his head in disbelief. “Ever?”
Eunice's expression turned dark. “It is ill luck to cross the nagiva.”
Xal didn't really have an answer for that. Instead he said, “I have got to see what this woman looks like.”
*
The woman waiting for him in the altar chamber was, well, Xal could see why no one ever told her 'no'. She sat on the altar, wearing little. Just a red cloak, a pair of black, knee high boots, a pair of thin shorts that technically covered her crotch without really hiding it. The matching top didn't quite stretch all the way across her generous breasts, so was held closed by a string tied through the two sides in a rather broad criss-cross pattern. Long white hair hung loose over her shoulders, and golden eyes shone back at him through the dim light.
“So you must be the prince,” the woman purred. She gave him the sort of smile a mountain lion reserves for the deer its caught. A shiver ran down Xal's spine and his cock twitched in response. 'Okay, now I understand why no one ever said no.'
“Well, seeing as you know who I am, I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your name?” Xal replied, trying to put a bit of steel into his voice. Anna would kill him if she knew how badly the other woman was getting to him, and they hadn't been together for more than a few minutes.
“You mean the Wolf pup didn't tell you?” The way her lips crooked told Xal that she knew exactly what Eunice had told him. “Well, if you want to play that sort of game... My name is Cecily.”
“I am pleased to meet you, Cecily,” Xal said. And he was, as well as more than a little terrified. “Now, would you care to tell me what you're doing here?”
“Isn't it obvious?” Cecily spread her arms wide. “Take a look around you, boy-king. What can you tell me about this room?”
Xal's eyes narrowed as he regarded her suspiciously, then did as he was told. The altar room was rather sparsely decorated, with a single shrine built into a small alcove carved from the back wall. A statue of the Goddess stood on a pillar mounted above the shrine, and an altar had been built a few feet in front of the alcove for supplicants to lay their offerings upon. There was almost nothing special about the shrine, in fact it looked like many others he had seen before-
Xal grunted as it finally struck him what was wrong with the room. “The goblins never actually made it this far, did they? And I'm willing to bet that you're the reason why.”
“Very good,” Cecily murmured. “You're right, of course. They never did make it in here, and after the first few heads went rolling back out the door they stopped trying.”
“So why?” Xal asked. “Why defend the shrine?”
“Because there are those among the tribes who have long memories,” Cecily said as she rose from the altar. She crossed the distance between the two of them before Xal had realized what was happening. The scents of fruits and flowers filled his nose as her lush body pressed against his. She was close enough that he could feel the warmth of her breath as it blew across his skin. “Not all have forgotten what happened a thousand years ago, or who it was that saved us. Is that not right, my Goddess?”
Xal blinked and stepped back in confusion. It was only then that he realized that there was another person standing in the room.
Well...perhaps standing wasn't the right term. A young woman hovered a good three feet off the floor between the altar and the shrine. Four wings spread from her back, extending cotton-like feathers. Golden hair floated about her head, and though her robe and harness were richly decorated with golden catches and ornate wire scrollwork, it all seemed to be one of piece, making it impossible to tell where one material ended and another began.
“Goddess!” Xal immediately fell to his knee, bowing his head in deference. “I am sorry, I did not realize you were there!”
“You not need to apologize to me, Xal of Cerval.” It was surprising how human Aegis sounded. Xal had been expecting something a bit more...angelic? Magical? Melodic? Whatever it was, she didn't have it. Instead she sounded a lot like the girls he had played with as a boy, if their voices had all been blended together with only the finest qualities selected for the final result. It made him happy to hear it, but that was about it. Strangely, he didn't seem to be disappointed by this.
“I knew when the barriers collapsed that your father and his armies were ill-prepared for the task that lay ahead of them,” Aegis continued sadly. She nodded to Cecily. “You may leave us.”
“Of course, Goddess,” Cecily replied. She bowed her head, then turned and walked out of the altar. Xal couldn't help but notice that the guards waiting outside made no attempt to stop her. He wondered if they had heard the Goddess's dismissal, or if it had been some trick that Cecily had used to go unnoticed.
“Now then, where were we?” Aegis floated down to the ground, so that she was only a step away from where Xal knelt. “Oh, do get up! I would rather not try to have an entire conversation with the top of your skull, if it is all the same to you!”
“Of course, Goddess!” Xal immediately snapped back to his feet. He held his body ramrod straight, which only made the Goddess giggle.
“Enough, Xal!” Aegis shook her head in exasperation. “You remind me so much of your ancestor. He had a bit of a stick up his ass as well, at least the first few times we met. I eventually managed to get it free and beat him over the head with it, until he finally got it through that thick skull of his that it was okay to simply call me Aegis.”
She sat down on the altar and crossed her legs as she considered Xal. Minutes ticked by, but the Prince never budged. Finally, Ageis shook her head. “This is going to be a very long war, isn't it?”
Xal's tongue went dry at the sadness in her voice. He swallowed, trying to ease the tightness in his throat, but it refused to go away. “Aegis?”
The Goddess frowned as she considered her next words carefully. “I am not as powerful as I once was, Xal, not that I was ever all that powerful to begin with. Much of what accomplished a thousand years ago was done by mortal hands. It was human armies that beat back the Demon King's armies, and it was your ancestor who defeated him in hand to hand combat. It was mortal spellcasters who erected the barriers I maintained. I can no more repair those barriers on my own than I could turn back the wheel of time, nor can I eradicate the invaders who have made it through already. All I can do is offer my blessing, gifting a small portion of my powers to you and your followers. You will have to serve as my swords and shields. It will be mortal will that wins this war, not divine intervention.”
Xal nodded. “I...I understand, Aegis. What will you have me do?”
“Kneel, Xal.”
Xal nodded once more, than took a step forward and returned to his knees. Aegis reached forward and touched the top of his head. A feeling of warmth and peace spread from her fingers to fill his body, and he felt the aches and bruises he had accumulated fade away as if they had never been. He opened his eyes and watched as a scar from a goblin's sword faded from the back of his hand. Energy replaced exhaustion, and the world seemed clearer.
“This is amazing!” Xal cried out as he scrambled back to his feet. He stared at the Goddess in awe. “Are you saying that you can do this for all my soldiers? How often? How long does it last.”
Aegis bit her lower lip. “The blessing is permanent. There is, however, a bit of a catch.”
Xal froze at her words. “A catch?”
“I can only bless one man. You're it.”
“...”
“...”
“...What.”
Aegis frowned. “Divine beings are limited to how often we can exercise our powers in the mortal realms. Mostly as a precaution to make sure we don't accidentally wipe out any more continents or species. Trust me, there are some moments in history that the mortal races are really better off not knowing about. Just accept that if I were to start blessing every soldier willing to fight the demons, that would open the door for a lot worse things to occur. Plagues and devastation the likes of which you have never seen would fall upon your world like rain in a hurricane.”
“But I can't fight this war by myself!” Xal protested. “I mean, don't get me wrong. This feels great. Better than great. I feel like I could wrestle a troll-”
“I really don't suggest that...”
“-but even if I did, there would just be hundreds more! I'm outnumbered by... I'm outnumbered!”
“That's why you can share the blessing.”
“...”
“...”
“...What.”
“You can share the blessing.” Aegis shrugged. “It is a bit of a loop hole in the rules that we gods figured out a long time ago. We can't keep spreading our powers, but once those powers are loose, they can be shared. Of course, being a Goddess the ones most apt to receive my blessing will be women.”
Xal sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, I can work with that. Sure. Nothing wrong with woman warriors, there have been plenty throughout history. I mean, I've already got a few lined up. We'll start with Soma and... What? Do I just tap on their heads like you did with me? Is there some ritual or chant I need to perform?”
“Not...exactly a ritual,” Aegis said. She suddenly looked a bit uneasy. “I understand that mortals have certain...preoccupations with certain things, but I'm afraid that you're just going to have to just forget about what society deems standard...”
Xal frowned in confusion. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
So Aegis pointed. More specifically, she pointed below his belt.
“...”
“...”
“...WHAT THE FUCK!?”
“Power can't just be shared,” Aegis said. She glared at Xal disapprovingly. She really didn't like being sworn at. “There has to be a connection between the people sharing it. I can sort of cheat, what with being a goddess and all that, but you can't. The good news is that there is a long and time honored tradition for men to share something with women. It just requires a bit of intimacy on your part. Better yet, its a good way of making sure your bloodline continues for the next time this happens. That was one of those things I never really understood about your ancestor. He had so many opportunities... But then he was already married by the time we met. I suppose that had something to do with it. And I don't think he'd have been remembered as such a paragon of justice if he had gone around cheating on Eleanora with half the slu- soldiers in his army.”
“Let me get this straight.” Xal pinched his nose, closed his eyes tight, and tried to wish the entire conversation away. When that didn't work, he said, “I can only pass your blessing on to women, and the only way to do that is to have sex with them?”
“Yes,” Aegis said with a nod. “It doesn't matter how; just that they be willing, and that you climax inside of them. Orally, vaginally, or anally. Simply spilling your semen on their skin won't work.”
Xal shook his head in disbelief. “Look, I enjoy sex as much as the next man. But I need an army. There are thousands of demons out there! People are dying even as we speak. I can't- It's not- Where the fuck am I supposed to find the time?”
Aegis shrugged. “This is how it must be.”
Xal stared at her, slackjawed by how indifferent she seemed. “This is how it must be? No armies of vengeful angels, no marching to battle side by side, no epic miracles?”
“Yes, this is how it must be.”
“Huh. Damn.”

---------
A/N: For a fanfic about an H game, its a little weird to have gone three chapters without sex. So next time on A Thousand Years to War....IN BED WITH SOMA!
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A Thousand Years To War