Book 2 Ch 58: Judgement

Michael awoke in the middle of the night. He wasn’t sure of how long he’d been asleep, but at some point when he and the others had been staring into the fire, he must’ve drifted off. He sat up and poked at the coals with a long stick, stoking the fire a bit before forcing himself to his feet to toss several more sticks and a bit more kindling into it. It wasn’t necessary for the weather, but it did keep the large number of swamp insects from swarming across them. They hadn’t had that issue when they’d had their tents, but without them it was a problem.

After Michael had driven back the last of the ambushers they’d managed to fall back further into the swamp along with the Cantalians. Aside from Davi they’d also lost Devahn, Alvarez, and a dozen others. The Cantalian forces had lost three lieutenants, the Breakers had lost their leader Jeb, and the other mercenary company had apparently lost three of their mages.

Once they were safe a clearer picture of what had happened had come into focus. The main group of Burndan forces had done a forced march to attack the Cantalian forces. Their winged mercenaries killed almost everyone on watch, letting them get closer than anyone expected. They’d gotten lucky that two of those on watch had managed to warn everyone anyway. The main Burndan forces stayed in the Cantalian camp and scattered their forces. With their forces spread out, Burndan forces sent out smaller groups with heavy mage support that let their men march quickly. The purpose of that force was to kill priority targets identified in the last battle. Michael had made the cut, and from what he understood they sent more after him than almost anyone else.

“I should’ve known the spell was coming,” said Ollie.

Michael might’ve jumped in surprise if he wasn’t so numb.

“No. You said yourself that the channeling was gradual. The entire time we were holding off their regular troops the mages were preparing that attack. Even if you’d known what would we have done differently? Any barrier you summoned wouldn’t have been able to stop it. Trees wouldn’t have provided us with cover. Marcus may have been able to drop a few of them, but… it only would’ve taken one to kill any of us. If we’d tried to go prone to avoid it they would’ve just aimed lower, or their other troops would’ve run us through before we could pick ourselves back up out of the muck.”

“I could’ve done something.”

Michael went to his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“We all could have. You don’t carry all that weight alone.”

Ollie didn’t answer, just staring at the renewed fire.

“Drink some more of the tea Tallant gave us to knock us out for the night. We’ll be moving again in the morning.”

Ollie nodded at that, and went to pour another cup of the now cold tea. Michael watched him drink and fed the fire a bit more. Marcus and Pyotr had nodded off at some point, empty bottles of something ghastly clutched loosely in their hands. Michael didn’t judge them. He would’ve had some too if he hadn’t just been staring into space for the last several hours, unaware of anything that was going on around him. He looked over to see Davi’s pack a few feet away. He wasn’t sure who had grabbed it, but he couldn’t stand looking at it for long. Burying him had been hard enough.

…

Michael wasn’t sure of when he’d fallen asleep, but he suddenly found himself awake. The fire was still burning in front of him, but it was low and would soon go out. The others were asleep, even Ollie who it seemed had finally been taken by the tea he’d drunk.

Michael could feel a pull, a powerful one, and realized it was Godseeker activating. Michael didn’t want to follow it. His faith was strong, but he was tired. So damned tired.

The pressure from Godseeker increased and he cursed under his breath as he stood. It felt close. Why hadn’t he felt it before? Had it been there the entire time and he’d been too numb to realize it? No, this was something different.

He brought himself to his feet and began walking, feeling the pull strengthen as he got closer. He walked for fifteen minutes before he began to think he should turn back. There may still be winged Burndan mercenaries out, or dangerous animals and plants he should be looking out for. He could return in the morning with his friends.

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Just before he made the decision to leave, he saw a flicker of gold light ahead of him. He moved toward it and entered a muddy clearing. In the center of it, rising from the muck, was a large stone hand holding a scale. Standing behind it, lighting everything up was a figure made of oscillating golden light. The figure was feminine, more than a head taller than him, and when Michael got closer he realized that it was made up of words written in gold. She was like a walking list of Titles and Deeds. It was all written the same font, the same shade of gold, as when he divined anything. He tried to read the words as they scrolled along the being’s skin, but they changed too quickly for him to grasp.