Chapter 5
Journey
Jesca and Coral trotted down the road together. The heat of the day had passed and the breeze of their passage kept them cool. Coral reported the details of the campaign and Jesca reported the details of court. Occasionally Jesca looked over her shoulder back to where they had left the solder and his fallen comrades.
“If you are so concerned for him we should have stayed for pickup!” laughed Coral. This was, technically, no-man's land, but so much was. The enemy had no specific stronghold. No finite territory. Just sympathizers that seemed to erupt from nowhere to continue to fight, and plenty of malcontents who agitated for the sake of it. But there was no force in the area that might hazard those they had left. Nor was the prisoner, no convert, in any condition to flee.
Jesca smiled. “He'll be fine judging by the stars in his eyes.” She'd seen it more than a thousand times before. First from Scioni, now from her. She patted the pommel of her sword. “Sometimes I wish I could be as inspirational without magical help.” The stone that decorated the pommel had once dwelt in an heirloom called the Ring of Kings. It was claimed to have been crafted for the first Emperor, and there were paintings to prove it. However, given the first Emperor founded the first Academy of Magic, it seems unlikely that they could craft such a wonder that long ago. More likely the provenance of those paintings was questionable.
Although its origin was murky, it became much more widely known in the later Empire. Its rumored disappearance from the last Emperor hastened his downfall, although he himself claimed not to bear it in deference to his detractor’s claims that he was magically compelling obedience. After he eventually succumbed, either to the infighting, endless assassination attempts, or poison, no one was really clear; its failure to turn up in a successor's hand was one peal of the death knell of the Empire. Street sellers hawked replicas in the forum to tourists for years afterwards, claiming each was genuine.
Coral clicked his tongue. “I remind you once again that the magic in that gem is an amplifier. It would have no effect if you weren't an inspired leader.” He looked over at her, judging her mood. “Remember”, he said softly. “There was a point at which it didn't work.”
“I'd rather not be reminded”, said Jesca, not meeting his eyes.
“The point is”, continued Coral, “you found your heart again. You won the people's faith again. And that's when it started working again.”
Jesca smiled grimly. “Nevertheless. It seems a bit dishonest.”
“It's just faster”, said Coral. “You can't amplify what doesn't exist. There is nothing you can do with it that you can't do without it. Just with more time.”
“Fine”, laughed Jesca. “I'll use a stick next time.” She looked over her shoulder again. Turns obscured the road for much behind them and the dust of their passage dwindled quickly. “Sorry. It's not our new comrade. It is just I know I'm being watched. I'd like to maintain the illusion of freedom, and would rather not know how closely I'm followed, but neither can I seem to resist trying to work it out.”
“Hah!” laughed Coral. “Look no further. Your minder is here! I was given that duty this morning.” He beamed over at her apologetically.
Jesca looked sidelong at him. “It can't be that simple. There will be more. They don't like taking chances.” She sighed. No one was going to let her die. Too many people were very happy for her to be exactly where she was. “But at least with you this close, it means that anyone else will probably be more subtle than I'm going to see.” She looked back ahead. They rode quietly for a while. After a time she said, “I wish I knew where we were going.”
Coral snapped his fingers and pointed down the road. “We'll catch up with the 12th army in an hour or so. They'll have a strategic gate we can use to jump to your new subject's home village. A quick rescue, a quick resettlement, and, ka-ching, it's another quest accomplished.”
Laughing, Jesca shook her head. “Yeah, the tactical road is clear. I mean strategically.”
“Ah”, said Coral. “The campaign.” He stroked his chin. “We continue to fight. Each combatant we issue The Oath to is one less that can ever fight us again. They'll run out at some point if they don't run out of what they are coercing them with first. The summoned armies continue to be an issue but the strategic mana reserve has been reinforced and we should be able to more than counter any magical attack.”
Jesca laughed again, a little more hollowly. “Yes, all of that is well in hand.” It was wonderful inheriting a well-trained army. They all knew their job, and could be trusted to do it once delegated to. That took care of the easy decisions. The difficult ones were still left up to her. “But what of our war with the gods? The end of the world, the fate of Souls, and all those other things the Grey Elves have obscurely hinted at. That is what troubles me.”
Coral shrugged and bowed in his saddle modestly. “That is beyond a simple soldier like me.”
“Not so fast.” She had expected this. And she would have let anyone else away with it. But not Coral. “You serve two masters. The other one was instrumental in the first cataclysm, the one that almost but didn't quite end the world. She was a comrade to those we now call gods, and has made pacts in the past with the Grey Elves.” She crossed her arms and smiled challengingly at him. “That puts you well ahead of the category of 'simple soldier'.”
Coral looked uncomfortable. “She directs me to fight for the Empire. And so I do.” Being in fealty to two separate masters was occasionally difficult. There had been no conflict so far. But with any two entities as powerful as those he served, the future was never certain. He trod carefully.
“She also directs you to think for yourself”, Jesca prodded. “Not to blindly follow. These problems are not mine alone. They bind her too. It behooves you to think about them. For both our sakes.”
They rode on in silence for a bit. Coral bit his lip, pondering. “Nuance”, he said finally. “The Elves of this word are all about nuance. As much as you might accuse me, a mixed blood child of mixed blood parents for several generations, of being indirect, that does not compare to Elves of true blood. And that's just Elves of Romitu. Those still in their homeland are completely enmeshed in a culture of subtle innuendo and inference. I've met none of them, but I can extrapolate. The Lady I serve came from a mixed culture, but she's had a few thousand years of introspection to beat out her comrades by at least an order of magnitude.” He shook his head.
“What's she like?” asked Jesca. “I've only met her formally. Does she even meet people informally? Does she even give you orders? Or does she just raise her eyebrow a certain way?”
“Don't even joke”, said Coral. He shook his head. “It's hard to explain. But, yes, I confess, there are times where she does nothing but look at me as I stumble and blurt through any update I have for her. My woeful inadequacies become abundantly clear to me in so doing and I slink away afterward knowing what I need to do next.”
Jesca laughed. “I'll have to try that at the next meeting of the high command.”
“Humiliation aside, that's the point I was driving towards”, said Coral. “The Grey Elves are as much beyond her as she is beyond me.”
Jesca snorted. “Yes, well, that Grey Elf does seem to think it just takes a wink and a nudge to communicate how we should avoid a second cataclysm and bring the world to good order.” She shook her head. “We both know that doesn't help with either tactical or strategic planning. So what does this insight teach us?” she asked.
Coral watched the clouds. Although they seemed to be stately ships moving across the sky, if you watched them intently enough it was clear that they changed shape as much as they moved. The vista was continuously changing, even if you could keep pace with them. “Perhaps whatever it is they are up to, they have plainly told us, but only from their perspective. Somewhere in the depths of meaning of their communication lies their plan. It is just obscure, to us, because of the nuance.”