A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 797: The Pieces of Battle - Part 9

Nila saw the chase as well, and an arrow was on her bowstring, drawn back at mind-numbing speed. The projectile was sent hurtling before the crow could get out of range. As always happened when Nila released an arrow, Oliver forfeited the crow's life in his mind, adding it to the supply of meat that they'd brought with them.

This crow was an oddity, though. It curved suddenly, before the arrow could hit, ducking out of its way, leaving its pursuit of the rabbit temporarily.

Oliver was as shocked as the girl herself. For Nila to miss – that seemed a poor omen if ever there was one. She met his eyes, as he raised a questioning eyebrow. She shrugged, both to dispel her stiffness, and to answer the unspoken question.

"Let's move," Oliver said. Rare were the days when a Captain would lead a scouting party himself. Perhaps that was another thing that made the occasion feel more significant than it otherwise ought to have been. Whatever the reason, as they left through the trees, both men and Gods were watching.

A crow of a man offered a thought, in a realm distant from the snow.

A fearsome river of a woman was forced to give a response, if only to delay whatever message would come from him next.

"Are you watching, my beloved?" He asked, speaking to the parchment that he held in his hand. Words appeared on the page, runic in their nature – yet his quill hadn't moved. His beautiful attendant looked forlorn at his lack of attention, but he didn't notice.

"Stop," came Claudia's reply, as she dipped her finger into a sacred pond, and traced the simple demand out over a stone tablet. "I am busy, Ingolsol."

"As am I," Ingolsol replied. "For quite the same reason as you, I do suppose. You're watching, aren't you? I feel your presence."

"You would not be able to reach me if I was not," Claudia said impatiently. "Leave me in peace, so that I might do my duty."

"Ever diligent," Ingolsol replied, his lips curling up into a smile. He could sense her irritation through the words that she wrote, and it delighted him. "You what waits for us, do you not?"

"Ingolsol – leave me," Claudia said.

"You know, Claudia. You can not turn your eyes blindly to it. For once, this is a battle you wish for one of your mortals to lose."

"I would never wish for such a thing. These children struggle mightily to climb ever higher – I would never do anything to sully such courage," Claudia replied.

"Mistress… I can wall him off, if you like," her own attendant said, peering up from his work, a trace of concern on her face. Ingolsol's reach had been growing, as of late, and they were having trouble ignoring his threats.

"No," Claudia said. "To do that would be to make me blind as well. I cannot."

"Then, why do you not cease to reply to him?"

"It will only make him worse…" Claudia said, sighing. "He has always been like this."

"Ah, woman, is it not about time that you let another assume your workload?" Ingolsol said, teasingly. "You know that I would only be too happy to assist."

"You know that they will never let you in the realm of Gods again, Ingolsol," Claudia replied. "I will not be the one to turn the key that allows your return."

"No?" Ingolsol said. "Of course, I suppose… But you know I'll return regardless, do you not, my beloved? It was only a matter of time, in truth. You know I do not belong here, with the rest of these… Dark Gods. My Kingdom was always meant to extend further."

"And so it did – but you are not fit to rule. You only sow the seeds of despair."

"Ah, their powers reach even one as grand as you once were," Ingolsol said with a sigh. "You forget who I am. You believe all you hear. One day you will know, and you will weep."

"If your claims have any hint of truth, then I never wish to remember," Claudia said firmly.

"But you will – and it is your own hand that shall allow it. The seed grows stronger. Our child, yours and mine."

"Your victim," Claudia corrected, her disgust evident.

"Victim?" Ingolsol laughed. "Oh, but it was always a Blessing. Some simply can not handle it."

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"None can handle it!" Claudia thundered, her anger pouring out across her room, sending objects flying, and causing the surface of the pool to tremble.

In the realm of the mortals, a sudden strong wind of icy coolness shot through the trees, catching Oliver's party off-guard, and almost throwing them from their feet.

"You underestimate them," Ingolsol said, with uncharacteristic gentleness. "You should learn to fear them, as I do. Men have always been the enemies of Gods."

Unaware of the Godly exchange, Oliver's party pushed forward. A veritable fire of different personalities, colliding together in a single mission. The way they approached the tenseness of the forest was a better insight into who they were than any words they might say, and for those men that were still busy evaluating the strangers amongst them, those movements were carefully tracked.

Nila led near the front – a fact that provoked some consternation from Verdant and from Blackthorn. After all, it was Oliver's privilege to walk at the front, as their Captain. They didn't seem to realize that Oliver had allowed her to go in front, for her eye was far better than his when it came to spotting whatever tracks there might have been running through the forest.

She slipped through the steep terrain like a mountain goat, showing no hesitation about skidding down steep snowy hillsides. It brought a smile to Oliver's face to see it, when he remembered similar bits of steepness that they'd navigated together in the past, and she'd been far more reluctant to commit to.

He wondered whether it was the cushion of the snow, or the push of the evaluating eyes of strangers that made her so eager.