Peering over the edge of the cliff, I studied the fairly solid camp that had been built in the entrance of the gully below.

  While the buildings themselves were more of the simple hide and cloth tents that we’d seen on our way through the mountains, many of them had a rough foundation of piled stones around their edges, as if reinforcing the temporary buildings. Instead, the piled stones made them look even more ramshackle due to how crude the job was in ensuring the stones fit together.

  But rather than worry about the shoddy construction, I was more focused on the number of people wandering the rough camp.

  The scout’s initial report of around a hundred enemies was pretty far off the mark, sadly. I’d been lying here for the last hour, counting and recounting the camp while estimating how many might comfortably fit into the different tents or sleep outside by the fires.

  “More likely to be closer to two than three hundred,” I murmured, blinking my large owl eyes shut and then refocusing in the dying afternoon light. “And that is not counting any that are actually sheltering inside the excavation.”

  I felt Rieka shift beside me, but my wolfish princess didn’t speak aloud, she just continued to watch in silence.

  I took the time to run my eyes over the excavation once more, trying to glean any additional information that I could from the work that had been done.

  It was hard to say given how much work had been done to carve away at the stone of the hillside, but it looked like there had been a flat plateau here at one time. It honestly reminded me of the odd clearing that the entrance to the Shadow Mountain Research Facility had been hidden in.

  But unlike that hidden facility with a tiny cave amongst ancient ruins, this one had been set into the mouth of a narrow ravine that had likely channeled spring rain down from the mountains. Rain that had likely been instrumental in the hidden site’s initial discovery.

  Now, though, the flat clearing had been dug up almost entirely. A large, open pit lay bare to the sky, revealing an open section of cave that again reminded me of the sort of ‘parking garage’ vibe that I’d gotten from the gate to the Shadow Mountain facility. Whether there had been piles of rusting scrap here before was uncertain, as the cave had been turned into a sort of impromptu amphitheater in front of the remains of the large iron doors that would have led deeper into the facility.

  Those doors now sat open and from the bent and scarred looks to them even now, they hadn’t been opened properly.

  In fact, it looks like they literally pried them open with some kind of massive crowbar, I thought as I studied the warped metal from a distance.

  There were still people trooping in and out of the tunnel and I couldn’t help but wonder about how far the complex went under the mountain. The other ruins we’d encountered all had relatively long entryways, but the only one that’d had this exact same configuration was Shadow Mountain, and that one had also had the odd magical train cars too.

  “We need to hit them soon,” Rieka murmured in my ear and I nodded in agreement.

  “Either tonight or tomorrow morning,” Rieka urged, clearly wanting me to weigh in on the thought and I considered it carefully.

  “We are going to have to get in fast and wreck up the place,” I replied, letting the Shape-Shifting power return my eyes to normal and turning on my side to look at my platinum blonde lover.

  “Which means no mercy and no quarter offered, I know,” Rieka replied, her sky-blue eyes piercing but I could see the pain that the thought still caused my princess in the creases in her brow and the shadows under her normally bright eyes.

  Remember, she’s here to learn tactics, I thought to myself, strangling the urge to just hand her my thoughts. If she doesn’t think things through herself, she’s just going to end up leaning on you more, Liam. And while I don’t mind that, it wouldn’t be fair to Rieka.

  “When do you think it would be best to attack?” I asked her, reaching up to brush a few errant strands of her bangs out of her eyes.

  Rieka’s icy blue eyes softened for a moment before she gave herself a small shake and bit her bottom lip in thought.

  “Dusk is good, because they are the most tired right now at the end of their day,” Rieka murmured after a moment. I let her continue to talk though and let out her thoughts. “Dawn is also a good choice, because many will be asleep and slower to wake. Sentries will be exhausted, too.”

  Rieka paused again and I just nodded slowly, running my fingertips gently through her thick platinum-blonde hair. My princess’ eyes slipped shut and she gave a happy hum, leaning into the caress for a moment.

  “After midnight,” Rieka said suddenly, her eyes popping open suddenly and making me blink in surprise. “We will hit them after midnight tonight.”

  “Why?” I asked, making sure that my tone was curious rather than sounding judgmental.

  “The sentries will be tired, and many will not have had enough sleep yet. If we are lucky, more of them will be groggy. Our folk will be a bit tired, but we have a greater advantage of surprise and it’ll be less likely they can get help for a few more hours while it’s dark out,” Rieka answered quickly. “I remember how hard it was to focus when those shadow monsters attacked you, me, and Kassandra months ago in the middle of the night, and how this area resembles that one is what made me think of it.”

  “Smart,” I complimented her and got a shy smile in return. “What about the division of tasks? As much as I’d like to just bury the place, I doubt that’ll stop them from digging it back out again, and they’ll guard it better next time.”

  “That and the old human construction is super sturdy,” Rieka added with a nod that brushed her soft ears against my palm. Her eyes lidded lower as I gently stroked her right ear with my fingertips, but my princess kept talking, refusing to let the distraction rule her. “So it’s unlikely we’d be able to do more than collapse a section of the tunnels rather than trigger a full cave-in.”

  “Also true,” I agreed, switching to the other ear and gently tracing the outer shell of the fuzzy triangle.

  Rieka gave a quiet whine and nuzzled into my hand, clearly seeking more firm stimulation and only quieting when I dug my fingers into the base of her ear and began to rub.

  “We hit them hard,” Rieka murmured, her tone half-dreamy with the distraction of my touch. “Kill as many as we can and drive off the rest. The majority of people will stay outside or at the mouth of the tunnel to defend it while a small team goes in fast to recover or destroy everything you can.”

  “I can?” I questioned, and something in my tone must have penetrated the happy haze of head-pats for Rieka, because her eyes popped open and she met mine with a determined look.

  “Yes, you. You have an assignment from the System relating to this. You are the one who can contact Cariad, and you’ve also been responsible for finding the important and dangerous things in our last few sets of ruins. So you are definitely going in.”

  “And you make it sound like you aren’t going with me,” I said slowly and Rieka shook her head.

  “I can’t,” Rieka said solemnly. “I’m partially in charge of this group, and I need to look after the other student-mages. I know that if I’m there, they’ll not argue with any orders given. I can’t say the same about their reactions to Valda or her people.”

  “Politics,” I growled in annoyance and Rieka gave me a soft smile of understanding.

  “Yes, politics. That dirty, filthy word,” Rieka said with a small giggle. “But we will remain in close contact with you while you are gone. Your Contact Contracted Companion will allow us to keep in touch with you, while you can always use Tunnel to Contracted to return to us if we need it.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “You say that like all of you girls are going to stay behind,” I asked, my brow furrowing further.

  “I need their support,” Rieka answered in a quiet tone. She grimaced and looked down at my chest, and from how her ears wilted I knew she wasn’t happy with the idea either. “I know that the girls aren’t going to be happy to miss out on this section of ruins, but all four of us have more firepower than any of the other student-mages combined. With the difference in sheer numbers, we are going to need any advantage we can get.”

  “So you are sending me in by myself?” I asked carefully.

  I could understand her reasoning. Rieka knew that I needed to be the one to go into the ruins, as I could read the ancient human writing thanks to my Traveler powers and I’d had an easier time finding things, not even counting the strange ‘Traveler override’ that the golems had accepted that one time. But it didn’t mean I had to like it.

  “You and Valda, as well as several of her people,” Rieka answered quickly.

  “Wait, if you have to stay to command the students then surely Valda needs to stay behind to command her troops,” I asked quickly, confusion descending once more.

  “Valda can make the split-second decisions of a commander from inside, and you need people with you that are capable of protecting themselves rather than needing protection,” Rieka insisted. “If we get pressed hard, I’ll have us retreat into the ruins and trigger a cave in. I’m sure you can find a way to dig us out if we have to do that.”

  I didn’t like Rieka’s plan, but it did make sense when I forced myself to look at it from a less emotional angle. The mages could strike in a far larger area and if they were ready to retreat back to the cave then they could shelter behind the limited troops we did have with us. And if they were with me in an unknown ruin, I’d be more focused on protecting them.

  And your girls are no wilting flowers, I reminded myself. They can protect themselves. You gotta have faith in them.

  “Will you keep me posted if anything happens so I can get back to you?” I asked, and from the immediate nod Rieka gave me, I knew that she understood my acceptance of this plan hinged on her agreement. “All right then.”

  <><><>

  While we couldn’t pitch a full camp up on the ridge overlooking the enemy camp as it would take too much time, everyone that was able to bedded down to sleep before the attack.

  The girls hadn’t been happy with the idea, with Jane being the most upset at missing out on the opportunity to see the contents of the ruins. But they all understood the necessity of the plan.

  Surprisingly, Valda was the first to agree to the idea. I’d been almost positive that she’d fight against it more, but the lizard-folk woman agreed readily enough that it would have been suspicious if I didn’t know her as well as I did by now.

  “It makes sense,” Valda said while Rieka was in the middle of trying to persuade Kassandra about the wisdom of the plan. “I and two or three others will go with Liam. We can act as eyes and ears for him while he searches for threats. Of all of us, only Liam will recognize the true threats of things like the… I believe you said a ‘firearm’ right?”

  That had put a quick end to the argument of me going, but it’d taken a bit longer for my other girls to accept that they should stay behind. I was proud of the fact that none of the girls argued from a place of fear for their personal welfare, but instead that they were concerned for my wellbeing.

  Apparently, my girls were certain that I’d get into some sort of trouble if I was allowed to wander off without them. I wonder what gave them that idea.

  The discussion had been cut short by the simple fact that all of them needed to get some sleep for this late night raid to take place. We had no idea what the interior of the complex would look like, and how deep it went, but the ideal plan would be to get in and out in the handful of hours before dawn. One thing all my girls agreed on, though, was if the complex was as deep as Shadow Mountain had been, the plans would shift to moving the entire company into them and I’d need to shape a path out for us.

  Kassandra had already insisted that I take her dimensional pouch with me, rationalizing that my own Dimensional Pocket was small enough that it would rapidly fill up with anything we recovered. Instead, she shifted all of her personal things over into Rieka’s bag, which would allow me to store all of the miscellaneous things in the dimensional pouch, while anything especially dangerous or valuable could go into my Dimensional Pocket where it was safest.

  Valda had agreed this was a good idea and set about ensuring that her own dimensional bag was as empty as possible to do the same thing. We had no idea of how much we might find and what couldn’t be removed would have to be destroyed, something that I could see physically pained my little scholar, so I promised both her and myself that I’d ensure as little was lost as possible.

  Now, I was lying on my back in a mound of women, staring up at the stars. Normally, this would be an extremely peaceful moment for me, since it would normally have followed the girls’ sexual escapades of one kind or another. But since every one of my four girls had drifted off clutching on to me in some fashion, I could only worry about the future at the moment.

  Kassandra was snuggled against my right hip, her arms wrapped around my waist while her long, muscular tail twined around my leg. Her thick mane of red ringlets had covered her face as she slept, only stirring faintly with her breath every time she exhaled.

  Jane was draped over my chest just above Kassandra, her head pillowed half on my chest and half on my shoulder while she curled around my right arm like it was a snuggle pillow. The mousy scholar had been subdued during the planning, but that hadn’t prevented her from weighing in on important subjects when she felt a need to.

  Shayla lay behind me, in a pose that mirrored what would normally be Jane’s spot. My head lay against her soft tummy and I could feel the pressure of her breasts resting over my right ear as she cradled my head against her. One hand rested on the underside of my jaw, and she’d fallen asleep gently stroking my face, as if memorizing it all over again.

  Rieka had claimed my left side entirely. My princess had her arms wrapped around my left arm possessively, while her legs were twined around my left leg. I could feel the soft pressure of her breasts pressing into my biceps even as her slow breathing stirred against my throat. She’d been even more needy of touch and reassurance after the plan had been finalized, and I knew that my princess was still worried she’d made the wrong call, despite Valda’s assurance that the plan was solid.

  While my girls slept, I watched the stars twinkle overhead and listened carefully to our surroundings. The quiet rustle of sleepers stirring, and the murmur of conversation from the handful unable to sleep, were the only sounds in the night that I could pick up. Even pinned down like this, I was focused on ensuring my girls would be safe.

  Movement against the night sky caught my eye and I shifted my eyes over to those of a feline, allowing me to track the small flock of bats that swirled through darkness above before darting away through the trees. The small group of mammals were the only wild creatures I’d seen all afternoon, and that thought made me uneasy.

  Would the tribal folk being here chase off wild animals? I thought quietly as my memory wandered back over the rumors, stories, and legends that we’d brushed over when coming up with ideas of how to scare the small raiding parties into ambushes.

  Sleep continued to evade me as my mind wandered over possibilities of cryptids and different monsters of a similar style that might exist in a world with magic.

  Thinking about cryptids naturally got my mind wandering down the pathways of actual monsters, since I’d been introduced to creatures like that after coming to Cortha to help my girls out. And while there hadn’t been much in the way of eldritch horrors, that could always change.

  Somewhere along the way, my mind finally was able to slow down enough to slip into dreams. They were strange and disjointed things, memories of a strange swirling veil of light and sound. Tiny glimpses through the veil revealed strange sights, odd creatures, and wondrous structures of mind boggling designs.

  One in particular stuck with me: a city similar to several I’d seen on Cortha, but with more wood used in its construction. Odd magical things wandered its streets, everything from animated brooms sweeping the cobbles clean to tiny lights that were nothing more than a hovering lamp with little brass wings that patrolled in regular intervals on the roads.

  Over the entire city presided a massive and sweeping tower that glowed with magic, both in visible auroras and glittering runes worked into the stone as it rose like a massive spindle over the disk of the city below.

  But despite the magical sites and strange lights, I felt myself being drawn to a dark alley on one side of the main road, towards a stone and wood building set well back from the road and out of sight to all but those who chose to head down this narrow path.

  I had gotten close enough to spot the sign hanging over the door—a carved wooden thing with a single spiraling ram’s horn on it—when the glittering veil I’d seen earlier wrapped around me once more.

  I tried to fight it, something about that building and sign stuck in my mind and told me it was important, but everything faded to darkness a moment later.

  “Liam, time to get up,” Rieka whispered in my ear gently, and the soft sensation of lips on my cheek grounded me as I tried to catch the last shreds of the dream already fading from my mind.

  “Mmm?” I mumbled, blinking my eyes open to find it just as dark with them open as it had been with them closed.

  “Yes,” Rieka murmured and I felt her shift against me, giving my arm one last squeeze before relaxing. “It’s time. The longer we wait to hit the excavation camp, the more likely we are discovered.”

  “Let’s get it done with,” I said, coughing to clear my throat from sleep. “I want to get back to our rooms soon.”

  “You and all us girls,” Rieka murmured with a small sigh of longing. “Come on, love.”

  My heart thumped a little faster at Rieka calling me ‘love’ like that, and I was glad for the darkness to conceal my dumb smile. It let me savor the happiness for a moment before I packed it away to focus on the fighting that was now at hand.

  Also, can you remember where else Liam saw a 'swirling veil of light and sound?'

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