Cathleen remained calm as she listened to the team leader who’d been managing the scouting teams give his report. What she was hearing was both helpful and confusing in equal measure. Unfortunately, beyond being able to provide advanced warning when they were going to be attacked, the scouts weren’t able to tell her anything definitive.

  Glancing to her left and right, she noted how many of her troops were covertly listening in. She hadn’t had the option of using a command tent, so receiving the report in the middle of the camp was the only option available to her.

  “I don’t like it,” Blackwood said angrily from behind her on her left.

  Turning her head a bit, she asked over her shoulder, “You expect a more coordinated attack?”

  “Maybe,” he replied before adding, “We’ve had several enemy engagements at the perimeter, but I’d bet that those were just scouting teams returning from the tunnels. They probably expected to return to their encampment and were surprised to see it had been wiped out.”

  From behind her on her right, Angelton agreed with him. “That’s the only logical conclusion. If those small groups we’ve fought off were really from any of the larger encampments, they would have sent more troops.”

  The scouting team leader added, “Between the mages we’ve had scrying, and the teams I have in the tunnels, it looks like the army is still forcing them to engage in heavy fighting. I doubt those encampments down below would bother sparing any fighter to come deal with us. But, with how many tunnels there are, and how few resources we have, I can’t guarantee that something hasn’t slipped by us.”

  Cathleen agreed with Blackwood. She didn’t like it either.

  Since they’d set up their temporary camp, they’d weathered several attacks from enemy groups. Each had numbers ranging from one to two hundred kobalds. If they were really just scouting groups, then their numbers didn’t make any sense. No scouting group she’d seen had numbers that high. But, if they were dispatched from an encampment, then where was it?

  While mentally reviewing the situation, she heard the scouting team leader say, “Hold on. I’m getting a report now.”

  Cathleen tried to wait patiently for the man to continue, but found it difficult not to simply break into their private connection and listen to the report herself. Not having a Battle Hub available was frustrating.

  After staring blankly into space for a minute or two, the scouting team leader looked at her and said, “We’ve got a small group from the army arriving. They’re saying they need to speak with you immediately.”

  Blackwood asked, “How soon will they be here? Are they being pursued?”

  At the same time, Angelton took a few steps forward to loom over the man while demanding, “Did one of the encampments fall? Has the army broken through?”

  Cathleen luckily stopped herself from asking if they required a message to be relayed or if whatever they had to say could wait until they arrived. Otherwise, everyone would have been talking over each other.

  The scouting team leader replied quickly, sounding somewhat ashamed. “They’ll be here in five minutes,” he admitted.

  Raising a singular eyebrow in surprise, she let her silence speak for itself.

  Blackwood on the other hand demanded, “How did they get so close without any of our teams spotting them!?!”

  Seizing the conversation, Cathleen loudly interrupted them. “It doesn’t matter. They’ll be here soon. Get all the active teams ready for battle and have the secondaries prepare to relive them if or when it becomes necessary. If our guests are running from something, I want us prepared to deal with whatever is chasing them.”

  Both Blackwood and Angelton ran off shouting orders almost immediately. Meanwhile, the troops who’d been listening all hurried off to do whatever they should have been doing in the first place. Even the scouting team leader made himself scarce.

  Turning around calmly, Cathleen began walking toward the forward barrier they’d set up. If the army was coming, then she wanted to be there to greet them as soon as possible. Hopefully whatever they had to say was good news, because she could use some.

  While waiting for them to arrive, she watched with no small amount of pride as the formerly novice troops she’d taken into battle got ready in short order. They looked fiercer than ever and more than ready for another battle.

  Just like the scouting team leader said, it took about five minutes for the group from the army to arrive. She could tell from the moment she saw them that they were elites. Each one of them had dented armor and well-used weapons covered in kobald blood proving their competence.

  Obviously knowing exactly who she was, they ignored everyone else and raced right up to her. Seeing as there were only thirty of them, she couldn’t help but wonder what they were doing here.

  The moment the man arrived within shouting distance, he said, “Battle Leader Averett? I’m Captain Ortis from the 43rd. We’ve been sent to escort you back through the tunnels.”

  Cathleen didn’t respond, merely offering him a look of curiosity as if she were perfectly happy to wait for him to elaborate.

  Seeing as she hadn’t ordered anyone to begin packing up, Captain Ortis explained, “As I’m sure you’re aware, Battleborns from the dwarves cut their way through the tunnels to get to you. The situation they left in their wake is unfortunately not all that stable. They didn’t bother to clear out the kobalds on their way here, and now the little monsters are spread out through the tunnels all over the place.”

  Sighing in understanding, Cathleen barely managed to refrain from rubbing her temples to relieve the growing headache she was feeling. This was not the news she’d been hoping for.

  “Where are they regrouping?” she asked tersely.

  Captain Ortis replied, “We have no idea.”

  Glaring at him, her expression demanded him to explain himself.

  “Even with the Tower of Magic scrying the entire mountain, the kobalds are too broken up to track them all. They might be regrouping, or they might not. We just don’t know. Either way, you can’t stay here. If they manage to reinstate order into their ranks, you might end up facing a sizable force. Several thousand maybe. We were sent to try and sneak you back before that happens,” he said with determination.

  Realizing that she was just going to have a chance a run back through the tunnels, she was about to order her troops to abandon the camp when she was interrupted by a flash of golden light erupting out of nowhere right behind her.

  Spinning on her heels, she whipped her spear out and dropped into a defensive crouch.

  However, instead of seeing an enemy, she saw the archmage who’d successfully evacuated her lord. He was muttering to himself while straightening his robe as if he’d just finished a difficult and onerous task. And right next to him, was Lord Walker himself, standing there with a grin on his face. For some inexplicable reason, the archmage had brought him back.

  “Well, I should have expected this,” she muttered under her breath.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  From behind her, she heard Captain Ortis ask, “Isn’t that Lord Walker? I thought he was brought out by the archmage. Shouldn’t he be safely back in the city? What is he doing here?”

  Standing up out of her defensive crouch, she leaned her spear across her shoulder and replied without bothering to turn around. “You said it yourself. There might be a horde of kobalds bearing down on us at any minute, likely killing us all. Where else would you expect the idiot to be?”

  —--

  The moment she heard that everything Nero had requested was prepared, she sent Jennings off to go and retrieve his bag with a single sternly worded command. The old bastard didn’t even dare to argue before popping away in that golden flash of light he’s so fond of. Then, without even glancing at Nero, she walked off toward the door as if she expected him to docilely follow along behind her. Which, of course, he did.

  Striding across the marble tiles like she owned the place, she began ordering him around without even him the common courtesy of directly addressing him. “Your goal is to be to get House Walker’s Wackos back to the city as safely as possible. Nothing more. And when I say, nothing more, I mean nothing more. If you truly must, you may give them some time to enjoy your gifts to improve their morale, but you mustn’t waste too much time on frivolities. You’ll have the opportunity to express your gratitude much better behind the safety of the city’s walls. You’re to avoid any engagements, leaving the army to do what it was created to do. You and your Wackos have already accomplished your mission. So, no fighting if you can help it. Remember why you are there, my lord...”

  Even though her tone sounded like she was merely advising him, Nero couldn’t help but feel as if he wasn’t being given a choice in the matter. He didn’t know why, but all he could do was nod along as if everything she was saying was inevitable. It felt to him like he was being reminded by his mother that he was supposed to be grounded and was only being allowed to leave the house due to her endless benevolence.

  While stating her terms, she led him across the hall, somehow knowing exactly where she was going. Meanwhile, Ms. Davis hurried along behind her right alongside him. And without being sure how it happened, he soon found himself standing on a stool having his armor stapped onto him by multiple servants while Vera continued explaining what he was allowed and absolutely NOT allowed to do.

  “...You are not to get the Wackos drunk. You are not to hold a short ceremony for the dead. You are not to give any speeches. You are not to waste time looting or looking for treasure. There will be no exploring. At no point in time will you countermand any of Battle Leader Averett’s orders. If she, or anyone with any sort of command experience tells you to do something, you will do it. No matter what you see, sense, or otherwise detect, you will not deviate from your mission to return the Wackos to Dorchester. That is the only reason you are going back. You are going there for a singular purpose, and everything else would only serve as a distraction…” she said while pinning him in place with her icy and somewhat imperious stare.

  Fidgeting under the annoying ministrations of the servants attending to his armor, Nero couldn’t do anything other than return her glare with one of his own. The damned woman was speaking so quickly that he couldn’t find an appropriate time to interrupt or contradict her. At least not without sounding like a child arguing over the terms of his utterly unfair curfew.

  She kept talking the entire time, not allowing him to get a word in edgewise. Even while he was taking the time to infuse his essence into the casks of beer along with the cauldrons of stew, she still kept listing possible situations that he might end up getting caught up in. By the time he was halfway done, she was starting to throw out some seriously outlandish hypotheticals that he felt might be more than a little unfair.

  He probably should have been paying closer attention to what she was saying. Not because it was good advice or even advice he’d keep in mind, but because a lot of what she was saying was pretty funny. At some point in the future, he’d at least be able to look back on her rant and laugh. Instead, though, he found himself focusing on how much center, or in this case how little center it was taking to transfer everything into his personal space.

  “...Even if you come across peaceful kobalds who are intent on giving up their fight and defecting to the righteous and benevolent kingdom of Oglivarch, you are not to engage with them. Under no circumstances are you to accept any form of surrender or offer asylum on behalf of the kingdom or the city… or House Walker for that matter. And if you somehow come across another sentient species that we didn’t know about, you will ignore them and continue on your way. In fact, you will not engage in diplomacy, fighting, or exploration of any kind…”

  Utilizing that much center should have been pretty taxing, but instead, he felt like he was somehow recovering whatever he spent to infuse each item the moment it arrived in his personal dimension. It was like the freshly infused items were bleeding his Nero essence all over the dimension, polluting it somehow. Weirdly, the dimension was then spitting it back out into his soul like water being wrung from a wet rag. Only for the essence to then all recollect on its own back into his center, filling it back up. It was a completely baffling cycle that he’d never experienced before.

  “... If you happen upon humans who are hiding out in the tunnels, possibly descendants of the city’s original inhabitants, then you are to simply note their presence and alert the army as to their whereabouts. So, no humans, kobalds, or other sentients. Just ignore them, and come straight back here…”

  He tried following along with happening with his center using his spiritual senses, but the process became more and more confusing the closer he looked at it. He knew at some point he’d likely have to take the time to figure out what was happening, but for now, he figured he should probably just be grateful it was working the way it currently was as he’d end up arriving back at the mountain with a full center. Besides, it was probably fine. If it were a problem, there would be signs.

  “...If you come across an essence disturbance that inexplicably appears right in front of you, you will not investigate it. You will leave it to be handled by someone else. Hidden caches of ancient wisdom from the time of Dorchester’s founding are to be ignored. Mysterious beasts of unknown origin are not to be confronted. Hidden portals that are behind illusionary walls are not to be touched. Although you may take the time to record where they are for others to deal with at a later date. You will not practice any experimental magic, or attempt to push the limits of your unique abilities under any circumstance. You will not kill yourself again or demonstrate your ability to reconstitute your physical form. Not even if someone asks you to nicely. And no additional adventures will be attempted or accepted regardless of whether or not the person or persons assigning them to you are divine in nature…” she stated emphatically as if there was even a possibility of a god coming down from the upper planes to personally offer him a quest.

  Whether or not Vera would have eventually run out of hypotheticals, Nero would probably never know. Because the moment he was finished collecting his beer and snacks, Jennings showed back up with the bag he’d stolen from over Nero’s dead body.

  The moment the after-effects of Jennings’ golden arrival faded, Vera was locking eyes with the man and giving him orders as well. The mad women didn’t pause for a second before saying, “You are to take Nero directly to Battle Leader Averett, and nowhere else. Then, after you leave to return to your tower or wherever it is you spend your days, you will remain in scrying contact with him at all times. If you feel the need to pull him out for any reason at all, do not hesitate to do so. Also, considering how much trouble he can get into without proper supervision, you are not to encourage him in any way to do anything other than to collect his Wackos and return to Dorchester. Do I make myself clear, Archmage Jennings?”

  Even with how overbearing she was being, Nero found the look on the old man’s face hilarious. His expression was a complex combination of offense, fear, respect, and acceptance all rolled into one delightfully emotional package of facial ticks. Nero’s smile got even wider the moment he realized Jennings wasn’t going to bother arguing with her. Yet, before Nero could mock him for his cowardice, the old man reached out with a hand to grip Nero’s shoulder and teleported them both away.

  Arriving with a golden flash back in the mountain, Nero heard Jennings mutter, “Thank all the gods above and devils below that I’ll either be dead or ascended before that woman reaches level 50. I can’t even fathom what pillar she’ll be offered.”

  Even though Nero had heard what Jennings had said, he was more focused on the fact that Cathleen was once again standing there right in front of him, looking every bit the badass warrior woman that he’d come to expect her to be. She was even crouched in a battle stance pointing her spear at both of them threateningly.

  While she stood up and began trading words with what looked like fully kitted-out army troops behind her, Nero felt Jennings teleporting away again.

  Muttering to himself, Nero said, “Bastard didn’t even bother to say goodbye.”

  Looking around, Nero could see that a great deal had changed in the time he’d been gone. It had only been maybe 15 hours, and there were already walls set up and defensive positions set up all over the place. Even the walls along the sides of the throne room were blocked up with stone and barricaded by loose rock ensuring they wouldn’t be easy to traverse. His Wackos had done one hell of a job fixing up the place.

  Although, he couldn’t understand why they hadn’t moved out. Weren’t they supposed to have at least made some progress back through the tunnels? Even if they’d left at a walk, they should have been able to get back to one of the kobald encampments by now.

  Cathleen interrupted his train of thought by walking up to him and saying, “Lord Walker, I’ve just been informed that there is a possible kobald assault inbound. We need to leave.”

  While what she was saying sounded professional, Nero could tell that she was pissed at him for some reason. Her essence field was practically screaming at him in anger. Considering how much control she had over it, he could only assume she was doing it on purpose to let him know that she was upset.

  Not having any idea as to what he should say in response to her statement, he awkwardly smiled and said, “Um… I brought beer?”