Planning for Battle

by Nightwind

Drendel was more like the sun on her own world, which living there now I had opportunity to become familiar with. It was warm and nurturing, unlike the star on my own home world which poisoned the elves and Belekim alike. We lived nocturnal lives there, hiding in our underground, shielded chambers from the poisonous radiations. Even on an untainted world, I kept to my nightly roaming, the fear of bright suns a difficult paranoia to overcome after it was so bred into me.

News came that an army rode against the lands in which I stayed. It was approaching the North swiftly, and Drendel and her retainer braced for battle, armed warriors, produced more weaponry.

The South, where I stayed, worried. All the leaders, all the tactical genius of this country, lay in the North. Lupei confided in me that he might have to lead an army down here. While he was formidable in battle, he was not a warrior, and did not have training for battle.

"I have no idea how to arm peasants, how to keep them from harm. I'm afraid that if I lead a battle in the South, if the enemy gets this far, then I'm going to tear this country apart," he fretted. "I have been asking around after anyone else who might do this duty for the country, and have found no one."

"You are a very wise man, surely you can do this," I interjected.

"The passes are closed during the day as long as Sidhe power holds here, and I'm determined to use up the last of my energies to ensure that. But I am not a tactician, and the people here look at me with fear because not only am I Sidhe, I am Human and a wizard. I do not want to be a leader that people fear, that puts me into a position too dangerous for myself. I fear taking advantage of it. I will defend Drendel's back until my death, gladly, but I do not think I have what it takes to tell these people how to run their war, defend their homes...So while I can keep the enemy off the soil during the day, what am I going to do at night, when they can walk the shadowpaths and perhaps by accident alone come into Kerri?"

The people in my head held counsel as I sat silently staring into space. Lupei was lost in his own thoughts, his own quandry, and did not notice us mulling this over.

Everyone in my head knew that I was trained as a tactician, and a few of them were former leaders of various ranks from leading small groups to leading countries. I had not taken a life, though. I was a healer. Could I take a life even in my own defense? Would I feel it bleed away, ripped out at the roots and returned to the multiverse? Would I feel impelled to heal the beings I had just harmed? Would I be able to face every day with the firm resolve to defend the people I now lived amongst, to kill for them to live, to take away another creature's autonomy and life for the freedom of others?

The locals loved and trusted me. Looked upon me as a gentle person, a kind person.

Besides, in the South, the enemy could only come at night.

Nightwind

Brenhani