Revelations

Arthur stood, finally again on solid ground, and looked down the slopes of this side of the mountains. He could vaguely make out the path where there had once been a road, leading to a settlement that had long been destroyed, as the collapse had spelled the end for many structures, cities, and entire civilizations.
Now, this road was a secret one, known only to the true masters of the mountains, and whispered of amongst lowlanders.
Arthur had never taken one of them before, but he had heard many stories from Marcus, who had taken them many times during the clan wars.
Their journey had gone smoothly, although they had definitely needed those snow shoes, as there was a thick pack of snow barring their way. They had even been forced to trek over a glacier at one point, one in which they had lost several men. Fortunately, the vast majority of his men had survived the snow and ice, as they were men of the mountains, and many of them had traveled this way before under equally unpleasant circumstances.
They were hungry though, they had taken all the food they could carry, and taken as much from the road as they could. However, their numbers were great, and the land could provide only so much.
However, the hardest part of the journey was now behind them, it had taken them a good ten days, and now it was time for them to make it to his brother. 
They had agreed to meet in two weeks time, so they still had four days left. Should be doable, he thought to himself.
“Borgh, have you ever been around here before?” Arthur asked the aging commander, who was walking next to him.
“I have, I was stationed here during the twins invasion of the middle woods,” he replied.
“I was thinking, on our way north, we should resupply somewhere, the men must be getting sick of old meat and dried bread.”
Borgh nodded, “There must be some villages around here where we could kindly request supplies.”
Arthur chuckled, “I’m sure there are.”

There were, and while the previous owners of said supplies weren’t too happy about it, they would go into their waiting battle well fed and at full energy.
They made good time, and arrived in the early morning to see a battle raging just down the hill where they were.
It looked like the battle wasn’t going too well, Arthur couldn’t tell if it was because Marcus was trying to look like they were losing, like they discussed, or because he was actually losing. Either way, it was time for them to intervene.
As they got closer, Arthur could see the battlefield better, he now noticed a distinct circle in the center, there it was the place where the bodies piled highest, and where the soil looked the reddest.
Marcus, he thought. That must be him. He had never seen his brother at war, he had watched him duel before, most recently their new ally, Claith, as well as Jorgh, who now fed the worms, but he had never seen him fight at full force on a battlefield.
It looked scarily impressive, no enemy, and not even any ally dared get too close, and Arthur could understand why, as the flashing of metal objects, which would be Marcus’ blades, became visible.
It was incredible, Arthur could make out a total of five of them, more than Marcus had managed during their training sessions, but it seemed that now, in the heat of the moment, he had pulled out a reserve of power that inspired awe and terror in even Arthur himself, something he never thought he would feel from his own brother.
He settled his thoughts, his brother was the most righteous man he knew, as well as the most powerful one, and of course, such power would inspire fear.
He wasted no more time, it was time to charge, and they did.
As thousands of men charged down the hill, Arthur entered his very first battle. And for the first time, he understood just exactly what his brother had been talking about when he spoke of the horrors of war.

***

When Marcus came to, there were three people standing over him, there was his lover, the witch, who looked more disheveled than usual, but still regal and proud.
There was Arthur, his little brother. Who looked a little rattled, but still as serious as ever, with his once pristine uniform, now muddied and smeared with blood.
Then, there was his wife, beautiful as she was, but, what was that? Her sapphire ear rings were glowing a bright and deep blue, and her face, which he had thought innocent and cheerful, was contorted into concern, concentration, fear, and a hint of sadness.
“What? Iz…” he managed to croak, as a sharp pain in his side intensified.
“Don’t move, husband.” Izzy said, “Just relax.” Her clear voice echoed through his mind, and he faintly saw a smile creeping onto her face, before the warmth of water, and his wifes gentle touch guided him back to sleep.

When he woke the second time, he was feeling much better, and he could hear two female voices talking next to him.
“Do you have anymore of those herbs, those seemed to be working very well.” The first voice said, sounding worried.
“I do, but overdosing might make things worse, anyway, he passed the worst of it, I don’t think its necessary, you just focus on healing him.” The second voice replied, stern but not impatient, it was a familiar voice to him, one he remembered well.
“Alright, I’ll do that. Hey he’s awake!” the first voice said, before he heard people coming towards him.
“What happened?” Marcus asked, trying to get up. He still felt the pain in his side, but it was much more of a distant humming pain than the stabbing pain it had been previously.
“You just lie down now, Marc.” The second voice said, which he now undoubtedly recognized as Naea’s, and not only because she was standing over him, pushing his chest down with one hand.
“Worry not, my husband, you are alright, and so is everything else,” The first voice said, which he now recognized clearly as his wife, Izzy.
He looked at his two women, one, whom he had grown to love, over many nights spent discussing and planning, the other, whom he had promised to love, only because he had to.
He now felt a sense of desperation, a sense of loneliness, who was he really loyal to? His wife, or the woman he had loved long before he had met his wife?
“You’re alright, Marc, don’t worry, everything is going to be okay,” Naea whispered into his ear.
“Calm down, my sweet husband, we are going to take such good care of you.” Izzy whispered into his other ear.
“You, are a water mage?” he asked, in a quiet voice. How could he not have noticed before? That was why she was always wearing sapphires, that is why they appeared to be glowing, except now, they were really glowing.
That Izzy, she was truly a sweet woman, he wasn’t sure why the both of them were so good to him for, surely he didn’t deserve it, right? After all, he still hadn’t told his wife, who was supposed to be able to trust him, that he was still in love with another woman. And he had yet to tell his lover, the woman he had always been able to trust, that his heart was now beating for another. But worst of all, he was not worthy of the love of such people, he was a bringer of death. Remembering that, made his eyes water, he felt his stomach churn again, as the images of war returned to him.
How many people had he killed on that battlefield? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? There was no way to know, but what he did know, was that many of those men probably had wives, and children even, who had loved them, and perhaps, they had been worthy of love, but now they were dead, thanks to him.
He retched, and the two women scrambled to get him something to puke into.
“What is he trowing up for, is it a side effect of those herbs?” Izzy asked Naea.
“No,” she replied, “I’m not sure what is happening to him, he was getting better.”
They found him an empty bowl, but not much left him, only bile and some water. He looked at him, tears now rolling down his face.
“Whats… Wrong?” Izzy asked, confused and concerned. Naea just stood there, bowl still in her hands, not sure what to do.
Marcus pushed himself into a sitting position.
“I…” he started, “I need to tell you something.” He said. He wasn’t sure why women such as them helped him, or even cared about him, but he knew he had to tell Izzy the truth.
“I have lied to you, I don’t deserve you as my wife, nor should you want me. I have secretly had a relationship with Naea here, since long before you met me, I know I should not have hidden it from you, but I was not sure how to tell you.”
The two women looked at each other, and Marcus was unable to read either of their expressions.
“On top of that, I must renounce my title as king, I am not a leader, nor am I a good man, I am only a bringer of death and misery.”
“No.” Naea said, “You are not, Marc, you know this was the only way.”
“She is right,” Izzy said in a quiet voice, “You are the only one who can do this, you are the only one who can be called king.”
“But I…” he started, Izzy cut him off.
“Loved another woman?” she asked, her voice louder now, “What makes you think this bothers me, Marcus? What makes you think I didn’t already know?”
“You knew?” Marcus asked, confused. How could she know, was she that good at reading them? “How?”
“Well, its not like you were the only one hiding things in your relationship, Marc,” Naea budded in. “You wife here had her own things she wasn’t ready to share.”
Marcus nodded. “How long have you known about it, I assume you found out before the battle?”
Again, the two women shared a glance.
“You could say that.” Naea said hesitantly.
“Me and your foreign mistress here,” Izzy continued, “Had a little chat, some time ago, she told me everything, and I told her everything.”
Naea nodded, “Technically she didn’t tell me all that many things I didn’t already know, but still.”
“When was this conversation, one of your little girls nights out on our way over here?”
“Well…” Izzy bit her lip, “It was kind of in one of the days before our wedding.” She said, giving him a careful smile. He looked to Naea, who gave him a wink, and he sighed.
“I suppose you two won’t let me give up my crown either then?”
“Of course not, husband,” Izzy said, sitting down on his bed, and giving him a hug. “I see how battle must effect you, but your mission is one of not only life and death, but the fate of Cloud, if not the whole world, Naea told me everything.”
“It makes no difference whether those demons kill everyone, if I do it first.” He said.
Naea shook her head, “Yes it does. Because you are not wiping out everyone in sight, you fight only those who fight you.”
Izzy nodded in agreement, “people were always going to die, it is better they die for the unification of cloud, than at the hands of monsters from hell.”
“Alright then,” feeling his strength return to him.
He still wasn’t sure he was the right king, but they were right, he had to try.
“There is one other thing,” Naea said, looking uncharacteristically shy.
“What is it, Naea?” he asked.
“Well, now we are all sharing our secrets, I suppose it is time I shared mine too.”

“You what?” Marcus asked in disbelief, “You have been seeing visions same a me this whole time, and never thought it would be useful to tell me?” 
“It really wouldn’t have made much of a difference,” she claimed, defensively.
He thought he should be angry, but really, he was just tired, and when he thought about it, telling him would have been somewhat out of character for her.
“So every-time you made one of your predictions, or supposed feelings, it is because you had a vision about it?”
“Pretty much.” She said matter-of-factly. “Every-time you saw something, I saw something as well, I have known you would marry another woman for a long time, but still, it never changed how I felt about you, Marc.” She paused, looking away. “This is how it had to be, no matter how we feel for each other, none of it will matter if the world ends.”
Izzy was playing with her fingernails now, she had gotten off the bed.
“This is how it is, and this is how it will have to be,” She said, solemnly, looking up at, first him, and then Naea.
“I am glad I knew before we got married, at least.”

“So I thought I was the one with secrets!” He explained to Arthur as soon as he got him alone.
“I guess you weren’t the only one,” Arthur said
“Not at all,” he sighed, “I guess we all know everything we need to known now.”
“Yeah, well, I kind of figured Gyslane was a water elemental, you know, with the sapphires and all, I remember them from dad.”
“Yeah I can’t believe It never occurred to me, I was wrong to underestimate her.” Marcus truly believed he was, and it was a mistake he would never make again.
At that moment, Brandon approached them at a jog, seeming disturbed by something.
“What is it Bran?” Marcus asked, alarmed by his old friends state of distress.
“News from the red rivers, they are under attack!”
What? By who?”
“The Elk Hills attacked Eredan’s capital about a week ago, they are under siege. The elk hills don’t have that many troops, so they can’t storm the walls, but they are enough to blockade every entrance.” Brandon said between pants, he had been running to get to them.
“That could be an issue, but Eredan should be able to hold out for a while right? He has his saint ability if it ever comes to battle, right?” Arthur said, confidently.
“That is probably part of the reason the Elk Hills don’t want an open battle, if they can block food from entering, they will starve the citizens until Eredan has no choice but to negotiate, he cant be at every battle at once.” Marcus said, annoyed at this oversight. Had they left enough troops to defend the region? He hoped so, they couldn’t afford to lose the red rivers.
“How long do you think they have?” he asked Brandon.
“Their winter stores should last them a while, but not forever, much of their food still came from ice fishing, which they can’t do now, I would say they have a month or two before people go hungry.”
Marcus nodded, “keep me updated, and try to get a man inside those walls, I want to hear what Eredan has to say about the situation.”
“Yes, sir!” Brandon didn’t salute, as to not give away to decoy situation to any spies that might be lurking about.

In light of recent news, Marcus had decided to move on early, he had previously wanted more time to for their wounded to recover, including himself, but it now seemed they were on a tight schedule. Next up would be the northern twin, they hadn’t seen or heard of the twin here in the south, so Marcus assumed that he had holed up in the north somewhere with his brother.
Now, he wanted to make sure they weren’t led into a trap that was as bad as the one they had created themselves, so once again, he found himself in Claith’s hut.
“Do you still have those southern uniforms, Claith?”
“Hell yeah I do, what would I have done with them, eaten them? What do you want with them?” Claith said in his usual, insolent, sarcastic, and overly jovial tone, without a care in the world.
He was still covered in paint and clay, this time, he was constructing a decoy for Izzy.
“I want to dress some of my more injured men up in those, and send them north as scouts, if they encounter the enemy they can just pretend to be the ones that escaped us.”
“Wouldn’t they know that all the ones who escaped us are safely locked up in their own fort?”
Of course, their prisoners of war had been captured, as soon as they surrendered, and with no place to flee too, they had all been imprisoned. He had considered taking recruits, but he wasn’t sure he could trust their loyalty.
“Maybe, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince the northerners that there were escapees after all.”
Claith nodded, “sure can do Bossman, perhaps in this case, the more ragged the uniforms the better, eh?”
Marcus nodded, Claith was probably right, and he had already figured they should muddy the uniforms up a bit, to make them look more worn and to hide all the obvious cuts that must have been lethal.
And with that, he sent three hundred of his injured, but only those with minor scratches and bruises, no one who was at any real risk.

They gave them a days head-start, and then, they were off.
He had given them orders not to engage anyone, and to return if they saw any major armies or encountered any issues.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have to wait very long for that to happen, and no less than four days into their march north, they ran into their troops, although there were much fewer of them than Marcus had sent, and those that were still alive, were barely so.
“What happened to you guys,” he asked the officer in charge. He had gone as soon as they had been spotted, because he wanted to figure out why they had already returned himself. “Was it the northerners? Did they see through your disguises?”
“No,” the man started, “It wasn’t the northerners.” The man said in shaky words, and fear on his face. “We were attacked by monsters, they were huge, taller than any man, and most of them had black or red skins.”
And Marcus knew, they had yet another time frame now, as the demonic invasions, seemed to have begun.