Eswosten

Zu had made his first move, questionable as it was. Naturally in response, Cole used first aid, then it was my turn.

I glanced over at Nillous's cards. 'We have the necessary cards to set up a good ambush right off the bat… But that's a risky move. If they charge forward we wouldn't be able to finish in time. Cole is probably aware of this too, even if he doesn't know what cards we have, he could be expecting us to try something like that and charge forward at full speed… Although, he'd have to rely on his team because of the injury in his party. It would be better to hold borders… There is a river on the left side of the board. We could have Zu hold the line there while Gaius and I take the other side. In theory, we would end up pinching them off, but if all three of them attack one side we have no clear advantage… No…'

I let out a sigh, thinking over it carefully as my eyes started to burn slightly as if I had already stayed up too late. Every player controlled a party of three, which further complicated things. The trick was how you restructured them. Of the three, we each had an archer a scout, and a warrior. Generally, we would each be an isolated unit, perfectly efficient on our own. But… There was some leeway with how we could operate.

"OK, here's the plan. Nillous, you change into a defensive formation and hold that river bank when it's your turn, don't let them cross, but don't get overaggressive and try to cross yourself…" I picked up my scout and moved him far across the board towards a ruin. A tile with defensive advantages. "Send your scout to follow mine to this ruin, we can form a pseudo-third party between the two of them."

'They will expect us to go to that ruin, it's a perfect place for an ambush, but also a perfect place for a defensive stand… That's why we can't try to take it… If they have a forced march, a sprint, or a mounts card they will get there first and it would be a massacre. Our best option is to merge our scouts into a group and send them to occupy the ruins, that should buy us a full turn of combat to get our troops into position. Usually using scouts as soldiers ends badly, but this should work. After that first turn, we can pull them back and have the warriors take front while our healers recover them.'

The pieces all began falling into place and I felt a grin creep across my face as a slight heat started to rise in my cheeks. 'That lucky shot actually hinders Cole's movement, so if they move now we'll crush them.'

…

The first several turns went by and everyone began to bring their units into position. They ended up waiting until full recovery, Zu missing the next 3 shots in a row. 

With their decks stacked, eventually, they finally felt confident in their assault. Seeing our warriors outside the ruins, They attacked…

Everything went just as I had planned, and they lost a warrior. However, we sustained major injuries as well, taking time to heal. Ultimately coming out having sustained more damage because it was three against two, only winning out because of the defensive terrain, focused fire, and admittedly, a few lucky rolls.

After some fancy footwork so to speak, both teams bolted toward Zu who was still alone on the other side of the map. However…

Over the next several turns I used the silent movement card to stealthily move our men over the river. With Zu on the other side we pincered their forces, causing them to panic and allowing us to avoid the penalty for crossing a river into battle.

Cole saw this as his chance to charge through the ruins on horseback, having secretly left two men behind.

"You sustain heavy damage from an ambush," Nilous said with a devilish grin.

"What? But all of your units are on the other side of…" He drifted off realizing his mistake as I flipped over the "Orc mercenary" card, which allows you to control a single unorganized unit that isn't revealed until first combat. The mercenary, working with both me and Nillous's healed scouts, was more than enough when paired with the buff from the ruins to take him on.

"I'm curious, why did you think we weren't defending the ruins with our warriors?"

He slowly leaned back with a sigh, already aware of the answer, although clearly not having predicted it earlier.

Orc mercenary had a lot of downsides. It could only be used after roaming with your warrior, who was your best combat unit, so ideally you had him in front, not aimlessly wondering. Besides that, it wasn't as good of a unit as the warrior, and would cause between 25-50% of the warrior's health to recruit… I think that had something to do with having to prove strength to the Orc to get him to agree, but that's not important. The unit's biggest advantage was that it wasn't revealed until its first combat.

We finished eliminating the other forces that were still severely injured and pincered them again. Total victory…

As the fire crackled in the background I felt my face warm up even more, feeling so light that if I hadn't known better, I would have thought my magic was about to lift me off the ground, floating me into the air. Simply breathing felt good, and the air tasted sweet, making me want more of it. 'I win…'

Cole pounded his fist on the table, fumbling over his words as he tried desperately not to let a swear slip out in front of me, making it hard to hold back a laugh.

Gaius just crossed his arms and let one out, not being bothered in the slightest that he lost. "Yeah, she tends to have that effect on men."

I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Oh, whatever. It's better than the effect you have on women."

Jerry hid his laughter, shaking his head with a smile. "She's got you there." He snickered quietly.

"Well done as always Siya," Nillous said, leaning back in his chair with a smile. "You're strategies never let me down."

"I… Really didn't do anything all that spectacular…" I muttered, embarrassed, unsure of when the last time I received such praise was. "They just played the round poorly… If Cole chose to force his units to fall back away from the ruins it would have been a much closer match. They could have probably won if they responded properly by–" I paused, watching them all stare at me silently, and becoming even more embarrassed. "I mean… I had a plan of course… It wasn't ALL luck… But it wasn't… anything special…" My words slowly turned to mumbling. 'Things just happened to work out…' 

Gaius rubbed my head with his greasy hand as he walked past to get more warm beer. "Work your way around a real fight like that and I'll follow you into battle any day kid." He said with another hearty laugh.

I quickly tried to get his hand away from me so he didn't dirty my hair, but aside from that, his words did actually give me some confidence. "You'd follow me into battle any way you big oaf…" No matter what happened I felt like the same grinn was locked to my face. I couldn't make it go away.

'A real fight?' I looked back at the board. 'I don't always win though… If this was a real battle, then how many people would have died? If the enemy moved better, and had a better plan, how many casualties would I have had… Would one of them have been Gaius?' It was a simple thought in passing, one I didn't take too seriously at first, laughing along with everyone else as we played round after round, but… At the same time, I knew sooner or later I would have to deal with the full weight of what giving an order truly meant. 'Although. If I somehow was the best commander available, then not giving orders would lead to a worse result…'

I sighed, letting the line of thinking trail off, but suddenly It wasn't just a game anymore. If I ever ended up commanding a real army, I would be responsible for every loss of life that occurred on the battlefield. And yet, in a couple weeks, I would be going off to school for that exact purpose… To become a noble, a soldier, and… A real leader.

'Massacred by a surprise attack in a ruin… A surprise attack from Orc mercenaries… What a cold way to die…' I suddenly felt chills run down my arms.

In that same moment though Nillous wrapped a blanket over my shoulder. "The ladies are making us save firewood, say we burned too much of it trying to warm our hands when we were getting the winter berries this year, so we're going to stop adding wood to the fire for now."

I pulled it tighter around my neck, feeling an odd remembrance of the dungeon. "Thanks…"

The game suddenly became less fun, and more intense. Although, if I was being honest with myself, it becoming more intense made it more fun, which seemed a bit contradictory, but I didn't bother thinking over it too much. I just continued to play. Eventually, I Lost a match entirely after Nilous's party became completely wiped out.

I began to feel sick to my stomach. Becoming more aware of the magic thread that was holding my organs together. To make matters worse, my party died in a dark underground hole… Which… Hit a bit too close to home. Suddenly the game felt too real.

I won the next three, but never had another flawless victory, and because of that, I was never able to fully relax, the tension building inside of me until my whole body started to burn up.

"Your healer falls into a pit trap and suffers fatal damage."

"Fatal!"

"It was dug with magic over the course of three turns. That's like what, "300 feet. At least they had enough time for a final prayer."

He laughed, but after that I couldn't think straight anymore and that led to another loss, although I suppose it was a very close match, coming down to a single dice roll.

"Siya you ok? You don't look so good?"

I narrowed my eyes, the burning sensation becoming stronger. "Fine…" I muttered. "Next round!"

The match after that I won again but with heavy casualties. I could feel my heart beating faster, sweat dripping from my palms even after the fire had died.

"Another!"

'A landslide victory, but I still lost a warrior… You can't win a war… without people that are ready to die for it…'

Cole was midway through shuffling the cards again when he paused and looked at me. "Are you sure you're feeling alright Siya?"

I couldn't tell if I looked any different than normal, but I definitely wasn't feeling well. All my symptoms worsening. I shook my head, satisfied that I at least came out on top. "No… Not really…" My chest was starting to hurt, and I felt like I was burning up.

Everybody tensed up and got put on edge all at once. "Ok… What's wrong, do we need to do anything?"

I grabbed my shirt over my heart as I told myself to just keep breathing. "No... I should be fine… I just need…" The heat spread to my head and I began to feel dizzy, even sitting down. I was sweating bullets but still felt chills run down my arms.

Thankfully, Nillous caught me before I could fall over. "This hasn't happened in so long it seems everyone forgot what it was like." He smiled down at me, and before I even realized it he was carrying me back to the house, wrapping the blanket around me so thoroughly I couldn't even feel the wind.

"Sick?" I muttered.

"Yeah, pretty high fever this time. Little too much excitement recently I think."

I rolled my head, groaning. "I thought I was done with these…"

He was right when he said it had been a long time. Technically I had one after fighting the giant bitterweed a few months back, but besides that Mara's insane training regiment actually did boost my immune system over time. The number of fevers I got slowly seemed to decrease over the years until I stopped getting them.

Nillous chuckled. "People don't stop getting sick Siya."

I groaned again. "But… I'm free now… I'm finally free and now I'm sick? It's not fair…" By the time I finished talking somehow we were already in my room and he was helping me slide under my covers.

"Mara should be up here soon so Don't worry, I'll go get some water and tell your mother."

I let out another groan, starting to feel like I was just whining like a little kid. 'Sorry Mom… I guess I'm causing you trouble again…'