Chapter 195

"Thank Nievtala." I breathed out thanks to the goddess, but they were almost more of a curse. Not towards Her, of course, but instead because of what Rulac and Foire had found. 

In the distance, I saw the skeletons of forgotten towers and walls, but not for regular buildings. Instead, the walls were built and reinforced against the other side, further east than us. The towers weren't mere tall buildings, but instead watchtowers. I had never seen a city nor had I explored ancient ruins, but under the influence of several of my [Skills], mostly [Innate Leadership] and [Pack Tactics], I quickly came to understand what a wall fortified against the enemy looked like. I couldn't say what the enemy was that these walls protected against, but it wasn't something here in the Martanimis, but something further east.

Why had this fortress been left derelict? Why had it been abandoned by most of the people who had built it? Looking down, I could see the occasional flicker of movement, the barest indiciation of life within, but what must have previously been a bustling "city" with thousands of people was now a mostly forgotten waypoint with just a couple buildings that had any sign of recent occupancy. Around me, my elites and most trusted members of the swarm watched, wondering why I'd asked that this scouting happen.

"Well? Go ahead and praise us!" Foire and the rest's patience was interrupted by Rulac's voice. "We found the 'ruins' you were looking for, so go ahead and tell us what you want to do with them!" His tail flicked in agitation, curious and excited and ready to receive his answers.

I sighed, the thoughts and worries of what I needed to do with this newest discovery plaguing my mind. Before I allowed myself to sink into deeper, more all-consuming worries, I decided to respond to Rulac. "You found something I'm glad to know about, but it isn't what I was hoping to find."

"Why not? What are you actually looking for? I'm here, we're here to help you and support you, but you're not telling us anything, Ash!" He outwardly disregarded my immediate tensing and quiet growl at him calling me that, even though I could feel his heartbeat quicken and thunder through my [Tremorsense]. "You need to talk to us if you want to work with us. Otherwise, you're just giving commands, and if you just want to stand up and tell me what to do, then I'll leave."

Rulac punctuated his threat with a defiant silence as he met my eyes. There were unsaid words about Redael and how it used to be, and it was only because they remained unsaid that I was able to struggle enough to master myself and keep my anger in check. As I struggled to fully control myself, the benefits of explaining what I knew filled my mind. These were my people, and they obeyed blindly when I spoke, why wouldn't I give them a better understanding of why I made the commands I did? I raised a hand and briefly spoke, the decision to tell the abridged truth already made in my mind, "I will explain. You have all seen how I can lead our people to being more than we could be under any other leadership, correct?"

A murmuring chorus of agreement sounded from before me, every one of my elites immediately nodding their assent with my statement. "I do not merely have an innate understanding of some things and then was able to luckily lead our people forward while stumbling blindly. Sybil has already been told a portion of what I am going to say now, but I will explain everything for your sake.

"I have begun to swear by and mention Nievtala, just as I did moments ago." I let this initial statement hang in the air, and Joral couldn't keep himself quiet, "What is Nievtala?"

"That is what he is explaining. Stay silent so that we all may learn, whelp." Sybil's voice cracked almost physically over Joral, and I wondered if somehow she had been able to learn how to use her magic more combatively instead of generally. Joral lowered his head and went silent as Sybil made brief eye contact with every khatif present before she refocused her attention and gaze on me. I nearly laughed at the appreciative gaze that Wisterl openly gave Sybil after her display of anger, but I refocused on what I had been trying to say.

"Nievtala is, so far as I have been able to learn, the goddess of who the keelish used to be, the Keel. She is the Goddess of victory, conquest, and power, and Her people find all that and more through following Her. More powerful than any creature we have ever heard of, much less seen, a god can command the earth to shake and it will, a god can give power to those who follow them, and, in my case, a god can give guidance on how to grow stronger and how to lead a people. I have received very general instructions from Nievtala regarding where the ruins of her fallen people's city are–to the east and in the mountains. We have traveled to the east and have found mountains, but there are no ruins of the fallen city Nievtra.

"I sent you onward," I looked at Foire and Rulac, "because I'd hoped that we had reached our goal, even though I doubted it. I don't want to continue to journey like this, and I was trying to convince myself that we'd reached the destination given to me by a goddess. We had no such luck, but we were lucky enough to see that, at least at some point, the humans of the Veratocracy were here, and that they have waged war here, though not in recent memory. We also see that there are more of them in the abandoned city now, so they haven't given up entirely on the area, so that lets us know–"

"That we need to continue runnin'. Nievtala, couldja kill all those real dangerous guys for us? You wouldn't want us to all be slaughtered, so you should help us out." Rulac's random "prayer" took me by surprise, and Nievtala's response had me sniffing back the slight flow of blood that began to flow as her amused presence briefly descended over me. Sybil stepped closer and extended a supportive hand as I kept myself from stumbling.

"Was him invoking her name dangerous to you? Do we need to strike Rulac down?" Sybil's immediate question shook me from my divinely-instigated confusion, and I noticed Took beginning to prepare herself to attack Rulac, an eager shuffling of her feet calling the attention of my [Tremorsense].

I idly lapped my tongue at the last trickles of blood as I began to answer, "She laughed at your impertinence, Rulac. This," I said, gesturing at my face, "is the result of hearing a goddess's laughter. They are beings so far beyond us that we cannot begin to understand. So follow me, as I lead us according to their command, and my own mind."

The elites all around me nodded their heads severely, even Rulac as he attempted to parse what I had just said to him. "Now, what will we do about this camp?"