I spotted Rebecca who was alone and staring with empty eyes at the bright sun.
"Why it is such a nice day?" She muttered. "It should be horrible."
I wasn’t quite sure what she ant at the ti. I didn’t understand her underlying feelings. But, I had the sense to tread carefully.
"Hey, Rebecca." I said. Then again loud enough to break her out of her withdrawn state.
"Hello, Sorcerer."
"Damian. I saw Galen as a friend. He saved my life. You can use my na."
"Damian." She said, but nothing else.
"Have you eaten?" I asked, trying to fill the silence.
She shook her head. "I am not hungry."
I bite back the words to say "You should eat."
Tara, however, said them instead.
Rebecca nodded with a glum, ashen face. Sohow, I doubted she would eat.
I was torn. On one hand I wanted to respect her right to be alone, but on the other I knew my happiness ca after I spent my ti with Iris and Morgana. Being with people, people who care about you, was important.
"Iris could use so help with Samiya. Can I ask you to help her? Morgana might need help as well with organising everyone."
A flicker of life, and it was only a flicker, seed to spark within her.
"Yes, the poor girl lost her parents and Iris is too young to take care of her alone. I should go and help."
"Thank you, Rebecca. You’re a star." I said with kindness.
"No thank you. Damian. I had forgotten about the others when we arrived. I don’t know what ca over ." She sort of smiled.
"We should be among the Druids for the mont. So, do be nice to them." I said.
"Ah yes, unlike in Calot, Druids have an honoured place in the courts of Alba." Rebecca muttered to herself.
She was right. I got that might be confusing to her. Druids were respected in the northern lands of Alba. They held a more prominent position in society.
In deep contrast to Iris the last Druid from down south due to a mix of influence between Calot’s favouring wizards and Roman hatred ant Druids were outcasts and now all but dead. The land Rebecca ca from.
"Is that you, Sorcerer?" Ca the voice of Tomlin the Druid.
He was with soone. A gorgeous woman, with long, silver-white hair and cartoonishly large feminine proportions. She didn’t quite seem human, and more the product of a male fantasy.
No one said anything, and rather than show I was an idiot, I kept quiet. Perhaps it was so sort of druid magic that made her so supernaturally sexy.
"I’ll see you around." I said to Rebecca. Giving her the go ahead to leave.
She bowed low, "Until we et again."
I faced Tomlin and his companion.
"It is . Good to see you again Tomlin and this is?"
I gestured to the stunning, silver-haired stranger.
She took my hand. My eyes t her purple irises. Her tight, low cut dress gave a wide view of her plunging cleavage. She sohow put Tulisa to sha in terms of sheer thiccness, and yet she was thin at the sa ti.
On a piece of art it could have been ignored. But she wasn’t artificial like Iris. Yet, sothing was different and not human. Her inhuman appeal made uncomfortably horny.
I felt my imdiate arousal, but also a faint sense of disgust from looking into the uncanny valley.
She kissed my fingers. I felt a surge of warmth from the touch of her lips. I also detected the spread of magical influence from the touch. I was chard, thankfully I’d experienced similar spellwork by Umbra’s evil eye, and dulled myself to the effects of it.
"I am Donna, Great Sorcerer. It is my greatest pleasure to et you."
"I see stories of spreading already." I saw with as much casualness as I can manage.
I saw her now. No, she clearly wasn’t just human. She had a presence that made her seem like the most powerful being in the room. Except and perhaps Làidir.
"I have t your bard and Tomlin was telling of how you saved him and all the refugees. The tales of a hero."
My eyes strayed to her moist, plump lips and I couldn’t help imagine them wrapped around my ’wand’. I felt my chest puff out and low self-esteem seed to bubble up from her words.
I was a hero wasn’t I?
I was pulling closer to her and my breath started to sync up with hers. It was creepy and my sense of wrongness lept alert even as I was attracted to this beguiling stranger.
Was this love at first sight or sothing else? Sothing magical?
"It was my lover Iris, I only watched, I am afraid. She had the situation handled."
Bubbling, churning pain rocked my belly admitting Iris was my lover. Stinging sha and lasting regret that perhaps I had ruined things with Donna forever.
I sohow dragged my eyes from her and saw Tomlin was leering at her with a discomforting boldness. Red in the face like he was drunk. The man’s shaft, down under, was also hard.
"Thank you for saving my friend, Tomlin. Is there anything I can do in return?" She said with a seductive gaze.
Want to join my harem? I promise a modern future and lots of satisfying sex. I had to choke on the words to avoid saying them.
"You’re welco, but I didn’t do anything. It was great to et you, Donna. Really great... and to see you again Tomlin. I must be going, I want to observe the Romans." I said and walked past them.
It was an awkward move, but I was an awkward guy. You don’t end up being the last chosen for activities because you get people.
"I’ll co with you." Donna said.
Tara, however, stood between us. Whether because she was ace or because she was a woman; or both. She seed unaffected by Donna’s charm.
"Another ti, Druids. The Sorcerer has important work to do for the sake of our people. You can et him again at a more appropriate ti." Tara said firmly.
Donna frowned slightly and I felt my heart cracking with despair. A glum, low mood settled over my mind and buried itself deep in my heart. A kind of long, deep grief: a ship shattered by a cruel wave and slowly splitting apart into splinters as the ocean depths drag and rip it apart. Tara you... had I ever been so wounded by a friend? No, no... this was Donna.
Donna tried to do so magic, but the magic washed over Tara to no effect.
Donna frown deepened, "Another ti then, promise." She held out a pinky.
She knew what a pinky promise was. I clasped her pinky with my own before I could think not to.
She bead in response.
"A promise then. Bye, bye." She said and waved us off.
Tara and I walked side by side up to the City walls. I was lost in thoughts about and intense longings for Donna.
"You seed distracted." Tara comnted.
"Yes, and it is about her."
"She does seem to be attractive, but I also haven’t seen you lose your head like that before. n and won lose themselves around Morgana and Iris when you are not around, but you are cool. Tulisa would lick the ground you walk, but you keep her firmly in hand. This one makes you stumble though?"
"It is so kind of charm effect. A magic spell maybe." I speculated.
"She is so kind of Fae?"
"No re fae. Her presence reminds of a greater power. Closer to Maradon than a redcap, but no. She doesn’t actually feel like a fae at all."
"She certainly wasn’t subtle."
We chat idly the rest of our way with long stretches of silence. I am not in a rush and I am happy to walk through the city and take it in.
I stand on Elkilbour’s walls and look out at the Romans.
The Roman army set up camp surrounding the Elkilbour. They constructed a secondary set of Roman wooden fortifications that they were in the process of building.
Already I could see preparations being made for siege artillery though what they were building exactly I couldn’t quite tell yet.
Ships were moving to blockade the pitiful excuse for docks that the city had. The city was trapped in a cage. One that couldn’t hold , or at least could only do so because of my bleeding heart worry for its people.
Not only did Mars have Great Eagles, but I saw three other impressive creatures. They gave off what I guessed to be a divine aura. They were a woodpecker, a wolf, and a bear. They were, of course, large powerful beasts as vicious and lasting as the plague.
I sighed. We were clearly outmatched and I was now living through my second siege: in my life, in the last week and since I got to this fantastical place.
We had retreated out from the frying pan into the fire.
I had only been here a short while and to Elkibour was wonderful in the sa way a ruined castle is. In actuality compared to the might of even just one legion it was pitiful. It was neither big nor impressive: neither wealthy nor resource rich.
It raised the question of why the Romans bothered invading, but here they were.
Was it ? Or did their supposed hatred for the druid really extend to absolute extermination. So other goal?
I was no Sun Tzu: I had no spies in the enemy camp nor strategies on how to deal with a superior force.
Better to leave that sort of difficult task to Morgana. If she needed to do sothing she would say. Better for , to start using this magic to improve our situation and when he next attacked to beat back than damn God of War.
Still, I couldn’t let the Roman grow confident.
"Tara, think I should soften them up?"
"Hmm... good question. Can you destroy them now?"
I shrugged.
"I don’t know how powerful those great beasts are, and I imagine Mars himself will be at least as strong as Maradon. So, yes, but too risky."
She thought about it and then said, "Sothing like arrow fire to make them nervous. Take out a few strays if you’re lucky."
"I can’t do arrows, but I can ride the lightning."
I cast a barrage of constant lightning attacks like artillery. First, a storm grows in the darkening skies above. It rumbles and thunder booms. Romans scatter and as the sky is pierced with jagged, blue bolts.
Fortifications blast apart, wooden structures burn and tal fries to the touch. A few died, as lightning was attracted to their tal. The Romans’ construction efforts for the day lay in ruins.
"That should let them know that we don’t surrender." I said.
"Too right, Sorcerer. Let the Romans burn!" Tara roared.
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