Coins on a Battlefield ONC 2023

Waking Up

Elena had been trying to think of an excuse to not sit there and watch the crab be...well, a crab. She scrambled out of her seat, away from God to go to the shimmering wall. "Stay there, kid, I'll get them."

"Alright."

Walking through the barrier felt like crossing death's veil--it didn't feel like something the living could do. It was disorienting.

Not wanting to deal with it thrice, she forced the one stirring back to consciousness to stand while she picked the other woman up and flipped her over her shoulder--she felt like a sack of potatoes, that is, too light for her size.

She pushed the dazed one through the barrier, collapsing her over one of the children's chairs. Then Elena stepped through to see Agni patting the shell of the crab before she spoke up. "He thinks I'd make a better apprentice than you."

"You might, but we're not dealing with that right now."

The loud pop behind Elena caused her to whirl back to the aperture--it was gone. She shuddered to think of how it would have ended if it collapsed before she came back. Being stuck in Ashenvale, with their Goddess just dead? She carefully placed the woman in Agni's chair and she saw her face for the first time. Selah was alive--barely.

Out of everything, this was the part that shocked her. Gods doing creepy God things wasn't a surprise. She knew what Wren did and by extension what Ang-Nui was capable of, as he learned it from her.

But why Selah?

The way to Ang-Nui's home burst open after the crab finished eating. The bloodied God turned into a shimmering sprite and landed on Elena's palm--it's smile wasn't right. "Let him sleep for a day, and if he still sleeps, give the ring to the kid, let her wake him up. You have the mind to figure it out, but she's got the experience you need."

"What about Marne?"

"I healed that child when we set foot in the castle. This is my heartland--anything is possible for me, no strain on Leoric. Oh, and since that poor crying baby was possessed most her life and the one under the table was worked to age, I had to prune their minds--they will be a couple years behind for a bit."

"And Agni?"

"The child within that body died when that dumb priestess took Bloodrun's Rage to mess with Leoric. It's Agni's home or it's a dead child--and she's useful to me. The Ashies are now Godless. Freed chaos isn't always better than a God's shackling."

The sprite disappeared and soon the crab sank into the lake's bed. Slowly, the world regained its glowing beauty, and the veil shut between God and man once again.

Ang-Nui must have sent a signal to Ven because that's when everyone poured in and took over the labor while Elena gave instructions rather weakly.

For the sake of Selah's stability, she left her sleeping by Leoric's side--no matter how things turned out, Elena was determined to do at least this much right. The more coherent priestess moved to the pallet in the kitchen.

The necklaces were confiscated from the children, while the head maid was debriefed on how the smaller two would be, and that watching Agni was a waste of time.

Finally, everything settled down for the night and Elena slept next to the master bed she should have shared with her husband, wondering if she'd still have a husband when everything settled.

~~~

Elena was flipping Leoric's knife around in her hands, trying to get a feel for its weight. It wasn't a throwing knife--the balance was wrong. Had I thrown it right? Did the God who couldn't keep a damn cow from tipping a pot over make the throw work? This is far more complex than forcing a coin to show the sign you wanted for your servants.

"Why is there another woman in my bed, Elena?" Leoric barely stirred, just rested his hand on something foreign and immediately pulled his hand back to his chest before noticing his wife.

She startled, dropping the knife, nearly stabbing her thigh--that was enough to make her side with the God doing the work, her own clumsy hands couldn't keep a hold of it. "Ah, look at her face."

Leoric turned, taking in years of history, then hissed like it pained him. "Well, that's my personal hell coming back to haunt me."

Elena had been thinking about how to ask him all night about everything that haunted her in this moment, but it instead spilled out her in the form of defeat. "How soon do you want the divorce, Abbot?"

Leoric pulled himself to the edge of the bed and sat up with his forearms on his thighs. He wanted to go further, but his face lost all color to just do this much. His pain and disorientation stole his courtliness from him. "I don't have the strength to get up and shake you for being stupid, Elena."

"Wouldn't you have married her if you knew she carried your daughter?"

"Yes, in another life, where I would have refused the wager that set this whole chain of failures off, I would have married her and have been content." He wheezed, not even coughing freely. "She's not much different from any other Lord's daughter--weak, submissive, and needing a good education on how reality works. That I liked her would put her ahead of some of the more cruel choices in Winterland. But it would have been an obligation, although I would have been faithful."

Elena shook her head, wondering if he understood what she was offering him. "Leo, you married me out of obligation."

"I married you damned resentful that it had to be so stuffed full of obligation!" He raised his voice to yell, but it didn't have his normal power. Elena could tell he was angry, but it took a bit longer for why he was angry to filter in behind his rage. "I wanted a chance for something more. I wouldn't have left to fuck a nightmare if I loved her. What man wants a nightmare over love? I don't understand where this is coming from."

"Ven said you had no one to confide in but her and him." Elena went with the safest excuse. But blaming Venmaeus was a coward's approach. How could she say she never felt he was destined for her? The reason she let him go 6 years ago was because she had accepted it wasn't meant to be. What destiny put them together? Destiny stole the nobility out from under her feet, who was she to climb back up? That cauldron with its damn cow clanging into it was safer than the life he called her to. This man wanted everything. She had no clue she had feared what she desperately wanted until now.

"That damned buzzard." Leo laughed outright, perhaps too tired to see the turmoil she still held. "He has no interest in marriage or people--he doesn't know how to measure such matters. You sent a mission to me. She was not capable of handling military life. I should have found some damned farmer and dumped her on him."

"What about your children's legitimacy?" Elena forcefully let go of the panic to slip back into their normal interactions, pulling heavily on a military life that didn't give shit one how you felt.

"I'll adopt them as official heirs to the bloodline. I don't need to marry someone for that, and I don't have the temperament for polygamy, so stop it."

"What if the King orders it?"

"Let him try. I sit on this title out of obligation. I don't need to keep it and believe me, they want allies more than they want the upper hand."

Elena sighed.

"Come here."

"She's still in that bed."

"I'm not going to do anything other than lean on my wife like I lost my spine. Come on and quit worrying so much. I knew what I was doing when I chose you."

So flip a coin.