Our debrief about the newest portal event, held ter that night around a rge bonfire, was well attended but poorly received.

  “It was Animus Overload, wasn’t it? I thought Holy Sage Relias had healed him!” one of the knights shouted. Others nodded in response, a few loudly vocalizing their agreement.

  One of the field priests stood up and yelled back, “Sir Sorne was just fine earlier this afternoon! We all saw Holy Sage Relias treat him.”

  The troops muttered in disbelief as Relias bowed his head, his face ruddy in the firelight.

  Should I have insisted on ensuring all of Sir Sorne’s animus was gone?

  Yes. Yes, I probably should have. But how does one do that, exactly?

  “We’ll add in post-treatment monitoring of anyone showing signs of animus imbance,” Captain Sonea advised in a rather chilling tone before I could say anything.

  “And why didn’t Captain Lightbringer stop him?” a mounted marksman demanded as all eyes turned to me. “She could have ridden him down, or pulled him off his horse, or—”

  “He went against orders to halt,” I reminded them. “And I wasn’t mounted. There was no way I was going to intercept him in time.”

  He was on a warhorse with his blessed nce drawn and bzing, for goodness’ sake. Honestly, a small part of me thought that maybe he could have sealed the portal.

  That’s probably why I felt so guilty.

  “We need more knights,” another soldier demanded. “The sharpstriders are useless against the portals; we all saw that!”

  “That’s a foolish idea!” a bowman yelled back. “Didn’t you see how the portal fed off Sir Sorne’s aura? So what, you want to just throw more knights at it?”

  “Well, what do you propose, bolt-bouncer?” the knight snarled in contempt.

  When the team devolves into name-calling, can it really be called a team anymore?

  “That is enough!” Captain Sonea shouted. “This debrief is dismissed. Second watch begins now. Anyone not on duty is confined to their tents until the next watch. If I hear another word of dissent, we’ll all march on empty stomachs.”

  She might not have heard the dissent, but it was indeed still there.

  After most had left in sullen silence, Aleph leaned closer. “I think, Gold Dragon, you may have invited too many to participate.”

  “It’s not like they weren’t all witnesses,” I objected in a low voice. “I was hoping someone had a perspective I didn’t, but all they wanted to do was just bme everybody else.”

  “We should have interviewed them first,” Nora agreed. “Picked a few to represent their peers.”

  “Peers…” I echoed. “Captain Sonea, you mentioned there’s been a bit of friction between some of the soldiers. But it’s worse now, isn’t it?”

  She nodded, letting out a small sigh. “It’s always like this, the closer we get to the frontlines. The stress of war.”

  “And animus is a by-product of that stress,” Relias murmured. “I was so sure I had alleviated his imbance, but yet…”

  “You probably did,” I agreed. “But this haze is back, swirling around us. It’s not as thick as it was in the morning, but I still see it even now.”

  Relias frowned. “Just around us?”

  I squinted, looking off in each direction for a moment. “No... It’s thin, but it billows out as far out as I can see.”

  “Forget the haze for a moment,” Nora announced. “Focus on the portal. It was way different from those we’ve seen before, right?”

  “Um. Yes. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them grow vines and pull anything in. Just spit things out.”

  Nora nodded, pulling out her journal. “Even before that. No crashing or thundering as a precursor. Just a crack – and a quiet one, at that. And it only attacked when Sir Sorne got too close. If I didn’t know better, I would say it was in self-defense…. Or hunger.”

  “How about a triggered attack?” I mumbled. “I’m not ready to decre portals sentient.”

  Nora tilted her head back and forth. “Okay, okay. Let’s say it was being controlled by someone who is—namely, that demon we saw.”

  “I can swallow that much,” I agreed.

  “So why was he pying with a portal around here, anyway?”

  I gnced around at my companions. Tetora snarled, fttening his ears. “Obviously to spy on us for the General!”

  “I don’t think so,” Nora disagreed.

  Captain Sonea frowned. “You found the demon strange as well, didn’t you?”

  Nora nodded. “Especially when he saw Rae. He totally freaked out.” She looked down at her journal, tracing a finger over her notes. “I do think he was spying, though. Just for another... One who wasn’t expecting Rae to be here. I mean…” Nora then paused, looking between Captain Sonea and Relias. “Oh… uh…”

  “Go on with your hypothesis,” Relias said softly. “Do not worry about hurting our feelings, Lady Nora.”

  “It’s just… It’d be silly not to think the General already has his spies on us. We’re marching forward through Porta with an entire army at his insistence. I don’t think you can hide such things from anyone, let alone demons…”

  So, was that demon another subordinate of Olethros? Or did he report to the Mistress?

  Maybe there were even more factions to ‘freak out’ about.

  Interpersonal conflicts escated as we made our way to Porta’s western border. While I confirmed that the priests, including Relias, could purge animus from the ranks just as soon as I pointed out, the relief was always short-lived. Animus would seep back in like a persistent shadow, feeding off the tensions between the knights and sharpstriders. Arguments fred over the most minor grievances—who carried what, who marched where, and who deserved bme for Sir Sorne’s fate. Eventually, we had no choice but to separate the groups, with priests marching in between to act as a buffer.

  Further on, it became even more evident that people weren’t the source of the haze. Determined to figure out what was happening, I volunteered for guard duty, giving up an entire night’s rest. I caught it rolling in just before sunup, carried on the winds toward us from the Wastends themselves.

  “I’m sure the General is behind this,” I reported to Nora once she was awake. “But isn’t it a little too obvious now? He must know I can see it from a distance.”

  Nora chewed a bit on her pinky nail, a habit I had long since given up on rebuking. “Maybe it’s just to slow you down? Irritate you?”

  “There are easier ways to irritate me,” I quipped. “I’m sure those two demon officers shared that much. And why did he bother to set a deadline in the first pce? He wants us to come. Why would he make it harder for us to meet it?”

  “Yeah, that’s the part I don’t get,” she admitted. “We’re missing something here.”

  It took us both a few days to figure it out.

  “You need to concentrate,” Tetora yelled during another training session. “Your aura’s going out.”

  I blocked one of his incoming attacks with my shield, staggering slightly. “I am concentrating!”

  “Weapons down,” he commanded as he abruptly retreated, dropping his greatsword and throwing up his hands with exaggerated movements. “Someone go get Relias!”

  “I’ll do it,” Vernie volunteered, already on her feet. “Don’t go anywhere, Rae-Rae!”

  I sheathed my sword and looked around, a wave of anxiety making it hard for me to breathe. “Is someone hurt?”

  Aleph waved me over from the sidelines. “Not exactly. Why don’t you have a seat?”

  “I am pretty tired today,” I admitted, gd to get off my feet.

  Aleph took a seat beside me. “Have you been sleeping well enough?”

  “I suppose. No nightmares, at least.”

  Actually, I wasn’t remembering my dreams at all. I’d wake up often, but my brain would be bnk, so I’d roll over and try to capture additional slumber time. Whether I was successful or not came down to a crapshoot.

  Nora and Relias appeared in the distance, following Tetora over to me. I started to stand, but Relias knelt instead, taking my hand with Euphridia’s blessing contained within it.

  “I see no haze, but…” He gnced at Nora.

  “Me neither,” she confirmed with a squint.

  Oh, right… she can see ambient animus now, too.

  “You guys… are worried about me?” I asked, a little slow on the uptake.

  Tetora scratched his ear. “Your aura was waning. And your attacks were… well, weak. Much weaker than normal.”

  “I’m pretty calm, though, all things considered. No irrational rage or anything.”

  I mean, I hadn’t even screamed once about the fact that in a day or two, we’d be entering the wastes, where a powerful demon general wanted nothing more than to cut off my head.

  That’s pretty chill, right?

  Relias gnced behind him at the army that had taken a small respite. Once again, they had been segregated by their roles to keep down the infighting. With a sigh, he turned back to me. “Dear One… Why don’t you call upon your light?”

  I shrugged and summoned my aura as requested. It wasn’t as bright as usual, but I had been working hard over the past few weeks. “I probably just need a break.”

  “While I want to agree with you, I fear something else is the culprit,” Relias murmured. “This ambient animus is not currently affecting you directly, but I believe it is interfering with the levels of Trust and Faith of those around you. If these are repced by doubt and distrust, your skills will suffer.”

  “So what do I do about that?” I snapped. “It’s not my fault they’re so… so… capricious!”

  I had been focusing so hard on my self-confidence and skills, so why wasn’t that evident to the others?

  Relias, aware of some of Nora’s sneakier abilities, had her summon her Cone of Silence around the lot of us. “This is the most stubborn form of foul animus I have ever worked with—it comes back despite my best attempts to neutralize it.” He paused, shaking his head. “I have almost exhausted all efforts… I believe we may need to consider a more extreme action.”

  “Like what?” I asked, going cold at the ft tone of his voice.

  He looked at me, his eyes glittering. “If I cannot somehow route the soldier’s ill will permanently, we may have to leave them behind entirely. The farther they remain away, the less effect they will have on you during your fight with the General.”

  Face the General and his horde… without an army?

  “That’s insanity!” I shouted.

  Sure, in movies, TV shows, and even video games, the hero’s party goes off to fight in a limited number, but that was only for show, right?

  In real life, it was just dumb!

  “This is why it is not my preference,” Relias advised, touching my shoulder. “But numbers mean nothing if they undermine your power. I can protect us from the haze’s influence, but I cannot shield this entire army. Believe me… I have tried.”

  Nora made a face that perfectly captured the disgust I felt. “Isn’t that exactly what the General would want you to do? Leave the army behind? But I have a better idea.” She waved a glowing hand, causing a small swirl of animus to shoot off to the south. “I can’t absorb it all, but I can send it elsewhere, at least for a little while.” She looked at Relias specutively. “If we get close enough, we could exploit his cloudy cheat. He probably doesn’t know I can disrupt his dark haze. If we time this right, it’ll throw him off bance.”

  Relias blinked several times, mulling over Nora’s words. “The timing would be everything…” he agreed hesitantly. “I daresay you would have to dissolve it at the st moment to give the Chosen One as much advantage as possible. The counter-effect would be instantaneous if the soldiers saw you do it with your usual fir.”

  While Nora beamed excitedly, Aleph, Tetora, and Vernie exchanged worried gnces. However, none of us could come up with any better ideas. We all decided it was the only viable gamble we had.

  “We will still need to act as if we are desperate,” Aleph advised. “If we start ignoring the haze, we could tip our hand.”

  “And we still need to respond to those close enough to Animus Overload,” I added. “Captain Sonea would be beside herself if she lost another knight due to our negligence…”

  “I’ll start with a public recitation of The Sying of Epiales,” Relias murmured. “Tonight, after our evening meal.” He gnced at me, his eyes full of mispced hope. “Would you join me in this modest attempt to restore Faith and Trust?”

  Before I could devise a practical excuse for not wanting to be a part of that story again, Vernie interjected, “You should keep her away from them. The whole thing could backfire, you know. She also admitted that she’s tired. Let her rest for now.”

  “All salient points,” Relias conceded. “I will give you a reprieve from this spirited sermon, Dear One.”

  If we survive this, I swear to the Goddess herself that I will have Vernie decred a saint for her actions this day.

  Euphridia