Essa watched more bck dots in blue sky pass over her army. Too fast and too high t down, she could probably give chase and cate, but the ce of being lured into a trap was something she was not willing to risk.

  They weren’t doing anything aggressive anyway, instead Fortia said they were simply scouts. They would fly over roughly ever two hours, make a circle around her and then fly back south to report.

  Damian Sokolowski peeked out from behind a rock, binocurs close to his eyes as he y close to the with his and team. They had mao pull three quarters of First Division bato the cover of the mountains already, a tenth was still retreating, and the rest had bee as a rearguard. It was a suicide mission, of course, but the sorcerers had only given an hour of advance warning.

  That past hour had been chaos as Sokolowski reanised his men. Ptoons were hastily loaded into trucks, what ammunition could be taken was. What arms fit onto the trucks were. Two Binturongs were still being repaired, the sorcerers had been given instru to crush them into tial balls to stop the teology from falling into enemy hands. The guns that didn’t fit though, Kassandora already given her permission for those to be left behind. The soldiers themselves were more important than mass produced small arms. The only thing that Kassandora to not leave behind, besides the artillery, were the trucks. Those which could still drive she driven, those which were being repaired should be destroyed to irreparability. Sappers had made short work of those.

  And then Kassandave Sokolowski total freedom. She told him exactly what was happening. Essa was ining, she would have mages number ihousands, if not tens of thousands, and he would not get Divine support whilst the retreat was ongoing. Essa was to be lured south, towards CR if impossible, but her flying corps had to be separated from Fortia’s ground army. And Sokolowski was bait. He unfurled her letter ahe st line again: ‘I am sure you’re aware we have never had the best retionship with Lady Luck. I have never wished for Luor I see myself ever doing it. I wish you a cool head and that your skill may prevail. You have my blessing, General Damian Sokolowski.

  It calmed Sokolowski as he y there on his stomach. He had her blessing, maybe this was why Iliyal was so fanatical about Kassandora, it was an addig feeling, for Kassandora herself to say she needed you. Damian couldn’t even expin why he liked it so much, he simply did. And so he kept watg, Pawel, Mateusz and Wiktor were close by. Pawel also looking through binocurs, Mateusz and Wiktor were simply sat with guns.

  The team had hidden themselves he entrance of a tuhat had been carved out just weeks before. Kassandora didn’t even order it, Sokolowski had told the sorcerers to clear turn the mountaihe edge of the desert into a byrinthiawork of mazes. If Fortia found them, she would spend a week at least scouting everything out, if she didn’t, then Sokolowski had a pce to retreat to when Essa passed over. They were all wearing heavy rugged clothes, the nights here got cold, the winds would roar when night set, and further south the mountains got taller until they were snoed. And they were camoufged, mixtures of browns and reds and yellows to fit in with the stony mountains of red rock that separated the desert from the jungle.

  “You see that?” Pawel asked. Of course Sokolowski saw it, it was impossible to miss. On the horizon was a bck spot earing, Damian didn’t even need his binocurs to see it. H high and practically dev the desert sands below it as it soared higher and higher, until it was just a mass of bodies against the light-blue sky. Damian grabbed the radio that hung off a wire fixed to his coat.

  “This is General Sokolowski, speaking to all lieutenants still in base camp.” He took a breath ahem all respond. A half dozen names reported that they were still there. “Essa is approag. Hold her off for as long as possible.” Sokolowski thought of what else to say, the men would need some morale. “Gentlemen.” He made his tone softer. “It’s been a pleasure serving with you. You have Kassandora’s blessing. May we meet again.”

  And Sokolowski put his radio down. He grabbed his binocurs and peered through them, at the camp this time, not the mass of approag mages. Behind him, Mateusz and Wiktor both pulled their rifles off their backs and checked if they were loaded. They weren’t pnning to shoot, but sometimes it was better to prepare for the worst.

  Damian saw his lieutenants start to scramble as they issued order after order. Men started to run, they dived into trenches with arms full of magazines and rifles from storehouses. Other separated into pairs and cimed the heavy mae guns that were mounted on tripods, others climbed towers, a few dashes to fire from uhe cover of sheets that had beeover. Back when Damian was the leader of the Twis, it was only in his dreams that men responded so quickly to orders. There was fear, there was self-ied need for survival, there was worry and there were regrets. Men would push them down of course, but t into a so quickly was simply unheard of.

  But then, Damian knew he had ged too since receiving Kassandora’s blessing, it made him calmer, he had stopped having the fshes of fear about what happened if they failed, he knew he was ging. But he didn’t worry about it, the ges simply made perfect sense. Kassandora would not hurt her own soldiers without purpose, she wasn’t Anassa. So Damian accepted her blessing, and all the ges it brought. One man rose into the air, Sokolowski narrowed his eyebrow and radioed base camp again. “Why is there a sorcerer still in the camp? Over.”

  The reply came swiftly. A man with a hard voice speaking clearly, as if Essa’s horde wasn’t about to desd on him. “We asked about too, apparently he pissed off the Ambelee girl and was told to stay behind.” He took a breath, then spoke again. “Apologies for the nguage, General. Over.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Over and out.” It was Kassandora’s order that the sorcerers stay alive for as long as possible, but that was something he could do nothing about. He’d put it into a report and expiuation if he survived this. Kassandora should uand what dealing with sorcerers was like.

  And the four men, high atop a mountain path, a mere few steps away from the entrance of a tunnel, watched Essa’s army move through the air. Sokolowski called for an artillery strike from the retreating Lemurs. They were behind him, on the mountain roads, but they should still be able to fire. Artillery from Fifth and Sixth Division too. The ons pounded like war drums, each gun unleashing one volley before restarting its escape. Sokolowski wondered how many of them would make it.

  A minute passed. In that one minute, Essa’s army had crossed from the horizon to the base camp, and the shells flew from their barrels to just above it. Sokolowski watched the reas of the men as his soldiers opened fire. Gunsh out in a crazed fashion, a thousand percussios entirely out of tune and pying their own rhythm.

  And Damian moved his binocurs to the group of mages. Now that they were close, he saw that it wasn’t merely a colle of men. There was structure to their formation. They made up pyramid after pyramid, tightly clumped together, the magis at the bottom held their staves aimed at the man above them, who in turned aimed his higher, and higher and higher it went. es made circur rings about the formation, holding the staves as if ready to intercept something.

  Damian watched the air harden, they wizards became blurry, as if they were stood behind a dirty pane of gss. Bullets crushed themselves on impact against that barrier, a stream of mae gun rounds made a line as the maing it swerved his turret in the general dire. Bullets started falling into the desert sands below them. “There she is.” Mateusz said dryly.

  Damian put the binocurs down and looked at the camp below them. The swarm of magis was easily two thousand strong, maybe even more. And high above, in a dark blue dress, arms crossed with a staff floating by her side, was Essa. She watched over the… Damian thought what to call it, it wasn’t a battle, it was a show of power. Even if he had left a million men, he doubted he could overwhelm the shield the mages put up.

  And theillery shells hit. Essa moved away from the bst, and then stopped when she realised the explosion would not travel further. Napalm blew up brilliantly, into a colourful explosions es and reds and yellows, the fmes r and scarring the sky with a wound of tar-bck smoke. And then Essa moved her staff. The napalm extinguished itself. The shield moved and curved, and the jelly started to slowly drip off. “Certification.” Pawel said slowly. Damian rolled his eyes, he already knew what was ing. “Would.” Pawel finished.

  The men shared a few chuckles amongst themselves, but this was worse than fag Fortia. At least that monster could not fly. They had not eveed her yet and already the White Pantheon was sending a stronger foe. Essa shouted something Damian did not catch, her voied across the desert, then echoed back.

  And the shield expahe gems on the edges of staves started to glht, as if they were torches that had been dipped into the napalm they had just put out. All of them did, the men otom of the pyramids raised their staves. Gems started to glht, the men stood at the top of their pyramids aimed their staves forwards and down, at the Sokolowski’s camp.

  In one instant, the shield dropped. Some twenty mages were hit by the guns still firing. They fell to the ground, blood spurting from lifeless bodies in long trails. And then, the magis returhe favour. Beams burst forth from the men at the top of each pyramid. They sliced through the camp without pause, dev tent and man and clothe alike, and turning the sand it touched into a dirty bck-brown gss. Damian’s eyes across the damage, the shield returhe men he had left behind mao down some thirty of the magis. Sokolowski had left a thousand men in that camp, a thousand lives given for forty. That wasn’t an exge rate he would ever feel proud of.

  His eyes travelled up to Essa, the Goddess lowered herself back towards the mass of mages. Whatever bullets flew towards her simply hit a barrier in the air. They dropped to the ground as Damian watched Essa t some spell.

  And then Essa swuaff.

  And the ground opened up, the camp split as a ravine suddenly segme.

  And the winds started blowing, pulling the sands up in tiny tornadoes.

  And the tents and remains of the camp set alight as if they were doused irol.

  And the air densed into water to wash everything into that ravine.

  Damian and his team retreated into the cave. They had joked of being able to snipe Essa. Those jokes would never be heard by human ears again. That thing in the sky wasn’t just some Divi was a monster inate.

  What separates children from adults is that childreroy, adults build. I am a Divine of course, so I ot be childish. But magieeds a certain childish curiosity to be used at its full potential. I would say that I am very mu touch with my inner child.

  - Excerpt from Essa’s Diary.