Chapter 66: The Wilderness Outpost

I now have an editor, so you all shouldn’t need to put up with my typos and poor/dyslexic editing skills anymore. :)

Ethan looked out over the Argo’s bow at the scenery below him. To his right, the Ivernian mountains were scrolling past and the Gulf of Sayora was doing the same to his left, and below the airship as well. Also to the right and slightly to the rear was Falkaan’s airship, the Midnight Sun.

The vacation had been wonderful, and his wives had convinced him that technically, it should start the day after Myla and Falkaan’s wedding since helping the villagers was technically ‘prophet work’, and it wasn’t a vacation until one stopped working.

It hadn’t taken much convincing.

Thus, they’d had a whole week of not worrying about anything except enjoying being married. They had eaten good food, gone swimming, slept in late, and done all the other things one usually does on vacation, including spending rather a lot of time ‘exercising’ in the captain’s cabin.

Sarah had led them on more than one expedition onto more than one island to collect fruits, nuts, berries, and mushrooms. She had come up with some very creative ways to cook them too, and they’d done that in the wilderness more than once. His dragon breath had come in handy when starting fires, over which they had roasted many things together. It was really nice to do things like that as a family.

They had even tried a few ball games from the Ten Kingdoms, none of which Ethan was very good at. However, one of them was similar to volleyball and they had spent many long hours on the beach playing it together as a family.

He loved that.

But like all things, and despite how much everyone had loved it, it had eventually come to an end. They had bidden a fond farewell to the villagers, who thanked all of them and especially Talven for their help. Apparently, their crops were starting to grow well thanks to his input. Ethan had had a short conversation with the excitable naiad -- with Alana translating -- and after Thea and Alana had given the villagers a crash course in how to be respectful to her, they seemed to be getting along well despite neither speaking the other’s language.

The Argo had departed four days ago, and they had now crossed much of Ivernia’s southern border with excellent wind, traveling on the south side of the Ivernian mountains over the Gulf of Sayora. Ahead of him, he could see a small tower had been erected on a rocky outcropping surrounded by the beach. Just beyond the tower, there was a wall reaching from the mountainside across the beach and into the water.

“That’s the Wilderness Outpost.” A feminine voice said from behind him.

“Hi Victoria.” He said after glancing behind him.

“Mind if I join you?” The platinum blonde asked.

“Be my guest.” He replied, then moved over to make room for her.

“What are you doing?” She asked after joining him.

“Mostly just letting my mind wander.” He replied. “I started reading that book that Lucien lent me about tactics and strategy. It’s good, but it’s a doozy. I feel like I’m starting from square one and I need to get better, but don’t know how.” He looked at her. “What about you?”

“I’ve been thinking ever since Myla and Falkaan’s wedding.” She replied, and her tone was thoughtful. “They fell for each other instantly, and I think everyone could see it.”

He chuckled. “Yup, though Myla was slow to admit it to herself.”

Victoria laughed. “True, but it was obvious and she is so happy now. Did you see them swimming that last day of vacation?”

“I did.” He nodded, the glow about the newlywed couple had been pretty obvious.

“I think she sorted out her ... um, ‘intimacy issues’ the night before.” Victoria said. “She looked like your wives do after you’ve had a long session together in the captain’s cabin.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He smiled.

“It was meant as one.” She glanced at him, then looked toward the horizon again. “I want that.”

“That meaning...?” He prompted, since her statement could be taken more than one way.

“What Myla and Falkaan have; that passion for each other.” She replied, then looked at him. “I faded into the background lately, haven’t I? I mean, when compared to Thea?”

“Maybe?” He sighed. “Honestly, when I think about my sixth wife, the only face I can see there is still Selene.” He almost winced as he said her name.

He had done his best not to try and contact her telepathically since vacation had started. He wanted to, he wanted to so badly, but in some ways, it hurt too much. He still missed her, and his heart still felt like it had a piece missing. Maybe not a large piece, but certainly an important one, and its absence stung like a splinter in his heart whenever he thought about her.

Still, her absence really made him appreciate the wives he did have. Every single one of them was absolutely incredible and he felt lucky to have even met them, let alone married all of them. It was amazing how missing someone you loved helped you treasure others more.

“I’m sorry.” She gave him a smile, but it had a sad tinge to it. “But she will be back to visit. She’ll be back and she might not be yours, but you’ll see her again.”

“Always looking on the bright side.” He smiled at her. “That’s a good thing.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway, you were saying something before I so rudely started talking about another woman.”

She chuckled. “I want that, what you and Selene have -- or at least the attraction -- and what Myla and Falkaan have. I want that passion.”

“You’re leading up to something.” He replied.

“I am.” She took a deep breath. “Myla said that she thought Illuminar had husbands prepared for whoever you didn’t marry. And while I realize that you’re a good man and I would be happy as your wife, I don’t have that passion with you; I don’t have that fire. I want that fire; I want that passion.” She took a deep breath. “So what I’m saying is, I think Myla is right. And so...” She took another deep breath. “I realize it’s not my decision to make, but I would ask that you don’t marry me; that you choose Thea. She actually wants to marry you. I wouldn’t mind it, but I want passion, and hopefully from the beginning.”

He chuckled. “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”

“I want this.” She replied. “I’ve thought and prayed about it a lot, and if Myla is right -- and I think she is -- then I think Illuminar will have someone lined up for me with whom I can have that passion. I might even meet him soon, given how quickly Myla met Falkaan after she decided not to marry you.”

“Yeah, it could be soon.” He mused, then pointed toward the Ivernian military outpost just in front of them. “Careful, it might be an Ivernian soldier.” He winked at her.

She gave him a look. “Given all we’ve learned about Illuminar and free will, even He couldn’t make me fall in love with an Ivernian soldier.”

“Jinx.” Ethan laughed, and then of course he had to explain the concept to Victoria.

“It’ll never happen.” She said firmly when he was done. “Ever.”

“Tempting fate I see.” He winked at her.

She rolled her eyes and after a moment, spoke more seriously. “Is that okay? That I would rather marry someone else?”

“Of course.” He smiled at her. “I would never force someone to marry me. Ever. In some ways, this should make things easier on me.”

“Should?” She raised her eyebrow. “Selene?”

“I’ll get over her someday.” He replied, hoping it was true. However, he somehow doubted that the small piece of his heart and soul that he’d given to her would ever truly grow back. Maybe heal a little, and hopefully hurt less with time, but not grow back.

She looked at him for a moment. “I think you should talk with Thea about that.”

“Yeah, probably so.”

“Someone call my name?” Thea asked from behind him.

He smiled, then looked between the two of them. “I see the new telepathic group chat is working well.”

“It is.” Thea confirmed, then pointed to the Midnight Sun.

On the Midnight Sun, Myla turned to face them and waved cheerfully with a dazzling smile. Ethan waved back and then she went back to whatever she had been doing. She looked happy; very happy. She’d spent most of her days since marrying Falkaan with a smile on her face and that did Ethan’s heart good. It was incredible to see how much she was blossoming from the shell-shocked woman she’d been when Ethan had met her.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.” Victoria said, then walked towards the stern of the ship.

Thea took Victoria’s place at the front of the ship and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, looking out to the horizon. Neither said anything for several minutes, and for him at least, it was because he was lost in thought. Honestly, he thought things with the potential ‘wife number 6’ candidates had worked out well. Of them, Thea was the one he had connected the most with. Well, besides Selene obviously.

“You always get this certain air about you when you think of her.” Thea said.

He looked at the elf.

“Selene, I mean.” Thea clarified. “I’m not sure I could describe it, but it’s definitely unique to her.”

Ethan sighed. “I guess I really am that obvious.”

“You are, no telepathy needed.” She winked.

He chuckled, but it was a half-hearted chuckle. “I hope that’s okay.”

“Ethan, I’m not a romantic like Victoria is.” Thea said. “It truly doesn’t matter to me that we aren’t ‘in love’ now. That’s normal where I come from, though there are exceptions like Alana’s parents. But, since the cornerstone of elven marriage is bonding, I have yet to see a long-married couple that wasn’t truly and genuinely in love, regardless of how they felt about each other before they were married.”

“I don’t want you to feel like you’re a ‘second place’ girl.” Ethan replied. “I’m still hung up on Selene and I wouldn’t feel right marrying you while that’s the case, especially because...” He took a moment to choose his words.

He needn’t have bothered because she guessed. “Because you find me attractive, but you aren’t attracted to me; not romantically anyway.”

“Exactly.” He nodded. “I realize that you’re the only one left, but you don’t deserve to be treated like the ‘only one left’, or a last-choice pick; you aren’t. No woman should feel like that, least of all someone as incredible as you.”

She chuckled. “All that praise and yet still no attraction.”

“It is what it is.” He shrugged. “Apparently, I have room in my heart for seven women. One of these days, I hope to heal enough to make room for an eighth--” He indicated her. “--but I’m not there yet. Honestly, I’m not even close.”

“I know.” Thea looked at him for a long moment. “I’ve been praying that Illuminar would make a way for Selene to return, so maybe she will?”

“You have?”

She nodded.

It was his turn to look at her for a long moment. “Even with as much as you want to live on the Argo?”

Thea made her trademark half-embarrassed, half-sheepish grimace. “I hate seeing anyone in pain. Her being gone hurts you more than you let on, doesn’t it?”

He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then nodded. “Yeah, it does.”

She gave him a comforting smile, then they both looked out in front of the Argo, him watching the waves lap gently against the shore below. There really was relatively little land here. In most places, there was less than a quarter mile between the mountains and the sandy shores. There had been a lot more for most of the trip, but here there was definitely less.

He glanced at Thea, who truly was an amazing woman. Any man would be lucky to have her as a wife, him included. He just wasn’t there yet.

“I don’t think we should get married yet, but not because what you said about not being over Selene bothers me.” Thea finally said after several minutes. “It’s because I think it would hurt you if we did.”

“You’re not wrong about that.” He conceded. “Sorry.”

“Please, don’t apologize.” She replied with a smile. “I’m on an airship; I’ve seen more in the past few weeks than I ever thought I’d be able to see. I think I could settle down now that I’ve seen all of this, or at least I’ll try, and I know you’d be a good husband, but this...” She smiled and waved at the open air in front of the Argo. “ ... this makes it all worth it. Just seeing things like this, and the orc culture, and the Inohuttan tribe, and everything else is worth it to me.”

“You do know that we’ll want to settle down eventually, right?” He asked. “I love the Argo and it’s more a home to me than anything since I left my parents’ house, and I’ll never give it up because I love it, but it’s too small to raise the family I’ll likely have.”

“I know.” Thea closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh. “But that won’t be for a while, and until then, I can sail and see everything the world has to offer.”

“You’re welcome to travel with us for as long as you like, as long as your guardian allows, but you’re right; I’m not ready to marry again.” He said after a moment.

“I didn’t think you would be.” She smiled at him. “The strength of your love for Selene is rivaled only by some of the longest and most happily married and bonded elves that I’ve seen. It’s no surprise that you want to wait; I was expecting that.”

“You really do care about everyone, don’t you?” He asked.

She made her trademark half-embarrassed, half-sheepish grimace again. “I can’t help it.”

“I would prefer that you never tried to; it’s a good thing.” He pointed out.

“Thank you.” She replied, after which they returned to staring at the scenery around them.

^∗Sir, I think you should take a good look at that tower in front of us.^∗ Alana thought to everyone a few minutes later. ^∗I think they’re trying to flag us down.^∗

Ethan looked and his first wife was indeed correct. The small outpost was flying an Ivernian military flag, and yet someone on top of the tower was waving a flag and looking like he was indeed trying to get their attention. A quick check of the airspace confirmed that there weren’t any Ivernian airships around -- except for a couple of very small scout airships -- so why did they want the Argo’s attention?

Fiona leaned forward a bit in her chair as Mage Weston began to explain how he would teach her how to purge toxins from her body. It was a bright, sunny day and the wind outside had picked up, not that she could feel it in the stone room. The weather outside had just started to take a slightly autumn feel to it, but only in the mornings and it was still quite warm during the days.

“Blood remains connected to its owner for a short time after leaving the body.” The mage said. “Thus, if you drop some into a bowl and introduce contaminants, you can practice purging them for a short time as long as you are extremely close; touching is best.”

Fiona looked at the small bowl and tiny polished dagger on the table, then sighed. “Why is learning healing magic so painful?”

“If you come up with a better way to teach it, magical apprentices the world over would thank you.” He chuckled.

“I suppose that’s why I was needing to learn to heal myself first, because I’m needing to lose a little blood to practice purging poisons and so I’m needing to know how to close the wound?”

He nodded, then held up a bottle with some almost clear liquid in it. “This contains a highly diluted poison that is relatively easy to detect. We’ll start with that.”

Fiona sighed, then glanced at Tabitha who was standing nearby holding Conner. Fiona could’ve brought the nurse, but suspected that Tabby liked holding Conner and so hadn’t today. Her suspicion wasn’t based on much, and certainly nothing the bodyguard had said, but it didn’t hurt to let her hold him.

“Were you learning this?” She asked her bodyguard while pointing at the bowl she would be using to learn.

“Yes my lady.” She said in the bubbly tone she always used around others.

“Okay, I suppose we should be starting.”

It was exactly as fun as Fiona thought it would be, which is to say none at all. Mage Weston pricked the tip of her finger and she let a few drops of blood fall into the tiny bowl before healing the wound magically. The mage then dropped a single drop of the clear liquid into the bowl and told her to swirl it with her fingertip.

She did.

It made her want to gag because it was gross to be stirring her own blood, but she did. Then Mage Weston started explaining how to sense the toxins.

“I’m losing you.” He said after a minute.

She nodded.

“Try what you understood; some people learn better by doing.” He advised.

Forty-five minutes, three more pricked fingers, and a lot of instruction later she was no closer than she had been when she started.

“Ach! I’m hating this.” She shook her head.

“It could be worse.” Mage Weston said in an amused tone. “You could be meeting one of the emperor’s agents later today.”

Fiona’s head and shoulders drooped. “Ugh, don’t be reminding me.”

“Don’t worry, he’s coming to confirm whether or not your kidnapping ring is a will-breaker ring, not to question you.” The mage assured her. “Though, he’ll likely want to talk to you.”

“I’m knowing that, my husband was telling me last night.” She replied.

She suppressed a smile as she thought about how her evenings had been going lately. Apparently, neither Lord Delmar nor Helene had enjoyed oral sex very much. Thus, he didn’t have very strong emotional associations with it like what had stopped them from coupling normally. He had let her pleasure him every night since their agreement, even though he told her it wasn’t necessary every single night.

But even better than that -- and that was wonderful -- was that he had kept his word and spent five minutes with his attention focused solely on her every night since then. It wasn’t much time, but it was a start. And in the past few days especially, he hadn’t been quite as quick to end their conversation when those five minutes were up.

Plus, he was still sleeping on his back instead of on his side with his back to her.

“Ready to try again?” Mage Weston asked.

Fiona sighed, but nodded.

Ethan looked down at the outpost below and in front of the Argo, trying to understand why it was built here. On the one hand, it made some sense as a chokepoint because it was the thinnest section of the beach he’d seen so far. On the other hand, he could hardly imagine a worse place to defend.

It was a beach.

A relatively flat beach that didn’t rise much as it went inland until it suddenly turned into the base of a mountain and went nearly straight up. The strip of beach was about a quarter mile wide at the narrowest point, and that was where the palisade wall was. However, it wasn’t sunk into the sand of the beach like a normal palisade wall would be. Instead, it was attached and braced to a series of wooden platforms under it. With the stakes from the palisade attached to the platform, it would’ve looked like a capital “L” laying on its side in cross-section.

The palisade wall was about twelve feet tall and made of thick tree trunks, but judging by the fact that some wood looked well-aged, other wood looked green, and there was every shade of weathering in between, it seemed like they had to replace the palisade stakes regularly.

The platforms to which the palisade wall was staked were about twenty feet square and had large, thick, heavy chains connecting each section to the one next to it. The one nearest the mountain had been staked into the side of the mountain, so the whole thing was relatively stationary.

He assumed this rather strange arrangement was to combat the tides since the platforms could float, and he knew this because they extended out over the ocean. All told, the strange platform-based palisade wall was about half a mile long, half of which was over the ocean. It looked like the platforms over the ocean part had anchors to keep them in place.

A mile or two beyond the palisade wall, the thin strip of beach opened up into what looked like marshland on one side, and of course, the mountains were on the other. Defensively, you could see an enemy force coming from a ways off. However, he didn’t fancy entering those marshes on foot unless he had to; there was too much opportunity for an ambush.

On the near side of the wall was a massive camp made of tents, and all of them appeared to be staked rather thoroughly into the ground and as far away from the water as possible. The only exception was a single circular tower that was perhaps thirty feet wide and made of stone that was built on a rocky outcropping. The top of the tower was flat and there were half a dozen lookouts with spyglasses scanning the horizon beyond the wall. Notably, one of the lookouts was keeping an eye on the tents.

There were a lot of tents.

He guessed somewhere between five hundred and a thousand, and each was large enough to house several men.

“The Wilderness Outpost.” Kendra said from beside him. “One of two land-based routes into Ivernia from the Wilding Lands. The other is The Gap, which has a wall twenty feet high and almost that thick. Alas, they don’t have that luxury here.”

“This looks like a nightmare to defend.” He said as he looked at it. “The wall gives some protection, but it’s not stone or anything. I’d imagine a battering ram could break through pretty easily.”

“It’s the most dangerous posting in all of Ivernia.” Kendra nodded. “And they don’t need to worry about battering rams; they need to worry about giants and minotaurs.”

He stared at her. “Giants and minotaurs?”

She nodded. “Your world really must be quite boring; aren’t there sentient races besides man?”

“Nope, we’re it.” He shook his head.

She shrugged. “Well, from a purely defensive perspective, Earth is blessed then.” She indicated the wall. “This is the main point of attack into Ivernia from the Wilding lands because The Gap is so well defended. Without warning, they will sometimes attack with numbers in the thousands. The giants and minotaurs are the real threat though; if they can get close to the wall, they can create a breach and the enemy can pour through.”

Ethan grimaced. “Imagine trying to defend against that with only a palisade wall, even a thick one. It’s barely better than temporary defenses.”

Kendra nodded.

“There isn’t a better position?”

Kendra shook her head. “The next best place defensively opens up into large fields, and many Ivernians live there. It has some defenses, but it’s a second line of defense at best. Closer to the Wilding Lands, it’s mostly marshland until you actually enter them, but by then you’d need dozens of miles of wall. And that’s assuming you can remove all the Wildings from the marshland. The slytherians -- snake people -- love the marshes and would pick off the builders long before they had a chance to build a wall.”

“Sir, there’s still someone trying to get our attention.” Alana said as she walked up to them, the rest of his wives plus Victoria and Thea not far behind. The wood elf pointed to the tower, where one of the lookouts was waving a flag in a clear attempt to get their attention.

Ethan waved back.

Then the man -- who was obviously a Fey given what happened next -- flew up and started heading towards him. Ethan considered summoning his armor and weapons, but Alana, Rachel, and Kendra were here. If the man tried to make trouble, it would likely be the last thing he did, even before Ethan got involved.

“Anthiel!” Ethan called loudly. “Stop the ship.”

“Aye, aye captain.” The high elf pilot replied. Serif and Raklan started furling the sails and he felt the Argo start decelerating as Anthiel activated the enchantments on the bow that dramatically increased the airship’s air resistance.

Not long afterwards, the Fey man landed on the bow.

He looked beat.

His hair was halfway to gray and his skin looked like weatherbeaten leather. His eyes were slightly sunken and he had dark circles under them as well. Unusually, his eyes were bright and even more unusual for an Ivernian soldier, he looked squared away. His uniform fit properly and he appeared to lack the general level of sloppiness that Ethan had come to expect from Ivernian soldiers.

Victoria got a subtle look of concentration on her face for a fraction of a second -- ironically just as the Fey man tried and failed to subtly give her body the once over -- and then her expression turned sour. He doubted that she’d done more than barely skim the Fey man’s surface thoughts though.

“Pardon for flagging you down.” The man said with a bow. “However, we just got word that a squad of our rangers is stranded and under attack at the forward tower, and a ground force won’t get there in time to save them. We need your airship to rescue them.”

“Forward tower?” Beth asked.

“Yes ma’am.” The Fey man nodded. “It’s made of golem stone enchanted to be self-repairing and it’s our forward lookout, as well as a safe refuge for our rangers.” He looked at Ethan. “They have a new ballista that’ll punch right through our scout airships’ hulls and kill the pilots on account of the thin wood, at least if they get low enough to rescue our men. But they won’t do nothin’ to a sturdy airship like this.” He patted the Argo’s railing. “Besides, our scout airships can’t hold enough to rescue everyone. We need your help.”

“Are you asking, or telling?” Victoria asked, and her tone was cool.

“I didn’t exactly get approval to come here, so I’m definitely asking.” The Fey man replied.

Victoria frowned. “Until we say no, then you’re telling.”

The Fey man didn’t answer her and instead looked at Ethan. “I wish I didn’t have to ask, shit, I wish that dragon prophet was here so he could help, but we don’t usually get what we want in this life.”

“You can’t always get what you want.” Ethan conceded. “But if you try, sometimes, you might get what you need.”

He clicked his disguise gem off.

The man jumped and then froze.

Going for shock and awe, Ethan summoned his armor and weapons. They flew towards him and attached themselves to him, latching into place as the Fey man’s eyes went wide as saucers.

“Where’s the tower?” Ethan asked.

The Fey man stared mutely at him for several seconds before pointing to an area beyond the palisade wall below. “The dark gray tower.”

“I’ll help your friends, but a warning first.” He narrowed his eyes and pushed the tiniest drop of mana into his fire glands. Not enough to breathe fire, but enough to let a little smoke escape from his mouth.

The Fey man swallowed.

“If you touch one of my wives, you’ll wish you were stranded in the Wilding Lands. Understand?”

The man nodded vigorously.

“Good.” Ethan said, making sure his tone was cheerful and that he smiled, showing all his teeth. “Ladies, I’ll be back in a bit.”

And with that, he leapt off the Argo and spread his wings, heading in the indicated direction.

“Lady Fiona!”

She heard the calls long before the one making them reached the door to the nursery and burst through it, panting as he did so. It was one of Lord Delmar’s errand boys and he almost looked like he had seen a ghost.

“What?” She asked. She had been playing with Conner on the floor until she heard him calling.

“Lord Delmar commands you to put on one of your best dresses and make all haste to the airship dock.” The errand boy replied, still panting slightly.

Fiona frowned.

That didn’t sound good.

“Nurse, please be taking care of Conner.” Fiona said as she stood, and Nurse Belcosta did just that.

“Tabby, I’ll be meeting you in the hall in two minutes.” She said to her bodyguard and then dashed into the bedroom to change. She wasn’t sure what could make her husband issue a strange command like that, but she was betting it was something serious. She changed as fast as she could into one of the nicest dresses that Glessie and Nessie had made for her since her wedding and then dashed out to the hall where Tabitha was waiting.

The two of them ran to the spiral staircase up to the airship dock and out onto the dock.

Lord Delmar was there with over a dozen different high-ranking members of the Narlotten government, including the entire high council and several people who looked like important lords. Almost every one of them appeared more frazzled than she had ever seen any of them. A large portion of the royal guardsmen were there as well.

“Milord, what’s going on?” She asked when she’d made her way to him.

He handed her a small spyglass and pointed to an airship that was heading towards the castle, clearly intending to dock.

“Look at the flag.” Lord Delmar said.

She did.

It was a purple flag with ten interlocking golden rings in the shape of a circle, and in the middle was a golden crown; it was the flag of the Ten Kingdoms which she’d seen flying many times in many places all of her life. But that wasn’t what caught her attention. No, what caught her attention was the wide golden border of the flag. Flying the Ten Kingdoms flag with a golden border was punishable by death except in one circumstance: when the emperor or a member of his family was aboard.