Inferno Ascended

"The creatures attacked us. It was night, and we were distracted, so it was our fault that this happened," Pydna carelessly leaned against the column of the common room, where everyone was gathered around the ground brazier for the morning meal.

A small group was gathered around the man, who was having his leg sewn at the moment. He grunted and bit a cloth while the fort's cook performed the surgery.

Lord Arsenio, the new tagmatarchis of the Fortress of Marbium, was that person. The attack had taken place in the early evening when the Kroton arrived in Marbium with a small entourage.

As Glax couldn't help, he preferred to find out what had happened.

Pydna was one of the people who had just arrived, as were Glax and Alexandre. She was a tall, stocky woman with a square face full of freckles and the expression of an old, bored cat.

"When we arrived, we wasted a lot of time coming to the fort because of Lord Arsenio's horse. The animal didn't want to disembark and when it finally capitulated, a stupid bread seller scared the animal with his bugle. The horse ran away, and it took us a while to find the scared animal. It was already evening when we hit the road to the fortress. Then, the other animals were also restless. We saw the creatures. There were two of them. They ran towards us, screaming. First, they looked like people, but then we saw they weren't. One of the creatures had four arms, and smoke was coming out of it. The other resembled a centaur, but its bottom had metal parts."

She didn't appear to be moved or even impressed by what she saw. "They acted like wild enraged animals, without purpose. They just shrieked and attacked aimlessly, I guess. Lord Arsenio wasn't lucky." she touched her necklace with an amulet, saying that.

Glax knew that the other warriors had not been hurt as badly as the leader. Everyone expected him to survive.

The Valosian had already discovered in the few hours he was there that the small fortress housed at that moment only a third of its men. And the majority of those who stayed were the hyperetes, who took care of the fort and the well-being of the personnel. There were thirty-three Aegeons, plus thirteen Alectryons borrowed from Rusa, who would soon return to their original stronghold. Obviously, a ridiculously low number to defend a fortress and a region, however small.

"Are you also a new Aegeon?"

She didn't know who he was, and that was a pleasant surprise.

"Not only that, he's the champion of Armorion, he fought a giant sea monster called Sillabot," Alexandre appeared beside him, bringing a mug of beer and a piece of bread to Glax.

His anonymity was short-lived. 'Alexandre is the living proof that gods like to play with the mortals…'

A small smile rose on the warrior's lips, and the green eyes widened in disbelief.

"He's a little over the top," Glax apologized, and pretended to hang his student.

"Well, the Aegeons are not very used to having stars in their ranks."

"I am not a star, Alexandre is going to stop exaggerating. After all, I know he doesn't want to be kept saying that just because he is the son of the archigeos, he wants special treatment. "

Both Alexander and Pydna opened their eyes wide. The woman said,

"Were you banned or something? Why did you join the Aegeons?"

At least it was interesting to see Pydna showing some reaction.

"Aegeons don't live in the past, nor are they arrogant and unnecessarily violent suckers," he said, hoping it was true. "These are the guys who get the worst of the job and never complain. This is the genuine spirit of "Never break the line, never retreat."

Half the people in the room turned to him, suddenly showing interest in the conversation.

Pydna raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what they say about the Aegeons in the capital, Lord Glax, but maybe you fell for a blow."

"Do you think differently, Lady Damastios? Why aren't you a Fury then? Why were you in Klasidos, a mixed fortress, as a guard at the east gate? Rather than being part of the detachments that have all the glory?" A veteran warrior, whose burned scars completely scarred his right arm, threw his spoon noisily on the table.

Pydna just tilted her head the other way, and replied, closing her eyes. "I tried, Tychos. But I was 5 months pregnant that summer, and I didn't perform well. The Aegeons were what was left."

It didn't escape Glax that they know each other. She didn't call him Lord, so he was probably a plebeian soldier, or perhaps they were good friends. The krios called themselves Lords and Ladies all the time.

"I thought it was because you told the trials captain that throwing axes were more useful than spears and swords," Tychos responded, raising an eyebrow.

"And that you had shown it to him. At him." A thin, short Rhoas, with deep dark circles around his eyes, approached, intruding into the conversation.

Pydna shrugged. "It wasn't like this. He said his mother would have done better than me, while waiting for triplets. I said she surely would, since her placenta had even entered the Furies."

"Ouch!" Glax didn't know if it was just a catchphrase or if it really happened, but it would have been funny if it were true. "Well, I decided to come because my father-in-law said the Aegeons were in small numbers here, and the region is in trouble. The Grand General knows about Marbium's strategic importance." Glax embellished the truth.

"Lord Arsenio said he needed volunteers to go here. But not many want to come to such an isolated place on the border. He expected ten people, but all he got was three..." The Rhoas said.

"You still haven't said why you came, Rhoas." Pydna looked at the guy who had joined the conversation. He must have been a little younger than Glax himself.

"For the same reason you and Tychos there, Lady Smartass. We weren't under arrest because of the confusion in Klasidos. Did you drink too much Lethe* water? It was my only way to save my family from the shame of martial court."

"The reason I came is, you didn't hit your arrows on that damn satyr, like the fucking clumsy airhead you are," Tychos said, wiping his beard from the beer foam and using his mug to point at the Rhoas.

"What was a satyr doing in Klasidos?!" Alexandre blurted out.

Glax tried to remember that name, without success. He needed to quickly memorize the map of Stygia, or at least, that of the Echelian state.

"Good question. We couldn't ask him that night. Because we didn't catch the damn horned pest. A nearsighted archer didn't make it. Perhaps Lord Zotikos may have a theory of the whys." Pydna sighed dramatically, teasing the Rhoas.

"I told you. Someone whispered the password to get through the gate. It was on the password list. And stop calling me short-sighted. I hit more arrows than you hit axes. I don't remember you having any better results."

"Was the satyr actually in a group?" Glax asked, assuming that there might be some connection between this fact in Klasidos and the presence of a group of non-humans in Echelion.

"It was not a group." Zotikos explained.

"It WAS a group." Thycos imposed his opinion. "A satyr wouldn't have the courage to come alone. And there's more. There were people of ours working with them. Or they would have no way of knowing the password."

"What kind of password was that? I mean, what kind of person had access to those passwords?"

The Rhoas replied, "We, guards of any fortress in the north, know that a soldier can lose the badges that identify him as a friend, or even send messengers to alert us of something. So there's a password book. Only officials or other special agents receive passwords. Only the bookkeeper has access to the book. And I was Klasidos' new bookkeeper. I kept it with me all the time."

"In short, it's all your fault that we came here and lost our posts." Pydna gave a deadly smile and Zotikos shrugged.

"No, I was following all the directions. I asked for the password, he gave the password. The password was in the book. I opened the gate."

"And once he was inside, that person could put his group in. If I had not seen marks of two hulls in the mud..." Tychos recalled the fact and pushed the spoon as if he were strangling the book keeper's neck.

"I have a question," Glax interrupted. "What could a group of invaders want in Klasidos? If, for example, their final destination was Echelion."

The three Aegeon warriors looked at each other, trying to think of an answer to the question.

Alexandre interrupted, in a low and somber tone, "Lord Glax ... Klasidos was the fortress General Chriseis commanded in peacetime. At the entrance to Thepomesos."

Before Glax explained the reason for the question to the others, they heard a long, frightening cry, as if the hiss of a huge monster sounded over the mountains.