The night wore on, we bathed, and the double watch was instituted. Nothing happened, up until I was woken up late in the night, or rather, really early in the morning for my watch. The moon was still up in the sky. Faust had finished his first watch with Terra, and I was with Diva, then Ruth later on.

  While I was awake, my soldiers could react appropriately if the invaders tried something, so I doubled as a sensory type. At least for the immediate vicinity around the compound.

  The compound was illuminated by the full moon that shone down on the courtyard from above. There were lanterns peppered along the walls and throughout the courtyard, but the light they gave off was more akin to fireflies than a proper torch light.

  Still, it set a certain kind of mood. The air was still and oddly quiet. I hadn’t noticed, but there was no insect life. No birds crying. Nothing, save for the gentle breeze that brought with it the rustling of bamboo from afar, or the gurgling of the stream out back. Maybe it had to do with the invaders hovering around. Maybe the local wildlife had all fled?

  Still, it made for a chilling atmosphere.

  I was outside, working in the moonlight, slowly working on the next group of soldiers. Extra spears I had made yesterday were still set aside, and I wouldn’t need to make more today. As I worked, Diva sat on the stairs, watching me work. She was wearing a sweatshirt and shorts. Her feet bare as she kicked her legs. She glowed in the moonlight like an ethereal fairy.

  As I worked, the sound of stone being chipped away filled the courtyard. Little by little, I got into a groove of sorts. Feeling the stone and chiseling away without needing much focus.

  “Say, Diva, how have you been?” I asked while judging where I should chisel at next.

  “Fine…” She mumbled out. Managing not to stutter.

  “Work treating you well?”

  “Its… doing okay.” She hesitated briefly but gave an answer.

  “That’s good.”

  “How about you? I don’t remember if I asked where you worked.” Her voice was low, almost a whisper.

  “Mm, I work at a company. The exacts are a bit fuzzy, but…” I considered. “It hasn’t been that great. I was a little greedy, made a few mistakes, and now I’m dealing with the consequences.”

  “Oh…” She muttered and went silent.

  I continued to work, not in any hurry to ask any more questions. Eventually though, I did speak up.

  “Have you had nightmares?” I asked.

  She curled up, put her arms around her legs. “At first, I did…” She trails off. “Have you? Had nightmares, I mean.”

  “Yes.” I answered easily enough. “Made it hard to sleep, I even had a panic attack when I was out with my co-workers.”

  “Oh… that must have been hard.”

  “It was.” I admitted easily enough.

  “Do you still get those nightmares?” She asked.

  “Mm, not so much anymore. I met a strange woman, an officer named Grim, and we fought together.” A low chuckle left my lips. “Well, less fought together and more I tried to help out. I’m sure she could have handled herself, but… I just didn’t want to sit on the wayside while someone else fought.”

  I could feel her eyes on me. Taking in my words.

  “Seeing her fight…” I considered and paused. “It’s hard to explain, but it inspired me somehow. It made me want to move. I still can’t quite say why. Was it her determination? Was it her drive? Was it the sheer intensity of her presence? I’m not too sure, but after that day, whenever I had a nightmare, I remembered her. And just like that…” I snap my fingers. “The dreams would burn away.”

  Another chuckle left my lips. “It must sound stupid.” I admitted. “After all, I still think it’s stupid.”

  “I don’t think it is.” Divas spoke up. “I was the same way, to an extent.”

  She continued and I listened.

  “I was lost in that dark tunnel for I don’t know how long. I didn’t dare move. All I could hear was the steady thrum of that beating heart. Not that I knew that at the time…” She paused. I could see her shiver.

  “For some time, I found myself in that dark place, lost and alone. Shivering in the cold. Except, every night, just when I thought I would lose myself or give in. A light would appear and with it a hand.”

  I kept quiet. Even pausing my work to listen.

  “I remember a warm, firm hand and a soft voice calling out to me. Every night, they would lead me to safety. Every night they would bring me back.”

  I waited a moment for her to continue and when she didn’t… I spoke up.

  “Do you still have those dreams?”

  “Yes.”

  I couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing, to be honest. “I’m actually surprised you’re doing so well here, in the dark, and inside your room. I would have had serious issues with enclosed space had I been lost like you had been.”

  “I’m… used to it…” She muttered, though, not too quietly.

  “Is that so?” I said, more as a way to respond, even when I didn’t know how to exactly respond to that. Instead, I pivoted. “Well, I was surprised when you mentioned wanting to be an idol. I had thought you were always mute.”

  “I wasn’t… not always mute.” She started and stopped. “It just...” I could hear her swallow. “Just happened one day.”

  “Oh… well, you’re not now.”

  “No… I’m not.” She sounded a bit happy at that.

  I went back to work, and silence fell over us. As I started putting the finishing touches on my newest soldier, Diva spoke up.

  “Those soldiers of yours, how do they work?”

  “Work? Well, normally when I make them, I have to give them a bit of a jumpstart. Usually with a bit of my soul, not a core part of it, but… Mm, think of a soul as a fire, I guess. I scoop up a bit of the flame and directly use it to start a new fire, which makes up the core of the golem. Using my magic as fuel, I give them the spark to become what they are. At least, that’s probably the simplest way of explaining it.”

  She hummed for a moment… “Wouldn’t that make them your children, or something like that?”

  Her words took me by surprise. My chisel dug too deeply as I hammered it in, nearly ruining the soldier I was working on.

  “My children?” I asked, confused. I didn’t look at her, but I looked at the statue before me.

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  “Yes, I mean, you give a part of yourself to give them life, yes? Wouldn’t that make them your children in a way? Even if they’re not your flesh and blood.”

  That… was a good question…

  “I hadn’t considered that before.” The thought made me a bit uncomfortable. Yet, looking at the soldiers on patrol, at the captain standing beside the gate. I couldn’t help but notice something. Even as they moved in a uniform manner, there were small details I had missed.

  As they passed by each other, they would look at one another, it was a brief glance, but it was something. Subtle shifts in their bodies, and movements further proved that perhaps Diva was onto something.

  I thought back to Cobalt and his mannerisms. Information buried in my skull was pulled up and referenced. There was nothing refuting what Diva had said. Nor was there anything confirming what she had said.

  I looked at the statue before me. My hand reached to touch the rough stone. It really was rough, my hands, something I hadn’t noticed either were so soft, delicate. Normally I wore gloves, especially when fighting. Never had I taken the time to really examine them, even when I trim them or wash them.

  Staring at the unfinished soldier, I felt something in me shift. Something in my core shuddered. What could it be? A foreign emotion, a feeling, a kind of pride.

  “My children…” I muttered. Caressing the statues cheek for a moment longer before pulling back my hand and remembering... I remembered the ice soldiers. I remembered how they died, died at my command. Died to protect me.

  “Honestly… I don’t know what to think…” I spoke out, just loud enough for Diva to hear. “I think… if what your saying is true, wouldn’t that make me a bad parent? A bad… mother? Raising children just to fight for me? Giving them a life, just to take it away with a single command?

  Diva dithered for a moment. “I think… I think you’d make a good mother Prima.”

  “You don’t know me.” I answered calmly. Not accusingly.

  “No… But… I don’t think a person with such warm hands could ever be a bad person.”

  “Warm?” I questioned, further confused. Why is it everyone said I was warm? “I literally freeze the air around me, how am I warm?”

  “I don’t know… I mean, technically your right, but when you held my hand, it felt warm, almost hot.”

  I thought back to Grim embracing me, had she thought the same at the time? Then… I thought back to another moment, under the ice. Surrounded by cold, I didn’t feel numb, I felt warm, hot even. Like I was swaddled in a warm heated blanket. Being rocked gently to sleep.

  I didn’t say anything. I just went back to work. Diva said nothing more, though as our time went on, she began to sing. A low, somber song. It paired well with the shining moon and the night sky. And chased away the horrors that lurked in the dark, or so it felt.

  Never more have I desperately desired a drink. Though, I suppose that was becoming common at this point. At least I didn’t feel a desire for a cigarette. Small mercies.

  As the moon set, shifts changed. Diva went to sleep, and Ruth came out. We really didn’t talk. She went about, cleaning up the place with rags she found in a hidden recess behind another sliding door.

  Really, this place had all kinds of nooks and crannies, I could almost imagine s missing a whole room where a bowl of fruit was just waiting to be discovered, now long rotted away…

  When morning came, the sun peeking over the horizon, I paused my work to assist her with making breakfast. Food was eaten, and we briefly talked over breakfast.

  The invaders were still hanging on the periphery, having yet to even go past the cover of the bamboo groves.

  By evening, I had the next set of soldiers ready and made. The soldiers currently on the parade ground would need a while more to cook before getting ready, which meant.

  “Same drill as last time.” I said. Terra and Diva both were on the ramparts. As for the pit, Terra had put the finishing touches on it now, meaning I could actually finish my work.

  “Don’t worry we got your back.” Terra said and Diva nodded. Like yesterday, I worked my way down, though, this time I used the stone steps Terra hadn’t removed the night prior. Once down, I got to work.

  As evening rolled by and the sun began to set, I felt a pulse in the air. The next batch of soldiers was done.

  I didn’t hurry to get out of the pit, focusing instead on finishing what I could before climbing out with the aid of Terra and Diva. Coming out of the pit, I saw something odd.

  The soldiers were all off the rampart. None of them were doing patrols. Instead, they seemed to be having a standoff of sorts. The set aside spears had been taken, and the two captains were glaring each other down. I could feel my connection with them easily enough, but even then, I was having trouble understanding what I was seeing.

  Rather, less that I didn’t understand and more that I couldn’t comprehend what they were doing. After all, the captains were trying to determine who was in charge. My arrival had both parties immediately salute and tighten up their ranks. I looked over them, the soldiers made of stone and considered the discussion I had with Diva earlier in the day.

  In the end, did it matter? I hoped not.

  “You, patrol the ramparts. You, guard the courtyard.” I first pointed at the new captain, and at my command, they moved. Swiftly moving to guard the walls. The second captain, the senior here, was my next target. The gathered soldiers moved to patrol the compound, with a team standing by the gate headed by the captain, and the other three groups moving to secure the rest of the area.

  With help from Terra, I moved the new statues into their spot on the parade ground. Once settled, we went in and were greeted by finished food. The overall plan didn’t much change. We cleaned up, bathed and checked out for the night.

  The next day, I woke up early, this time with Terra.

  “Hey, Terra, mind helping me with something?”

  “Sure, I don’t mind. What did you need?” She answered back swiftly, very clearly bored.

  “Mind helping me combine some slabs together? I need more to work with if I’m going to make a silver rank.

  “Oh! That sounds fun!” And she really did have a blast with it. She pushed slabs together with a crack and essentially beat them together. More slabs made for a bigger piece, up until I was satisfied.

  “This good enough?”

  “Yeah, should be good.” It stood at nearly ten feet in height and was as wide as the front gate.

  “Planning on making something bigger then?”

  “Yeah, I might need a stool or something….”

  “I can make you one really quick, to be honest, I’m wondering why you made the others so short.”

  “Are they short?”

  “There about as tall as me…” She muttered.

  “I think they’re about five foot four, I think that’s fairly good.”

  “That’s the issue, sure, you made them muscular and thick, but so short. It’s weird, like, sure you’re rather tall for a woman Prima, with those long legs and arms of yours, but is there a reason you made them so short?”

  I was never really conscious about my height, but… was I really that tall? Sure, as a man I was a bit on the taller side, and I had definitely filled out after my training with my master. But… were my arms and legs so long?

  Why do I even care?

  “Don’t give me that look. You look fine, I didn’t mean to make you feel insecure.” Terra, as upfront as ever said, though, with a lot less energy.

  “I just never really thought about it.”

  “Really? I figured people would have made mention of it, you have good proportions. You ever do anything?”

  “Anything?” I started, I’m sure she meant as a hobby or anything. “Well, I do like to ice skate.”

  “Mhm, thought so.” She said as if answering an important question. “You should consider taking dance lessons or something, you might do well with a body like that.”

  I stared at Terra in confusion.

  “What?” She asked.

  “I’m a little confused. How would you know that and… you also seem a lot more subdued. Are you even the same girl that declared we’d definitely beat these invaders?” I asked the burning question I had.

  “Subdued, huh? Well, I suppose I am and was I wrong? I have a good feeling about our group.”

  “Well, if it matters, I feel the same. Even if I don’t think it’ll be easy.”

  “Right? Well anyway, since arriving in this city, I’ve been hanging around a lot of construction guys, real pervs they are. If you wore a sundress, I swear they’d be wolf whistling the moment you showed up.”

  She grinned as I blushed. “You can’t be serious? I mean, sure, I look alright, but that’s a bit much.”

  “Really? You walk and talk like a princess at times, every step measured and all. I think you’d be a real hit if you wore a dress.”

  I didn’t really know what to say to that.

  “As for me being subdued, well…” She clears her throat. “I’m not always like that, just when I get really nervous, yeah?”

  I stared at her.

  “What? I mean, yeah, I say some stupid stuff at times, and I may go a little overboard, but like…” Her voice was getting quieter. “To be honest, I thought I had to match your energy. First time I met ya was when you leapt down without any regard for your safety, right onto my flimsy earth spike just to get a go at the heart. I’d say you have balls of steel, but it’s clear ya don’t got any.”

  Again, I had no real response to that, but she was blushing up a storm.

  “Then you turn out to be cool and collected and I think, I gotta chill and all, so yeah…” She coughs. “Don’t mention this, yeah?”

  “Yeah, sure, I can do that. Though, I still don’t see why you had to act like you were crazy for so long.”

  She practically groaned at that. “No more talking alright!? I’m going to keep an eye out for any trouble. They still haven’t left the tree line, but we have no idea how long that’ll remain true.”

  Like so, she stomped off and sat on the ground just below the steps with her eyes closed and arms crossed over her chest.

  Watching the growing enigma before me for a moment longer, I choose to simply shrug and get to work.

  I worked and worked. Only to pause and make weapons for the final batch of soldiers around noon. By evening, the soldiers were done and this time, they were equipped with swords and shields. The patrols were altered, with the two spear captains taking the walls and the sword-wielding captain leading his unit to protect the courtyard. Making for a total of three units, each with twenty men and a captain.

  The next day continued in very much the same way. By evening, I managed to make progress on the potential silver rank. With another day having passed without trouble, I was almost surprised when Terra and Diva both announced after dinner…

  “They left the bamboo groves.”

  It appears, the event was heating up.