Soul Between Lives

Zeus tossed and turned in his bed. He kept thinking about the risk that Persephone would say too much about Alex's origins. His eyes wouldn't stay shut and his heartbeat noticeably shook the bed.

"Maybe I should just send him to Tartarus after all." He started getting out of bed but stopped. "Lucius is a sharp man but he's kept secrets for me before, so there shouldn't be a problem." Zeus squeezed his eyes shut, "What about others?"

He sat there on the edge of his bed weighing his options. "Ah h*ll!"

Zeus flopped back down and dug his head into the pillow before relaxing with a sigh.

"Even if there are problems later, I'll just deal with it then." Zeus rolled onto his side to face away from the light entering through the window.

Zeus doesn't do it often, but sometimes voicing thoughts out loud makes them more obedient inside the mind. The servant hiding just outside the room waited until they heard him start snoring before they left to make a report.

...

Alex watched as Lucius arranged rocks of similar color together into squares and columns as he drew in the sand. Most of the shell fragments were still white but many had absorbed blood stains or had odd patterns that distinguished them.

Lucius tapped on the rocks in the shape of a square, "This is called a square formation for obvious reasons. This basic military formation is useful against cavalry charges. Its uses are many, but more on that another time." Lucius tapped on the rectangular shape of rocks, "This is called a column formation. It is the easiest way to move men along narrow roads while keeping them together so they can reform into a more defensive formation quicker."

"Formations are powerful when soldiers combine and act with a single will, which is not an easy thing to accomplish even for veterans. It is far harder for gods and demigods to act cohesively, not only physically but also combining their will toward the same goal than it is for an individual to act alone."

Alex frowned and nodded, "That makes sense. Working with others to get a school project done was always more of a chore than doing everything myself."

"Indeed, I bet nobody did anything until someone took charge." Lucius put his two index fingers together and wiggled his other fingers, "Its similar when moving as a cohesive unit. Someone has to be a leader and the rest all have to agree and share the same will. This already puts them at a great disadvantage against stronger gods that can act alone and against larger formations of stronger demigods but it still gives them a chance to survive if they can work together better than their foes. Any questions so far?"

Alex hesitated, "If it's more difficult, why do it?"

Lucius quirked the corner of his mouth, "What would you do if you had to fight a stronger god?"

"I'd probably die if I couldn't get away."

Lucius nodded trying not to smile. "Yes, if you couldn't run away or hide from them, you probably would. Or you'd end up as a battery for them or something worse."

Alex frowned again, "What do you mean by battery? Are you talking about like in the Matrix where they kept you alive to use your body heat as a source of power?"

Lucius slowly opened his mouth and closed it again before answering. "Have you already seen such a thing before?"

"Yeah, it was in a movie back on Earth. The first one was the best one."

"I see," Lucius dragged his finger back and forth in the sand as he looked at Alex, "These movies are like plays right?"

"Yeah, except you watch them on a screen or TV instead of a stage."

Lucius looked at the ground, "Hmm, so you've already been warned about the danger of being captured alive by your enemies."

[Is he saying the Matrix is real?]

["It would seem so, but probably not in the way the movie makes it out to be."]

"Since you are aware of one of the risks of defeat," Lucius drew a circle with stick figures inside as he talked, "What if you had to defend a whole city full or your people that couldn't run or hide from a stronger god?" Lucius asked as he tapped around the stick figures.

Alex looked down so he wasn't making eye contact. "I know the moral thing to do would be to defend them but," Alex shook his head.

Lucius nodded, "Most people are tempted to run if they can, it is a natural and understandable reaction. But a soldier must stand and fight to protect his people and especially his family if he's lucky enough to have one." Lucius pointed at the squares and columns he drew before, "The way we came up with to allow weaker soldiers to face stronger gods is exactly what I was talking about before. Standing in a formation with others and combining their power. I'm going over this and repeating myself so much because it is that important for you to understand Alex."

"Isn't this a little advanced for me?" Alex shuddered, "Am I going to be sent on the frontlines?"

Lucius clapped him on the back of the shoulder, "You are Zeus's attendant. You may very well be expected to lead men into battle once you're strong enough."

Lucius tapped on a square of rocks, "It is a basic tactic to use formations of demigods to distract and exhaust powerful enemy gods until slightly weaker allied gods can overpower them." Lucius swept his hand around gesturing to unseen lands and people, "You will see this tactic used all across the god commons. Not everyone can become a powerful god overnight but they can learn, to work, together."

Alex slightly leaned away from the rocks in front of him, "What if I'm never ready?"

Lucius looked at Alex with a serious expression, "It's my job to make you ready. Even if you spend your whole existence running away from trouble, there will be a time when you have to fight."

Alex looked at the rocks as his face lost its vitality.

"Let's flip the situation a little. Say, if our formation was to attack another god's city," Lucius tapped on the rocks in the column formation, "The enemy gods would have to send their own armies out to counter our attack or do all the work themselves. Forcing a stronger god to use up their power is one way to weaken them."

Lucius was drawing lines and symbols in the sand around the rocks. ["He's drawing numbers next to the military formations."] Angel explained.

"This also goes the other way. One way many gods exhaust their power is by trying to reinforce friendly formations so they aren't all killed by a single enemy god. Fighting over formations has become another battlefield for gods of similar power and abilities. Its become common practice to include weak or moderately powerful gods in formations of demigods so they all stand a chance."

Lucius drew a circle around the column of rocks and added to the numbers drawn next to it, "This makes the formation benefit from the god's added strength and the god benefits by having more support where they would otherwise be crushed by a more powerful or more skillful enemy."

He picked up a darker rock and dropped it into the clump, "There are also times where stronger gods will exhaust most of their power and need to take refuge while they recover. Formations of friendly soldiers can provide safer havens than just sitting alone on the battlefield. Without formations and armies of demigods, a powerful god, such as Zeus, would have to destroy all the enemy formations and deal with the enemy gods all by themselves, which is likely to exhaust them and lead to their demise. So there are many reasons that make formations of weaker soldiers important even for the strongest gods."

["I'll review it all with you later."]

Alex felt like he was back in school, trying not to fall asleep in front of the teacher. Information overload was something that didn't happen often after you graduated and entered the workforce.

["You'll have to exercise your brain and get it back into shape."] Angel laughed.

Lucius stood and brushed pebbles off his hands. "Right then, that was quite the side topic. Now I think it's time to teach you how to feel and use your power."

Lucius understood that Alex probably didn't even know how to sense the power inside himself yet, but he had something up his sleeves. He pulled out an orb.

Alex took a few steps back and looked for the room's exit.

Lucius frowned, "What's wrong? Haven't you seen one of these before?"

"Yes! I have! And I never want to see one again!" The edges of his eyelids turned red from stress.

Lucius blinked his widened eyes at Alex's vehemence. [What the h*ll? Just what happened to the boy for him to react like this?] He closed his hanging mouth and wet his tongue. "I don't know what happened to you before, but relax, I'm only going to send you into a lower realm training space." Lucius lowered his arm holding the orb and tried to give a friendly smile. "I'll be watching over you so don't worry."

**

***Leilatha***

**

****

There was so much noise all around her, but she couldn't open her eyes. Leilatha tried to raise her arm but it refused to obey her will as it flopped around and repeatedly banged into her side. The arms carrying her now dug into her, they weren't Perin's. Perin's arms were tender but firm and steady. He held her close and warmth suffused her as she listened to his strong and constant heartbeat. Leilatha was jostled again in the arms that weren't Perin's.

The mercilessly cold rain constantly washed away her warm tears. It soaked through her clothes and skin. The merciful oblivion of sleep refused to find her. She wanted to wake up and find that everything was just a bad dream, that it didn't really happen. She remembered Perin's smiling face, she wanted him to smile at her again. She felt his kiss and her lips quivered. Her searing heart would not stop tearing apart with every beat.

Her lifeless sobs were never heard. Her feeble stomach couldn't even convulse. Only her tears were strong enough to run away. Perin had been her closest companion even before she left her mother goddess. There was nobody that could replace him in her life. If only she was strong enough to keep him from sacrificing his life for her.

"Make way! Make way for Lady Leilatha!" The wind runners up ahead were yelling in a vain attempt to clear the road of obstructing bodies. There were still so many people trying to flee from the city and at every intersection they clumped together making progress slower and more hazardous.

The wind runner carrying Leilatha jumped over a few people that were unfortunate enough to be trampled by the crowd. Under normal circ.u.mstances, they would do everything they could to save these people but Leilatha was their top priority. Without her, there would be no kingdom.

Behind them, they could hear sounds of fiery explosions and collapsing houses. Even over the din of the storm they still heard the cries of agony from those being burnt to death by Viram's pursuing clone. This put more fear and urgency into the packed groups of civilians trying to get away.

One of the leading wind runners dropped back and spoke with the one holding Leilatha. "We can push our way through or we can try our luck by going higher into the storm and over the buildings."

"I don't have much power to spare. It's taking everything I've got just to shield our Lady and keep moving."

The first wind runner grimaced, "We'll push our way through then." He nodded to the other wind runners up ahead and they began making a path through the fumbling, shrieking crowd that was blocking up the path to the outside gate.

The wind runners didn't look back after forcing their way through. Outside the gate, they saw masses of people being further funneled by grooves cut into the ground by the initial flood of water. This of course further slowed progress at the gate. There were a number of citizens trying to flatten out the land again but it was rushed and crowded work. They stood a good chance of being trampled before their work was even done.

There were various community leaders shouting orders above the din of the storm and the crowd. Their attempts to organize teams to clear away obstacles was limited to those within arms reach but it helped. It was a real struggle to get through but the wind runners had to keep moving. As they forced their way through, they stepped over small rifts in the ground that were filled in with the burnt bodies of the first victims that were washed away.

The wind runner holding Leilatha was glad the Lady wasn't awake to see what was happening to her people. He had been on the rooftops spreading the evacuation orders when the horde started burning everything. He had seen how the wooden gates of the city were set on fire and used as a barricade to keep people from escaping. He had seen it when a demon had landed in the midst of a crowded square and just exploded its fire all around at knee height. The creature had reveled in the screams of helpless agony as its victims burned to death on top of each other.

He glanced down at his charge, [Leilatha's storm may have killed many of her own people, but I wish it had descended sooner.]

The leading wind runners broke away from the crowd and halted. Even outside the city, it was impossible to see very far but just at the wild forest's edge, they could discern the outlines of a wall of unmoving people.