FOC - Uleni's Gamble 03

They never spoke, but they reached their bliss two more times, piercing green and light brown eyes locked together. Sara clearly enjoyed the watching as much as she had enjoyed the showing, before Justin woke and filled her mouth with his seed...

Chapter 10

Justin quickly realized his plan to spend time with the family for two days was naïve. Apparently the soldiers were having trouble figuring out how to use the sights, so he was on a field, giving a class to a hundred men at a time on how to aim. They made some targets and gave everyone five practice shots from fifty yards out.

If they could hit the target consistently in the same spot, he would zero their sights for precise shooting and set up sniper teams, at the end of the day there were only a handful of those. If they hit the target, but all over, he just gave them a pass. Most of the soldiers fell into that category, but about five percent couldn't aim at the ground and hit it, so those went back to bows and arrows for distance shooting.

He spent ten hours, thirty minutes per class, which was only about a third of the soldiers at the end of the day. Luckily Nora had started a second class when he got his third group, so they should have them all finished by noon tomorrow. He felt kind of stupid about it actually, handing out weapons and not teaching people how to aim, squeeze the trigger, or hold their breath halfway through an exhale.

Still, they were getting it done. When they got to the first ambush point at the border, they might even have time for more training, he was kind of rushing things so they wouldn't be caught unprepared. The last thing he wanted was to go down there and find burned out villages.

They were all invited to dinner with the king and prince Anton. So after Sally got them all cleaned up they got dressed and followed Nicole to the dining room. Despite taking a leadership role the last few days, only because he knew how non-magic wars were fought, he felt distinctly uncomfortable as everyone stared at them when they came in.

Apparently this wouldn't be a little dinner with the king, it was crowded with people. He could almost hear Nora's voice in his head telling him to get the fuck over it as they were led to the head table and seated at the king's table. He tried to maintain at least a neutral body language, he was afraid if he tried to smile he would grimace, there seemed to be a lot of whispering and sidelong glances at him and the ladies with him.

A few minutes later the king was announced and everyone stood, he appeared in good spirits as he came in from the other doors and made his way to his seat. Once the king sat everyone followed suite and the servers started bringing out the first course. He had been expecting a speech or something, and felt a little relieved, of course he didn't know the tradition... maybe that would come later?

That didn't help his nerves, but it was just a dinner after all, not too dangerous. He followed the conversations going on around him as best he could. He wished someone had bothered to tell him about this, at the least he would feel more prepared. Once dinner was finished the king stood and cleared his throat.

"Tonight's feast has been in honor of the return of your princess, and our guest of honor the Flame of Cytherea. They, along with the others at this table, have done much to keep Abelaweth safe over the past weeks. Despite this new threat, we know they will continue to keep us safe from our enemies, both mortal and otherwise."

The nobles and other guests started to clap. Some looked heartfelt about it, and others merely polite. The king walked over to Nicole, and escorted her out into the empty area. He groaned under his breath when a lute and some pipes started playing and the king led Nicole in an upbeat dance. After the first song, many others got up and started dancing in a celebratory way.

He was worried about two things; he had yet to meet the enemy in battle. Although he thought his plans were good, he was aware the enemy usually did something unexpected. It was a lot of pressure and he had been trying not to focus on it too much and just do what needed to be done. The king's speech kind of brought all that to the fore.

The second thing he was worried about was he had no idea how to dance...

---

Nora grinned at the weak look on Justin's face, and dragged him out of the chair. She wondered how dance had never come up between the five of his mates, but she pulled him out onto the dance floor and taught him the basic steps. He was a little stiff at first, but loosened up by the second song. Actually, he was kind of terrible at it, and she felt guilty, dance just hadn't ever come up and she would have to rectify that when they got a chance.

The air bullets he had showed them made her feel a bit better about protecting him, she didn't even really need one of those rifle things, she could control the direction until the last ten feet shooting one from her palm. She just had to carry enough so she wouldn't run out of ammunition, something she had never had to be concerned about before.

She also started to make sure she had real weapons on her, two long daggers. She was pretty decent with weapons, but wasn't really happy with her current level of skill without her magic, and had spent a little time in practice with Trina.

Trina had seemed to be making more of an effort to get to know her lately, and she was undisputedly the best with weapons in the group without any magical assistance. She thought Trina might even be better than Justin was. What disturbed her most is none of them would really have a chance against Riese if he closed in. They had to kill him from a distance.

She snickered when she saw Nicole walking up, apparently the bedroom wasn't the only place Justin would need stamina to keep up with the five of them. She turned him over to Nicole and grabbed Sally for a dance, she didn't want to sit down yet either...

---

Nicole felt guilty and took Justin back to the table after just one dance. His uncoordinated dancing was really her and the other ladies fault, no one had even thought about it though. Her dad was sweet, and had meant this as a surprise welcome back, but as a result they had no chance to introduce the customs for a royal feast to Justin.

"Would you like to dance?"

She turned and saw her brother there, a big smile on his face. She looked guiltily at Justin and he just said she should go and enjoy herself. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, then turned and let her brother lead her onto the dance floor.

She was having a good time, and the day after tomorrow they would be heading off to war, so she decided to just enjoy herself. They could teach Justin for next time...

---

Sally begged off after the fourth song and went back to the table. She was out of breath. She saw Kat trying to teach Justin how to dance on the side of the dance floor. She had to admit he was already getting better although he had a long way to go. Trina and Sara were dancing, and seemed to be having a good time of it.

Trina had surprised her earlier, offering to help her blade work when she had come across Nora and Trina sparring. She had accepted, simply to get to know the woman better. She was awful with blades. Luckily she would be able to attack with magic from above in another form. Justin had suggested storms, but she was wondering if she could launch stone spears from the ground.

Unlike the fire and air, when the magic was cancelled, the stone would hold together, and it would have plenty of momentum behind it to impale a soldier. She had also been considering other possibilities, but none seemed as promising. A lightning storm was a good strong attack, but it took time and a lot of effort.

She gasped as she felt it come into existence. A new talent. Nicole was pregnant. She was taken aback by how powerful the talent felt already, and examined it. It was complicated, and she wasn't entirely sure, but she thought it may be a dragon shape shifter. She wondered if that meant anything, that talent hadn't been given to the royal family in a few generations.

Did Cytherea see something coming that required that talent? She thought two gods should be enough to deal with in one lifetime, didn't they deserve peace for a couple of hundred years maybe? She grinned. Maybe not, that sounded boring.

What made dragons so powerful was not only their changed form. They had a multitude of natural talents, in addition to being mages so they could develop others as well. She dismissed her worried thoughts, this should be celebrated. She got up and went to Nicole to do just that.

---

Justin was a bit overwhelmed finding out another of his mates were pregnant. They started their own celebration back in the rooms, just spending time with each other. As the night wore on, Nicole took him quite firmly by the hand and pulled him away for a private little celebration between the two of them in the second bedroom.

He was pretty much over the stress of the dinner and dancing by the time Nicole was done with him and they joined the others for sleep...

The next day he and Nora finished the rifle training. He was looking forward to their last afternoon with his family before leaving. Of course, that didn't happen, Ross showed up right after lunch with a large contingent of mages to learn how to fight this new enemy.

The king asked him to join their new guests to keep an eye on things. Which was reasonable, eight mages could do a lot of damage if they decided to betray them and he wasn't around to suppress their talents.

Instead of a second contingent for a peace treaty, the actual mage who was crowned the new king of Uleni, Luis, was there. Things didn't get off to a good start when he and his mates greeted him with the king.

King Luis turned red and said in outrage, "You dare greet me with a witch present!"

He said with a bit of steel in his voice, "You are not in your kingdom, here she is my honored mate, do not press me on this point."

The king was a bit more diplomatic as he added, "Please, come with me and we can discuss peace between our lands. The Flame of Cytherea and his mates will be showing your mages around and getting them trained."

Luis frowned and said, "My mages will not learn from a witch."

He rolled his eyes and prayed to Cytherea for patience. Sometimes he wondered about the stupidity of not seeing women as equals on his new world, but to be fair, his world was just as bad, if not worse in the middle ages. There were still many countries as well that considered woman chattel to this day.

He said carefully, "They will not be, we are here to simply escort them to the mages that will teach them."

He carefully left out the fact those mages were trained by Nora and Sally, he didn't think it a good idea to mention it. He thought Luis might decide the knowledge was tainted or something equally stupid.

Luis finally blew out a breath and nodded. Apparently they wanted the knowledge and peace badly enough to overcome whatever prejudice was there, or at least temporarily set it aside. He knew that was probably more to do with them fearing he would invade at the head of an army, and take their kingdom. He could do it after all, not that he ever would, but they were judging him by their morals. He admitted he did kind of bully them to get them here.

Sally took his hand as they walked and gave him an intense look. He wasn't sure if she wanted to slap him or jump him for the way he defended her. Women were strange that way sometimes, they could go either way. He was hoping for the latter.

The afternoon went slowly while they showed all the different ways they were using to fight magically from a distance with non magical damage and projectiles. They were a little arrogant and condescending toward his mates, but they stopped short of insults, so he sighed and put up with it.

At the end of the day, they left with the promise one mage and Luis would come back tomorrow to continue discussing the treaty. Apparently one of them was a travel mage, because they all disappeared shortly after.

The other mages had learned what they needed and wouldn't be back. They retired to their rooms and took dinner in their suite and packed for the trip. It would be a long travel day tomorrow, which wasn't a bad thing, he would finally have time for his mates during the day as they walked. There hadn't really been enough time with just evenings and nights free the last few days.

---

Cytherea sighed deeply. She could feel Ares attempt to break through the protections she had put up around her realm. He had come back to her twice and spouted off his arrogant vitriol before she had enough and banished him. Now he couldn't even get in. She shook her head and hoped she had never been that bad, though she thought she probably had been.

The best comparison she could come up with was that he was a petty spoiled brat who wanted to break her toys because she wouldn't play with him. It was ridiculous.

She had faith in Justin, believed he would defeat the army and Riese. She wasn't sure about the anchor yet, the talent she had given him, and the other Flames from the past, was more about burning out the darkness, and cutting off the entrance from another universe.

He may not be able to do the same with the other anchor, she wasn't really sure. To be more exact, she wasn't sure if she would be able to break it through him. Ares was strong, and he had his own world and followers to draw strength from.

She felt a presence appear behind her and said, "Hello father."

She knew he would not be able to help her, but she still drew strength from his presence, she would not give up the world she loved without a fight...

---

Riese left the capitol of Egeria with four thousand troops at his back. He guessed he would have close to seven thousand in total when they reached the camp by the border. He turned and smirked, a number of them had a woman thrown over their shoulders. They would need camp followers.

There was another reason for it though, one he hadn't foreseen. After a week on the road he had gotten rather rank. Without magic, they would have to come up with other ways to stay clean and keep the camp sanitary. Right now, they had women for that with cleaning talents, but once he forced the normal citizens to convert, they would no longer have that ability, so it was a stopgap measure at best.

He hated to waste his time on such a thing, but he knew it was important, a disease could take half his army out of action. He wasn't worried about the actual fighting, he had seven thousand which was more than what Abelaweth currently had available, and they would be crippled fighting without magic.

The capitol itself had gone easier than he had imagined, he took the time to hold a small one day tournament, and put the best warrior on the throne there. Any mages that hadn't sided with him and his god had been put to death, so his new puppet king shouldn't have any problems.

He did have a twinge of doubt, without magic it would be much harder to spy, so he really had no idea what the enemy was planning. He wasn't too worried, the Flame had been helpless before him, as had his witch and the other bitches that surrounded him. He couldn't wait to get his hands on them and get his revenge from his embarrassing loss of a huge invasion force.

He wouldn't have to wait too much longer, once the training was done, the world would tremble at his coming and the people would turn against their goddess and her worthless Flame... Then, he could finally get his revenge...

---

Sara was more than happy about what happened the other day. She had finally slept with him, and since then she just wanted more. She was insatiable. She was also surprised at how turned on she had been watching Katrina pleasure him later that same night.

She was not completely over things yet, she might never be, the second time they were together she had pulled him on top of her, then immediately panicked as she felt trapped. Still, she was getting better, and once she calmed down she had taken the top again.

They had been walking south for a few hours when Justin joined her. She could still hardly believe he would want her, after all that had happened, but was assured by the love coming from him.

She took his hand and squeezed it, then said, "I think I am going to be mostly useless this time around. My talent can't be used indirectly and I'd be more liable to stab myself than an enemy if I had a weapon."

He smiled at her and said, "Actually I wanted you to do something for me, if you don't feel uncomfortable about it?"

She smiled, "What?"

He talked low so only she would hear, "All of these new weapons and ideas will work great against those with no magic, but for someone with magic it would be incredibly easy to sabotage. If you could keep an eye out with your talent? I don't think anyone would betray us, but I can't put everyone's life on the line on that assumption."

She frowned, she hadn't considered that, but a mage or air talent could mess with the enchanted bullets, or an earth talent could destroy all their weapons given a minute or so.

She nodded uncomfortably. She hated to think anyone might do something like that, but had to admit it was possible. Plus, it would make her feel useful.

"Yeah, I can do that, maybe..."

He grinned, "What will it cost me?"

Her smile was half bashful and half brazen as she said, "Some nice soft rope, for later..."

He just laughed and nodded. She had been mostly joking and trying to flirt with him, something she still found hard to do, but she was almost positive from his feelings he would actually do it.

They talked for another hour or so about things before he headed off to one of his mates. Then she found Trina by her side and smiled...

---

Trina was getting a workout. She was half hearted at best when she offered more conventional weapon training with Justin's mates as part of her plan to change. She had no idea what a blast it would be. The idea being not using magic, she was also finding it somewhat of a challenge. She had honed her instincts and reactions to what her talent told her. She was still very good working off just sight and sound, but it was an adjustment as well.

For instance, Katrina couldn't get close to her with the blade, but without her talent she hadn't seen the kicks coming until it was too late to dodge the first few times. She still hadn't lost though, taking a kick to the face or not.

She sighed as the temporary camp broke down after lunch, and they started marching south again.

---

Justin couldn't have been happier as he caught up with all his mates on what they had been up to over the last few days while he was busy training soldiers. Relationships took work, and he hated when he didn't have the time for it. He hoped once this was handled the largest emergency would be healing broken bones. He didn't get nearly a long enough break after the original Egerian invasion before this new crisis hit.

He didn't mind the effort he had to put into his relationships, as effort went, spending time with his mates could be barely categorized as such. If he begrudged anything it was the time he was forced to spend apart.

They moved quickly the first three days, although not at a run. It took them five days to get down to the border before they could start preparing their defenses. He thought they would do well, but he was worried about the villages if they did not. He talked Anton into sending out four squads with an earth talent to help protect the villages, raise walls around them and such at the least.

He was under no illusions though, if the enemy caused them to fall back, flee, or worst case destroyed them, the walls would slow them at best. Still, he didn't think it would hurt. It would also give the villagers a chance to flee north temporarily if they knew what might be coming. He sighed. Military strategy dictated you don't leave a force behind you, but he knew Riese was more than a little unbalanced.