I burned with a fury I could not contain. My blood was up. I was an inferno of rage and bloodlust and fury. The blood in my arteries pulsed with a heat that was alien, terrible, and addictive. Three Griidlords, three Gods, had faced me with the advantage of surprise. Yet somehow, two lay dead at my feet. I stood drenched in their blood, and the third had fled in panic. I had done that. I had leveraged my experience, my raw power, my wealth. I had deployed every resource at the ends of my fingers to make this happen and it felt… there were no words. Exhilarating, life-affirming, thrilling. These words paled next to the intensity of the delight and victory. But it was spoiled, like vinegar in cream. Perdinger had escaped. I shook with the wanting to cut his limbs from his body, to drag him screaming back to Boston, a gift to Katya. I trembled with the want for that trophy, to stand before my city and say simply, here I am, your victor, your deserving god.

A voice cut through my senseless thrashing.

"How… how the hell did you do that?"

I turned. Olaf stood not ten yards distant, looking upon the scene. I turned to him. I was still too much more animal than man to form words. But he was unworried. He had no fear of the insipient madness that poured from me.

"Ti… you… even in the stories I don't know if anyone… holy shit, man. You killed two of them. How… how did you do that thing with your arm, when you blocked the Shield?"

I wanted to answer him. But he had opened the door to the rushing wind of reality, and as he did I felt awash with the need to act.

"Olaf. Shit. They have more Griidlords than they should. I don't know where they got them, but look. That's a suit from Cleveland. That's from New York."

He peered down at the wreckage that had only recently been living humans with living human wants and dreams.

He said, "Is this like an incident? Does this start a war?"

I hesitated only briefly.

"I don't think so. If New York and Cleveland have turned on us, then killing them won't really change that. No. I don't think they have. Why would they join the Green Men? No. I think…"

My mind flashed to a moment that felt like lifetimes ago. A boy leaving the arena, still in the game but filled with doubts and insecurities. The agent from the darkness, coming to warn him of the dangers of that voice that spoke to him in the suit. When I thought of it, I realized that it had not been a warning. It had not been counsel. Danefer had come to me to recruit me. He had come to Raquel to recruit her. How many more had he come to? Even if he had failed with us, there were thirty-two cities with five Griidlords each. There were one hundred sixty of us in all the lands. If he had whispered in the ear of every insecure child, if he had planted recruits in Choosings that were already loyal, if he had played his games with the politics of the cities, he could have many zealots that had been waiting for his summons. With Boston turned against him, with him so close to whatever strange dark rite he intended to perform, he could summon enough suits to swallow us.

I said, "We need to pull back."

Olaf said, "What? If we get out, then Fort Albany is lost."

I grew serious.

"If they have more suits, then the Fort already is lost. We have what, ten thousand irreplaceable soldiers and knights here? Their horde is fodder. They can burn through them and suck in more recruits to make up the difference. We need to think about the war, not the battle. We need to get out before we lose the forces we brought here."

Olaf rushed to me, visor staring at visor.

"Ti, if we pull back, they take the Fort and then they have access to every castle and village between here and Boston."

What he said chilled me.

"Retreating now might unleash a tsunami of murdering, raping, and pillaging on the land. But standing will only see the destruction of the army we brought with us, and then the tidal wave will sweep the land anyway. I hate it, Olaf. I really do. But we can't kill ourselves and our soldiers just because we wish it wasn't so."

Olaf trembled.

I said, "Your castle is in the path of the horde."

He nodded.

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I said, "It doesn't change anything. Fighting and dying here, and squandering the forces of the city, won't save your family lands. All it will do is kill us and still see them pillaged."

Olaf breathed, "But… how do we beat them if we let them through?"

I said, "All I know is we can't beat them here. Not if there are more suits out there. We can pull back to the city and do what Baltizar said. Wait for them to make their mistake. Break them on the walls of the city. Olaf, I love you. I know how hard this is for you. But the right decision isn't right because it satisfies your emotions. It's the right decision because it makes sense."

Olaf bunched in on himself. His shoulders folded in as he wrestled with his own intensity.

Then, of all times, Enki spoke to me.

Hey homie. What's the haps? Coated in the blood of your enemies I see. Boy howdy, do you like being coated in the blood of your enemies. Anyhoo, I need a favor.

Not now.

I know, I know. You're waging wars, wrestling with existential ideas, fighting the good fight… I know, blah blah. But the thing is, I have a problem, and I really need to do something about it.

Olaf spoke, splitting my attention. "Ti… I trust you. I think… I think I have to trust you. I don't think I can trust myself to make the right decision here."

I answered him. "Let's get back to the Southern formation and see what's happening. It's risking the Northern formation, but I don't want to be separated from you. If there are more suits coming, then we'll be stronger together. We'll assess and decide."

At the same time, I crafted my answer to Enki.

Whatever it is you want, it has to wait. I have war to fight.

It's a day's work. I need you. Pretty damn badly. I don't want to go talking about what a bad idea it is to cross me again… so why don't you just wrap things up here and muster your ass to my cause, yeah?

Olaf nodded solemnly, and we were moving, streaking back toward the Northern formation under the Footfield.

My own thoughts raced. I knew I couldn't let Enki bully me, not again. I had learned how bad an idea it was to cross him. But I could see the terrible danger that existed in bowing to his threats.

You can't lie.

That I cannot, good sir.

Does that mean you can't break a promise?

It hesitated.

I don't like where this is going at all.

Can you break a promise? Answer me. If you need me, then I want to help you, but I need something in return. Can you break a promise?

A sound or sensation not unlike a sigh vibrated through my consciousness.

No, I cannot break a promise. If I promise something, then I am bound to it just as I am to tell the truth.

But I bet you can play all sorts of word games to give yourself technical outs.

Enki practically cackled.

Oh shit. And can I. I can go to town with the little clauses and vague uncertainties. There was this one time when I promised to… wait, I shouldn't be telling you this.

It's nothing I didn't already know.

Alright, smartass, what the fuck are you asking for then? Hmmm? What do I have to give my best friend in this whole wide world just to get a simple favor, eh? Making our relationship transactional like this seems like pretty shitty best-friending if you ask me.

We released our fields as we returned to the slope. Already things were not as I would have hoped.

A throng of Green Men were fighting their way up the incline. The Boston forces were better armed, better trained, better disciplined. Lord Darkwater rode the lines, shouting orders. The Green Men poured up the hill, fighting the slope, chewing themselves up under the blades and arrows of our forces. Even this deployment of the brutes outnumbered us two to one. And the simple fact that they had come so close so quickly meant there was at least one suit present to ferry them here.

Olaf said, "Shit, they're just throwing them away."

I said, "They can afford to. The Green Men are a mob. It took us years to make each soldier here. It took them a slogan and desperation to make each man that dies coming up the hill. This is what, a third of the real fighting force of the city? If they can take this now, even if it costs them forty thousand men, then it will be worth it. They can cripple us with an engagement like this. The most we can do is trim their overgrowth."

So what is it then? Kiddo, you gotta understand, I need this shit sorted out. I'm fucking dying here. I know we've had our differences, but we've had our good times too. You're all lubed up with the blood of the vanquished. If I could squeeze you all nice and jack you off into oblivion, I'd do it. But that's not a course that's available to me right now. So you gotta tell me, what's it gonna take?

The Green Men were flailing as they pushed their way up the hill. They were being thrown into the grinder. I marvelled at the passion that would be needed to keep them coming, to keep them from breaking and routing. Still, our soldiers died. It might have taken three, or four, or ten of theirs to take one of ours, but every man pulled down was one lost for the war.

Olaf said, "We could charge their flank, together. If we both hit them, they'd break. With the losses they're taking…"

I said, "Unless they have suits hidden in that mess. A Griidlord had to bring them here for them to engage so quickly. What if there's an ambush waiting?"

Olaf said, "Their last ambush is painted all over you. We'll be okay."

I hesitated, trying to weigh up the decisions we needed to make.

But as I paused, a horn blew. A wedge-shaped formation of mounted soldiers surged down the hill. I could see Lance at their lead. I cursed.

"Shit. That's two hundred knights. We can't lose them. They're worth almost as much as the rest of the formation together."

But the decision was wrestled from my hands. The wedge crashed into the Green Man lines, grinding bodies into fine meat pastes. We couldn't disengage while they were entangled. As irreplaceable as our soldiers were, the knights, with their lifetimes of training and priceless relics, were more precious still.

Even as I hovered on the precipice of decision, Enki spoke again, insistent and impatient.

If we're going to deal, then let's deal. What the fuck do you want from me, kiddo?

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