Chapter 13 The Edge of War
Darius crouched low behind the shattered remains of a massive siege tower as another explosion rumbled across the scarred plain. Dust and fine ash drifted through the air like gray snow, settling on everything in sight.
"This is not a battlefield," he said quietly, eyes scanning the endless stretch of ruined land. "This is a wound that has refused to close for sixty years."
Mara stood beside him, her infected gold eyes taking in the devastation with unnatural stillness. Abandoned siege engines lay toppled like broken skeletons of giants. Bodies, some reduced to bones, others still fresh enough to draw flies, littered the ground in careless heaps. No one bothered to bury the dead anymore.
"They fight, retreat, regroup, and fight again," Mara said. "Day after day. For sixty years straight. Veth keeps the cycle alive. She grows bored the moment one side gains real victory."
Darius studied the patterns hidden inside the chaos. "Look at the troop movements over there. See how the western ridge always funnels soldiers into the same kill zone? It is not random destruction. It is a system. Someone is maintaining this endless loop on purpose."
Mara tilted her head slightly. "You look at endless war and see something like your old trade ledgers."
"Everything has a pattern if you watch long enough," Darius replied. He pointed toward a distant column of weary soldiers marching under faded banners. "They attack at dawn, lose half their men by noon, pull back by dusk, then repeat the same thing tomorrow. No side wins. No side leaves. Perfect, deliberate exhaustion."
A small patrol marched dangerously close to their hiding position. Darius pulled Mara down lower behind the broken stones. The soldiers passed by without noticing them, their faces hollow and empty, armor dented and covered in old blood.
One soldier muttered to his companion, "Another day, another slaughter. When will that damned goddess finally get bored of this?"
His companion spat on the blackened ground. "Never. She thrives on it. Lives for the noise and the blood. We are all just pieces in her game."
Mara's voice carried a rare note of disapproval. "This place is excessive. Even for me. War should serve a purpose. Conquest. Defense. Something. This is just endless noise without meaning."
Darius nodded as they waited for the patrol to move farther away. "That is exactly why Veth will be difficult. She does not want a husband. She wants a fight worth her time. Something new. Something that actually challenges her."
He stood slowly once the soldiers disappeared over a ridge. "We need to reach the central Marriage Ground without getting dragged into one of these pointless cycles. The ground itself feels tired."
They continued moving carefully along the edges of the scarred terrain. The earth was cracked and blackened from years of magic, fire, and endless bloodshed. Broken banners from both sides fluttered weakly in the dry wind, their colors long faded and meaningless now.
"You study all this death like it is a puzzle to solve," Mara observed, keeping pace with him. "Most men would see only madness and run as far as they could."
"Running blindly here gets you killed faster than anything," Darius said. "I need to understand the rhythm first. When they attack heaviest. When they rest. Where the safe gaps are. The Marriage Ground sits somewhere in the middle of all this madness."
Mara walked closer to his side. "Veth will test you much harder than I did. She expects dominance through combat. Glory in battle. Blood on the blade. You will offer her tea and calm conversation instead."
Darius allowed himself a small, dry smile. "It worked once. Might work again. Or it might fail completely. Either way, we adapt to whatever she throws at us."
Another heavy explosion rocked the ground ahead of them, much closer this time. A powerful shockwave rolled across the plain, strong enough to rattle loose stones around their feet and make the broken siege engines groan. Darius steadied himself against a crumbling wall.
Mara suddenly paused, her expression shifting into something more alert. "She knows we’re here."
Darius looked out toward the heart of the never-ending battlefield where fresh columns of soldiers were beginning to form. "Good. That saves us the trouble of announcing ourselves."
In the distance, war horns began to echo across the scarred landscape. Armies stirring once more. Another cycle of pointless death was beginning. Bodies remained unburied. Engines of war stood abandoned and broken. And somewhere deep in the center of it all, Veth waited.
Darius adjusted his pack and studied the movements again. "We move toward the center. Carefully. I want to observe one full cycle before we commit to anything big."
Mara fell into step beside him without question. "You truly believe you can negotiate with War herself?"
"I believe I can try," Darius replied. "Everything has a pattern. Even her."
The ground trembled again beneath their feet as fresh clashes erupted louder in the distance. The air itself carried the heavy smell of smoke, blood, and old magic. Darius and Mara pressed forward into Veth’s domain, two small figures against the vast machinery of a war that had no end.