The things Celestine and I agreed and disagreed upon were interesting at times.

For example, I largely agreed with my sister when it came to the strengths of compassion and mercy. That such things were a sign of strength. The strong could afford forgiveness because they were mighty. The problem was, not only was that not how many people viewed it. Not terrible people would outright exploit compassion and mercy for their own benefit.

As far as I was concerned, that was the ultimate form of weakness. Exploiting those willing to show compassion and show mercy for selfish, if not outright disastrous, benefit. It was a weakness that was best recognized for what it was and removed at all costs. Though Celestine did look down on such exploiters, she didn't have a good way to deal with them.

Really, such people were largely the same exploitive slavers that I'd been dealing with for decades. They would beg for mercy, despite not having any. Between their egos and their connections, they thought they would be able to get away with it, dodge the consequences.

Those had become less and less over the years. Celestine may have been known for her compassion and mercy, myself? My compassion and mercy went to the deserving. The victims.

That was what was known about me. I didn't even have a scrap of Celestine's power. The only person who could even come close to matching her magically was Olga. Olga was strong enough to afford the same mercy my sister did, and she simply didn't. Me? Pretty much every other person in Eostia?

We didn't have that type of strength.

Of course, the average person in Estonia wasn't a slaver, or one of Olga's monsters, either. We could show compassion to our fellow citizens. And the people of Geofu? They were anything but weak, at the end of the day.

A bit stubborn and bull-headed at times, but that was a strength of its own.

Of course, I couldn't quite put things as bluntly. I may not have liked the game of politics, but I could still play it. I just didn't choose to do so most of the time. But when I had to? Yeah, I could play the game. When it came down to being an orator, Celestine was superior to me in every way.

Left her a hard act to follow. But as the reincarnation of the Goddess, she would speak first. Such was only right and proper.

But more than a few stood and clapped after I gave my speech. Most of them were young, and I could see some rolling their eyes. But it was a greater success than not.

The diplomatic mission to Rad had an additional stop. Two, possibly. The first was Ken. When it came to my military reforms, Ken, and by extension, Grave Levantine, as well as many nobles in his faction, were among the greatest pushers for such reforms.

Feoh and Ur were among the other two largest groups among the backers for this push. Given they were the two closest to Garan, and the first targets whenever the nation gathered its forces in mass? Being able to have resources to rebuild the full extent of their forces, instead of relying as heavily upon mercenaries as much.

Rad was fully supporting, though that was because rebuilding a united force made the country more money. A price needed to be paid when it came to armor and weapons, and Rad itself was far from any major Frontline, and was as close to centrally located and having the base in smiting to create such arms in mass.

Thorn and Geofu had discord between various factions, but Thorn was largely ambivalent, while Geofu was largely pacified by my sister's backing.

Ansur was the largest problem. I'd say that mercenaries had an outside influence on the nation. But saying that would be an understatement, as would saying that Olga could beat me in a popularity contest in the nation.

I'd lambast them for their shortsightedness, but I'd made no secret that I was coming for their jobs as they knew them. It didn't help that a far more stable income had its appeal, especially for the same, dangerous work that it was.

I couldn't get rid of mercenaries in their entirety. I'd love to do so, but the political realities made doing so an impossible task. That, and they did have a role to play. As much as I'd like for our forces to respond to every problem, it simply wasn't fesabile. But some forces were starting to amass forces superior in number to some proper army groups.

Again, it was only a matter of time before someone with the charisma started having ideas. And I'd rather head off the people with likely unpleasant intentions off at the pass. My sister and I may not have seen eye to eye when it came to securing her vision.

But her vision of the world was something I believed in. It was a good, peaceful vision. The world deserved to have that peace. And I wanted to make sure that dream came true. No matter what.

I wouldn't call my travel procession light by any means. Excluding my own people, we had about a dozen guards. Including my own? It came closer to three. Even if you wouldn't know it. What? The only reason the results of my efforts weren't quiet was that cases needed to be made.

It helped that this area had been vigorously cleaned of monsters during the winter months. They tended to stay in their dens and lairs, especially those without much in the way of fat. Even orcs made themselves scarce during colder months.

It wasn't possible to get them all, and this far south they were a bit more active. When they got this far south, which was not too frequently. Geofu was considerably safe. Rad was also safely positioned, directly south of Garan.

Ken was, less so. Still not as dangerous as Thorn, that only had hills surrounding the city, making it fairly easy to approach, or Feoh and Ur to the north. But the roads were kept clear, and it was mostly safe.

But I wasn't a fool. Olga would have spies of her own, and I was, if nothing else, a major target. She would love nothing more to capture and torture me.

Or worse.

If it meant making my sister suffer.

Hence, the escorts.

Under far more normal circumstances, I'd keep my location a bit more discrete. But given how this was politics, rather than tracking down slavers? I didn't have that option. A rough schedule, or, at the very least, the impression of it, had to be maintained. I couldn't just pop out of a bush in full combat regalia like I did a century ago.

Celestine may not have been able to die of fright, but regular people could, and I had an even more brutal reputation back in the day. Safe to say, I'd learned a thing or two. So we had to take things the boring way.

Not that I ever liked fighting orcs in the first place. All the monsters Olga threw at us, and none of them were pleasant. I'd take a goblin or any of the lesser ones, even in numbers than I would the larger ones.

One would think shooting orcs at a distance, or in fact, using distance and reach in the first place would be a go too strategy to deal with the damned things. Bows, spears, even pitchforks were things that I imagine the uniformed believed would be of great use against an orc.

Take a spear. Humans were smaller than orcs and larger monsters, so being able to poke at them from a distance was an advantage. Orcs weren't smart, so they were prone to charging enemy formations when such appeared. Simply bracing, like for a cavalry charge, should have been a simple solution. Let their own mass impale them on your weapon and move on.

The problem was, orcs were built, stupid.

So stupid that they didn't know when they should be dead. You could stab them right through the heart, and it could still take them more than a minute to stop fighting, much less die. And they rarely came alone. So while your spear was stuck, possibly broken inside the orcs ribs, there was next to nothing one of its fellows from clubbing you in the face. Or the small ones could still swarm you.

It was better than nothing, but there was a reason that swords were popular. Disembowelment was quick, effective, and painful enough to get through their heads that they should be falling over dead. Without leaving you as exposed. The problem there was getting close enough without getting crushed.

Truthfully, the easiest way to kill one, in theory, was shooting it through the eye. The arrow could follow the optical path to the brain. Even something as stupid as an orc would notice its brain being shot. Problem was? You had to be a very good shot to hit a target like that consistently. Orc's eyes were small, and getting the angle right was difficult. Otherwise? Their bones were dense and their skin thick. You needed a lot of arrows before one finally managed to notice the pain, much less bring them down.

My arrows did a better job than most. My magic, like my physical appearance, was lesser in comparison to my sister's. I might have more raw power if I focused on it, but what I had now suited my needs. But being able to infuse my arrows with light magic made them very potent. Combined that with my illusion magic, and there was very little that could stand against me and an elite group.

There was still improvements that needed to be made. My skills had improved, but the increasing amount of responsibilities hadn't left me with much time to practice. I still remembered the days when I promised Celestine I'd be able to sneak into Garan and capture Olga all by myself. A bit of a foolish promise, given the blighted nature of the land by this point. And Olga was a superior mage to me in her own right.

Speaking of Olga.

"My lady," a woman landed on the wagon, bowing her head slightly. "There are orcs nearby. We encountered a small group, four in total. They're unaware of our presence, but they're making their way toward the road."

Four wasn't a large number. But we were likely going to cross paths it sounded like. But even if we weren't?

Four dead orcs was four dead orcs. That was Goddess knows how many lives saved, how many women no longer threatened a possible future of rape by their kind.

"Prepare for an ambush," I gave the order, pulling up my hood. The woman nodded, vanishing in a flick of light that would be unnoticed by most of my guards.

"Ma'am?" One of them asked, giving me a confused look.

"Get your soldiers together. We're the ones doing the ambush," I said, mask hiding the slight grin that was growing on my face. Having to do this in my normal robes wasn't ideal, but I did know spells to help wash the blood out of my clothes.

That was most certainly them. They were big, ugly things, like orcs tended to be. At least these were wearing something that approximated clothes. Light bends around the force I'd brought. We couldn't bring everyone, but for four orcs? We had more than enough. With another spell to silence our movements, even the heavier armor of the guards wasn't a hindrance.

They lumbered about slowly, likely still shaking off sleep. Which made things even better. They were slowly making their way towards a small creek, likely to drink and freshen up. I certainly wasn't above exploiting everything I could in a fight.

Eventually, they reached the kill box. Even my illusions made sure to account for the reflection in the what, shrouding us from their sight entirely. Slowly, I pulled an arrow back, lining up my shot carefully. I targeted the one in the back, one that seemed to keep watch over its fellows. As much as an orc could be considered doing such a thing.

Slowly, its face turned, putting its eyes on level with my bow. A brief pulse of magic told me all I needed to know. Everyone else was in position, and this was as good as we were going to get.

I set the small illusion in the corner of everyone's eyes to green, and the arrows release as one.

Mine found its mark, tearing through the eye completely before burying itself into the brain. It was dead even before the magic violently discharged, leaving a steaming hole as the orc fell over dead. A second one also fell into the creek, bleeding from both it's eyes, a soldier getting close to confirm the kill.

The third and fourth were more, fortunate. The third bellowed in rage, clutching at its eyes. Blood was leaking between its fingers, likely either breaking the arrows or forcing them deeper into its skull. A blind orc was less of a threat. Still a threat, but with it not lashing out with it's weapon at the moment, it was more manageable.

The last was lashing out, swinging it's weapon wildly. One of it's eyes was destroyed, an arrow sticking out of the center. The second had missed narrowly, still puncturing the skin between the eye and the nose. Painful, yes, but lining up another shot was difficult at best. Its head swung around wildly as if trying to find us. I didn't let it. Maintaining an illusion of this caliber was hard in combat,

But I could do it. Would do it. If they were all perfectly blinded, I would have dropped it, but with one still having its sight. More drain, less risk. I watched as one of the soldiers stabbed the downed orc in the neck, making sure it was dead, as two more got around the one blind, using their swords to cut open its bloated belly.

Watching it's last surviving comrade get disemboweled led to the finale letting out a bellow, rushing towards where its fellow had died. Even if it couldn't see the soldiers doing the deed, it could see the consequences.

Before it could charge, arrows began to impact its body. It was a large target, unaware of where we were and already in pain. It brought up its club, swinging it madly as arrows kept hitting it. Mine were the only ones causing any pain, but a few arrows ended up embedding in its weapon. Soldiers tried to get closer to finish it off, but while it's wild flailing wasn't good at warding us off, it was better against the soldiers.

A second bellow of pain erupted from its mouth as blood spilled low to the ground. One of the soldiers had gotten around the orc, cutting its tendons. Unable to support its weight anymore, the beast came tumbling to the ground. It struggled but was swiftly gutted, leaving its blood and intestines everywhere.

"Do we have any injured?" I asked, first and foremost. The 'or dead' went unstated. We shouldn't, but it was better to be sure.

"Johnson may have sprained his ankle bringin' the orc down," one of the helmeted soldiers said.

Johnson had to have been the one that thought enough to cut behind the orc, rather than wait for it to show weakness. Initiative. I approved of such in soldiers. Discipline and the ability to follow orders was important in battle, but battle was chaos. One needed to think for oneself from time to time to exploit a weakness your commander didn't see.

"Please hold still, young man," I said, moving over to him, using my magic to heal his injury. My healing magic wasn't much, but I could still make use of it rather well. There was a brief look of surprise on his face as I helped to pull him back up. "There should be a den nearby. We should make sure that this is the last of them."

And free any victims.

"She's late," one of the nobles muttered.

"If she's late, it's for good reason," Graves looked at the lesser noble as the caravan came into view. He could tell something had already happened. Sol was riding on horseback rather than in a carriage. While her white dress glistened in the sun, the hood and cloak on her back was a sign they had ran into trouble.

Not a good sign for Ken if something was causing problems. And if she was on horseback, it was likely close.

"It is good you arrived, Sol Lucullus, Sister of the Goddess," Grave bowed as the blonde elf slid off her horse with a natural grace.

"Indeed it is. It is nice to see Ken's walls, especially after the complication we ran into," the woman's voice was polite, but there was a tint her voice Grave knew all too well.

There had been a fight.

"We ran into some orcs during our travels and removed the threat," she didn't say how close they'd been to the city itself, but at least the nobles had the decency to wince at her words. He was going to have words with some later, depending on how close they were. "See to it that their victims receive proper accommodations during their recovery."

Ah, she picked up strays. On that, he knew many nobles restrained their winces. Her willingness to treat the common folk like people was something some saw as a negative. He knew talent could come from anywhere, even if these women would likely never be soldiers. Grave would pass it along to his son. Sol would appreciate him being trusted with that responsibility, even if he wasn't good for much else.

No, the good news was that the Goddess's Wrath had spilt blood. Hopefully, it was a blessing that the celebration would be smooth, as would be her negotiations in Rad.