Episode 10.1 - Stay. Soon.

"I have to step out now," I speak softly, letting go of my girlfriend’s hand.
    The last couple of days, all Eshu does is sleep. It's a saving grace of sorts; she never has nightmares, she just lies still in her bed, a perfectly neutral poker face, none of that strangeness from her collapse the other day.

I want to stay with her, if only to hold her hand and be there, but we can't ignore the army of Killer-Drones on its way here. I don't know what's ‘wrong’ with her; no one does. Everything seemed to be going ok, I felt like my connection with Mistress Lila was growing by the day and Sek! I was so worried about Sek ever since I accidentally let slip about my past. I mean, he has his moments; who knew what he might think of my history? Or heck, perhaps he'd be mad that I hadn't told him - but instead, he wanted to call me amazing?
    But now Eshu’s strange condition is back worse than ever, and I can’t help feeling so distant from her. When did we grow so far apart? How didn’t I notice?

“Ko?”
    Just as I’m musing, her soft voice calls out.

“Hey, you, you're up?” I sit back down as she props herself up a bit. Her bed head is severe, her whole expression looks liable to fall right back to sleep any moment.

“You’re going?” she murmurs.

“Ah,” I can’t help but hesitate. I’m not exactly going far, only one floor up, but now she’s awake, it does feel harsh to leave so soon. “There's a meeting, about the– Actually you weren’t awake, but there’s an invasion, but ah, I mean, nothing to worry over, haha…” Wow Koa, real reassuring, nice. Ughhh!!

“Don’t,” two bright eyes stare up at me through matted magenta hair.

“I won’t be gone long, only upstairs for a bit. How about you, feeling any better?”

She shakes her head, pulling the covers up around her face; it's pretty cute.
    I frown, not sure what the right thing to do is, unsure what to ask, even if I did, that she’d know - I mean, a person can be sick without any idea why.

There’s one question that’s been bugging me, one I know I should have pressed long ago, “Eshu, what was your life like before Escape?”

“Before was… I’m not sure it's what you’d think. I…”
Her mouth opens to say more for just a second, before closing firmly shut. She raises two fingers in an X.

I can’t deny that's frustrating. It was one thing before to keep herself so evasive, but now that she's bedridden, I wish she’d talk to me.
    “Stay,” she repeats.

“Hey, I promise to come back soon, alright? This stuff is important, tomorrow’s when it’s going down.”

The expression that takes her face sinks my heart; so withdrawn, so small. I can tell that wasn’t the answer she wanted, but what can I do? I can’t just focus on her, there's too much going on, it's only for twenty minutes, right?

“Chu!” I blink dully as she lunges forward, and for a moment our lips touch.

Grinning a small (unsuitably so) smile, she sighs, “That’s not enough either? How bout I lov-- No, I guess that would be going too far.”

It’s hardly our first kiss and far from the best, just a peck by this pervert’s standards, but I do find myself blushing. I also find myself a bit annoyed, “You can’t think I’m that easy, Eshu?”

"When we first met, you were."

"Eh? Well, maybe," I mutter, hard to deny, "But we've all changed since then. Honestly, now you're being selfish."

She lets her shoulders slump in apparent defeat, “Ehehe, you got me. You’re right, you should go to your meeting, the others need you.”

I smirk, feeling a bit relieved. If all she wants is to be spoiled when sick, then that’s no issue - but it's equally not the most pressing matter, “I’ll be back soon, wake up a bit more, eat something. Maybe we can have a talk then, please?”

She recedes into the covers again but still nods, “Alright. Soon.”

“Definitely, back before you know it.”

I head for the door, glancing back just once, I see her mouth move, but she doesn’t say anything. It gives me pause, but I think I’m right about this. I’ll give her some time to wake up properly, and maybe I can finally get through to her, I’m sure of it.

****


I make my way upstairs to the old training room, trying not to ruminate too much. Today, it's set up for briefing again, Lila's blackboard centre stage. Major Tom, Sek and the blacksmith, Flint, are all present.
    "Yo," Lila nods as I take a seat.

I think back to Eshu's last faint, to how close Sek and I were to talking things through when she stopped us, and I still wonder why. Was it the case she felt whatever was wrong coming on, like nausea before a dizzy spell, or was our discussing what actually caused her to faint? But I don't think talking could cause something like that.
    All the same, I want us together to really go over everything. I don't like the three of us feeling so distant with all that's happening. And yet it's because everything is so busy that there's never enough time. Still, her being awake and in that playful mood, perhaps once we're done here, I can finally make some headway with her.

"Let's get this done for now," Lila adds, turning to the blackboard. She has drawn a square, then a larger square around the first - in between a series of equidistant X's representing the turret emplacements around the base, "Thanks to our smith and his helpers, we have completed a full encirclement of the fortress. As we speak, the Estolpfo are practising constantly. Mr Flint?"

"Yes, milady," Flint says politely, stepping over to the blackboard. Sek always cringes at Flint's approach to Lady Lila, and it makes me smile.

I think Sek needed someone like Flint around. It hasn't been for very long, but then again, none of us have known one another that long - it's still less than a year since we were isekaie'd here, sometimes that's hard to process - for Sek, a couple weeks around the towering old man have been most welcome, I believe.

Flint is all those things Sek has convinced himself a man 'should be': Crazy tall and rippling with muscle, stoic and capable, reliable to the max - but Flint is also a grieving dad, a guy that dotes on his niece and grandkids, and is embarrassingly polite to a female authority.
    He may be a mountain of strength and skills, but he gained those through decades of hard work. I think that's about the best role model Sek could have asked for, and I'm grateful on his behalf.


The briefing proceeds smoothly, Flint detailing the power grid for the turrets, Lila explaining her plan to ‘route-map’ the enemy. In effect, all ‘mobs’ enemies in a video game are compelled to follow certain procedures, to walk to their beds at nighttime. Say you put something between a mob and its bed, something it has not been programmed to see - it will now walk right into that in an attempt to reach its destination. We’ve observed that the drones are following their scripting far closer than more sophisticatedly programmed villagers or demons like Tom, and that’s what we plan to exploit, not just to beat the drones, but to trivialise them.

To achieve this, the plan is actually quite simple: Change the barrier to block the enemy's fire, but not physical mass. This will create a very basic equation in the drone’s minds. Option A, shoot us, unavailable. Option B, come through the barrier, then shoot us, viable. The trick being that our firing back at them with the perimeter of turrets won’t factor, as the drone’s highest priority above all else is to kill, not self-preservation.

It’s a very ‘gamer’ strategy and not the sort I imagine Lila could have come up with if not for us giving her inspiration. If it goes according to these predictions, the battle could well be a cake walk.

"Grae, ger, rak?" the clicky tones of Tom's voice pipes up. It takes me somewhat by surprise; Tom very rarely talks unprompted. I always presume it’s out of politeness, given that we humans can't understand him. Or well, Eshu could, but she isn't here right now.

Lila winces, "There's no way we can afford to make more turrets for the roof and power them. I have a plan for flying enemies."

"Right, those drones can briefly levitate," Sek muses.

Lila raises one finger like a teacher trying to make an inspired point, "I'll be on the roof so I can keep an eye on and adjust my spells as needed. When drones fly in high, I'll personally knock 'em down. If they get the impression that our air defences are even tougher than our ground ones, they should stick to a terrestrial assault."

Sek looks intrigued by this, "If you can knock them down easily, why not go out and kill the whole army?"

"Boy!" Flint bellows, forehead throbbing, "You can't say such a thing to her ladyship!"

Before Flint can literally smack Sek, Lila interrupts, "It's not an unfair question, in fact, even now it is a backup plan; however, it would be a serious gamble," she shakes her head, probably disappointed that she can't just go and do as Sek suggests, "I'm certainly more powerful than these Killer-Drones. I did some tests with our turrets, and they don't one-shot me or anything."

"You tested on yourself?" I ask, appalled.

"Ah, look, I was careful, K’?"

I find myself pouting at that, but let her get on with the explanation; I can lecture her later. "Point is, I could take quite a few hits safely. I have no doubt I could handle a couple dozen of them alone. However, hundreds? And well, testing in peace is one thing, but who knows on the battlefield, and likewise, we can't say how effective my attacks will be against them in turn. There are just too many variables."

"Oh," Sek nods, "I mean, that makes sense. You're like a hero unit, but even those can be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. I getcha'."
    Lila blinks, "What, you do? No snarky comments?"

Sek frowns, "Come on, I'm not that unreasonable, am I?"
    Three pairs of eyes and Tom's hollow eye-sockets fall upon him. Our little Tsundere blushes profusely, "Alright, alright! Shessh."

That gets a bit of a laugh from us all - except the usually fairly jovial Tom; "Rake, Rak?"

"Look, I get your concern," Lila replies with a sigh, "but we just don't have enough resources for bodyguarding me."

I realise what must have been Tom's complaint, "You mean you'll be alone on the roof?" I ask.

"Ahhh, not you as well! Look, we're short-handed as heck, we can't afford to guard the most powerful person here. A guard would either need to be one of you or at least Estolpfo with adequate equipment to face a Killer-Drone, and we have none of that to spare.” She draws four arrows on the board, one pointing in at each side, "Now listen here. With the barrier changed, those drones can come through it. Of course, the ring of turrets we've built is there explicitly to shoot them first, but we have to presume some will get in. When that happens, the turrets mustn't turn; that would create an opening for a whole flood. No, you guys will have to respond, taking out any stray that makes it in. So there, you see? To defend breaches on four sides, I have two Tier 2 demons, one Tier 1 dog.”

She waves one hand, “That said, since I'll be on the roof, I can direct you three. Hopefully, it will be enough. Our lack of a fourth responder is honestly one of the gaps I'm most concerned about. The idea of taking one of you off that job to be a bodyguard, now that's preposterous!"

I hate it, but a thought enters my mind, a cruel, coldly practical, mean-spirited thought, 'If only Eshu weren't bedridden.'

"Graku..." Tom clicks, clearly unsatisfied.

Lila shakes her head, "This is the plan with the best odds, plain and simple. If I understand the drone’s behaviour patterns at all, then I'm confident one of two things will happen. A: Our defence cordon is so efficient that they can't break through at all and choose to retreat. In that scenario, fine by me - means we have a sure-fire defence and can then start hunting them down instead. B: The outcome I find more likely, they will be able to brute force units past the barrier, at which point it will become a question of individual skirmishes between you three and said invaders.
    These breeches will communicate to our enemy that a simple all-out charge is plausible; after all, they only need to get lucky once. We have backup operators in place for the turrets, but if the guns themselves fall, a couple next to each other and create a big opening, then the enemy can flood right in. That's what they'll be banking on; it will be a battle of attrition.”

"It has risks, but it makes sense. I agree with your take on how the drones will react based on how they were in the game," Sek says, stretching his arms and yawning.

"I can't believe a day would come when you're the only one in agreement with me," Lila sighs.

"Grek, rak, grok." Tom adds, stepping forward. He seems agitated.

"Look, I'm telling you-" Lila starts.

"Grakkk Gor Rak!" A different voice to Tom's interrupts the growing tension.

"Rak, rak rak!" Another replies.

"Grak gro."

"....! Grak go gran!"
    A pair of voices is echoing in the hallway. We all turn in surprise. The series of angry clicks and clacks continues as they get closer before finally two Estolpfo come into view, fighting of all things. Their little clawed skeletal hands batting and slashing at one another as they continue to argue in their indiscernible language.

In a flash of speed, while me, Sek and Lila are just staring bemused, Tom and Flint seem to teleport over to the doorway, fists clenched, faces red (well, ok, that one only applies to Flint), they bellow in perfect sync:
    "Graok gar grain, Grak gar Graken!”
    "What do you ugly mugs think you're doing in front of our lady?!"

The two squabbling skeletons freeze, seemingly shrinking into the doorframe. Tom and Flint slowly look at one another in surprise, and then, wordlessly, they nod firmly, before turning their burning gazes back upon the interlopers. Who knew those two would be such fast friends, haha...

"Ok, cool it," Lila says, floating over and laying a hand on either man's shoulder (an act which requires one hand extending out, given the disparity in height), "Something to report you two?"

".... Grak gah, grakim."
    "! Gro Gro, Grakly."

Even I can tell they just answered oppositely, and I can feel the aura of violence emanating from the would-be drill sergeants next to me. Doing my best to smile reassuringly, I point to the one on the left. "You first, please."

He stares at me for a moment, then more calmly repeats some of the earlier sounds.
I nod and move my finger over to the other one, "And you?" Same again.

Lila hangs her head after listening to both, “They say, more or less, that we have a visitor."

"Why are they arguing then?" Sek asks.

"One says the visitor is an enemy and is asking permission to shoot 'em. The other thinks it's an ally, a lost villager and wants permission to send out a rescue party." She runs her eyes over the assembly before sighing again, "Well, we were pretty much done for today anyway. Wanna' go have a look for ourselves, kids?"