Brindally took her time with dinner. She chewed slowly, and savored every bite, making sure that her lips caressed the fork she used and that her tongue played across every morsel. It wasn't because the food was that good. A standard legion soup with small bits of meat to keep their energy up. No, she ate this way because it drove Kahl wild to watch her lips at work. Kahl had finished in mere minutes, legion doctrine and training demanded that as little time as possible be spent idle when there was the business of war to be about. As Brindally was caressing her food he was trying valiantly to look busy with reports from the scouts and legionnaires about the status of the march. Brindally knew she was winning the battle for his attention, though. She had always enjoyed teasing him, and found herself with new and exciting avenues to pursue her childhood pastime.
 
 
 "If I were so inclined, I could order you to stop that." Kahl said, setting one sheaf of papers he had pretended read aside.
 
 
 "Whatever shall I do with my time if I am not eating..." Brindally was far from done teasing. Kahl set his face in what was supposed to be a severe frown of warning but lacked sincerity.
 
 
 "Eating is not..." Kahl paused with a look of sudden annoyance on his face. "What the hell do you want Jarrar?" From behind Kahl a man swathed in a cloak of deep color seemed to wade out of the shadows. The man exposed only his squinted eyes and forehead, the rest of him was covered in cloth of the same deep shades of color that eluded classification. His entire outfit seemed to be whatever color was the hardest to see against it's given backdrop without ever truly changing it's true color in a way that the eye would detect. Straps held the cloth to him tightly here and there, and knives were tucked in almost every one. Brindally struggled not to show her own annoyance at failing to detect the Valkan spy's presence yet again.
 
 
 "A fond salutation to you as well honored general. I apologise if my timing upsets you, but I deemed it necessary to deliver the wisdom of Terr before you became distracted with the bounty mighty Rhal has bequeathed thee." The cloaked man bowed ever so slightly towards Brindally, who in turn began to consider whether she wanted her clothes or her sword back more as a shudder ran through her. The man was a servant of the Valkan god Terr, master of wisdom and learning as Brindally had heard. Terr had a different meaning amongst the Bischetti. The dreaded spies of Terr were hardly regarded as humans; feared on the same level as ghosts, vampires, and darkspawn.
 
 
 "Out with it then. Distractions aside, I have an army to get back to Valkam in one piece." Kahl wasted no pleasantries on his equal servant of another god. It appeared even Valkans resented the knowledge that their secrets were not their own.
 
 
 "The mundane first then: The Auxiliaries and 3rd legion have finished withdrawing from Bischette. They managed to avoid the armies of Bischette and returned with most of their strength. Troa is posturing about the sea routes and trade tariffs again. Nothing more than the usual talk so far, but a war in the islands is always a possibility. The Pharaoh of Tegris has finally died leaving the boy Khamel as heir to the Elir river kingdoms. On the more bizarre side of things the amazons to the west have sent envoys into Valkam." Kahl and Brindally raised their eyebrows at that one. The amazons were notoriously isolationist. His news of the wider world finished, the spy produced a map of the area around Kholar.
 
 "We found and dispatched four more darkspawn at these locations, none of them as big as your new centurions promotion ticket. My men have found the site of the darkspawning and where your missing scouts began missing. It appears the two events are linked as they happened in the same spot. I'm sure I don't need to spell this out for ones so learned as you."
 
 
 "A witch." Kahl and Brindally said in unison. A darkspawning could happen naturally of course, but such things took time and would be noticed as the corruption spread throughout the natural surroundings. A sudden burst of darkspawn in an area so clean as the forests that surrounded the pass into Kholar could only mean they had been transplanted there. "Can you trail them?" Kahl asked.
 
 
 "They took great pains to conceal their path but I know their direction. I ask leave to find a local amongst our sworn captives to guide me towards any towns in that area that a full grown darkspawn could thrive upon." Jarrar said in mock deference.
 
 
 "Spare me. The one you've chosen is no doubt already on a horse waiting for you. Terr may be the husband to Oum but you assume much if you pilfer her offerings for a task you should handle yourself." Kahl spat. Brindally watched Kahl glare with a fiery intensity at the hooded man who only squinted back with a hidden smile that was somehow just as threatening. Had they been deep within Valkam, Brindally may have let the two men bicker. They were still within the Bischette that Brindally had sworn to defend, though, and so she resolved to push the men to action.
 
 
 "The gods must be gloried, and the titans must have their due as well. Should the dark ones brood take hold along the border, who then shall honor the deities?" She said resolutely. Kahl looked to her and set his jaw, not in defiance, but in resolve. Jarrar turned his falsely jovial gaze in her direction as well.
 
 
 "Spoken like a true scion of the titans." Like everything the man said, a dual meaning was hidden in the complement. Brindally had no doubt the agent of Terr was keeping tabs on her liaisons with Kahl.
 
 
 "Take your Bischetti spy and go quickly. End this witch and her folly before it becomes more dire." Kahl said. A flicker of annoyance, so slight that one less observant of their foe would miss, passed through Jarrar's face. Brindally kept herself from smiling. Her army had spies embedded within their ranks. Spies who would find ways to go missing from the line of march and either report to Bischette or infiltrate Valkam. Kahl knowing that little tidbit, when Jarrar hadn't expressly informed him, obviously annoyed the spy as the general brazenly trod on his feet in Jarrar's area of expertise.
 
 
 "As the general wishes. Do enjoy your distractions." Jarrar melted into the shadows, seeming to be swallowed up as he stood in the dimness beyond the candles reach.
 
 
 "I am often surprised at what you Valkans can achieve being so divided." Brindally said, disgust for their uninvited guest coloring her tone.
 
 
 "It is not so much that we are divided in our purpose, simply our methods. Jarrar has fallen prey to the folly of those who confuse wisdom with having a little knowledge." Kahl said standing up. "Jarrar has his uses, though. I will take his good advice." Brindally barely registered what Kahl had meant before she had been pushed onto the table. The way the two made love was like a battle. After their passionate joining in front of the armies, Brindally had begun to assert herself once again. It had taken her man a little while to find counter strategies, but they were both nothing if not clever at maneuver.
 
 
  Taken by surprise, she winced a little as her nipples scraped across the field table, which rocked precariously under her weight. Afraid of a collapse, she instinctively moved back and fell into Kahl's trap. Brindally was afraid that she had already lost this one. Usually she teased Kahl, driving him to a passionate explosion of his desires, leaving him helpless as she coaxed and toyed with him for the rest of the night. Her earlier anticipations had yet to fade, while Kahl had been reset by their visitor. Having seized the initiative from her, she found her desire to have him claim her peaking as Kahl was still just beginning to rise. She moaned in pleased surprise as Kahl's hand found her breast and began to squeeze. The stiffness of his manhood was wedged firmly between her rump and his free hand began to explore her groin.
 
 
 Kahl had definitely pulled off a tactical victory here. Brindally surrendered her body to his intense caress. It took only minutes before her nipples were swollen with pleasure from the friction on the table. Her off balance stance forced her to rub her lower half against Kahl as he stiffened. With each prod of his member, she desired it more causing a gasp of desire to slip through her lips.
 
 
 Sensing her vulnerability Kahl again seized the initiative, as well as her upper body. Pinning her arms to her sides, she bent over as he clasped her to himself. The heat from his body burned with intensity as she felt his strong heartbeat through her back. His lips caressed her ear before he began to playfully nibble at her neck. She tilted her head in submission, and he began to suck upon her throat forcefully. She gasped again as her helpless body was rocked with pleasure from her lover's touch. Still holding her arms to her sides, Kahl pulled away, allowing his shaft to drop as a lancer's spear during a charge. Brindally balanced helplessly, awaiting the thrust. When the charge did not come she looked back to her man, moaning with desire as her hips shook with longing.
 
 
 Kahl smiled and thrust home, piercing Brindally as deep as his shaft could go in a single motion. At the sound of Brindally's gasp of pleasure and release, from her first orgasm, Kahl began to pump vigorously. Unable to hold back, Brindally cried out with the pleasure of joining. Out in the night some other woman was making the same cry. As the legion neared their home territory discipline slackened even for the mighty legions. Entire squads were at work, enjoying their prizes one more time before their triumphant return to their homeland.
 
 
 Brindally cried out in desperate pleasure as Kahl tormented her with the greatest pleasures he knew how to inflict. Moaning helplessly, Brindally gave herself over to him. She was his, and he was taking her and her life away from the home she had sworn to defend with that life. Four times, Kahl spent himself before finally easing Brindally down on the simple sleeping mat every legionnaire in the army used. He took nothing for himself that his legion could not find for themselves. In this case an army of women had been taken, and cries of pleasure continued to ring out as Kahl panted along with his childhood friend on the simple mat. Kahl planted tender kisses upon her and tried to snuggle, but the wanton cries of pleasure outside tormented Brindally.
 
 
 "Do not be so gentle with me Kahl. Take me as a prize, the way your men use my army. I led 3,000 shield sisters to Valkan altars but I will not join them." Brindally said in a pained voice of guilt. Kahl continued his gentle caresses in spite of her request.
 
 
 "Your army honors the gods." Kahl said, reaching one hand out to caress her cheek and sliding it to the blue string around her neck "You are honoring the gods just as well. Bearing the gift of Oum is the greatest amongst offerings. Rhal, Terr, Dorr, all of the male gods were more powerful or wise than the goddess Oum when they chose the ruler of all. All of them deferred with joy and humility to Oum and declared that life and death must be honored above all things, for they are the source and meaning to all things. Valor, justice, wisdom, love, none of these things can be without life. None of them would have worth without death. Your army promised to honor our gods in exchange for your country."
 
 
 "We have accepted, and you shall please them alongside your army in the way that pleases all the gods most. Do not cheapen your offering simply because it is not as radiant or dramatic. As a man of Rhal, death on the battlefield is a sacrifice to my patron god. Living to old age while serving my people with my sword is a sacrifice more worthy to the god of war. How else do you think we could field an army that fought to win? Out there, your army honors the gods. Others will not hang either, remember the new centurions woman? Every lustful cry out there is a praise to Byura. Every Child that is sired tonight is the greatest glory to Oum. The ones who will find love, no matter how brief, please Rhea, while men at home please Jorm with their honest labor."
 
 
 "When you defeated and marked me, I stared with jealousy at the garrison you led off to the titans. Why was I not fit to revere the deities of our world? Why was I left behind to wallow in shame? Was I shunned as unworthy, marked as a failure, and doomed to waste my existence? As I asked these questions the Valkyrie, scion of mighty Rhal came and spoke to me. She told me to pick up my sword, and serve Rhal with it once more. I had bought time for the legions to come, I had served my purpose. Dying alongside my men was not the only way to serve Rhal. To wallow in the shame of failure would be to spit upon my purpose, to rise and overcome my shame would be valor worthy to fill Rhal's drinking horn to bursting with drink of the finest quality. That is why I fought on to have this day, where I can march home to glory the gods with a feast, and please them in my tent by holding the woman I have desired my whole life as it burns brightly in their eyes."
 
 
 Brindally lay quietly in his arms with tears brimming her eyes. She had no idea what her confused decision had done to him. Learning what he had overcome, and that what had drove him to fight so hard was to lie with her as he did now caused her chest to tighten. The tears fell freely as her guilt and regret left her in a torrent of relief and love. Kahl held her gently the whole while kissing the tears off her cheeks when she was done before blowing out the candle and drawing the field blanket over them for the night. Something occurred to Brindally then. Curious she turned and asked her man.
 
 
 "The Valkyrie that marches with you cannot have seen 7 eclipses... was she?"
 
 
 "Hey when a little girl that killed a dragon while she was still potty training tells you to suck it up and stop being a crybaby in front of a whole army, you fucking do it." Kahl said beside her in the dark. The two laughed for a while, consummated again, and slept their last night in Bichette.