Jebidiah's Change Bk. 01 Ch. 13

"That probably wasn't the most appropriate response, Jeb." Tenner admonished him.

"Maybe, but I stand by it. If this is their idea of fun I'm going to have some serious words with them."

Except for his group, everyone else radiated confusion. "Another player, or out for us?" Mila asked Jebidiah.

"At a guess I would say they are stirring the pot. I wouldn't put it past them to do all this just to keep us busy, Mila."

His voice trailed off in thought when the General cleared her throat. "Care to share with the rest of the class?"

"Sorry, my Lady. This whole setup is just disturbing. This was all orchestrated by the Divine."

"Of course!" Michael chimed in. "I do believe you have it, Jebidiah. What better way to box you in and keep the Crown occupied. You are stuck here in the South away from the center of civilization."

The Stockmar contingent looked back and forth between Michael and Jebidiah, and even his wives who were all murmuring agreement. "Just what in the Divines is going on here, Valor?" Lydia asked.

"Sorry, your Grace. We know the Divine have started up what they consider a game and I can't see this confluence of events as anything other than them fucking with us, excuse the language."

"Why would the Divine want to 'fuck with us'? How do you know they are playing a game with the Kingdom?" Clara asked, scoffing.

"Not us as in the Kingdom. Us as in us." Jebidiah gestured at those seated next to him. "My House basically. The impossibility of my Change and our pod, the multiple attempts on me, the prophecies the diviners keep doing, the return of House valor, all of it is just the Divine messing with me. Well, using me more like, and not just me, there will be ten of us."

"This makes no sense. How could you possibly know this?" one of the newer women asked.

"Told us they did." Mila answered.

"The divine told you all of this," the disbelief was evident in the flat tone.

"Not quite directly, but yes, through a series of dreams that aren't dreams. Mila and I have two, I guess you could call patrons, that for whatever reason are interested in us and we have reason to believe a third is close or will be soon."

Kelek spoke quickly to Sift who began answering in kind, the distraction enough to give Jebidiah and Mila a break from the questioning. Everyone took the opportunity to talk among themselves in small groups.

"Sir, Kelek wishes to know if the name Dardo means anything to you. Or Boulder."

"Dardo, no... nor Boulder that I can think of, why?"

"She says Dardo talks to her in her dreams, he makes her angry. He pushed her to leave her lands to come search for your crossed axes."

"Darido?" Jebidiah asked. Kelek hissed loudly and all talk ceased.

"Darido? Patron of Tonstar Kingdom, Divine of the official Kingdom Church whom our Queen is head of? That Dairdo?" The Duchess stammered out.

Kelek hissed again then shrugged, which was an interesting move for a walking lizard.

"Fuck." Jebidiah didn't think the Duchess took notice that she uttered the word, but everyone began talking at once and the shouting started.

"More sense this makes." Mila said to Jebidiah.

"My aunt is going to flip the fuck out when she finds out Darido chose a lizard to represent him. I really wish I was there to see her reaction," Dana was saying.

A loud voice spoke out over the din, deep enough to grab attention. "Where are the Children?" Stern's question subdued the chaos.

"Children?" Clara asked in confusion.

"Forgive me General, The Children. Of Thesolmar. I saw none when entering the city nor in the streets. They are normally everywhere. We came down here because they attacked us. But there are no Children, where are they?"

The question caught the General off guard. "I am not sure about the answer or relevance." She turned to her right and spoke to one of the new faces, "Captain, have the Children's activities changed?"

"I'm struggling to see the relevance, General, but yes. Over the last tenday they have slowed activity to the point where no protests or arrests have been made in two days time. We sent out several agents to investigate their absence."

Jebidiah tried to process the information, "What is your thought, Stern?"

"I was just thinking about who is against us and we haven't seen them lately. I thought we would fight them at the ruins instead of the necromancers."

"By the Divine you are right, with everything else going on I had lost sight of them. So we have Crag and Faltha moving against us, Darkhunt starting their pressure, presumably to keep the Starns busy, the goblin tribes and this as of yet unknown group of necromancers. We know the moves they have made and except for the last, where they are. We know the Children are against us but if they have hidden themselves from view I can only imagine the reason is bad."

"A surprise strike when we least expect it I imagine." Clara added. "It's what I would do. Who else is going to come after us to get to you, Valor?"

"Honestly, I expect everyone."

The door burst open as an out of breath guard hung on to the handle, gasping. "The horns, General, the horns are sounding. We're under attack!"

The word count on this one crept up higher than I expected, sorry about those looking for a quicker read. Thank you all for reading, see you in one week's time with Chapter 14. Comments and stars are appreciated.