[puffyn]

---- Arcoscephale, Turn 36 ----

I have just received news that Huehueteotl was not content to wait until he had built up a stronger force, and instead he attacked out while I have been rebuilding my strength and my phalanx out in the northern forests (which are indeed completely loyal to our cause, though no one will give me a straight answer for what prompted this welcome rebellion). The attacking force was not large, mostly slaves and large poisonous snakes of the sort I have seen far too many times for one lifetime.

As I hear it from the messenger who was sent to fetch me, our forces quickly routed theirs, though we again failed to catch Huehueteotl. But even after the forces had broken and were madly scrambling back toward the city, Sadhana and Nihar kept "raining down death from the heavens", as I am told, and otherwise calling upon the other mystics to put forth great efforts to pick off a few of the retreating foes. While Nihar was chanting an incantation to give all of our forces the strength of giants, the better to run down the stragglers, Amshula collapsed from the strain, and never woke up. Nobody else was hurt.

I did not expect to take her death this hard. We fought constantly, and she was ever confounding my plans with her incessant searching and her inability to take commands (from me). But she did not deserve to die this way, ill-used by her fellow mystics. Too many have died senselessly in the last three years -- Amshula, Divikar... Thymbre. When will it end?

The messenger is relating other news about the battle, such as how the Mictlan deserter who was missing an arm has been magically healed, and how Limmy himself was spotted in battle, flying like a bird, but I do not have time for such folly now. We are still two days' march from the encampment, and we must reach it before they are attacked again, or I fear there will be yet more evil.

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