Trevor (the transmigrator from India, Earth)

Trevor was quite upset with the world. It made no sense that he, a toddler himself, was to look after a baby. And yet all of the adults seemed perfectly content to do so. When the Lady mage had been allowed to stay, he had hoped to gain some advice from her on how to proceed in progressing his magic.

Instead he had gained baby duty. Not only that, it was the worst of baby duty, the kind that came with diapers. Though that was thankfully reducing now that the baby had grown up a bit. Perhaps it would stop soon? Wait, didn’t babies start speaking once they stopped pooping? Or were they not mutually exclusive.?

“So how is the little girl doing?” Trevor’s mother said from behind him.

“Still pooping like there is no tomorrow.” That should have stopped by now. A worried look was seen on his mothers face, “The girl should also have started speaking by now.”-his mother started to stare at the girl as if wanting to get her to reveal her secrets- “The girl may be mute. Or worse, traumatised.”

“Do babies get traumatised?”I asked, curious. I really was acting more and more like a kid…

“Everyone can be traumatised, babies just don’t show it easily. That and people tend to protect babies a lot. It's easy to do, they are so cute after all.” my mother said.

“There is an expedition planned that will visit the city to get some supplies, you should go ask Raina if she wants to join. It would be a good chance to have this baby of hers checked.” she finished

“And what about you, you are having triplets you know.” Trevor said

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I am perfectly capable of giving birth without anyone’s help.” his mother replied, was she deluding herself or did she really think that was the case? Either way, it was a foolish decision. Time to drag dad into it.

“COuld you please check with dad though? I think he might be worried.” Trevor said, causing his mothers mouth to narrow into a thin line.

“I will dearie, now if you will excuse me, I have to go cook dinner.” his mother said as she left, he wanted to scream after her, ‘No! You are pregnant! Stop Cooking! Go rest!’ Sadly, all he did was wave.

Alforien Arlford

I looked at the Woods of Eltemar with trepidation. The last week had been hectic, full of planning and seemingly endless meetings. It seemed as if I would be stuck in that vicious little cycle forever before I collapsed from being bored to death.

Or being argued to death. The first meeting had so far been the only really productive meeting. It seemed that as soon as the commanders had gotten sure of their positions, they had begun to argue. Soon enough people started taking sides, fighting among each other and generally being a nuisance.

I knew that they were not a disciplined force, it was very clear, but I had hoped that they would at least be a co-operative one. Nope, that was too much to ask. Dividing them into groups of three had made it worse.

The three commanders would grow closer and form their own group, which would then escalate every conflict between Battalions to one involving most of the army as their groups got involved.

At least they had the wisdom to keep the groups relatively balanced. I wonder what would have happened if one group was stronger than the rest. Likely a coup. Or a civil war with the Empire coming in and killing those left.

Speaking of the Empire, they had seen some indications of its presence within this last week. Scuff marks near the camp, strange glints from the direction of the Woods. Arnula and Carmil, now with reasonably controlled magic, had ventured into the woods to find out. They had gotten as far as the Woods of Arnile.

After their first encounter with a violent illusion they had headed back, deciding that venturing so deep without backup was not worth it. According to them, the illusion had only been mildly threatening.

‘I found the actual danger involved to be minimal, the illusion seemed to be better at scaring than harming. A simple fire spell rendered it useless.’

Those were Arlun’s exact words. One thing to be noted however was that Arlun may have forgotten how weak illusions were magic wise. A non-casted wide area illusion like this could easily be removed using even the simplest of magics, but could easily render entire armies that did not have a defence against such things useless.

There was a reason I’d instructed both Arlun and Carmil to make defensive charms after all. Now it was time to see if they were useful.

“ Army! Onward March!” I shouted, what? That dialogue sounded nice!

The second I stepped over the boundary to the Woods of Eltemar, the surroundings changed. No, that was not accurate, the surroundings were the same. It was my perception of them that had changed.

Instead of the still but warm air of the grassland, there was suddenly a whole lot of snow in the air. It fell down in slow descent, making it seem as if someone was sprinkling the powder from the treetops. Then there was the singing, foreign and strange, it was still joyful in nature.

Perhaps it was some small part of the magic within the illusion but it made me want to dance. I could understand why the woods were a danger, it was very easy to lose oneself in these sensations and not know where one was going. Even a tree could be deadly if it was angled right.

Not to mention the Woods of Arnile that lay ahead. Actually; I should warn the soldiers. One of them might get attracted and kill himself by a tree.

“ Listen up! The illusion is coercing in nature! If you listen to it”- Suddenly one of the men in the 9th Battalion crashed into a tree. Though the tree seemed to have sustained greater damage this time, it was a thin one.- “ that will happen” I said pointing to the man.

For some reason the men found the event hilarious to the point that they couldn’t stop laughing about it for a whole ten minutes. It was an unwarranted delay. But if the manner in which the commanders had joined in was any indication, my opinion would not be welcome in the matter.

Resolving to bear the delay, I allowed for ten minutes of break before signalling that it was time to tread forward. The trek through the woods was easy. Except the occasional encounter with a tree there was next to no danger involved.

The snow did make it so that it took longer to cross the Woods, we reached what we presumed was the border of the Woods if Arnile late in the evening. Thankfully we had decided to travel during noon or we would have arrived in the night. No matter how docile these Woods seemed, I was not going to trust these men to set up camp in the darkness.

Though with the sun mostly gone and the thick canopy, it seemed that the darkness was not as avoidable as I thought. I instructed the commanders to start setting up camp, they were to avoid fires and instead use the magical lighting that had been made. Who knew what effect a fire would have on illusions.

The camp was swiftly set up, the men studiously ignoring the singing and the snow. Perhaps they were finally learning discipline? Did the commanders make peace I wonder.

I walked through the camp, seeing it be set up. Suddenly I found my leg caught on to a stray peg. Guess not all the soldiers were being careful. I walked a bit more before my leg caught again.

What was going on? I looked, really looked around and found that the tents might have been set, but they were not set well. And more than that, most of the hub hub wasn’t men eating, it was men sneaking around in plain sight seemingly holding things. I hadn’t noticed the odd positioning of hands before, but now it was clear.

The illusion had taken over the army.