“Finn! Tell me about her. About that scout friend of yours. The gorgeous purple goddess,” Jerseil said, stumbling forward.

  We had drank heavily after dinner and were now attempting to make our way to the barracks. I wasn’t used to drinking so much, but it had turned into a party. The amount of beer and wine that had been available was ridiculous—and welcome. It had been a pretty shitty month.

  I squinted at him and tried to keep my own balance on the unsteady earth. “Harper? Are you asking about Harper?” I asked.

  He pondered this for a moment. Jerseil looked at me owlishly for a moment before he gestured widely with his free arm. His movement almost toppled us. “Whoa! But it’s inmateri… inmaterilize.. Bah! It doesn’t matter if I’m asking questions—Harper.” We took a few steps closer toward the barracks. There were only two stairs up to the door, and somehow we got to and over the threshold. We let go of each other, stumbling toward the empty beds. I flopped onto one and Jerseil onto the other, laughing. The barracks had ten, maybe twelve, or six beds. Fortunately, all were empty.

  “Harper!” Jerseil said. It was loud, yet it almost came out as a sigh.

  “What about her?” I asked, turning my head to look at him.

  He stared up at the barracks ceiling, arms crossed behind his head. “Is she married? With someone? With you?” he asked, a note of trepidation in his voice.

  “No, don’t think so. And we’re just friends,” I said profoundly. “Eh, why do ya want to know? Interested?”

  He hiccuped loudly and laughed at it. “Yeah. She just has that… something, you know? Her eyes. I think it’s her eyes. Get lost in them,” Jerseil replied.

  I blinked sleepily before I replied, “Okay, just don’t hurt her, okay? I’m not saying I could kick your ass. But Harper? She could.” His gentle snoring was the only answer I got. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I drifted off after getting comfortable not long after.

  It was a bright and horrible morning, with people yelling and running around. Jerseil and I were sipping our cups of hangover tea when Harper and Juan found us in the mess hall. The tea swirled in my cup as I waited for the sight of my food not to make me want to hurl.

  “Finn. You and your friend made fools of yourselves last night,” said Juan. His voice dripped with disapproval. Being the target of his ire was new, and I felt horrible for my behavior on top of everything else. I vaguely remembered teaching a few songs to Jerseil and a large group of soldiers. Then they taught me some classic songs from the eighties.

  The bench scraped. I looked across the table as a greener-than-normal Jerseil stood at attention. “General Venegas, sir! I am to blame for the unfortunate behavior last night. I love Earth songs and couldn’t resist. Finn shared so much with us last night.”

  Juan glared at the soldier. “We heard. Everyone heard. Even from the officer quarters,” he reprimanded coldly.

  Jerseil flinched at Juan’s words. “Sorry, General. I will take full responsibility,” Jerseil said. Face drained of color, he kept at attention while Juan considered. The longer he stood there, the paler his face became.

  Juan slowly nodded, his expression relaxing. “I don’t think punishment is fully necessary. The ridicule of every messenger between here and the front should be enough. But it was a better way to let off steam than getting into fights.” That said, Juan turned and proceeded to the kitchen area to get his morning meal, muttering something about pendejos estupidos. We watched him go, Jerseil’s face still a paler green as he slowly sat down. He almost missed the bench that his legs had pushed back. He scrunched his face in embarrassment. The stuttering bounce of the bench as he moved it back just added to the awkwardness of the situation.

  Harper smiled at Jerseil and squeezed my shoulder in sympathy. “Next time, torture cats instead of singing. The sound would have been sweeter. And more likely in the right key.” Her shoulders shook in silent laughter as she followed Juan.

  Jerseil put his face in his hands, and his shoulders slumped as he leaned his elbows on the table. “Ughh, I made a complete fool of myself! Now, General Venegas and Harper think poorly of me. How am I ever going to get over this?”

  “Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself, buddy. These things happen. I bet Juan just needs to eat breakfast and have some coffee. It’ll all blow over,” I replied.

  He spread his fingers and looked at me through them. “You really think so?”

  “Yeah! I bet everything will be fine by the time we leave,” I reassured him.

  “Wait, the general is leaving today? And Harper as well?” Jerseil asked, sounding anxious.

  “And me, too. We have to get down into the Shadow Lands,” I replied with a wan smile.

  The panic in his eyes became thoughtful—it seemed an idea had spawned. “I’m heading that way too. I have to find out what supplies are low and lacking at the Allied Army camp so that I can get a supply order together. Yes. This could work.”

  I looked at him, my muddled brain unable to puzzle out where this was leading. “What could work?” I asked.

  His smile belied his earlier dismay. “Why, earning my way back into Harper’s good graces, of course. And the general’s too,” he added sheepishly. “I just need to travel with you, at least as far as Command.”

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  I had been right about Juan mellowing after getting some breakfast and coffee, and he had no problem with Jerseil joining us on the road to the Allied Army command area in the Shadow Lands. We hadn’t traveled a mile before the cambion sergeant was happily chatting with Harper, doing his best to charm her. She seemed amused by his attention and didn’t mind riding a little farther back behind Juan and me to give the pair privacy.

  “Juan, why is it called the Shadow Lands? From the little you said about it, the place does not sound like the name implies.” I asked.

  “You will see soon enough, chico,” was all he said.

  He was strangely quiet about something that could be a teaching moment. So, I decided to change tracks. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about what the Council said to your message. You didn’t look at it before you left the mess hall last night.”

  Juan grunted. “They were unsure that it would be ‘an appropriate use of my talents’ and thus refused my request. I’m going to have to talk with them in person, in a closed meeting. Your class will be brought up, which may cause problems later. But in truth, it might be the only way to convince them that ours is the right path.”

  “Wait, is the Council made up of people like us?” I asked.

  “No. Not entirely, at least. The Council is composed of both politically minded individuals and representatives of the Twelve Kingdoms. It’s a mostly democratic body that, among other things, governs the combined military might of the Twelve Kingdoms. As a general, I do have some pull with the council. Unfortunately, not enough for them to assign an army strong enough to hunt down and subdue the Steel Falcon Company.”

  “Great. That sounds great. So maybe you’ll get the army you need, and I’ll be thrown in jail pending my execution? Fucking love the idea,” I replied with annoyance. There was a chance I was still feeling some effects of the hangover. Juan gave me a sideways glance, so I added, “Sorry, that wasn’t fair. The whole anti-Mage thing puts me on edge, even if it’s justified.”

  “Finn, what you have to understand is that just about everyone from Earth, even many people who have settled down here, dreams of going home. Most left families or careers behind that they want to return to. It’s also the little things that drive our desire to get back to Earth. Cars. Movies. The sounds and smells of the desert or the city. Fast food, even,” he said. “It is doubtful that any of the Earthborn will get in our way once we explain the quest and your role in it. However, the non-Earthborn representatives will put up mucho resistance, as it’s a common policy to contain and, if necessary, kill Mages for the safety of all.”

  I did not like the sound of that. And there were parallels in US history that I should have expected. “Even understanding why, the fact people I’ve never met have already judged me based on others makes me sick. But you know what? I don’t understand this world or the people here like you do. I just hope they can get past their biases against me,” I stated.

  The day was a peaceful one, and as soon as we hit the crest before the downhill, I saw what Juan meant. The name ‘Shadow Lands’ was indeed quite apt. I reined in GB and looked down in awe at the natural phenomenon. The mountains cast a shadow that covered miles of land on the western side of the range. I had never seen the like, as the shadow reached almost to the distant sea.

  It wasn’t true darkness, but I couldn’t pick out details within other than cooking fires. The number of cooking fires was astounding, even split between the two armies. It was an odd contrast, reminiscent of a starry night. I could only assume the closest grouping was the Allied Army, while the other…

  “Is that the Empire’s forces?” I asked. The grouping of fires suggested they were the bigger of the two armies. Harper and Jerseil caught up with us and stopped to take in the view.

  “Yes,” Harper said at the same time as Jerseil. They laughed, and Harper said, “Jinx!”

  Jerseil looked at her in confusion. “What does this ‘jinx’ mean?”

  “It means you have to stay quiet until you get me a soda or repeat a certain phrase,” she said and grinned mischievously. “Else you’ll get cursed with bad luck.”

  Her playful tone did nothing to assuage the surprise and worry on his face. He looked frantically at her and then at me.

  I sighed. “Harper, you have to tell him the phrase. Don’t leave the poor guy hanging!”

  She giggled. She fucking giggled. “I kind of want a soda, though. It’s been a while,” Harper teased.

  I looked at Juan, and he was just shaking his head. Jerseil wasn’t getting any help from that corner. It was up to me to help my new friend. But Harper gave me a conspiratorial wink, and I knew I had to play along. “Come on, do they even have soda here? Give him something,” I pleaded. I hoped I wasn’t laying it on too thick. I knew it didn’t really matter, and it was really childish, but I was having fun.

  “Fine,” she replied dramatically. “If he says, ‘I promise to get Harper a soda whenever she wants one,’ it will break the jinx.”

  The relief on Jerseil’s face was almost comical and released the words in a fast torrent: “I promise to get Harper a soda whenever she wants one. There, or do you need it in a contract?”

  “No, Jerseil. We’re good, and I will be holding you to that,” she said with a smile.

  Over the next six hours it took for us to get down the pass, the shadow slowly walked its way to the mountains. The revealed armies seemed to be at a standstill for something, like there was a ceasefire for a holiday. The lines of the trenches were visible in the no-man’s land between the two. I wasn’t sure how I felt about trench warfare in a place without firearms. Actually, I didn’t know if there were or weren’t firearms here. I just hadn’t seen any at that point.

  Even without firearms, because of magical projectiles and other more-primitive projectile launchers, the trenches could make sense. A cold sensation rushed over me as I thought about what I knew about Earth history and fighting in trenches. I had taken classes on both the world wars and the events and treaties that had led to them. I’d also watched all the war movies I could, as war is just politics by other means.

  It would be messy and dangerous. The sewers of Alsiger had nothing on the horrors of fighting in trenches. And I could only imagine the devastating magical spells that were available to both sides. Massive attacks over enormous areas, like gigantic fireballs or poisonous clouds. Honestly, I couldn’t truly see the difference between war taking place here or back home. Many people on both sides would die needless deaths.

  I must have had a grim look on my face, a tightness around the eyes or something, as Juan cast me several sidelong glances as we rode toward a well-established camp that looked a lot like a rear command position.

  “What is it, Finn? Are you thinking dark thoughts or just constipated?” Juan asked.

  “Nothing really. Just contemplating war. I’ve always enjoyed war movies and the international shenanigans surrounding them. I’ve spent a lot of time studying both world wars, the politics before, during, and after. But the scale is hard to fathom until one sees things from this high up. So many more people are going to die here. And I can’t shake the feeling that I am going to be mixed up in this people-grinder of a war. It’s kind of depressing,” I answered solemnly.

  Juan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re not wrong, muchacho. I’ve seen my fair share of things. Enough that I understand what my Abuelo meant when he told me to get into something that would keep me far away from wars. He fought in the Second World War in France. He liked to joke that he lost two things in that war: his virginity and his arm. But sometimes, after he had a few drinks, my Abuelo would say that he actually lost three things,” he said.

  “What was the third thing?” I asked.

  Juan grimaced. “His soul.”