Magi's Path (Aether's Revival Book 3) by Daniel Schinhofen (motivational books to read txt) 📕

“My heritage is mine,” Yukiko added. “Neither of you cares, but most of the world will, and it might cause problems for us.”

“You are beautiful, wonderful, and special,” Gregory said, his arm going around her. “I wouldn’t change a single thing about you.”

“I know,” Yukiko murmured, leaning into his side, “but it still is my weakness, as I see it.”

“Strength,” Jenn said after a few seconds. “Mine is my willingness to endure anything for you. It doesn’t matter what, if it’ll help you.”

“Mine is the ability to balance gain against cost,” Yukiko said. “Not just money, but nearly anything. I balanced the cost of losing part of your affection against the benefit of Jenn joining us. The scale weighed heavily in Jenn’s favor.” She gave their wife a soft smile.

“I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that, Yuki.”

“Stubbornness,” Gregory said. “Refusing to give in. Being stubborn or stupid enough to even go as far as making the world change.”

“If you need to change the world, dear one, we will help you.”

“Yes,” Jenn agreed.

“I know. The more I think about it, the more I find myself wanting to do just that. It’ll be a long journey, but with you both beside me, I think we can do it in time.”

“The clan will be behind us, too,” Yukiko said softly, “and it’ll be growing in the future.”

The mention of the clan growing brought the novices to mind, and Gregory’s face heated as he thought of the last part of resonance. He shifted slightly, and both of his wives looked at him.

“Oh... desires,” Yukiko whispered. “Yes…” She bit her bottom lip unsure if she should mention them.

Jenn coughed and looked down, clearly uncertain herself.

“I…” Gregory started before he trailed off, unsure of how to approach it. “Maybe we should turn in for the night?”

Both Jenn and Yukiko sat there for a few seconds before they nodded, neither ready to explain their desires, either.

As they started to undress, Gregory shook his head slightly. How could I ever want more when I have them? It’s not as if the others would ever want me to look at them in those ways anyway...

Chapter Forty-six

Gregory met Jenn’s eyes before thrusting his piece forward. Jenn’s eyes widened slightly, and a smirk came to her lips. “Oh? Is that all you have?”

Gregory snorted as he flipped over the three cards he’d been waiting to play. “Nope.”

Ling moved her own piece forward at that point, flipping one of her cards. “Combined charge,” she said with a grin.

Clover frowned at them. “But I intercepted the three messengers you sent last. How did you know to go now?”

Paul cleared his throat and held out the message that Gregory had sent to Ling at the very start of the game. “His first message was to invest in pigeons and use them exclusively for combat orders. The true messages would carry the correct color scale following the rainbow. He added that they needed to send false messages after that one on the ground, but would release pigeons with the right ones at the same time.”

“So the plans we thought we’d taken from them are false?” Jenn asked.

Paul shrugged. “You’ll have to decide that for yourself. Did you have a counter to the combined charge on your lines?”

“Clover?” Jenn asked.

“Turtle,” Clover said, giving her a guilty look as she flipped the card.

Jenn exhaled slowly and put one of her cards faceup. “Hasty retreat. I’m going to lose half of my men.”

“Glory for the empire,” Gregory said. “My commander whipped them into a frenzy before sending them off.”

“Most of my men will be lost,” Jenn sighed. “I’ll leave the field once the damage is done. You’re on your own, Clover.”

“I was hoping you’d be able to hold something back to keep them honest,” Clover told her. “If you quit the field, I won’t last another two rounds.”

“I’m not playing Krogga,” Jenn said. “I’m pretty sure that they’re going to leave me with less than a tenth of my men.”

“Anything else in play?” Paul asked.

“My archers will rain on the turtle to make sure they stay in place,” Ling said, flipping an archer shower card. “I’ll deduct the expenditure from my stores.”

“Since they’re in place and my magi has to go past them, he’ll use his aether for the day,” Gregory said. “Muddy the ground under them and possibly ruin their food supply.” Gregory turned his magi sideways to show he was exhausted.

Paul blinked, but nodded. “A two-prong attack with a full combined charge?”

Gregory looked at Ling, then handed Paul their last pigeon message.

Paul took it, read the small slip of paper, and shook his head. “I asked you not to use foresight.”

“I haven’t, sir. You have my word on that.”

“May I?” Jenn asked.

Paul looked at Gregory, who nodded. Paul passed the paper to Jenn, and Clover read it over her shoulder.

“That’s Ling’s writing,” Clover said. “She thought one of us would turtle and asked him to use rain to keep the turtle in place. But what if Jenn had turtled instead of me?”

Ling smiled and tapped her other facedown card. “Give up?”

Clover looked at the units charging at Jenn’s men— who would be in full retreat— and did some quick mental math. “Yes. Surrender and ask for good terms for my men.”

“Let’s see how many men Jenn loses, then we will end the game,” Paul said. “Ling, go ahead.”

Ling flipped the card she’d tapped. “Switch targets,” she smiled. “And since we’re a combined charge, he would’ve come with me. We wouldn’t break on the shell.”

“If we had both turtled?” Jenn asked.

Ling flipped her last card. “Probing charge. That means we’d pull back at a minor loss and can go again next turn.”

Jenn exhaled. “You