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Buck’s been spending a majority of the time after first meeting Jenos asleep. Tau-Kor has a bunkhouse where the resident monks sleep; Buck’s become a resident monk, spending his waking hours helping to clean and maintain the monastery grounds. It’s not hard work as much as it is tedious, and everybody helps. The pilgrims donate coin or time, bring food or clothes for the monks. He’s been spending time up in the bell tower watching them. After about a month he settles into an easy routine of waking when the sun rises, eating with the other monks, tidying the common areas, directing pilgrims, then falling back to sleep. The routine comes easily to a former soldier, but it’s different now, he tells himself. He’s talked with Jenos in his sleep. Maybe he’s just obsessed. For that reason he tells nobody of it and focuses on his duties in the monastery, sometimes joining the lone gate guard.

One night, he’s woken by cold blue light suffusing the bunkhouse. The rest of the monks are waking too, bleary-eyed and drowsy, but they all stiffen up in turn once the source of the light comes into focus. Jenos hovers in the middle of the room, expression grim and tense. The monks who sleep with weapons near them immediately go for them; Buck sees the gate guard grab his monk’s spade, which is curious since the gate guard is blind. Jenos holds his hands up. They all hesitate, attention focused totally on him.

“Leave here. Go down the north side of the mountain and don’t come back until you see the signs in the sky.”

“What’s happening?” One of the monks, already fastening tekko onto her fists.

“Some very foolish people are marching on the monastery.” Either he didn’t notice or didn’t care that the majority of his followers hadn’t put their weapons down.

“We can’t leave!” Someone else, less angry and more anguished. “This is our home!”

Buck wanted to chip in, but couldn’t make himself. For Jenos to have come it must be very serious indeed. Did his eyes linger on him for perhaps a second longer than anybody else? The monks broke out of the silence into chatter, some panicking and some angry. Buck knew that some of them were sworn to pacifism, but even then a vast majority of them were looking murderous.

“Let us help,” he said finally, hoping that it sounded more reasoning and less pleading.

“Your assistance is appreciated,” Jenos said, and they all fell into attentive, worried silence. “But it is unneeded.”

“Our job is to protect the monastery,” someone said, bullishly determined. Jenos frowned.

“Leave. Now.” That held the currents of an order. There was no more arguing, mainly because Jenos blinked out of existence. The monks dressed, still chattering amongst themselves, and somehow Buck found himself close to both the woman with the tekko and the gate guard.

“Are you staying?” Buck finally said. It felt like a rebellion, which wasn’t what he wanted it to feel like.

“I am,” the woman said. She finished dressing and tied her sash, the inside holding a holster for her tekko and a few tiny pouches. The gate guard turned and let her tie his sash.

“I am,” he said too. “It’s my duty.”

“He told us to leave,” Buck said, though it was less of an argument and more of a comment.

They decided to stay. The rest of the monks left, taking what little they owned down the north side of the mountain as an army approached from the south.  The other two settled back down in the bunkhouse; Buck went to the cliff where he’d sat for so long, where he’d first seen Jenos descend.

He came from behind this time. Buck saw the light catch on his shoulders.

“I should have known.”  Jenos settled next to him, one leg tucked under the other, the other hanging free. Buck wanted to look at his face, but didn’t. He kept looking to the dark world below. “Don’t be foolish.”

Buck shifted on his knees, hands squeezing his thighs. “I can’t abandon this place.”

Jenos sighed. “I know.”

He probably did. He probably knew that Buck planned to stay the second he’d told them to leave. Buck looked at him, staring out to the camp a mile away. There were a few tents but the majority of the soldiers merely slept on mats on the ground. Clearly, there hadn’t been much time to prepare for this attack.

“You will stay here,” Jenos continued. “And let me deal with them. They won’t reach the monastery.”

Buck nodded. Jenos idly played with a tiny bundle of stars in his palm, rearranging itself into constellations. Buck saw a scorpion, a rabbit, a fish. A lion. Buck didn’t know Jenos well enough to decipher his moods but guessed that the god was just as worried as his followers.  “Okay.”

“I expect we will receive reinforcements from the Stagalla.”

Right. There had been explosive displays in the sky, sure signs that Jenos had returned; there would be more people traveling to the monastery. The monks in the valley would keep those unprepared for battle from climbing to a certain doom.

“I used to fight for them. They’ll stop at nothing to get what they want.” Was it a warning? Buck didn’t know. He felt useless. If he’d gone with the main body of the monks he would have at least been able to defend them if the invading force tried to surround the mountain, or meet the Resistance fighters and guide them up. Here, he was stuck in the halls and common areas, or on the cliff watching the camp of his sleeping enemies. Former allies. He’d escaped war only to plunge straight into another one.

As if sensing his unease, Jenos glanced down at him.

“They cannot stand against the force of the cosmos. I will see them all dead the second they try.”

It wasn’t gentle enough for a reassurance or bold enough for a boast. Jenos said it as if it were the simple truth. Buck nodded, then looked back down to the dark camp.