Usually, usually Costis could count on life remaining mostly sane and sensible as long as he wasn’t in the immediate presence of his king. Costis wasn’t the chosen of the gods, for which he was profoundly grateful. The Medes had been beaten back, the future of the alliance was secure, along with its contributing nations.
Granted, there might have been a bit of divine intervention involved in surviving that last patrol - perhaps Attolis’s prayers at work - or the God of Thieves had decided to glance in on his second living worshiper (or was it third now, what with the birth of the next Thief?). Supposedly, he had a personal touch, what with having so few actual adherents, and Costis had pledged to serve his king's god.
This, however, was neither sane nor sensible. All, all Costis had done was to open the gate to the practice grounds, and the world had torn apart in front of him. It was a - hole? In the air?
“Light and arrows.” He was ready to turn right around and walk back to the barracks, but in that demanding way the supernatural had, the hole in the air seemed to drag him right back. An invisible force pulled him backwards faster than he could run. "All right, then."
He turned back toward the hole in the air and drew his sword before striding forward towards whatever waited.
What waited, proved to be a squad of soldiers on guard (one knew another) who transformed quickly from bored with an apparently routine duty to alert and dangerous. Four swords pointed back at Costis. The bigger shock was the rush of cold. He'd heard of Eddisian winters wrapping the mountains in cold. Rumor held that was why they trained such good soldiers. There was little else for them to do all winter. Those were not Eddisian uniforms, however, nor any style he recognized, and the chill put any tale of the mountain country to shame.
Costis lowered the point of his sword, but did not drop it. “Where is my king?” he demanded. Because only Attolis Eugenides inspired this much madness in the world. Probably, he’d developed some mad plan that included getting himself captured, something had gone wrong, and Costis would have to get them both out.
He sighed. If only punching one’s king wasn’t treason.