Commander Novik was true to his word and made Painin one of his valets. The senior valet was an old soldier named Monroe, who looked made of more scar tissue than man. Marki and the other guards treated him with deep respect for he was some sort of legend with the men. Unfortunately for Painin however Monroe seemed to take offense that Painin had been given his position under him. He took it as a personal affront that Commander Novik believed that he could no longer perform his duties and set about proving him wrong.

“I may have seen 60 summers, but I can still outwork a wet-behind-the-ears recruit like yourself.” Monroe was fond of saying in passing to no one in particular.

Many a morning Painin went down to the kitchens to get the Commander his breakfast and found himself face to face with Monroe already 2 or 3 steps ahead of him as he hustled up the stairs. He confided this to Marki, but the Corporal simply chuckled at him.

“Yep, that sounds like Monroe. He is like that with everyone until he thinks you have paid your dues.”

Painin settled on the fact that he was just going to have to prove himself to the grizzled veteran. Every morning he awoke and threw on his clothes and virtually flew down to the kitchen to get breakfast for the Commander but no matter how fast he got down there the old soldier was already waiting and pouring a cup of the black liquid the soldiers drank called coffee. The dark bitter liquid was the only thing he had seen Monroe drink and he claimed it was the fuel that kept soldiers moving.

Painin wanting to prove himself poured himself a cup of the liquid and took a sip of the hot liquid which he promptly spit out onto the floor much to the annoyance of Mrs. Montes who ran the kitchen. After he had cleaned up his mess to her satisfaction, he went up to assist the Commander with anything he might require before it was time to go to another one of his duties.

He divided his time among the Commander, Corporal Marki, Master Pierce, and Master Nich trying to fulfill his obligations to them all as required on a rotational schedule. He spent the bulk of his time too busy to think about anything other than the task currently in front of him and would fall into his bed at night simply exhausted. His dreams were still plagued with nightmares, but they had lessened over his time at the Garrison.

Slowly his skill with the different types of weapons began to improve and he was no longer a huge dangerous liability to himself or others when practicing or drilling. He was excited to graduate from wooden weapons to metal ones with no edge to them and blunted tips. He also found himself hanging out with the guardsmen more often in their living area learning how to play any number of games of chance and skill that they busied themselves with whenever they had downtime.

He quickly learned how to throw knives, roll dice, and play card games, and since he lacked funds to bet with, they used different duties to bet with. Painin had also talked to the others and learned a little about some of their lives before they joined up. He was surprised to learn that some had spent time in jail and carried the prisoner’s “P” branded on their arm. Others were the sons of noble families born too far out of lineage to take over the family business and it was a choice of soldiering or becoming a member of the clergy.

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The soldiers under the guidance of Corporal Marki took him under their wing and helped him learn the basics of soldiering. This was helped along when Painin one night mentioned his father’s name and the room went silent with all the eyes in the room directed at him. It appeared that his father was a man of renown by those in the garrison and all over the continent as well. They told him stories of his father that he had not heard before talking about his battlefield intelligence and tactical brilliance. His father had not talked about his life that much with Painin before he had become a blacksmith and always shrugged off attempts by Painin to do so. Commander Novik had a book on battle tactics that included a chapter on his father and his battle against the Nun hordes that he loaned him. The man depicted in the book was nothing like the sweet but stern man that he had grown up with and it was hard for Painin to connect the two different people into one.

There was no shortage of things for him to do inside the garrison as the different Master’s loaned him different books once they found out that he enjoyed reading. He often found himself in his room late at night working through the different books on a seemingly limitless number of topics. He also busied himself with performing different duties around the keep where he was able to help when he was allowed. Sometimes the chores were simple ones like splitting wood, carrying water, or even cleaning out the stables.

Master Pierce would talk to him while he was working on some sort of magical research project which he said was one of the reasons he had agreed to take the position at the outpost. He had a talent for battle magic, but his true passion was in figuring out how things worked and how to recreate them using magic. Painin further learned that the dust storm was the way he kept people out and away from his rooms. However, he had been the first person to sense where the Battle Mage had been hidden behind the illusion spell.

The room for all its clutter was very well organized into general areas and once you learned the system it made a lot of sense. Though Painin still found it hard to believe that Master Pierce had some of the items that were labeled in different-sized bottles. I mean honestly everyone knew that dragons were long dead and gone from the world. Master Pierce laughed when Painin told him this and promised to show him a living dragon someday.

Also, according to Master Pierce one day when he was drinking wine, most people can cast magic the problem is according to him that they lack the drive or exposure to it to do so. It was a known fact that the Magic houses withheld that information from the masses.

“I mean we can’t have everyone out there casting spells now, could we? It would be chaos!” He said while finishing his cup of wine.

Master Pierce proved it to Painin by giving him a cantrip printed on a slip of paper that caused a candle to light and helped him practice the words until he could say them correctly and the written words burned off the paper and the candle lit. He swore Painin to secrecy about it though as he knew he had said too much but Painin had already shown a deeper feeling of magical awareness for him not to work with him on some basic magic principles.

“I just wish I knew where you got the magic in your blood from.”

“My mother always said that there was elven blood in her side of the family and that my father had dwarven blood in his side. We would always laugh at my father’s face when she said it.” Painin replied with a smile thinking back to the time.

“Well elven blood is nothing to scoff at and they were some of the world’s first humanoid magic users and connected to it far more efficiently than we humans ever could. So if you were descended from elves even many generations it would still be present in your bloodline. I will have to take some samples and perform some tests.” He said refilling his cup from the pitcher sitting in a bowl of ice.

“That is funny, you taking some of my blood to test…” He said laughing at the Battle Mage who just looked at him with a blank face.

“Sir?”