We policed the field and tossed the dead Aurelian's carelessly into a large pile to the side of the road. Similar tasks were being performed on the other side of the fortress with dead crossbowmen. A few had escaped, but before dawn had fully broken the Green Rangers had brought a gaggle of men back gagged and tied at the hands. They didn't bother to tie their feet, since I am guessing that anyone who tried to run was immediately filled with arrows by those steel-eyed rangers. They were dressed in mottled green cloth with hoods that pulled fully over their faces and leather armor, also dyed a mottled color. Each ranger carried an assortment of equipment with them, standardized across the ranger corps from what I hear. I could see laminated yew longbows, three foot laminated arrowheads - bodkins and broad heads - and each carried a three foot long0sword sheathed one one side of their hip with a dirk on the other, as well as a bracer of knives and throwing darts allegedly tipped with poisons. We had a whole two companies of them, and I was glad for their presence.
A mage came by as we finished our gruesome work and lit the corpse pile aflame, and we watched in silence as it was supernaturally reduced to ash, a magical wind conjured to carry the ash towards Aurelia. From fifty feet away I still felt the intensity of the flame as if I was next to a roaring bon-fire, so intense was the conflagration. Master Dorman and his mages had captured and summarily executed the mages in the middle of our battle - the master mage leading his own group of covert warrior mages out during the initial cavalry charge. The lightning the enemy mages had used to fry our poor comrade had allowed for Master Dorman to hone in on his location and engage in a personal fight with the woman - one that lasted a short seven seconds according to the mages following him. Dorman had overwhelmed her naive defenses in an instant and turned her into a petrified statue that shattered when he struck with a massive hammer.
The rest of the mages had surrendered after his oppressive display of might, but unknowingly to them they had an execution order hanging over their heads. Our mages suffered assassination and targeting during every engagement and had to avoid assassination even during peace time and so we offered no quarter to enemy combatant magi. They would come to realize that if they were face-to-face with Pervalia, they would do better to shed their military colors and pretend to be a common street mage rather than stand up to our elite magical corps. Pervalia had more mages combined than most two or three countries put together - on this continent anyways, we were greatly overshadowed by the Mage Empire of Estoria - and it was something that our enemies feared.
"Alright, we've got a tally. Out of 100 heavies versus their 100 heavies we lost 39 total. Counting our losses from the crossbowmen and pickets, we lost a total of two hundred fifty seven, and they lost a total of two hundred and nine, counting their mages. We lost no mages. Overall, the damage could have been a lot worse, and Master Dorman has confirmed that they had a specialist team of mages designed to infiltrate our pickets and wards. No punishments will be levied against anyone." Roderick informed us all as he walked over to observe the drifting ash.
Despite the losses from last night the Vanguard would be leaving soon, and we would join them in order to establish the next fort. There was no guarantee that another ambush wouldn't be waiting for us, and the walls had done their job last night in preventing their company of heavy cavalry from running over our tents. "They sent so few..." I commented aloud.
Roderick turned to me, "They knew that it would likely be heavy losses on their side, and were gauging our response. They'll change tactics and any future ambushes will take our size into account. I guarantee they were able to get a mage message off informing them of a lot of things we were doing before Dorman killed them," he said as he gestured for me to follow. "As soon as the next group gets here to man the fort, we will be moving out. That should be roughly in two hours, so go sleep in your armor and be ready to move as soon as we get the word," he ordered.
"Aye Sir," I said, saluting smartly before stalking off. I mounted Cobalt and we rode into the inner fort where I handed the horse off to a stable boy instructing him to curry and brush him, as well as putting his feed bag of oats on myself while patting him down. Then I went and found a convenient corner to fall asleep in.
Later
I was awoken by a boot nudging me in my side. Opening my eyes I stared blearily at Roderick who motioned for me to get up. "Lets go," he said to me as I sat up and stretched the kinks out of my body. Sleeping in armor was not comfortable by any stretch of the imagination. Together we got into the courtyard just in time for Gerald to greet the Duke as he rode in and dismounted. The two embraced and shared a joke before my father adopted a thunderous look on his face. Clearly Gerald had told him about the casualties, and it appeared that it angered my father to lose men to Aurelia. It was inevitable, but it was something he still cared enough to be angry about.
As I walked up father turned his gaze on me and I felt the liquid rage soften a bit as he threw a casual wave and I nodded back. "Greetings Father," I said formally.
"Zerial, how are you doing?" he asked as everyone stepped away to give us some privacy.
"I am well, I was placed in the van yesterday for our counter attack against the Aurelian heavy and didn't get slaughtered," I told him. He chuckled lightly though I saw the brief flash of concern in his facial features before they smoothed over.
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"Well, it was nice to see you again so soon. I know you'll be heading out soon so please be careful. Your mother won't forgive me if we lose you again so soon," my father said to me, embracing me and receiving a tight hug in return. It felt good, paternal. It was something that I got from Gerald but it was nice to receive approval and concern. I felt my fears about my future melting away slightly and I felt the anger I kept bubbling in my stomach cool slightly. They still had a long way to go, a few weeks did not erase years of neglect, but I reaffirmed that I could grow into my new role if things continued as they have.
"Farewell Father," I turned smartly and mounted a spare horse that had been brought over for me. While we were traveling I would ride this mare named Honey and that way Cobalt would be nice and rested if we needed to get into some mischief. I met Roderick and Gerald at the northern gate and together with the rest of the newly formed Pervalian offensive vanguard we set off for another day's journey.
Fort Zerial
I was supremely embarrassed when we arrived at a defensible location and decided to stop. My adoptive father rode into the middle of a series of rocks on raised terrain with high cliffs on each side and declared that this would be where Fort Zerial was established. It seemed that dad had decided to target me for the amusement of the masses this time around, and judging by the chuckling and open laughter the joke was well received. I resolved to get my revenge at the next fort location, the second to last, by insisting we name it Fort Gerald.
This time I got to watch the mages and engineers construct the fort, and it started with the engineer's conducting a survey of the terrain while the mages tested the rock and soil through various alchemical and magical means. I followed Dorman around and he indulged me by explaining the process.
"At the top of that hill will be the Pele Tower, and the mages will begin construction on that shortly. The tests they are doing will gauge the strength of the material, its magical density which dictates it's ability to resist magical influence, and finally it's chemical make up to ensure that it wont be easy for someone to magically alter the chemical structure of the rock and turn it into something soft or malleable. Or just turn our entire building into sand, which has happened before. The engineers are surveying, dowsing, and planning the walls for this fort so that when the mages come by they just have to move, raise, or meld the rock and dirt into place. It should go much faster considering we have the main body of mages in this group and plenty of hands to help move things into position," and together we toured the work sites.
True to his word, the Mages had the rough walls of our Pele tower established in a little under two hours, and the structure was four stories tall with a crenelated roof and curving staircase attached to the side offering access to all floors. The primary entrance was pointed towards the cliff face to make it harder for enemies to attack the structure, and a ditch was magically excavated by a team of five mages directing one elemental to gouge entire trenches out of the ground. The dirt was carted out to the outer wall where entire teams of mages toiled magically to raise stone walls foot by foot.
After the mages finished a foot of the outer wall they would have the soldiers back fill the six foot thick fortification with dirt and rubble. We quickly ran out of dirt from the Pele ditch and the same elemental mages came by and dug a twenty foot deep by six foot long ditch in front of the walls over the course of the day. Everyone worked with practiced efficiency and before sunset we had a 21 foot tall crenelated wall stretching from cliff-face to cliff-face and the beginnings of a secondary fortification covering the Royal Highway with two rough gatehouses, one facing east and one facing west directly over the road.
In addition to this I got to watch Dorman and his personal team of ward mages lay the magical security we would rely on. The inside of the castle walls were etched with eldritch carvings and enchanted afterwards to counter the most common siege mage tactics - the ones we mentioned earlier were also included - as well as some tailored counter-spells for what Dorman had learned from the magical attack on us yesterday. We rode out into the surrounding rocky terrain and the mages also enchanted large boulders and rocks to act as anti-scrying devices, intruder detection enchantments, and I also watched them rig alchemical traps that would shoot bright flares into the sky if the spell detected an elevated heartbeat of a specific size nearby. No use activating our defenses every time a lizard skittered by.
"We'll also lay several traps specifically tailored to counter the intrusion efforts they used last night. It's doubtful they will try the same exact method, but a careless mage is a dead mage and we would rather account for their carelessness than present our own," Dorman told me as the mages inscribed a long thing line of runes stretching from one side of the valley to the other, even going so far as to magically carve the repeating rune structure into the Royal Highway.
By the time I lay down for sleep in a rough wooden camp-bed brought along for me, the shifts had switched and teams of mages who had been sent to rest now began to take over for the exhausted mages and soldiers who had spent the day toiling away. Judging by their pace, by the time I woke up tomorrow they would have put the finishing touches on the outer fort and erected several towers. I felt pity for anyone who attacked the fort, and I felt like they wouldn't try to engage it directly. Fort Jarrod was a small fortification designed to safeguard our resources as they were in transit, and to house patrolling and defensive forces. Over time it would probably be turned into a proper castle, but for now it was just a large walled Pele Tower.
Fort Zerial by comparison was already a fortress, and the mages stationed here would have much more to work with due to all the exposed rock. I even heard them planning to tunnel into the mountain side and create long, narrow, and elevated tunnels with arrow slits carved into them, to allow us to volley into any enemy that besieged our gates. I went to sleep almost feeling sorry for anyone stupid enough to attack.