Felix sat in his chair in the watchtower for a couple of hours, bored and lost in his thoughts. He wasn't afraid of falling asleep, since he always slept in the mornings after work - he chose to sleep in the mornings instead of in the afternoon on purpose, because he intentionally wanted to avoid the most social hours. Partly because he had an introverted nature and partly because he didn't want to grow close to anyone in Gurnkey. He didn't want to stay here for much longer after he awakened his magic. Also, he had less risk of letting slip something strange if he interacted with people less. So people thought he was just someone who liked to be left alone.
Suddenly, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He looked at the road leading north towards the capital, and faintly saw a dust cloud. He squinted and focused on it for a while, and realized it was a horse. Some absolute lunatic was riding a horse on the dirt road in the middle of the night and quite fast at that. He was lucky the moon was bright, or else his horse definitely would have already tripped and gone lame from the ensuing fall.
Felix already knew though, the only possible reason for someone to be riding hard, under these circumstances, on this road, would definitely be a noble intelligence rider, carrying critical information. He was still a good distance away though, it would probably take him around 45 minutes to reach the gate. Felix went down the watchtower stairs and walked over to the local garrison officer's door, and knocked quite loudly. He heard annoyed grumbling and some bumping around, before the officer opened the door, looking clearly annoyed at having been woken up.
"This better be important." he grumbled, not hiding his displeasure in the slightest.
"There's a rider from the north, sir. It's probably about 2 o' clock and he's riding his horse so hard I'm surprised it isn't collapsed. It likely will collapse whenever he stops it." Felix stated politely and deferentially.
The captain looked surprised. "Well, that is important. Do me a favor, lad, and wake the riders while I suit up." he changed his mood quickly and shut the door, getting his gear on.
Felix went to the rider's barracks and knocked on the door loudly. There was a bunch of groaning and cursing from inside after a moment. Eventually, one of them came to the door.
"The hell do you want lad, can't you just sit on your chair in the tower in peace and let us sleep?" He grumbled. There were various cries of agreement resounding from the bunks.
"The captain told me to wake you all while he gets suited up. There's a rider come from up north, riding hard. Probably noble. You guys are probably going to have to make a run to Fort Cumin." I told him, loud enough so the others in the barracks could hear.
Most of the riders sobered up and started getting dressed, with just a couple still grumbling. They knew that this was a rare event, so they needed to act seriously for once. Felix left the barracks and headed back to the watch tower. All told he was probably away for only about 10 minutes, but surprisingly the rider was already a third of the original distance towards the village. This meant he was riding his horse as hard as physically possible, with no regard for it's life at all, much faster than he originally thought. That wasn't good.
He glanced down at the barracks area. The riders were in formation before he even got up to the top of the watchtower again, and the captain was speaking to them. It was too far away for him to hear them, of course. After a minute they all dispersed, some of the men headed towards the stables, some of the men headed to the north and south gates, and one of the men headed to the watchtower. After a minute, he reached the top, and nodded to Felix. He looked to the north and saw the rider, and sucked in some air when he saw how fast he was riding. He lit some torches on the watchtower and started signaling to the men below. Felix didn't understand the signals, but he guessed they were affirming the information he had given them.
The riders all got ready over the next few minutes and the village gates were opened, they could start their run at any moment. 2 of the riders rode north to meet the incoming rider in case he needed assistance, which was likely due to how hard he was pushing his horse. Felix and the man next to him watched silently as they slowly got closer to each other, and then were surprised when the south-bound rider ignored the 2 who came from the village and kept running full speed past them. The man next to Felix frowned and made more signals using the torches. The riders on the ground looked displeased and closed the gates and a couple returned to the barracks, re-emerging after a moment with swords and pikes.
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Suddenly, the southbound rider held out his hand and spit out a golden ball of light into the sky. It went far up and burst into a massive golden raven, illuminating the entire plain for a few moments. Felix and the man had to squint to look at it. The man grimaced and made signals with the torches again. The gates were opened and the weapons were put away back in the barracks.
"What does that golden raven mean?" Felix asked the man.
"That's the symbol of House Duvain, the third highest House in the capital. Now keep quiet." he told Felix, while continuing to watch with a frown.
Felix's eyes widened and he shut up immediately. This was huge information. He already knew the rider was obviously a light mage of some skill. But if he was a capital class noble, he was most likely an upper-grade or at the very least the peak of middle-grade mage. He wouldn't have come this far out just to sample the local mead.
However, there was a problem. Logically speaking, the fastest mages were lightning element or perhaps wind element mages, depending on if you were discussing burst speed or distance. So why did the capital send a light mage riding a horse to it's death instead?
Felix had a bad feeling about this.
They both watched as the rider finally reached the gates of Gurnkey after a few more minutes of hard riding, and he jumped off his horse as it collapsed. Felix couldn't tell but it looked like he handed a missive to the captain. The captain yelled something and instead of dispatching a horse rider, one of the men legged it on foot, as a strong wind started to blow out of nowhere. He dashed out of the southern gate at a breakneck speed. The man next to Felix frowned even more intensely at this.
Felix couldn't help but say something. "He's going to run from here to Fort Cumin on foot? That's a distance of a couple hundred miles. There's no way he has the mana capacity for that, even if he's a middle-grade wind mage, and since he's just a runner, he's definitely only a low-grade." he stated in disbelief.
"Aye, lad, that's not good at all. To cover that distance he's going to have to burn his own future growth potential by overexerting his mana circuits the entire way to draw in mana. Something really bad must have happened." the man didn't even bother keeping Felix quiet because of how extreme the wind mage's actions were.
They both looked over at the gate. The light mage rider was brought inside and went into the captain's office with the captain. The poor horse was put out of it's misery by the men at the northern gate. The garrison all lit their torches and stood guard, waiting for further orders. The atmosphere was tense.
About 20 minutes went by, with Felix and the other man on the tower watching in silence. Eventually, the captain came out and signaled to the man sharing the tower with Felix. He then signaled with his torches and the garrison slowly closed everything back up and returned to their barracks, except for a couple of men who escorted the light mage to the baron Wiseman's manor inside the village.
"Looks like I'm to stay here with you for the rest of the night, just in case." the man stated, taking over one of the chairs.
"Well, I doubt anything more eventful than that will happen tonight." Felix said.
"Probably not, but, you know we have to be risk aversive." he said, leaning back comfortably.
"So... Did the captain tell you what happened when he signaled you earlier?" Felix asked.
"Nah, hand signals aren't that complex. But don't worry, I'm sure with all this hubbub, we'll find out soon." he said.
"Whatever it was, it must have been something big." Felix said, stating the obvious.
The man chuckled, but didn't respond. About 3 hours later the morning watchman climbed the tower when the sun peeked over the horizon. His name was Jonah, he worked the watchtower in the morning and helped out at the pub in the evenings. He was surprised to see a man standing watch with Felix.
"Something happen last night Felix?" Jonah asked curiously.
"You must sleep like the dead Jonah, there was quite the commotion last night. A rider came in the middle of the night so hard his horse had to be put down. The garrison captain's handling it. But they dispatched a wind mage on foot to Fort Cumin." Felix told him about the events through the night.
Jonah sucked in air, clearly stating his surprise at this information. It clearly meant something bad happened.
Felix rang the bell 3 times, signaling the start of the day in the village. People started leaving their houses and began their daily tasks. Felix walked down the watchtower stairs and walked to the southern gate. He opened it for the morning and walked home. His mind was constantly thinking about the events through the night and what could have possibly happened to have caused such an event.
Seeing a potentially high-grade light mage from the capital was extremely unusual. Even the local baron, Baron Wiseman, was only a middle-grade water mage. Felix hadn't recognized their symbol, but he had surely heard of Duke Duvain. He was the king's right hand, and ruler of the north of the kingdom. Even a country bumpkin like Felix knew that much. The rider obviously wasn't the Duke, but someone from his house.
Felix racked his brain about what little he knew about House Duvain. He thought back to the bits and pieces he had learned over time. Supposedly, they regularly produced light and metal element mages. Everyone always spoke about them with an air of awe. He almost wished he hadn't been so asocial at this moment, just so he could have heard more rumors and gossip about them.
He reached the road split that would lead to his house. He walked back, entered his home, shut and locked the door, drew the blinds in his room to make it dark, and he went to sleep. He was certain that when he went into town later, it would be eventful.