Mahon exited Nightmare feeling refreshed and ready for the scouting trip. He grabbed some of his clothes and put them in a bag before going to the scouting training area. The lodging district was almost empty as the meeting date was much earlier than the time Slander session began. He met a few other scouts on the way, but they stayed mostly silent, focused on the task ahead.
Arriving at the training area, Nancy, the scout professor, was already giving orders about what to pack to the students already present. Mahon and the others quickly joined the group and packed whatever the professor asked along with their own belongings.
Although not everyone had arrived, there were exactly the same number of bags as the number of scouts, and the students were filling them all the same. The goal was to spread the load among everyone. Some things, such as survival rations and water, were present in every single bag, and some others, such as tents, ropes, or tools, were divided by weight.
Every time a scout put such a thing in a bag, he added a small insignia on the bag so that anyone could tell what was inside. The zealous preparation continued for half an hour, and until everyone had a bag fully packed and was ready to go.
At that time, Nancy went on to explain some details of the expedition.
“Morning everyone! Good packing, boys. Fast and precise, like I love it. A bit more on what you should expect in the coming days. Jorik, sweetie, come here.” She gestured for Jorik to come to her side.
The First Black moved beside her, his package already on his back.
“You’ll be the leader of this expedition for the whole duration of the trip. Your mission will be twofold. First, I’m a scientist who needs to be escorted to a location where I’ll stay for a day to grab samples. Second, my scientist group would like the route clear and mapped for further investigation, in particular with heavy loaded carts and precious equipment.”
“Yes, professor.”
“Perfect. As always, it’s not because we’re out of school’s ground that there is no real danger. Bandits are very, very rare, but I’ve got my way. Consider the probability of an attack as high. I’ll act as a scientist for most of the way, so don’t count on me, but I may provide some advice here and there if needed. The trip will be two days long and, depending on how quick you are, we will come back during the banquet night or early in the morning the day after. Any questions?”
The troop stayed silent, and thus the professor gestured for Jorik to take the lead.
“Ok, scouts, you know what you have to do. No need to scout in town, but I want groups ready to move further away in five minutes. We’re doing an exercise, and the main goal is to learn, so I want both skilled people and rookies scouting together. I want some people ready to draw the map as we move forward because we’re not gonna stop before lunch.” Jorik took a short break to see if anyone had something to say. The silence lasted three seconds before he continued. “Perfect, let’s move then!”
The little group immediately arranged themselves in defensive formation around their target while discussing who should go scouting ahead.
“Mahon, you should come with us as a rookie.” A young woman named Caeda proposed.
She was one of the most experienced scouts of the band, and although she was only First White, most people listened to her. Mahon already went with her to scout once before during a lesson, and he had learned a lot.
“Ok, I’m in.” He answered.
The woman acquiesced. “We’ll need one last person and we’re good to go.” She then said to the rest of her improvised team.
“Rookie or veteran?” A nearby man asked.
“Veteran.” Caeda answered without hesitation.
“I can join.” Someone volunteered.
“I’d prefer you stay with me to map, Toross.” Jorik intervened.
The man nodded, and a woman raised her hand shortly after. “I can go, then.”
“Yes, perfect. We’re ready to go then, Jorik.”
“Switch bags to have one tent and ropes. Ground is heavily mountainous.”
“Ropes here.” A scout said while handing his bag directly to Mahon, who gave him his own.
“And I already have a tent.” Caeda added. “Info every two hours?”
“I’d prefer every hour.” Jorik answered.
“Might not be possible with so many rookies.”
“Do your best. I’ll send another team if needed. The goal is to explore and provide orders to further investigations where you deem it necessary. You’ll do the first sketch as well.”
“Understood. Unit, let’s go!”
The back and forth between the scouts felt so natural and easy, but they had worked hard every day to reach such a smooth process. Most of the rookies, Mahon being the last of them, didn’t dare yet to intervene in the process without direct questions. The veterans, however, were used to it after half a year of lessons and didn’t forget about their less talkative members.
The group of six under Caeda’s lead accelerated towards the city’s door, leaving the rest of the scouts behind them. Nancy had chosen a purposefully slow pace to force the scouts to adapt to her. No doubt she’d ask for a break often and observe how they reacted.
Mahon’s group was made of Caeda, First White and leader, two other First White rookies named Dakath and Lamluin, an experienced First Green which Mahon hadn’t caught the name yet, and Eliyen, the First Yellow woman who had joined last.
Caeda and Eliyen were among the top five most experienced scouts of the band, and Mahon had full trust in their abilities to both accomplish their mission and teach the rookies, mostly because he had already seen Caeda at work before.
Their group quickly approached the city’s door, and Mahon realized he had never taken a single foot away from it. In Nightmare, it had never crossed his mind, and since he was in Ratho, he had only been focused on growing back his body. And then, between the apparition of the Fada cult and Zac’s social life, he never had the time to go for a walk outside.
His friend had taught him about it, though. Ratho was in the middle of a U-shaped territory made of impassable mountains. In the North, the battle against the Amentiae was the last wall of their life-sized cell. They had enough territory to grow some crops, but most of it was still too rocky to be properly used.
The area they controlled wasn’t that big, and the city and the nearby plantations used barely a quarter of the flat space. Everything was focused there, as the rest of the land was either unfit for exploitation or too close to the Amentiae and set aside for the army. Rivers flowed from the mountain range to inside the city and irrigated the crops needed for growing people’s food.
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There were approximately a hundred thousand souls living in Ratho. A fifth of them were warriors, staying on duty in the North, and the others were either farmers, artisans or nobles living inside the city. Given the lack of expansion possibilities, the town had stayed the same for long, and there wasn’t a need for anything else. The delicate balance between the city’s population and the areas dedicated to food had been reached a long time ago. Nowadays, they just needed to maintain the balance.
A very important balance, though, as the resources were awfully limited given their location. Without tough control, and a desperate situation driving them to work together, they could very well die from a lack of planning and organization. Too much complacency and famine would be knocking at their door. Too much strain could also cause the city’s death, as if too many warriors died during a failed attempt to overcome the Amentiae, the balance would collapse all the same and bring chaos.
All in all, the city was stuck in an unstable equilibrium. Everything worked for now, but a little push, and the whole castle would crumble. No wonder then that the nobles tried to keep the war going on, and people thought it brought balance to their life. They had survived through the ages in their desperate situation only because of it. It gave them a purpose.
Mahon didn’t completely agree with this analysis, as ending the war would solve their problem, but he understood that taking too many risks might lead to the doom of mankind. Being careful didn’t mean doing nothing, though, and it was the point that bothered Mahon the most. How could they be at a stalemate with the Amentiae for so long?
It made no sense to him. If the Amentiae really had the strength to kill them all, they would have done it millennia ago. If Ratho was powerful enough to get rid of the nuisance, they should have done it, too. Was it really possible that the war was raging on for millennia, always at stalemate? No matter how Mahon thought about it, it sounded unlikely.
He lacked too much information regarding what was really happening at the front line. He hoped improving his scouting abilities in Ratho would help him understand better once he went there. He had many experiences scouting in Nightmare, but he needed to rehearse them in Ratho. The landscapes weren’t exactly the same, and they had much more things they could do in Ratho. Such as maps.
They couldn’t bring anything to Nightmare, and besides what was already there, they couldn’t use anything. Invoking weapons had been a welcomed exception available to some, but Nightmare really lacked a lot. They hadn’t really had maps, besides those they drew directly on the ground. They didn't have papers to send messages or flags to signal danger. They mostly had found unused weapons and somehow adapted to the lacking dreamy land.
Mahon was glad he could now benefit from being part of the real world. The mystery of the North would have to wait for another time though, as today’s mission was about exploring the East of Ratho. The surroundings had been obviously mapped out for millennia already, but it was still a good place to practice scouting.
Except for scout training and some rare ore mines, most of the people never went further than a few hours outside the city. It was safe to venture outside, but there wasn’t anything to do anyway, so most people stayed inside the town.
Sometimes, angry people left for the mountains and turned to robbery to survive away from the city. Or it was some exile sanctions imposed by the Council. It was rare though, and no bandit group lived long isolated in the mountains.
“Mahon, Dakath and Lamluin,” Caeda called all the rookies, “you can start drawing the map. One hour from now, we should arrive at the first rocky hills, and we’ll only keep the best of your maps.”
The three men nodded in unison and pulled the necessary tools from their bag. The next hour was relatively easy, if not for having to count their steps and draw important landmarks while walking.
The ground was slightly uphill, and the road well traced. They kept looking for potential enemies, and although true bandits were really rare, they knew Nancy had probably found something to test them either way. However, there were still many farmers around, and the probability of an attack was low.
The experienced scouts each helped one of the rookie, pointing out important things or rectifying distance when needed. Caeda paired with Mahon, and the woman had a real wealth of knowledge to share. She explained in detail what Mahon should focus on, and what he should completely ignore. Mahon was a fast learner, and he absorbed every bit of knowledge he could.
After an hour of brisk walking, they stopped in front of a small house on the side of the road. The last time they had seen a human was more than ten minutes ago, and the location was a bit isolated. The building didn’t look like much, alas, they were numerous guards patrolling around it.
Caeda took the lead, and raising her hand, she walked to the guards. The soldiers approached as soon as they saw them, and the two groups met a dozen meters in front of the house.
“Hey, isn’t that Caeda? How are you doing?” The man with a captain’s insignia spoke.
“Hi, Tanyth! I’m doing just fine. Sorry to bother you while you’re working. We’re on a scouting mission for the Pine Hill Officer Institute, and a group of scouts is gonna pass nearby soon. We were wondering if you had seen anything particular nearby while patrolling?”
“Hahaha, taking your training quite seriously, that’s good! We haven’t seen anything there. Nobody would dare to attack this place, anyway. You’re free to play around as you want.”
“Thanks, Tanyth. Can I also ask you to pass on to the next group that we’re doing fine, and that we’ll move forward faster from now on?”
The captain chuckled. “Yes, sure, no problem.”
Caeda and the captain shook their hands while exchanging a smile, and both groups went back to their occupation.
“From now on, we’re gonna do the real job.” Caeda stated. “Let’s check these maps.”
The three rookies passed their maps to her, and she started studying them while walking away from the road. Since she had worked with Mahon, she spent more time looking at the two other maps. In less than a minute, she selected Lamluin’s map and gave back the others.
“Lamluin has the best one, congrats! Mahon and Dakath, yours are good enough, but they’re still a bit inferior in readability. Now we’ll enter uncharted territory, and there is no use to draw a map if we don’t give it back to Jorik so he can move forward. We’ll do the usual information travel formation. I’ll go with Mahon ahead. Dakath and Eliyen, you’ll assure the relay between us and Lamluin’s map.”
Everyone acquiesced before exchanging the necessary tools. Caeda gave her tent to the experienced First Green man, and Mahon gave away some ropes while still keeping the majority for Caeda and him. They also tried to lighten their bags the most they could before running forwards.
Their task was to find the best possible ways forward, dropping clues to Dakath and Eliyen in the way so that they could transmit the information to Lamluin and his map. The latter group would guide the next scouts on the right path with the map, while making sure there was no one seeking trouble with the main convoy.
Caeda and Mahon left the next instant, and they ran in silence for a good fifteen minutes. They followed the trails going uphill, leaving signs when needed. Once they had taken enough of a lead, they slowed down a bit, and Caeda started the conversation.
“Don’t hesitate to ask if you don’t understand something. You’re here to learn, after all.”
Mahon nodded and directly asked what he had in mind. “What was the building we passed just before?”
“The house? With Tanyth? It’s an important mine. Not sure what they extract in there, though. Never asked before. Must be important to have such an escort. Anyway, the captain, Tanyth, he is the one in charge of the security, and his daughter is a real good friend of my son.”
“You have a son?” Mahon asked, surprised. The woman couldn’t be more than fifty, and it was rare to have a child at such a young age in the nobles world.
“Yes! An amazing little boy. He’ll turn seven this spring. There aren’t many children of his age in our area, but Tanyth’s daughter is one of them. The man is crazy about his daughter, a true doting father. He is very nice, and since I know him, I often ask them about the situation before going on a scouting trip. Nothing ever happened, but we never know.”
At her side, Mahon nodded. They continued to chitchat for a bit until they arrived in front of a giant rock scree barring their way.
“Learning time! What do we do now?” Caeda asked as she stopped and looked at Mahon.
The multiple blocks seemed unstable to Mahon, and he couldn’t see a simple way to cross through it. They should be able to do it, but the professor playing the escort wouldn’t be able to do so. And much less the supposed carts they mapped the surrounding for.
“Turn around and find another way?” Mahon suggested. “The carts will never be able to pass through it.”
“You’re right, but our job isn’t to find a way for the carts. It’s to move well ahead of the main troop to find such problems. We’re not here to solve, we’re here to bring information. Run to the previous intersection and leave a small map of here to Eliyen, then come back here.”
Caeda grinned at him, and Mahon could almost see the enthusiasm exuding from her next words.
“And give me the ropes. I’m gonna prepare our way through in the meantime.”