The Caravanserai 04 was established 78 years ago at the end of a decade-long war between Holobordenia and Rombia. It lay on the only formal trade route between the two countries, the development and maintenance of which was one of the salient features of the Witlegland-Havetonce Pact. It's led to flourishing diplomatic, cultural, and mercantile activity not just for Holobordenia and Rombia but also for Sobury, which had no formal trade routes with Holobordenia before then.

Maven tapped her foot impatiently. "How can you actually be interested in all this? It's a caravanserai, it's here, we're here to find a job. What's the deal with wanting to know everything that happened here in the last 78 years?"

Caine glared daggers at her. "People like you are the reason we don't have more complete historical records."

The impromptu lecturer, a tall brunette woman in her early 20s with short hair that came down to her ears, said, "Actually, people unlike her are the reason for incomplete historical records. She's friends with a Bloodmage, after all. If there'd been more like her, perhaps more could've been preserved of Dobrid and the Bloodmage Cult."

"Wait, what? I thought the Bloodmages were the ones who invaded Holobordenia? Wasn't their destruction retaliatory action, with Holobordenia sustaining a lot of losses?"

The woman laughed, "Any scholar worth the grain of their bread will tell you that was propaganda designed to quell opposition to the Empire's expansion into the East. It started with the Gatontabingismese Proselytism to remove support from the Bloodmage Cult so they could install a puppet ruler from the Tettleland territories.

"That backfired horribly as Tettleland gained its independence from Dobrid and stood as nothing more than an obstacle in the path of their expansion, refusing any kind of alliance. The rebellion ended up culling traitors from within the Bloodmage Cult too, strengthening their chain of command and increasing morale."

"In the end, since they couldn't send in their own troops, they hired Adventurers to do their dirty work. They infilitrated Dobrid through the Trade Route that passes through Tettleland, then cut a bloody swath through the entire diocese right into the capital, where they destroyed the cult's temples and libraries and killed about half the population, over twenty thousand back then, before finally leaving with Dobrid a shadow of its former glory and Draxted in tatters, nothing more than a shanty town of a little over ten thousand people."

The rage on both their faces would have been obvious to Maven had she bothered sticking around that long, but a vindictive smile began spreading upon the lecturers freckled face. "Of course, the Bloodmage Cult didn't go down without a fight."

"Firstly, the sheer amount of havoc they wreaked on the border lead to the Monia Deanery declaring its independence from Holobordenia. It's been almost a hundred years and they still haven't been able to get it back. The Rombian War didn't help either."

The smile grew and grew until she looked downright evil. "But the most persistent mechanism they set up to make sure Holobordenia never took them over was the formation and deployment of the Rangers of the Red Sands. They were a group that fell into a sort of limbo between the highest ranks of the Bloodmage Cult and the normal, non-bloodmagical army. Every single time Holobordenia has tried to install a puppet ruler, they've been assassinated with a note on their body reading, "The Rangers of the Red Sands watch and wait for the return of the true masters." Uncomfirmed accounts even tell of them helping Monia and Tettleland drive back invasions by Holobordenia and Goodland, its only equal when it comes to expansion."

Maven appeared from the dense crowd with an older man. "And then you ask why people don't trust Bloodmages. Are you trying to look evil? Shield and lance made of blood, massive grin across your face, and I'm pretty sure I heard the word, "Assassinated" somewhere in there."

The man was in his early 40s, bald and swarthy, with a hooked nose and brilliant brown eyes.“I couldn't care less about your personal affairs if I tried. The girl tells me you’re a Level 8 Bloodmage. Is that true?”

Caine put up the shield and lance. “I’m sorry, was all the blood not making it obvious enough?”

The man sneered. “Bloodmages are nothing special, not outside of Holobordenia anyway. What I want to know is your Discipline.”

“Dobridian Bloodmage.”

The old man and the woman both froze. “Are you really a Dobridian Bloodmage?”

He shrugged, “Yes, I’m a Dobridian Bloodmage, what’s the big deal about that? Isn’t that the only kind of Bloodmage?”

She shook her head. “No, no, not at all. Any idiot can power up a few cantrips with their own blood, but it takes a true Dobridian Bloodmage to achieve the apocalyptic feats the cultists were capable of.”

The man looked Caine over. “How old are you?”

“16. Why?”

“16. And a Dobridian Bloodmage. How?”

Caine rolled his eyes, “Blame a wizard and be glad I’m not a box full of pygmies. Now, what’s the job?”

He looked at the bronze disk emblazoned with uneven arrows hanging from the woman’s neck. “50 Gold to escort me from here to Brury. In the interest of transparency, you will probably get injured quite badly and may even die. Still interested?”

“Name’s Caine. Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Maven. Level 8. Unstoppable, but I’m not too bad with a bow either. I can camp, hunt, and cook if you’d prefer to save money on food and lodging.”

“Rinnleigh. Taramingian Nonexistence Mage. I’m only tagging along to study Caine here.”

“Tsorvano. I’m afraid I cannot divulge anything more right now, but prove yourselves valuable allies and I assure you there will be much for you to gain. Maven, go and scout ahead, up to a day’s travel on horseback. Caine, Rinnleigh, get your personal articles in order and meet me at the stables.”

Before either of them could ask any more questions, Tsorvano and Maven both disappeared, one into the crowd and the other over the horizon.

“I don’t really have any “personal articles”. You got anything you need help with?”

“I’ve got my books in my room, and some clothing, but that’s about it. I’d appreciate the company, however.” She began walking from the plaza to the hostel, and Caine tagged along.

“So, tell me a bit about yourself. I’m ravenously curious about how anyone, let alone someone as young as yourself gets the Dobridian Bloodmage Discipline.”

“I don’t really see what’s so significant about this. Is Dobridian Bloodmage some kind of rare and unusually powerful Discipline?”

Rinnleigh laughed. “Oh, not at all. What a novel concept, Discipline superiority. If you hope to get anywhere as an Adventurer, or even as an Awakened, leave that behind in the drunken spats. No, the importance of Dobridian Bloodmage Discipline doesn’t come from any inherent power. Rather, it comes from the history behind it. The general consensus is that only a Dobridian Bloodmage can be acknowledged as a “True Master” by the Rangers of the Red Sands.”

She opened the door to her room, a cozy little room with a single bed, a shuttered window, and a small wooden chest for storage. “Well, all I did to get this was split my Attributes evenly between ST and RE, and spend all my Skill Points on Bloodmagic. I feel like at least one other person before me should’ve tried that.”

She opened the chest and removed three hessian sacks from within. She placed them on the bed and picked up one on her shoulder and the other under her arm. “Little help here?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh, right, sorry, of course.” Caine walked over and grabbed the other sack, heaving it over his shoulder and following her to the stables. “As I was saying, how did no one before me get Dobridian Bloodmage?”

“Well, Disciplines are reliant on a lot more than just your point allocation. Simpler ones, like Maven’s Unstoppable, can be acquired that way, but the unique, named classes have special requirements. Taramingian Nonexistence Mage needs an affinity for, well, nonexistence, that goes far past the superficial. It’s powerful, but requires a complete detachment from all things material.”

“Dobridian Bloodmage is a lot like that, except it requires an affinity for “Crossroads”. The problem with the Bloodmage Cult isn’t finding information about them, at least that’s not the biggest one. It’s finding someone who actually knows what it means.”

Tsorvano was already waiting for them in the stables, wearing simple linens.

“Why’d you change? Don’t want the silks getting dirty on the road?”

“I have no idea what you speak of. My travel budget makes precious little allowance for such frivolity.”

“Huh. Must’ve imagined it. My mistake.” Rinnleigh placed the sacks in the back of a cart which one of the attendants had already hitched to her horse, and Caine followed suit before getting on his horse.

Just then, the sound of an unnaturally strong wind signaled Maven’s return. “Road ahead’s clear of bandits and wild animals, but there’s three musketeers and a spearman waiting in the trees near a bend that we’ll probably reach around evening if we set out now, a few hours before The Black Panther.”

"Huh. Gunpowder weaponry. Good job on not letting the existence of magic completely stifle innovation, Holobordenia."

“Good work. Now then, let us embark. The road is long and arduous, and there will definitely be people trying to kill us on the way.”

Rinnleigh mounted her horse. “I’ve dealt with it for the last 4 years. A few more days don’t bother me in the slightest.” They set out with Maven leading ahead by a few dozen meters, Caine behind her, Rinnleigh at the back, and Tsorvano in the middle of the formation.

It was beginning to get dark when Maven suddenly disappeared at a bend in the road, surrounded on both sides by small forested hills. Caine stopped and waited for any kind of signal. The signal came in the form of three musket shots ripping through the air.

Caine managed to block the one aimed at him with his shield, but the ones intended for Rinnleigh and Tsorvano simply disappeared before they found their mark.

“Tsorvano, don’t move! Maven, wherever you are, come back down here and cover Tsorvano! Caine, with me!” It was like friction and gravity looked the other way as she seemingly floated up the hill, and Caine struggled to keep up.

“What the hell?! Is she doing wire-fu in real life?!”As soon as he crested the hill, he was greeted by a spear aimed at his heart. He reflexively put up his shield, blocking the blow and seeing his Health drip down the slightest bit as the topmost layer of the shield dropped of and turned back into liquid blood.

“What the hell?! What is that shield?!” The man went for another thrust, this time aiming at Caine’s knees, but hit him in the thigh instead. High on adrenaline, Caine didn’t notice the pain and used his shield to bash the man in the face, knocking him out and breaking a few .

He spun around just in time to see a musketeer aiming at him, and crouched down behind his shield to block the shot. As he saw his Health tick down slightly, the reality of the situation hit him. He charged up towards the man and stabbed the lance into his foot. Losing his balance, he dropped to the ground.

The second musketeer pulled the trigger on his gun, but nothing happened. Rinnleigh tapped him on the shoulder, “I think you’re supposed to put gunpowder in there before you shoot it.” She punched him in the gut and he fell to the ground in a heap.

The third musketeer took aim at Tsorvano, but before he could pull the trigger a massive scythe came down in front of him, slicing his gun in half before flying back down the hill right as Maven seemingly materialized from thin air.

“I surrender! Please! Don’t hurt me!” The man got down on his knees and put his hands in the air.

The pain of the stab wound caught up with Caine and he fell to the ground. Rinnleigh rushed over to him. "What happened? Oh no. That spear hit you hard."

The wound was deep. Deep enough that blood was seeping out. "Foresight is 20/20." Rinnleigh watched as the blood disappeared from his clothing and a faint red glow propagated from his leg and he stood back up. "There, good as new. Now, what are we gonna do with these guys?"

"What was that?"

"Bloodmagic. Cleans up the wound, then patches it up. Uses blood to replace bone and flesh. Now, what do we do with the three musketeers and d'Artagnan here?"

"D who now?"

"It's a thing."

"You'll have to tell me about it some time. Gather up their muskets and put them in the cart, they'll fetch a good price in Brury. Well, except that one." She grabbed the sliced weapon and held its two halves together. The damage done to it seemed to instantaneously disappear, as though it had never even been there. "Bloodmagic is good, but Nonexistence is nothing to scoff at either."

Caine gathered the other two muskets while Rinnleigh grabbed their powder horns and bullets. "Flintlock, huh? How long have these things been in use?"

"Flint? That's new. All the muskets I've seen use a little wheel to strike a piece of fool's gold."

"Looks like you're still a couple hundred years off from the next big innovation, then. Good, I don't feel comfortable with people being able to get off more than one shot on me before pulling out bayonets."

They both made their way down to the road where Maven had just finished using Omnisense to scout out the surrounding area. “No one else here but us and those goons.”

Caine and Rinnleigh placed the spoils in the cart and mounted their horses. “Let's leave while that statement holds true.”

A few hours later, they arrived at a roadside inn with a sign that said, “The Black Panther.” Tsorvano entered and slid the man at the reception desk a small flat gold rectangle. The man handed him 4 sets of keys, which he distributed amongst his guards.

“I’ve rented us some rooms in the attic, as well as a nice bit of discretion from the innkeeper. At least for tonight, you can all sleep easy. You did well today. I don’t regret hiring you.” He made his way up a set of stairs next to the bar. “Eat and drink all you want. I’ll cover the bill in the morning.”

All three of them were extremely tired after a day of hiking and fighting, with Caine and Maven barely having slept the night before, and even then under the starry sky without a proper bed. They shared a light meal of bread, cheese, and water before dragging themselves up to their rooms and falling asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

Experience Gain Summary:

Health Expenditure: 15

Reconstruction: 5

Current Experience: 367