I was once again awoken from my sleep by an extremely hard slap. Instead of Elina, I found Wanderer staring down at me.
“Get up.” He extended a hand down to me which I used to lift myself up. I had spent the entire night talking with Ruby and learning the story. Once the sun was starting to rise, I decided it was best to take a nap.
I guess all people from Irebor don’t hold back with their slaps.
Taking a second to look over Wanderer’s body, I noticed a new addition hanging from his hip.
“You got a sword?” I raised my hand to point at the blade that his other hand was resting on.
“Found it in one of the buildings. Guess the soldiers who ransacked this place before didn’t find any use for it, so they just left a perfectly good sword sitting around. It’s a damn well made one at that. Nowhere near an Irebor sword, of course.” He smiled and patted the pommel.
“Guess nobody respects swordsmanship.”
“It truly is a dying art.”
I exited through the door of the building I was sleeping in to find the place much more lively. People were moving about and interacting with each other, and the dour mood of the previous day had mostly faded. Covering the pit must have been a large part of that.
“Seems that taking a break is actually doing a lot for them.” I noted, scanning my surroundings. A few people waved to me, which I reciprocated.
“It is nice having a break from our constant movement. Now come along. We have a raid to plan.”
Oh yeah, I’m supposed to do that kind of thing.
We walked further into the village and into one of the larger buildings. It looked like the remnants of a tavern or some other similar business.
“Everyone is waiting for me there?” I asked. Wanderer responded with a nod and opened the door. Inside, everyone was standing around a central table with a lantern on it next to the map and a few other sheets. Ruby turned up from carefully studying the map to smile at me.
Her mood has improved a lot.
I stepped inside and began the protracted meeting to decide our next battle.
***
Wanderer, Ruby and Sera all stood to my side while Alex, Elina and Elm sat across from me at the table. Elina was avoiding eye contact as best as possible with both me and Wanderer. She definitely hadn’t gotten over my decision to delay the man’s death. As I had gotten to learn more and more about the man, he became more confused. He was caught deserting, yet he seemed to have a deep reverence for Irebor culture. And for some reason, he was working as a laborer at a refinery. It all made no sense. Before the actual meeting started, Ruby leaned over and handed me a piece of paper which had a drawing of a face on it.
“Remember the Chief? This is what she looked like.”
[https://imgur.com/a/ZvG4RhG]
Wow… was her nose really that pointy? And why did Mell write “hi” on it?
“That’s certainly something. I expected it to be big, but that’s really big. And the jewelry?” I pointed to all of the various things that were covering the woman. “I mean, she didn’t actually wear a crown, did she?”
Ruby shrugged in response. “I may have taken a few creative liberties, but she mostly looked like that. Definitely acted like she was wearing a crown.”
Alex, noticing the two of us discuss the drawing, leaned forward to try and take a peek.
“You drew that? That’s nice. Hey, do you think you could draw me?” Alex gleefully suggested. Ruby looked away from me to glare daggers at him. In truth, I was also wondering whether she could draw me, but I decided against that for now.
“You want to focus? We have a full day to plan the raid on the camp, and I’d prefer we not waste too much of it.” Sera interrupted my train of thought and brought me back to the present. “I’m just going to make the assumption that North doesn’t have a plan?”
I scratched the back of my head, looking for a response that wouldn’t make me seem like an idiot.
“Of course. Lucky for you, we have a lot of people here to pitch in and help.” Sera patted Elm on me on the back with a heavy hand. In a way, she was starting to remind me of Elric.
I took a deep breath, taking in the sight of all the people around me. There was something that had been nagging at me for a while which I had to admit.
“I want this one to be without losses.” I spoke with conviction. Everyone at the table leaned in to see my face.
“North…” Sera’s voice sounded like she was talking to a child who had just broken their toy.
“I know. I know it’s unrealistic, but we need a big win. I can see the mood of everyone in the caravan, and it’s not good. We need something to keep us going forward, and I don’t think we can just have another victory where we take losses like the refinery.” I couldn’t help but think of all the burials and pyres we had made along the way. The massive pit only a short walk away was a reminder of just how many people could die at the empire’s hands.
“Then whatever plan we come up with better be real fucking good. We can’t do something like our own revolt if we want everyone to survive.” Elm moved himself into the conversation, putting a hand on the map. His finger was pointed directly at the refinery, which had a large X drawn over it. “How long are we going to take to get there?”
Ruby took initiative, pointing to the point on the map with her disfigured hand. I’d almost forgotten about the missing fingers. “It’s going to be about 6 days to get there. 5, if we move quickly.”
“Good. We can work with 5 days. If we want to do a good ambush, we wait until night. And if we want to get the upper hand, we need all of the slaves there to be armed and ready to fight.” As I watched Elm talk, I could see more and more of his past as a Major become apparent. Even with the stories I had heard the fact of it still hadn’t fully registered.
“Kid? You gonna pay attention or am I going to have to helm this entire fucking operation?” Elm snapped me out of my thoughts and back to the situation.
Ok… let’s get this done.
***
After a lengthy discussion, a lot of yelling and a multitude of headaches, we walked out of the tavern with a plan formulated. I couldn’t help but smile thinking back on the amount of time it took for me to figure out how to do the revolt. Now, we were able to create complex plans in short periods of time. The only thing to do now was to relay it all to the people in the caravan and prepare for the journey.
Sera came up behind me and patted me on the back with her free hand.
“Good work, rebel leader. You created a plan and didn’t have anyone stab each other during the discussion.”
“Elina certainly looked like she wanted to.” I replied. She had been glaring at both myself and Wanderer during the entire discussion.
“You can’t make everyone happy. At least you have a plan this time.” She was right on that. I wasn’t going to make everyone happy, least of all her.
Before we could continue discussing, Elm walked up behind the two of us and put his arms around both of our shoulders. Sera almost jumped before realizing who it was.
“Now where do you think you two are going?” He said, a wide grin on his face.
“Oh, we were just going to help out with stuff in the cam-”
“The fuck you are. Nah, you two are practicing with your attunements. Especially you, North.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Fuck.
Elm let out a mocking laugh as I dreaded the many hours I would be spending trying to focus my light.
***
“Well, it’s getting better since I last checked. You’re almost making it the full distance of the room.”
I sighed, lowering my hand back to my side. It had been 3 hours, a piece of knowledge I retained thanks to the timekeeper. Elm had insisted that I stay inside the building to better see the light and judge the amount of focus I was able to give it.
“I humbly accept your praise.” I replied, holding back a groan. “How’s Sera progressing?”
“According to what I saw and what Alex told me, pretty damn fast. Faster than you did. For how unruly a lightning attunement can be, that’s damn impressive.” He smugly noted.
“And tell me, how long would it take a normal person to get to where I’m at?”
“Hmm… if you’re talking about focusing, about half a year if the teacher is good at his job. Depends on the attunement as well.” Elm scratched at his chin, formulating the numbers in his mind.
“And how long has it taken for me to get this far? Not considering all of my other achievements, such as learning how to control pure mana and, I don’t know, this?” I turned my left hand invisible to emphasize my point.
“Around 3 months. Kid, I’m not saying you’re a failure. It’s just a tad bizarre, thinking about how easily you picked up on other concepts.”
Yeah… you might be right on that point.
Compared to the breakneck speed I had been able to use to get better at my attunement, seeing me struggle with focusing my energy just felt off.
Maybe it’s a mental block?
I couldn’t figure out how to expand my consciousness in such a way that allowed me to keep control over the mana I was expelling as well as continue to transform my own flow. I’d been using the weird connection I had with mana as a crutch, but focusing appeared to be one area which I couldn’t entirely rely on it.
Alex described it as a call and response. I’ve been trying, but maybe my mindset has been wrong about it?
“Hey Elm, do you mind staying around for a second? I want to try something different. See if I can maybe move past my blockage.”
Elm shrugged before pulling out a chair and seating himself. I closed my eyes, and focused on myself.
Maybe it isn’t the call and response like I thought it would be. I’ve been thinking of it like a conversation. When I first started, Elm told me to order it to do what I wanted. Maybe it’s more like creating an opening? Instead of giving it an order to stay straight, maybe I need to give it directions. I’ve been thinking this entire time about having it maintain the same focus throughout the entire process, so maybe I just need to focus on the beginning and end, and let it follow through?
I opened my eyes again and focused on the wall. Lifting my left palm, I pointed it at the wall and focused on a single location on it. If it really was a call and response, then all I needed to do was to give it the order. I controlled my flow through my body and into my palm, and kept my eyes focused on that spot. All that I needed to do was to make sure the mana I was controlling had a direction. After a few seconds, the beam of light came out of my palm and went straight towards the spot on the wall I was focusing on.
“How in the…” Elm muttered in surprise.
After maintaining the beam, I lowered my palm and let the light dissipate. There was a wide smile on my face when I turned to him.
“I figured it out. I’ve been trying to keep it focused this entire time by managing it on its way to the location. But I realized that if I wanted it to be focused, all I needed to do was give it a clear direction. I gave it an order, and the mana would follow through and do the work for me.”
Elm sat there, confused. His jaw was slack.
“Kid, you realized that just during this conversation?”
I fumbled a bit with my hair, thinking about how much pain and irritation that blockage had caused me. “Yeah? I think you gave me an opening. Did I do it correctly?”
“I mean… you did the correct thing. It’s just that most people don’t arrive at that conclusion like that. I guess you can’t do anything normal when it comes to attunements, but at least you figured it out.”
I pumped my fist in celebration before Elm suddenly interrupted.
“Doesn’t mean you can stop practicing. By the time we have dinner, I want you to be able to do that consistently and over longer distances. You want to learn to heal, you need to do this first.”
Damn it.
“Yes sir…”
***
“North, you look like those first few days you started working with Elm. How much sleep did you get?” Alex quickly surveyed my body, clearly reminded of the day when he first introduced Elina. We were both at the front of the caravan, walking in front of the strigs.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have spent so long practicing.
We had only just left the village and were on the road again. Having a full day to break and relax was great for everyone who wasn’t named North or Sera. The two of us had been focused on learning our attunements. Sera had been making a lot of progress, and it appeared that were relatively close in skill now that I had overcome that mental roadblock. The only difference was that while I was going to be focusing on learning how to heal, Sera would be getting combat training from Alex on how to use her attunement.
Once her leg is working, she’ll be a real asset. That depends on me more than anything.
Her leg was mostly functional by this point, but she still needed the crutch. It wasn’t able to sustain her weight and she’d fall if she tried putting too much pressure on it. The work we’d done on it wasn’t that bad, so if I didn’t heal her directly, she would probably be able to walk fine in a month or two. We didn’t have that time, which was why I needed to learn.
“You know, you can rest a tad bit more. You’re putting a lot on yourself.” Alex nudged me a bit on the shoulder. “You might not be the type of person most would think of as a leader, but I think you can get there. Just don’t, you know, fuck up too badly.”
Definitely needed to hear that last part.
“I’ll try to keep my fuck ups to a minimum.”
“That’s more like it.”
I turned back to see the caravan conversing with each other. 60 people, all together seeming to enjoy their life was… motivating. I wanted to win this one straight on, and seeing them all together was enough to reaffirm my conviction.
“Well, I… wait. Stop.” Alex suddenly interrupted himself, holding out a hand in front of me. “Get Elm. Now.”
Understanding the urgency in his voice, I ran towards the back until I spotted Elm riding atop one of the strigs. I waved at him to follow me, and he quickly jumped off. We ran towards Alex only to find him face to face with men wearing outfits exactly like our own.
We’d just come into direct contact with Arlin’s Soldiers.
***
“Well, look what we have here. Damn, this is a large one. Old man, you their senior officer?” The soldier on top of their own strig spoke down to us, a wide smile on his face. I could immediately notice that the horns on his steed were forward facing and had been sharpened.
“Correct. We’re a patrolling unit, currently transporting live cargo to the mine down the road.” Elm spoke in an emotionless voice. The military in him was now on full display.
“Well, that’s something. Been getting word there’s something going down in Boralis. Do you know anything about it?”
“None so far. We’ve been traveling for a good bit and haven’t gotten the chance to stop anywhere. We’re currently heading to the mining camp to deliver the cargo and send word to command over the soundline at the location.” Elm took a moment to dust off his uniform. “Boralis has not been kind to us. Might I ask what your assignment is, soldier?”
“Simple patrol. Sir, if I may ask, by live cargo, do you mean the slaves behind you who are currently unrestrained?” the soldier lifted his head up slightly, pointing a finger at Elina.
“They’re well under control. They understand what happens if they try to run.”
The soldier chuckled. Something about the way he spoke told me he was very familiar with the system.
“Well aren’t you just the kindest? Still, surprised to see a group this large. Say, did you take a stop at the ruins? Boys at the fort told us they were a good location to rest at.”
Elm paused, pondering what words he should say next.
“It’s an alright location. There’s some buildings left standing, but they've been fully ransacked by the locals.”
Instead of returning his focus to Elm, the soldier turned to Alex. There was a wide grin on his face.
“I don’t see too many people from Arlin looking like you. Tell me, have you got some roots in Nacilia?”
Alex responded with a casual shrug. I had no idea how he was maintaining his cool.
“Dad took up some land in Nacilia after the campaign. Turns out he likes his girls to be local.”
The soldier let out a loud laugh, slapping his knee. “Well isn’t that something. Your unit looks pretty diverse as a whole.”
Elm stepped forward to respond. “Just how things turned out. You mind letting us on our way?”
The soldier nodded before motioning towards the people behind him to follow. As he moved forward on his strig, he took a deep look at my face.
“Old man, you might want to check up on that one next to you. Looks whiter than a piece of paper.”
“Sure thing. Stay safe, soldier.”
The caravan moved to the side to let them pass, and I could see them eyeing each and everyone of us. Although faint, I’m pretty sure I heard one of them make a comment about Ruby. After what felt like an eternity, the group had passed off into the distance and out of sight. There was a collective sigh of relief throughout the caravan knowing that we were in the clear. I felt Elm’s heavy arm slap me on the back.
“Looks like your plan with the outfits worked.”
I gave Elm a cheeky smirk.
“Wouldn’t have worked without you putting on your military face.”
I turned back to the caravan, raising my fist in the air.
“Let’s go, people! We’ve got a camp to visit!” I loudly proclaimed. There was a collective cheer in response.
Let’s do this shit.