The first day of walking felt good in a way I couldn’t quite place, all my previous struggles had culminated on this, the memories of others and previous lives giving me the knowledge and strength to compete with beings much beyond what any other seven-year-old boys could.
We walked for seven days before something happened, a caravan standing in a street, with a group of armed guard standing before it, and two robed individuals behind them holding up some kind of ward while two people tried to fix a broken wheel.
My arcane gaze told me these mages were tier two at most, one being attuned to geos, while the other was overwhelmed with a power I hadn’t witnessed before, probably temparum, given that I had seen every other Arcana before.
Both continued to cast first level ward spells, and after a while of observing, I finally found the reason. A group of people in light armor was hiding in the woods, their bows drawn tight as if they expected to shoot any second.
“We will not give the lady over to the northern tribes. This attack should not have happened, how did you know we would be here?”
One of the men shouted, his armor implying a leading position, as it was covered in some minor sygils.
“Because you are trespassing into our land. We are no longer the northern tribes, I know you Greencresters. We have chosen a new high king of the snowborn, he will make our land bloom and our enemies tremble!”
One of the people in the forest exclaimed.
A quick recall of a history lesson my mentor forced on me, I finally realized what was going on.
We were on snowborn territory, humans who allegedly once lived together with frost kin and trolls, until they had their genetics mixed enough to count as their own people. Usually, the snowborn wouldn’t leave their tundra wastelands, and rarely passed south of the mountains for anything but raids on neighbors they feel slighted by.
A high king was the kind of menace that had been born within a weirdly fanatic cult and forcibly exposed to geos and vita Arcana until he mutated, kind of the way I mutated. Similar to me, the Arcana flooding his body probably allowed for early walking ability. His existence came every five hundred years or so, and always involved the sudden expansion of the tribes and setting up real borders.
Whatever, as these men were threatening a carriage from Greencrest, I decided to intervene, mostly because connections are never a bad thing, and I was getting bored with the endless scenes of snowy trees.
“What do we have here, two armies standing against one another? How exciting, do tell me what the problem is.”
I ask, the leaders of both sides turning their attention to me as Nemo decided to meow, her ability to draw attention beyond anything I could understand.
“We are passing through on a mission I will not disclose the details of, when these bandits decided to disrupt our path.” The guard leader explained, his straight posture something that disgusted me deeply.
On the other side, a man in his forties, with gray hair and blue eyes leaned against a tree, grinning a shark like grin as his monstrous teeth were revealed.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“We wanted to patrol the border, when these nice men came without paying taxes, and as they are unwilling to discuss how much they are willing to pay, we offered safe travels to their lady. Now, before anyone here embarrasses themselves entertaining a goblin wearing ominous robes and a wooden mask to intimidate travelers, why don’t you tell us who in the eight Arcana you are supposed to be?”
I sighed as I watched between the two, both probably expecting me to just go away or say some flowery words, trying to convince them to love each other.
Instead, the world around them cooled as I drew in all heat, the ground becoming slightly wet as I forced the air to give up most of the water content to the ground.
Slowly, I cleaned the two leaders, destroying the snowborn warpaint as I did so.
“I am a swamp mage powerful enough to turn all of you into shambling corpses, and my reason for interfering is mostly based on my own boredom.” Following that, the soldiers seemed a bit annoyed, while the two leaders simply nodded.
“While I doubt anyone with the runes required to fight both sides would be anywhere but a capital, I do see your display of power, and boredom does become a good motive for anyone capable of the feats required to call themselves a swamp mage.”
The kingdoms men concentrated on their original enemies as their leader uttered these words, the people I originally mistook for bandits nodded in agreement.
“So, what do you want to do, little hero? Save the lady and become a knight? Protect the greencresters from the neighbors they just accidentally invaded? Maybe help the natives fight for their own freedom?”
He asked, his men laughing in the background as I looked at each of them.
“I’d just ask my fellow countrymen to either pay a reasonable toll, or go around your territory.”
Both sides seemed surprised, before the snowborn opened his mouth to talk again.
“Remember, reasonable. If this doesn’t go the way I want to, everyone dies, probably including me, but you know how we swamp mages are, right? Not really the kind to stay dead for long.”
My interference seemed to shut him up, something I was quite grateful for, posing as a swamp mage was great, one of the six orders of necros dual casting that were still allowed after both the fallen gates department and the living dead community were forcefully shut down. It was the combination of aqua and necros, and just about everyone feared their ability to terraform.
Of course, I was not a member, but a caster of water and necros that was not part of their movement was more suspicious than one that was.
For the next hour, the kingdoms people managed to convince the snowborn that they would only pay a hundred coins, fifty for the right to pass through while armed, and fifty for not following proper procedure. After that both parties went on their way, and both Ember and I were quick to continue our walk, smiling as we passed. The only unhappy one was the part of me that yearned for an opportunity to feed on these quite powerful individuals. Though that was drowned out by my relief that I was no slave to my impulses, as many of those I had consumed before had been. Slowly, a hope grew inside. Maybe there was still hope for me after all, maybe I wouldn’t go insane like that redbloom lady did.
Or maybe I was already insane back there, maybe I had been insane since the moment I started writing this little journal just a few days after my birth, thinking my life would be important enough for someone to care.
I drowned out these thoughts by riding on the conversations high, the growing hunger something I ignored. After all this time, eating animals had become problematic, and still we hunted for a particularly juicy boar that day.
Of course, I ate its brain and soul, and the aspect I got were slightly more pronounced fangs, luckily not the full tusks, but enough that I would have to eat some herbivores to balance it out again in the future.
We only passed by one bandit group on our way to the capital, and while I would have loved to dispose of them, I restrained myself from lashing out, and they simply let us pass. There was no reason to engage a group looking that down on their luck. Time would kill them inevitably, and if it didn’t, someone else would take care of them. It was time to act like a decently normal person, after all, I’d have to disguise some of my nature from the weaker population.
The massive city stretched before us, shanty towns as far as the eye could see, surrounding the outer ring and promising entrance to those who could find a way inside.
My mentor had warned me of this while shew as still alive, telling me about this place of fighting for any type of position, betrayal and backstabbing wherever one would step.
A twisted grin formed on my lips. “I bet I can get us into the academy within the next year.”
Ember grinned at that, the path a perilous one, as we had only ten gold to our name and no references whatsoever.
The capital had five rings, each one more cutthroat than the last, with the academy in ring two and the palace in ring one.
Technically, all we had to do was become rich or find someone to vouch for us, and while that was simple outside the capital, the people inside it with any amount of power made sure to tightly control who they let in.
This would be a challenge, and maybe this city would survive my frustration. Order wasn’t really something I enjoyed when imposed on me, but maybe I could adapt, like I had so many times before.