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The door shut behind Adrian and he allowed himself to sag. He heard a chuckle and looked over at the corner of the room where Isi sat working on sewing a set of her clothing. Or rather worked on making a set of his clothing into her clothing. Adrian’s mother would have been horrified to see a woman wearing men’s trousers, he didn't remember much about his mother but he did remember that. She had even been against female mages as it was an affront to her sensibilities to have a woman both wearing armor as well as in the horrid man’s business that was war. The thought caused him to smile, Isi, not party to his thoughts saw that smile and clearly thought it was meant for her. The beaming smile she returned his way was enough to wipe away hours of fatigue and frustration and he would be damned if he was going to dissolve her of her misconception.

Today had been an interesting day for him. He had finished his full review of the fort and its status and written his report, with that report he was sending back one Disgraced Commander Koplin in shackles with just enough healing to close his wounds but not to make the trip on horseback comfortable. His fate once the council was aware of just how bad things had gotten was more or less sealed. He would be quietly taken to live in the country, a shame to his family. Unless his family took care of that shame themselves, not uncommon but also not common.

“What are you working on?” He asked as he walked across the floor of the small cabin that they had been calling home for the past week. It wasn't much but he found that he rather liked it better than even his room in his father’s house. It was the first place that felt truly like it was his and Isi’s and not just a place they were staying. She had begun to put a woman’s touch on it even. There were decorations she had found, made, or else traded for with several of the hosts of camp followers who were at the fort regularly. Well, perhaps camp followers were not the right name for them, as they were all citizens of the nearby town of Bronsville that came out to ply their trade. Most would come out, camp for a day or three then go back home either to restock on goods or else to do something else. Their numbers included skilled craftsmen that would repair broken equipment, Ale sellers, washerwomen, seamstresses and menders, and yes even a few whores.

Truth to tell Adrain was glad that they were there, the alternative was to have a force of men that had money to spend but nowhere to spend it. The small camp was right outside of their own fort’s walls, making it easier to police up his own soldiers than it would have been if the town was close enough for the men to go on leave.

“Yur Jaja miturin,” she said holding up the pair of trousers that she had been working on. They were now missing around a third of their original fabric and Adrian doubted very much he would be able to pull them on without busting at least two or three seams.

“Did you leave enough pairs for me to wear?” He asked and she gave him a ‘really?’ sort of look that had him laughing. He leaned over and kissed the top of her head, smiling as the mock-serious look on her face melted and she leaned into his chest. Her hands still carefully stitching the inseam of her newest acquisition. They sat this way for several minutes before she spoke again.

“Totalla dura?” she asked as she pulled the last stitch through and started tying it off. She brought the thread up to her teeth and bit it, cutting it off. With a quick movement, she turned the trousers right side out and looked at her handiwork. Honestly, Adrian was rather impressed, there was no way he would have guessed that at one point in time, they had ever been tailored to fit him.

“Not a bad day,” he shook his head. “Just tiring.” That was the truth, the work was good, he had always found that he liked the physical labor, and something about being able to see the work he had accomplished that day at the end of it was extremely satisfying. There was a difference between working on something like a fort however and working on the men that occupied it. His initial assessment of the men had proven spot on, they were not bad men, they had just been allowed to get sloppy and Torin had not had the needed authority to do more than punish the most laggard of the bunch. This had led to a culture that had developed in his men of pursuing the bare minimum, anything more would not get them any form of reward so why put in the effort.

Breaking them of this was proving to be more of a process than he had expected as well. That first muster had been both aggravating and amusing, every man was there for the count. Clearly, they were well aware that a commander who did not fear retribution for flogging another at his own rank would not blink twice at performing such a task against them. But they were also still in the mindset of men that did just the bare minimum, well over half the men that had been there were clearly suffering from hangovers, or else were not uniformed nearly as properly as Adrian had wanted.

He had come down harsh on those men and he was not oblivious to the murmurs and whispers about how he was just some noble that expected them to toil while he sat back. He had cut the wind from those men’s sails in those first few days when he had begun working right alongside the men. He was pretty sure he was more familiar with a pick and shovel than most of them were and he had labored in order to demonstrate this to the men. It was quite amusing seeing how no matter what duty station he attended to that day it was significantly more productive not because he was there to bolster it but because the men had taken it as a personal challenge to do more work than their commander. And those levels of production only went up when Isi joined in.

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It was rather remarkable the way the men had started acting around her, at first she had gotten several curious glances, even a few of a lascivious nature. Those had stopped rather quickly when Isi had taken the matter into her own hands. She hadn't needed to use any magic to drop a rather idiotic lineman who had apparently made a remark to several of his friends in reference to Isi while she was within hearing range mistakenly thinking she didn't understand the language. He was not going to be feeling amorous for quite a few days and the medic had recommended to Torin that he have light duty for at least a week.

That had earned her some respect, but apparently what had sealed the deal and had made it so that she was really accepted by the troop more so than even Adrian had been was when he had come down particularly hard on them a day or two ago. She had stepped out of the earthenwork she had been helping dig and had walked over to Adrian, hands on her hips and a few choice words on her lips. They didn't know what she had said, but they were not stupid. When the work had lightened just slightly after she had talked to Adrian they were able to put two and two together. Just last night Adrian had been called by Torin to deal with a situation in the camps outside of town where a couple of his rowdy lot had apparently destroyed an Ale sailer’s property. He had gone there expecting the men to be drunk.

What he found was five men, one of whom was a finger for Torin, stone sober standing beside a tent that had lost most of its poles, the mud of the churned earth smelling rather strongly of spirits. According to the almost practiced tale of events all the men had given when questioned, the owner of the stall had said something disparaging about Isi where the men could hear it and they had taken umbrage.

If Adrian was being honest she was making better inroads than he was. The men were starting to learn to respect and listen to him, but they had seemingly adopted Isi. It was rather amusing to see her boss them around despite the large size difference between herself and the smallest of the soldiers, and the lack of communication between each group. Still, somehow she was getting what she wanted done, and Adrian thought it wise to simply let it happen.

Isi folded the trousers and leaned back against him again sighing and just relaxing for a moment before she sat up. He was about to pull her back down but before he could she twisted out of the way and made her way over to the small wood stove in the corner of the cabin. She opened the door and waved her hand at the sticks she had placed in it. They burst into flame with a purple light, the flickering changing from the arcane color to the more natural yellows and reds relatively quickly. He watched as she went to their small bank of cabinets and produced some dough. He watched as she beat it back down and with a practiced ease rolled them into little balls. Apparently tonight they were going to be having rolls with whatever the cook had been whipping up for the men.

He normally made it a point to eat only what the men ate, but he wasn't going to turn down fresh bread. He blinked, looking at the rather massive amount of dough Isi had made. There were quite a few meals worth of it, more than he and Isi could eat before it went manky. He got up and walked over to the stove watching as she worked, the smell of cooking bread waughting up to him and making his stomach growl. “What are you doing?”

“Ita jurin tavas, multro dulin ta.” She said with a smile and he couldn't help but laugh.

“Playing favorites huh?” he said with a chuckle. “You do know this is liable to cause a riot right?” He leaned over reaching for one of the balls of dough on the top of the wood stove only to have his hand slapped away.

“Ita jurin tavas!“ she repeated dangerously.

“Oh, and I don’t qualify?” he asked one eyebrow raising in mock surprise and genuine amusement.

“Ja,” she said with a nod of her head. He smiled and slipped around behind her wrapping his hands around her midriff and physically picking her up and carrying her away from the stove. “Adrian!” she shouted her arms flailing and legs pumping as she attempted to squirm out of his grasp. “Imna buta morin! Imna buta MORIN!“

“Yeah I know they will burn, if I don't get to have my own wife’s cooking no one else will,” he said in a mock stern voice as he threw her over his shoulder and began walking away.

“Orin,” she said holding up a single finger.

“Four,” Adrian countered.

“Doten,” she said as a second finger came up to join the first.

“Four,” Adrian said with a shake of his head. She gave him a look and he relented. “Three then.”

“Des,” She said with a nod of her head in agreement.

“You have a deal Mrs.Von-tori,” He set her down and gave her a formal bow. She gave him a scorching look that quickly morphed into a reluctant grin before rolling her eyes and turning back to her bread baking.

“Des,” she muttered under her breath shaking her head as she worked…