Geo left the village without much fanfare. He just quietly joined the caravan and helped them to put the animals in their harnesses and then walked at his post. He was stationed at the back. Right behind the last cart, pulled by a giant black lizard with a thick skin and an intimidating whip-like tongue that it uses to lick the air.

Siegfried explained Geo everything he needed to know for the journey. In total they were 12 people in this caravan. Geo and one other man were the security personnel, Siegfried was the caravan leader, six were traders, four of them were part of the group at all times, while the other two have only joined the party as temporary members and the last three were the trio consisting of the priest, the rich girl and their bodyguard. As it turns out, the man who walked the big dog from a few days ago was the bodyguard that they were talking about. While only a bit taller than Geo, he still made an intimidating pair with his large hound. Then there were five carts, all pulled by large animals. At both the front and the back were man sized black lizards stationed. Strategically put there to scare off potentially attacking monsters. Behind the lizard in front were two carts pulled by horses as large as the lizards followed by a donkey, that seemed to be comically small compared to the other animals in the travel group. Behind them was the priest’s group. The last cart was being pulled by the second lizard. The various animals pulled carts in different sizes, all filled with various goods. From herbs and spices over to pottery and coins in different denominations.

Geo would be on foot for most of the journey, seeing as he’d have to be able to run from any side of the caravan to the other in seconds, not being able to afford valuable time standing up and handing the reigns of the animal to someone else. Most of the time Geo spent in silence. The woman in control of the lizard didn’t seem to be interested in conversations. So, Geo spent the monotonous travel time looking around and admiring the landscape.

A few hours after departure the landscape changed. While they were at first walking on sea level near beaches, they now were walking on rockier ground on small clean grey cliffs. Even the ground changed. Near the village it contained less induvial rocks, now the ground was filled with naturally round and even pebbles. On the one side was the ocean and on the other just miles of flat land. No bump or hill in sight.

Geo didn’t like how the gravel underneath him slightly sank while walking. He was brainstorming a way to have the ground automatically harden under his feet when he stepped on it, when suddenly Diane appeared next to him.

“I am sorry, for how I acted last time we talked. I was just surprised and overreacted.”

She slightly hung her head down to show sincerity. Geo, happy to have anyone to talk to, politely responded.

“Thank you for apologizing. Let’s just ignore what happened and start anew.”

“Good, I didn’t want to antagonize you. I am happy that you aren’t angry no more.”

“Sure.”

They both walked for a while in silence. Neither one knowing how to continue their conversation. Then Biss the dog happily trotted between the two, rubbing his head against Diane, almost as if he were trying to politely push her further forwards in line.

“Not now. Leave me be! Hush.”

Biss looked offended and stopped being as pushy.

“That dog. He belongs to your bodyguard. Jaaa something. Right?”

“Jeager. And yes, you will see them rarely apart.”

“Right. Honestly, I don’t know what you need a bodyguard for. That priest you are travelling with, he seems scary enough to chase of anyone who’d dare to come close to you.”

“You can never be safe enough. It’s a dangerous world out there.”

“True.”

“Speaking about that. I have a question.”

“Ask away.”

“Where are you from? I asked around in the village earlier and they say that you were a castaway that they fished out of the water.”

“Hmm.”

“You don’t want to tell me? Excuse me if I overstepped my boundaries.”

“It’s not that. I’ve just had to tell this story so many times. It has started to annoy me.”

“And I am sure that we’d all love to hear it. But can this wait until we don’t have to walk in formation anymore?”

Out of nowhere both Jeager and Conrad appeared.

“It’s alright. I’ll tell you but it is neither a long nor specially interesting tale.”

The trio listened very carefully.

“After obligatory military service I had no real aspirations, but I have earned some badges for outstanding performance during training. Then a friend told me about how much money his uncle made trading with the colonies and convinced me to take on a large loan to invest into a trading ship. I travelled on the ship as well, thinking that maybe I could prove myself as a clever tradesman and make it big. Then a storm blew us off route and we were attacked by a sea monster. Me and another guy saved ourselves onto a rescue boat. After five weeks I lost count how long we were on the boat. Somewhen in that timeframe the other guy...”

Geo took a moment to choose his next words carefully.

“died. Later I was saved by a fisherman who was checking the nets he has thrown out the evening before. That’s it.”

“That all? Sounds underwhelming.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Jeager was disappointed.

“What else is there to say? I haven’t done much else in my life so far.”

“You got to have family? Maybe a woman waiting for you at home?”

“Family? Well my dad made vice captain in the local police, mom’s there to but in administration. Got two brothers and a sister. Older brother has joined my dad on the station, don’t know if he’s been promoted yet. Younger one has started service. Last I heard he was going for the eagle-shot badge. And my sister... Honestly, I don’t even know. There is a large age gap between us, and I never thought of asking about her.

Geo looked at the sun reflected on the ocean.

“I should maybe look how she is doing once I get back. And about the woman part. Man, I wish but I am single. Had a girlfriend when I started service. She left me for a guy who made grand-militia-private. Can’t blame her. Guy didn’t just outrank me but was also a great singer, wish I had a voice like him.”

“You suck at telling stories.”

“Don’t be so hard on him Jeager.”

“Alright. But what about your magic?”

Asked Diane. Geo felt like she was aiming to ask about that in the first place.

“What about it?”

“How do you do it?”

Geo lifted his brow in confusion and then mumbled to himself.

“Geezz. I guess even a princess like her has never heard of control. I must have landed in the land of idiots.”

“Hey!”

“Watch your tongue.”

“What do you mean idiots?”

“Sorry, I was talking to myself. I didn’t mean to offend. I thought that it was only that one stupid uneducated remote village in the middle of nowhere. But now I find out that even from wherever you guys are from you don’t even know something basic like this.”

“Still no reason to insult us!”

“You are right. I apologize. Alright, let me show you.”

Geo rapidly exerted his arm and a rock that was washed ashore flew into his hand.

“This is control. It’s how man uses his place in the world to make the earth itself obey to his will. Got it?”

“No.”

“Not a word.”

“This isn’t a very good explanation.”

“Sorry, this is all I can tell you. I am not some sort of master who has a deep understanding of how the earth follows our command. Nor can I explain it very well just like that.”

“Then could you at least tell us who gave you the ability to do this. Please I am very curious.”

“Why do you talk like that? I guess my parents taught me the basics, the way any good parent should. They also made sure that I had a jumpstart in school and knew the exercises before they were taught there. I guess I learned the combat applications around it during service. I was very good at those. Even made big-militia-private because of that.”

“Wait, people can learn this?”

“With enough time and practice.”

“Teach me how!”

“Diane, calm down.”

“No, this is super important. Please teach me how!”

Diane was coming to close for comfort for Geo’s taste, so he lightly pushed the woman back. Leading to a Conrad immediately putting his hand on his weapon and Biss the dog growling.

“Whoa, give me some space! I’m not able to teach you control.”

“Oh, sorry. Does this mean you can’t teach me how this is done?”

The implication of Geo being unable to teach offended him.

“Please, don’t question my skills again! As I said before I earned badges as proof of how good I am at control. I could have even qualified for master courses if I were to try to take them.”

Geo answered harshly.

“Oh, I didn’t try to question your skill. I have seen you preform earlier, and I was a spectacle like I’ve never seen before. But why won’t you show us how to do it?”

Geo tried to calm down.

“It’s not that I can’t. It’s that we have neither the time nor right equipment to teach it correctly. No one can learn control in a day or even a month. To even get just the basics right it takes someone gifted a few months and from then on, it’s an eternal struggle to improve. And our ways will separate once we reach Sailport. Furthermore, practicing control without supervision of someone more experienced is dangerous. You can’t just hurt yourself, but others as well. It would be irresponsible to just start teaching it to a group of strangers that I wont ever see again in two weeks.”

“At least you could show us something. You are doing something I don’t think anyone here has ever done before.”

“I don’t really see much use in that.”

“Fine then how about we do it like this.”

Conrad spoke.

“You seem to use that magic super liberally. What if this one here.”

He motions towards Diane as she almost trips due to not paying attention to where she walks.

“You ok? Anyways, where was I? Alright. What if she just watches you use your powers. Anything that she learns from that you didn’t technically teach her. And in return you can ask us about anything you want, throughout our journey together. How’s that? You do seem to be unfamiliar about a lot of things. So maybe we could help.”

Geo was slightly confused by the proposition.

“That doesn’t seem to be a very fair deal. I basically just continue on as before and you guys will just tell me anything I want to know. But if you wish, sure. You can watch. Don’t know how much you will learn from it.”

“Well I don’t think you will ask us anything. Now is there anything you want to know? Or that you have planned with that rock in your hand?”

Geo didn’t realize he was still holding the rock from earlier and started to use his powers to knead it a little and shape it into form.

“Well there is one thing that I am curious about. People always call me a blackhand. I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, and no one was able to explain it beyond “someone who does magic” whatever that is supposed to mean. And I recall Siegfried saying that you knew a bit about that.”

Diane started explaining.

“It is complicated. But simplified I guess you can imagine it like this. If you draw something with specific ink and into specific shapes you can make something very specific happen. Usually this is done in two similar ways. You either imprint the spell onto an object. So that if magic energy flows through it the spell activates. Or you can imprint it on to a person. Like this you can have always a spell at hand, literally. That’s where usually people get those spells. Tattooed onto their hands. There are complicated reasons to why its usually the hand that gets the spell but in short, that is the best place to do it. Due to how complicated those drawings are, their hands often seem to be almost black. Therefore, blackhand.”

“What kinds of spell? That sounds really useful. Why doesn’t everyone have some of those? Is the ink expensive or something?”

This time Conrad answered.

“Not really. The expensive part is to get someone who understands what they are drawing. It takes years of study to learn how to draw and come up with even the simplest of spells. In theory you should be able to do anything with the correct spell and energy. You just need the correct know how.”

“Kind of like this thing that I have.”

Jeager said as he pulled out of his pouch a wooden construction.

“This is a crossbow and it is enchanted to draw on its own without having to use energy to pull the tough string. You can’t see the spell because it has been painted over. Inkers are very protective about their patterns and don’t want them to get stolen.”

Jeager put the crossbow back.

“This is really cool, but one last question.”

“Sure”

“What is a crossbow?”

For the next few minutes, the three had to explain to Geo the very basics of ranged weaponry. As Geo explains, in the Empire of Alexia those weren’t necessary. Since everyone could just throw a rock if they wanted to attack something from range and their powerful control-based defences made arrow-based combat almost obsolete.

During their discussion of non magical combat Siegfried yelled out of nowhere from the front.

“Aye. What are you doing back there? Get back to your position and stop distracting my security personal during work time!”

“Sorry we can’t talk anymore. Let’s talk later when we make camp. Talking to you is very interesting. Later”

And Diane went back to her position with the two men following her, leaving Geo once more alone. The rest of the day the caravan kept moving forward, except for a small hour-long break at a shallow river in the early afternoon to eat lunch and refill water supplies.