Excerpt from The Mad Scholar's Wall—
The elves taught the children well. More than we could have believed or hoped for.
But the children could not stay with us until they gained partial control of their powers. It was just too dangerous.
When the children came back at the age of 10, they were finally judged ready to reintegrate with us. And were quickly filled with contempt.
It was not new. We all heard of the stories from the few parents who still visited their children regularly. Those who tried to accept their children despite their near insurmountable differences because of parental love.
No amount of love could change the disdain for us, though. A disdain that was justified because they were better. They were stronger, faster, smarter, and had abilities we could only dream of.
There was much to be scorned in their eyes as they looked upon us.
From the moment the children returned, the difference between the families of those with the gifted and those without was as stark as light and day.
Power ruled.
That has always been, and always will be, the way of the world.
How could we be given the ability to enhance our children in ways beyond our own potential and not grasp it with both hands?
As such, we began breeding our children.
We sought out which percentage of mixed blood would produce the desired results. To produce the most effective and talented children in the mental branches of Control, Telekinesis, and Telepathy.
Every family of note was frantically searching for a reliable path to power.
**********
A moment passed, and I did nothing.
The blade's edge kissed my skin, and I could feel another line of blood begin making its way down my body.
Mouth twitching in a smile, I slowly raised my hand, taking a bite of jerky and chewing on the chunk as I ignored the bitch behind me.
"Don't think I won't kill you, elf." The husky voice said with a hint of anger in it now.
"You would have already if you could, Celeste." I said to her hoarsely, "Who's with you?"
She said nothing, and I continued to eat. I could feel her growing anger and frustration at my indifference and her inability to kill me.
Her knife pressed slightly deeper into my throat before pulling back out. The blade jiggled there for a second before another voice called out.
"Put the knife down, Celeste. He is a scout, after all. We've lost so many over the past couple of days we can't afford to lose another. No matter the… quality." Said a man wrapped in a cloak who appeared leaning against a tree fifteen feet away. I could nearly feel the disdain when he practically sneered at the word quality. Quite a slip of the tongue for him.
"Yes, milord." Said the once again cold, emotionless voice behind my ear, the dagger at my neck disappearing as suddenly as it appeared. A moment later, a woman with raven black hair, also wrapped in a cloak, stepped into my vision. As she walked away from me, her knee hit my left arm, causing me to let out a grunt of pain.
She took up a position behind the man, the tiniest smile curling her lips as two men appeared to the sides five feet away.
"What do you have to report, scout?" Asked the man with golden blond hair and a razor-sharp jawline lounging on the tree.
He was the one in charge; there was no doubting that.
"Hmm, pretty sure I don't report to you," I said, smirking as Celeste's hand flinched under her cloak, causing its surface to waver. "Go scout and come back with your own report, Vlore. Or ask your bitch to do it."
Vlore stuck out his arm, stopping Celeste from walking forward. Her face was covered in red splotches as she clenched her jaw in anger, causing the veins on her neck to stand out.
"Control your dog, Vlore, or we might lose this wonderful occasion to chat—," I said, raising up my canteen in a mock toast as I tried to stifle the coughs wracking my body.
"Didn't you hear what I said before? Over half of the scouts are dead, and another quarter are assumed missing. How they are all disappearing, we don't know, but you are one of the few out in the field to return in a day. The Legion needs information. This is not a time for politics and games."
I studied Vlore as he stood there looking like the epitome of grace and nobility. His mask was perfect.
"Easy thing for you to say. You don't even have to try to spin this to your advantage. Let me guess; your squad is the only one without casualties." Vlore didn't respond, but the twitch of a smile on his mouth was all I needed to know the answer.
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“…Not much to say, really," I finally said after making them wait long seconds as I chewed and swallowed my food. Vlore was right about one thing: I did have a duty to relay my information to the Legion. "but before that, got any food? I'm starving, and I've nearly run out." Duty didn't mean I had to make it easy for them to take my information.
A sack hit my chest hard enough to make me flinch. Not that it needed to be going that fast to hurt. The entire front side of my body was one giant bruise, after all.
Celeste couldn't know that, though. So she went for power to make sure it hurt. I swear the sack would have knocked me over if I wasn't leaning against a tree.
Gingerly I rubbed my chest before I started poking around in the bag picking out a piece of jerky.
"We found the vanguard of a beastkin warband at least a valley northwest of here. I can't really say how far away it is for certain. The vanguard numbered at least a thousand wolves. I also spotted at least a thousand flying beastkin off in the distance. The beastkin scouts were somehow able to sneak up on every member of our team by cloaking their minds, launching a nearly simultaneous attack. Only me and Markus survived." As I finished talking, I drank water to help soothe my throat before taking in the dead silence that greeted my words.
Then the men to my right side spoke up in a murmur, "I'll give my left nut if that's true… Are you really going to listen to these lies, sir?"
"Yeah, are you going to listen to my lies, Vlore?" I said, shifting my gaze to Vlore after I glanced at his subordinate. "Or will you give me his left nut and tell him to shut up so I can finish? And don't think I don't feel your probe."
I heard someone snort in disbelief, but I didn't look away from Vlore's gaze. I even let his probe further skim surface thoughts to act as proof of my words.
It didn't matter how powerful he was or how tired I was. I could still block him from feeling anything from me if I wished. It gave me a little jolt of pride and superiority as I recognized the acknowledgment flicker through his eyes.
"You think you can—
"Shut up, Luke. Let him finish," Vlore said, cutting off his subordinate.
Giving a slow nod to Vlore, I paused a second, pretending to gather my thoughts as I made them wait.
“…Where was I… Ahh, yes! I remember. So, we spotted the vanguard and birds, then we split up. Markus enhanced his body and made a break for it, and I had to try to sneak away through the valley…"
Looking around at the encroaching night, I sighed before continuing to talk, "Barely made it halfway across the valley before I got trapped in a natural bowl containing an ancient ruin. I had to injure a golden eagle beastkin following me. He had arms, by the way. And as I thought I got away into an escape tunnel at the back of the ruined fortress, the bastard blew up the forest."
We sat in silence. But this time, uncertainty permeated the stillness, tinged with more than a hint of fear.
"Sir," said the only one of Vlore's men that hadn't already spoken. They were all looking at Vlore, and while the single word didn't sound like a question, it was. And everyone else in the small clearing was silently begging Vlore to tell them if what I was saying was the truth.
"He does not think he's lying," Vlore stated, and I closed my mind as he spoke. I really didn't like someone skinning my surface thoughts. "That does not mean the eagle beastkin has attributed psi. We have never seen any signs of mental powers. To leap to such a level of skill so fast would be preposter—
"I never said it was mental energy. I didn't feel any. One second, he shone like a second sun in the sky. The next, I was thrown to the ground by a blast of heated air, and the forest was burning. I can't tell you what happened, only that it did. Which is my job."
"He's right," Vlore said, making his subordinates and me look at him in shock. Today is one for miracles! I thought in wonder, as I was sure such words had never left his mouth before.
"Not about his claims about the beastkin's potential psi powers, but our jobs." He said with a wave of his hand, "The tribunes need to know this information, and we are wasting time." Ah, that makes sense. He wants to be the one to report the information to the Centurion and get the credit.
I watched Vlore turn his head, and his eyes must have skimmed the surrounding area. Whatever he looked at, I couldn't tell. The night was already to the point that I could only tell where they were by the slightly darker splotches in the shadows.
When I wasn't injured, my vision was better than any human at night or day, but I still needed light to see. It didn't help that it was a rather cloudy night, too. And even when the moon rose, it would only be a crescent moon, so there wouldn't be much light.
In short, it was a perfect time to skulk through the forest.
"We have to get moving. You can make it back to camp alone, right Green?" I looked at Vlore, slowly raising my good hand and flipping him off.
"Ughh! The disrespect!" Snarled Celeste as she stepped forward, flashing her knife in the fading light. "I'm gonna skin you alive, elf!"
"Stop," Vlore said quietly, but it was in a tone and had enough will behind it to stop Celeste cold. "We'll be questioned hard by the Centurion just because we left him behind. If we actually kill him, even I won't get off without consequences. We have to give off the appearance of equality… after all."
"As you say, milord," Celeste said with a bow, her knife disappearing into her cloak. "You're lucky, elf." She hissed at me before disappearing into the shadows.
Within a breath, the others also disappeared into the forest, with not even so much as a wave of the hand to acknowledge my bleeding, bruised body lying against the tree.
Reaching into the bottom of the pouch of jerky, I felt around until I found the piece I wanted, popped it into my mouth, and started to gnaw on it.
Closing and tying the pouch to my belt, I got up with a grunt of pain and started walking up the hill.
I was far less concerned about the beastkin than I was minutes ago.
If there was one good thing about the kawrashit that Vlore is, it's that he is always at the back edge of the scout line. When you see him, you know you're safe.
When he was at the front edge, it was when a superior was around, or there was nothing dangerous spotted for days in any direction.
He really did seem to have an extra sense of where the safest spot was. Of all the many things Vlore was, he is a survivor, just like the other cockroaches.
I still tried to leave as little of a trail as possible, but I was more interested in moving fast. My ragged breathing was enough to give away my position to anything close, so a slightly larger trail wasn't a concern.
As I topped the hill, I momentarily looked back down into the valley and then up and past the other tree-strewn hill.
A breeze drifted past me for a moment, and I thought it brought a hint of fire and ash to my nose. My eyes snapped to the distant hill's edge, and I swore I momentarily saw the red tint of a fire a couple valleys away, with a figure outlined against its glow, shadows twisting behind it.
I couldn't be sure, as my vision was still shit, and it had been more than a day. The fire probably would have already burned itself out if it hadn't consumed the entire valley and kept spreading.
Still, if what I had seen was any sign, the 15th Legion was in for some hard times.
Turning away from the beastkins I knew were out there somewhere, I began to limp down the hill.
I had a long way to go to make it back to the legion fort.