Yaric looked forward to returning to class and getting back to training. There was so much to do and so little time to finish everything. Many people would also have questions about what had happened during their appeal, but the biggest surprise was what everyone already knew.
“Of course we know,” Kaylin laughed. “We knew two days ago. There were bets on when you would actually ask her out.”
“Wait, what?”
Kaylin started giggling. “Everyone lost… no one thought you would take this long. I feel bad for her.”
“How does everyone already know? And I didn’t take too long.”
“Since the bets started, Anton has broken up with Tracy and then Mikayla, and he’s been with Karly for almost six months now.”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“Just saying.”
Li Na popped in at that moment and grabbed Yaric’s elbow. “And since the bets started, Yaric’s won Solstice Tournaments, killed a Draugr, and captured bandits,” she said, dragging Yaric back with her. “Just sayin’.”
“But you were also saying I should have somehow known long ago,” Yaric protested while being dragged along by Li Na.
“Yeah, so? Take the win.”
“Where are we going?” Yaric asked.
“Lauren and Sven are telling Chelsea and some others about capturing those guys. They want to see the scar.”
Li Na augmented herself enough to drag Yaric across to Lauren and the others, where he was put on display for a few moments before being allowed to settle in and talk about their new classes. With the change of year, they were now between a younger and a more senior year, while the younger class also added new people.
It was good to be back with everyone, and even though they still had another entire day off, they spent most of it with their lesson plans. Yaric and Lauren still had slight difficulties augmenting other objects while under pressure, so Li Na spent part of the day working with them while Sven practiced his runes.
Classes finally started the next day, and they were thrown right into the thick of it. Much of their combat class with Hiawatha was spent discussing the new training methods they would be using, particularly with the magic that would be added to their sparring lessons. All four were expected to be fully proficient at augmenting their weapons at all times, and they would each be adding new spells to their training regimen while sparring.
Hiawatha had also made arrangements for medical lessons and battlefield tactics, with Hiawatha and Ivan taking turns instructing them on the latter. It added another four hours to their week, which didn’t seem like a lot, but that was a significant percentage of the time they usually used to practice their own drills for spellcasting.
Emil also threw in extra work when they arrived for their magic lesson. He immediately made his way over to where they were seated and began adding new spells to their lesson plan, without removing any of the existing spells that were meant to take them a year to learn. These spells were to be used during combat and scouting lessons, though many of their existing spells were already earmarked for the same purpose.
Law class had no change, and neither did Yaric’s class on investigation, despite what had just happened.
‘I’m starting to expect every instructor to create special lessons based on what happened,’ Yaric thought, feeling slightly ashamed.
Ivan didn’t do anything more than check the spells in Yaric’s lesson plan and reiterate what Hiawatha had already told them, but other than that the archery lesson was the same as it always was.
Fitting back into classes was easy. Even better, time seemed to fly when they were focused on learning new spell forms. They had spent the end of the previous year trying to work out new ways to use existing spells when they ran out of new things to learn, so endless lists of new components were welcome.
Three weeks passed before the new private lessons started, and they were not what Yaric had expected.
“So this doesn’t repair anything?” Yaric asked, staring down at the pig carcass they were practicing on. He was currently learning how to remove an arrow and stabilize the wound, using the carcass in front of him, which had a hole as wide as his thumb that went almost all the way through it.
“No,” Mage Jasper said. “This will keep the patient alive. Or at least, it will keep the patient alive long enough for you to get him proper medical attention.”
“But how would we heal the patient? So they can get back on their feet?”
“This is basic first aid, you have a long way to go before you can do something like that. Right now we’re focusing on keeping your friends alive so you can get to someone who can. Those spells you showed me early might deal with a deep cut or slash, but something that penetrated through like this needs professional attention.”
Yaric had been expecting to learn how heal others from stab wounds or bolts, but nothing they were currently learning involved any magic at all. He knew that there was going to be some magic very soon, to enable things like clotting, but he would still need to go for help for the actual healing.
It was also something with far higher stakes. Any mistakes could have terrible consequences, so they had to learn everything in fine detail and ensure they could respond correctly every time. Even something as simple as painkillers had to be handled carefully, as the healer who takes over would need to know precisely what had been administered, or there could be horrible consequences once again.
There was a pattern to what they were learning, however, as Sven pointed out while they practiced plugging holes made by arrows. Arrows that Yaric was even more disappointed to find out were usually left in.
“Look at the first aid kits we’re issued,” Sven said. “We’re going through all of the items inside and how they’re used. These lessons are focusing on the tools we’ll have on hand first. I bet we’ll go deeper into the things you’re looking for once we’re proficient at using our medical kits.”
“I hope we don’t have to use these,” Li Na said, holding up a needle and making a face.
“It’s probably for stitches,” Sven replied. “That will be really useful to learn.”
Li Na clearly didn’t agree, and neither did Yaric as he watched Li Na place the needle on top of her kit after handling it with hands that had just been inside the carcass. She did at least start using a spell to clean it, then held it over a conjured flame. Still, the look on her face spoke volumes of how she felt about digging around inside the carcass.
“Didn’t you see the animal skins in your family’s tannery?” Yaric finally asked.
“Yeah. It was disgusting. Almost as bad as the smell.” Li Na was also cleaning her hands now, even though she would be working on another simulated wound in just a minute.
“She doesn’t like blood,” Sven said.
“I don’t care about blood,” Li Na objected.
“You have no problem making a splint for a broken bone, but you react every time you see an open wound,” Sven explained.
“I don’t care about open wounds either,” Li Na replied. “It’s just…” she said, hesitating and making a face. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s finish this so we can move on.”
Moving on was easier said than done. Simply plugging the injury was just the start, and it wasn’t simple to begin with. They also had to learn how to move the patient without worsening the injury. There wasn’t even a range of rules to follow, but several, depending on the wound, the location, and how they needed to move the patient.
Thankfully, their other new class was far more straightforward. It was still very technical, maybe even more so, but all four of them found the lesson easier. Hiawatha took the first lesson, and he started them off by teaching them how to respond to an ambush. Only then did Yaric realize that the classes were tailored entirely to the four of them.
“No single strategy works for every ambush,” Hiawatha said. "You can be encircled, hit on the flanks, one flank, from the front, or in any combination. The enemy can have the high ground, be on your level, have prepared cover, natural cover, or no cover other than the initial concealment. Ambushes can even be sprung by a group you agreed to meet or considered allies. That’s why we will divide ambushes into several key categories, and you will learn the most appropriate response for each.
“The first is range, the distance between you and the ambushers. I’m not going to cover extreme close range, where people are within reaching distance, as that’s usually an urban environment. The first range we will look at is close range, also known as throwing range. This is usually twenty-five to thirty meters, and despite the name, it’s also usually the range at which most archers are most comfortable. Make no mistake, archers will fire volleys at much greater ranges, but the average archer will feel comfortable hitting a moving, human-sized target within those ranges only. It’s also the maximum range for most people to throw a spear or javelin.
“The first thing you four would need to do is locate the direction of the ambush, or, if there are multiple directions, the closest and easiest to approach. If the ambush has been sprung, it means you are in the kill zone. For close-range ambushes, the approach is usually simple: get out of the kill zone. That does not mean retreat. Almost any ambush will cover your lines of retreat and the direction you were headed. No, you turn to your ambushers and advance, as quickly as you can, and you close with them. The idea is to smash through their lines as quickly as possible. If the situation warrants it, you can even turn and counterattack once you’ve broken through. Now we’re going to practice, using these dummies.”
Li Na had a wide grin on her face as she realized that she would basically be functioning as a shock troop.
“If the ambush comes from more than one direction, how would a large group coordinate to all go the same way?” Yaric asked.
“We may cover that in the future,” Hiawatha said, “but you four are most likely to be together, so these lessons will focus on how you should react together. Do well and we may expand on what you learn to cover larger unit sizes.”
Yaric wanted to point out that the four of them weren’t exactly a unit, but he held back. None of his lessons were meeting his expectations, but that didn’t mean there was anything wrong with them. It was far more likely that his expectations were the problem. After all, he hadn’t had any idea what his lessons should include, so none of his expectations were based on experience.
Even now, after Hiawatha had already explained what they would be doing, Yaric still found that he hadn’t fully understood.
“No!” Hiawatha shouted. “Go back to your starting point. How did all four of you close all the way without using a single spell? You need to go all out right from the start. Hit them hard, and hit them fast,” Hiawatha said, pointing to the dummies that were about to be pummeled. “Shout, scream, throw magic, do anything you can to get them to take cover or pause their attack.”
This time Hiawatha almost caught them by triggering dummies on the opposite side, but all four of them responded immediately, pivoting to face the correct direction and launching themselves forward. Sven launched shards of glowing rock, Li Na covered her shield in spikes, while Lauren and Yaric both threw incendiary fireballs.
They were five meters away when Li Na gave a war cry at the top of her lungs and launched ahead of everyone else. The stone spikes on her shield fired off to pepper one of the dummies while her mace sent another flying in splinters. Yaric and the others crashed through just moments later.
“Better,” Hiawatha said, though he still looked unhappy. “Come back to the beginning. That assault was great if you were simply trying to smash through enemy lines, but you were in an ambush. This is a kill zone. Those are enemy soldiers trying to kill you, and they have already opened fire before you knew they were there.
“Yaric, Lauren, fire is good, but explosions are better. Shock them, hit them with raw, overwhelming power. Sven, that spell wasn’t bad, but you’re only targeting a single enemy, and in a manner that doesn’t threaten or even register with anyone else. I’m not saying that your choice would never be the best one, but it usually won’t be. Lina, you focused your assault at the moment of impact. Again, you’re not smashing through a fixed line; you’re responding to an ambush. They were attacking you and your friends every moment of your charge, not just when you made contact. Respond with your own attack right from the beginning.”
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They reset again, and Hiawatha triggered the same dummies instead of switching sides like before. Lauren and Yaric launched explosive fireballs as they ran, joined by Sven this time, and they both used incendiary fireballs when they managed to launch a second spell before impact, but realized that they were now too close. Sven flung a storm of stones in a wide arc for his second spell. Li Na launched ice shards right from the get-go, firing them in random directions and not letting up once. She even managed to recreate the stone spikes on her shield and repeat her initial attack when they made contact with the line of dummies, though she wasn’t able to shout her war cry at the same time.
“Good! You’re starting to get the idea! We’re going to repeat this several times, and each time I want you to try and throw as many spells as you can before making contact. Make sure each spell is powerful. If they throw a stone, you throw a mountain back. If they throw a spear, pummel them with a forest. Arrows should be met with a hail of fire. Never, ever forget that if you’ve just been ambushed, you’re in the kill zone, and your enemies have already started killing you and your friends. Never hesitate, and never hold anything back.”
They went through the drill over and over, slowly getting faster as they did. Hiawatha even tried triggering both lines, causing them to split up twice, but the other three quickly started looking to Yaric to see which way he went. Li Na almost always made the break in the line while the others followed her through, striking to the sides as they went and eliminating the closest threats.
‘This is exactly what Sven and Lina did after Lei shot me,’ Yaric realized. ‘They just kept smashing his hiding place as hard as they could.’
“Not bad,” Hiawatha grudgingly admitted. “You four are starting to get the idea. But that’s not good enough, not even close. We’re going to be changing this exercise up and repeating it over and over again until you learn to work together properly.”
“Are we supposed to designate roles?” Lauren asked.
“In a manner of speaking,” Hiawatha replied, though the smile on his face practically screamed that there was more to it.
“But we will be in different positions,” Sven protested. “We won’t be in a fixed formation at all times.”
“Exactly!” Hiawatha declared, jabbing his finger toward Sven. “You need to be flexible. All four of you need to know exactly what the others are going to do, where they’re going to be, and where you need to be the instant you’re attacked. Each of you needs to understand who the others will target and who they need you to target. You need to fall into whatever role is required, but most importantly, you need to know what role is required. I want all four of you to get so familiar with how everyone reacts that you can all fall into an attack plan instantly, without even looking at each other. Only then will you have the greatest chance of surviving an ambush.”
Hiawatha sent them back to the beginning and began to reset his target dummies.
“And this is only close range,” Lauren said, nudging Yaric with a grin. “We still have to start learning how to respond if the ambush is from further away.”
“Range is just one category too,” Sven added.
“We haven’t even looked at securing a camp yet,” Li Na said quietly.
“And those are just the examples we were given,” Yaric pointed out. “There’s going to be a lot of other things we haven’t thought of. Maybe even things we don’t know exist.”
Lauren just nodded along with each point. “This is going to be fun.”
----------------------------------------
“Sit,” Sandy said, indicating one of the chairs opposite her.
“These meetings are starting to become regular,” Lloyd replied, taking a seat as he did. “Why don’t you just make a monthly appointment instead of summoning me each time?”
“Yes, well, much of this concerns you directly. And some things don’t, but likely will in the future. The price of power, I’m afraid.”
“Good thing I’m not on the Council then,” Lloyd smirked. “But what’s happened? Is there another transporter?”
“No, this is more of a catch-up. Some decisions have been made, and they include changes for you as well.”
“Hmmm…” Lloyd hummed, not liking the slight smile he suspected Sandy was trying to hide.
“I’ll start with the internal news. Wedal has denied any responsibility for the transporters that were found. They claim that even if any originated from their territory, they were built by ‘rogue actors'’."
“That’s ridiculous!”
“Of course. You found military units guarding the approach, and the logistics required are far beyond a few ‘rogue actors’. But, they are taking the plausible deniability approach.”
“Plausible? It’s not plausible at all!”
Sandy shrugged her shoulder. “No, but that is their stance. The King doesn’t hold any value in their reply though. We’re going to be sending two separate forces to reinforce Slibia’s eastern border. Refugees from Blackburn are already reinforcing their old border with the Slibia Confederation, but Slibia has also agreed to allow us to contribute. The King is allocating an entire Division, which will rotate periodically, while every Duke will also contribute a Brigade. Three of those Brigades will be deployed at any one time, and they will rotate amongst themselves.
“They’ve also arrived at the same conclusion you did. These terrorist attacks will compel us to change our force structure over time so we can better combat the various creatures that have been unleashed in our lands. As you said, that will leave us vulnerable to wars against other armies. Our military feels the threat is greater than you indicated, and they’re setting up special dedicated units for eradicating any creatures we find, to protect their war fighting capability.”
“So we’re sending soldiers to block any further advances, and some soldiers are being retrained to clear out dangerous creatures. Can’t they just add additional training to regular units? That way we can keep everyone available for future conflicts,” Lloyd said.
“No, they had several reasons behind their decision. The first was the training and equipment required. Fighting kobolds or manticores is very different to proper military conflicts. They believe that changing over for too long would result in the loss of institutional knowledge and skills, and it could take more than a decade to switch back to conventional warfare.
“They’re also worried about these creatures being used as a fixing force. If we end up fighting in Slibia while also dealing with infestations at home, we could have part of our military locked up here. Even the threat of more infestations could fix a lot of troops in place here, because we can’t risk something popping up in Malvec while most of our military is fighting far away. They’d far rather raise new units that are purpose-built for responding to infestations.”
“I guess that does the same thing,” Lloyd acknowledged. “If they’re raising new units, then it won’t affect our current strength. And they really only need a well-trained militia for most things. Anything beyond that would require a response from the Academy either way.”
“That’s part of their thought process as well, though it goes deeper than that. They have things like budgets, logistics and the like to consider as well.”
“And no drafts?” Lloyd asked.
“We believe that any potential war is too far out for now. But the King has ordered an increase in weapons stockpiles. That damn smuggling operation has had a measurable impact on the amount of quality wood and metals supplies available within Malvec, so we’re building up now. It even helps distribute costs over a longer time frame.”
“When lightning strikes you also wind up wet.”
“Indeed. But things have stabilized internally. There’s also more of a consensus on the threat Wedal poses, even if most still see it as long-term.
“The other news is external. There has been progress in forming an alliance to confront Wedal, with eight different nations joining us. It’s easy to see Wedal as having a warrior culture when looking at its history, but recent events paint an expansionist picture. In the long term, they could be a threat to everyone.
“More people are also coming to the conclusion that their taxation and economic policies are built specifically to cater to repeated wars of conquest.”
“Their differing taxes based on number of children? That’s a bit of a stretch. Incentivizing larger families has clear economic benefits for them, especially since those children all end up being taxed until they have large families of their own,” Lloyd argued.
“Those economic benefits mostly stem from population decline after major wars. Don’t forget that their first ever conquest took three wars and almost two centuries. Their victory was entirely due to population advantages, even though they were the same size. Wedal just recovered far faster. The same thing happened for all of their initial conquests, until they grew large enough that they simply overwhelmed everyone else.”
“It still looks like a post-war policy, not prewar. Their biggest advantage in the last two thousand years has been their growing arcanist population, and that’s simply down to conquering neighbors and incorporating their academies. Victory brings further victories.”
“Most now disagree with you,” Sandy replied. “Everything from lower or no taxes for larger families to reduced taxes on blacksmiths with additional apprentices all support a nation on a war footing. Their policies encourage a larger population to draw soldiers from, while also increasing expertise in all occupations that support the war effort.”
“No nation can craft such a dedicated national policy and keep it going for three thousand years,” Lloyd countered. “You just need one generation to choose peace and put their effort into prosperity, and it all comes crumbling down. No nation has such consistent policies.”
“Well as I’m inclined to agree with the analysts and policymakers, we’re going to have to agree to disagree."
"It doesn’t change anything anyway,” Lloyd pointed out.
“No. But it can affect how we perceive Wedal and their actions, not to mention the impact it could have on their preparedness, so it’s still important. To your point, though, Wedal’s recent actions have made clear that they are a military threat, regardless of the reasons behind their internal policies. More and more nations are committing to our alliance over time. We expect to have a multinational force protecting Slibia in a few short years, and possibly even war to retake Blackburn depending on how negotiations go.
“Your efforts during that probe paid off diplomatically as well. Other nations discovered transporters on their territory due to the twin’s actions, and they’re understandably upset. We have a few others who have sent representatives to inspect the transporters found in Malvec, so they know what to look for in their own territory. I’m sure at least a few of them will find something, and that only pushes those nations to join us.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t found anything by themselves,” Lloyd said.
“Everyone keeps saying that. Even my Council Members. You forget that we all had an increase around the same time, and most of the initial attacks were close enough to the Abyssal Fields that we all thought something was going on inside, pushing more creatures out than usual.
“The discovery was complete luck as well. Don’t forget that our students were right there when another group of kobolds got sent through, which is the only reason anyone went to the base of that cliff. And it was virtually undetectable even then. No Wizard found that hidden room. A student catching her breath in front of the wall happened to notice a discrepancy in the rocks, that’s all. It wouldn’t have been found at all without her observation.”
“Now you’re just boasting,” Lloyd smirked.
“Novice Jakobson came through at that moment, yes,” Sandy smiled. “And it’s only through what we learned that day that we were able to find the others, or even know to start looking. These attacks could have easily gone on for decades before anyone discovered anything. I have no doubt that there are people in Wedal cursing their bad luck even as we speak.”
“Luck is a participant in any war.”
“True. But relying on luck invites disaster, and that’s what we would have faced if a tired student hadn’t looked at that rock face, or if the infiltrators had used a non-repeating pattern.”
“That explains why so many foreign arcanists have been traveling through here with whole teams, but you don’t want me to escort them, do you?”
“No, that’s not the reason you’re here. I haven’t even gotten that news yet. With everyone pulling together to cooperate in a likely wall, it’s been decided that we should have a friendly competition between Academies. One hundred students from each class, or the whole class if there aren’t enough students, all competing together to foster new relationships and goodwill between the Academies. It will be something like the Solstice Tournaments, but more expansive.”
“More expansive?”
“There will be a wider range of competitions, not just single combat. But those details aren’t decided yet, and they’re not important right now. I’ll brief you on everything once the structure is decided.”
Sandy took a deep breath as she leaned back in her chair, making Lloyd feel uncomfortable once again. “War is coming Lloyd. You know it, I know it, this Kingdom knows it. Time will be in short supply, and Emil’s teaching period ended last year.”
“What?! No!”
“You know you were supposed to have taken over already. We made an allowance because of everything that was happening, but arrangements have been made that don’t include you. Something might come up, of course, but we can organize a temporary Instructor if you have to go somewhere for a few days.”
“Absolutely not. I need to be available for emergencies.”
“You need to train the students how to respond in emergencies. And you won’t have a normal teaching year anyway. You’ll be an instructor, so you’ll be heading our delegation to the Inter Academy Tournament. You’ll even be one of the principal instructors preparing them for the competition. Think of the entertainment and competitions.”
“I know half a dozen other -.”
“Lloyd, this isn’t a request. It’s your job. You can’t just turn down a part of your job because you don’t like it.”
“Why not? It’s easy.”
“Imagine if every cook refused to clean up, or if every stable hand refused to muck out the stables.”
“I’d say good for them, and make sure the cook is using brand new pots and pans for my food. Why can’t someone just refuse if they don’t like the job?”
“Because I said no… Look, it’s not even going to be as long as I originally thought. Remember when we first discussed this? You thought you would be teaching for at least five years. With how things have changed, it won’t be for more than three years, max. And you’ll get to instruct your own student personally.”
“Don’t give me that. Yaric is far ahead of any instruction. That boy takes his lesson plan, expands it himself, and then conducts all of his own lessons. He’s already worked out how to change anchors or overlay spells all by himself, all while practicing how to cast under pressure and learning how to cast faster than anyone in his year. I won’t be doing anything constructive with him.”
“All by himself?” Sandy asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Fine, with his friends. But he pushes them just as much as they push him, if not more so. You know as well as I do that I’ll be ignoring them so they can do their own thing.”
“No. I know you better than that. You’ll start off that way, but give it enough time and you’ll be slipping them new training methods or unusual spell ideas, which is all besides the point. Next year you will be taking over from Emil, and he will be taking a sabbatical to further his own studies. You will also be heading our delegation to the Inter Academy Tournament. It’s either that or you finally join the Council.”
“Never.”
“Then I expect great things from your students next year. And I expect to hear no complaints, just like I do from everyone else when they have to do things they don’t like. You can’t just skip any part of your job that you don’t enjoy.”
“I can’t make any promises about your first expectation, and you’re going to be disappointed about your second. Just because everyone else is sta -.”
“Lloyd…”
“Fine. But no more teaching for at least two hundred years after.”
“No one has a deal like that,” Sandy complained.
“What other people have has nothing to do with me.”
“You’re only going to teach for three years; you can’t ask for a two-century exemption after only three years of teaching. Everyone has to –.”
“If you’re going to say that everyone has to do their time as instructors, then I’m going to demand that everyone has to respond to emergencies in my place.”
“Most people aren’t able to -.”
“Exactly. And I’m not able to serve as an instructor for at least two hundred years after this.”
…
Sandy let out a resigned sigh. “Fine.”
“And it doesn’t count when we’re at war. I wouldn’t be available then anyway.”
“Two hundred years. And I better be impressed with your teaching.”
“At least two hundred years. And of course, who else do you turn to in emergencies?” Lloyd asked. “By the time I’m done with them, they’re going to be blowing up mountains and flying through cities. You’ll be begging me to continue teaching!”