One of the reasons I decided to write this book was due to how much the culture of humans changed the dwarven and elven kingdoms. One aspect being how we picked up humans’ enjoyment of telling stories.
I used to think their love for the arts stemmed from the long periods of them sheltering together to survive in the Valley of Monsters, but a human pastor pointed out to me that the sheer number of stories from his god Ignitious tripled the number from the elven god Zephoreas. Perhaps humans are merely inspired by the gods they worship?
It wouldn’t be surprising if that was the case. No Chosen of Apheros has presented themselves after Oskar’s death, but many romance authors have claimed to receive a blessing from the god after completing a novel, citing highly improbable circumstances where they meet a publisher and other strange occurrences. A Chosen of Adamanrion once commented that their god (and to their knowledge the others as well), do not mind having their likeness used in a fictitious manner, they only ask that their likeness remained consistent to their established character.
Then there are the tenets of the gods themselves that encourage the sharing of stories. Torbolt’s Domain of Comradery instructs soldiers to share their war stories, both good and bad, and Ignitious’ Domain of Art literally includes storytelling as a medium.
I wonder if the lack of stories is to blame for the abysmal number of humans converting to the non-human gods?
---
Travis
Hector wasn’t exactly pleased with our performance. While he did commend us for implementing a trap for the goat-spider-scorpion chimera, our clear lack of redundancies made it overly risky. We took the time to discuss what we should have done or tried, and eventually returned to the stands to watch the remaining matches.
I separated from the squad and sat down underneath the invisible umbrella of the [Water Aura] that Adrian and a few other Water Mages had set up, then leaned my head back to look up at the diverting rain. Despite combat having ended for some time now, my body still felt full of tension, and my mind was mired with endless thoughts. I reached to give Arc’s pommel a comforting rub and took in a deep breath, hoping that a little alone time would allow me to relax.
“I wonder what Reidar’s doing here?”
I opened my mouth to reply but gasped instead when I heard the clean monotone of Reidar’s voice inside my helmet.
“As part of my new assignment, I will be assisting the medical teams on occasion during the weekly arena matches. Apologies for syncing with your private channel on your helmet without permission Travis, but I was worried that I’d be unable to communicate easily with you once combat exercises have completed.”
What the…? Did he just hear Arc? My body trembled for a moment, but Arc managed to keep the boat steady.
“Oh, no problem at all. I’ll, uh… change frequencies so that you two can talk privately.” Arc then spoke again, but this time the sound came from outside my helmet, “Sorry, forgot I was using your helmet’s inscription to speak to you. Do you need help talking back to him?”
I hadn’t tried it yet, but the inscriptions on my helmet to allow long range communication should be easy enough to use. I moved my hand up to the right side of my helmet to help sync with the crystalized Wind Mana and shaped a small patch of mana to receive my voice.
“Can you hear me Reidar? I haven’t tried this before.”
“Yes, I can hear you fine. Though, I recommend shifting your input formation more towards the side of your mouth.”
“Sorry, is this better?”
“Yes. Are you still feeling post-combat shock?”
“Umm, I guess… That spell I used to ambush that chimera is a new spell, so modifying it to not hurt my team members stressed me out.”
“I see, despite your victory, you’re more concerned about the repercussions of what would have happened, had you failed.”
“Pretty much.”
“The fact that you have not become emboldened by your success speaks volumes to your character. Learn from your mistakes today, and vow to better yourself in the future. One cannot learn to kill by only attacking a practice target, they need to be challenged by a living creature.”
I let out a breath and slumped my shoulders forward, letting Reidar’s pep talk help relieve the last of my internal tension. He was right, more practice in the spell range and overall experience will reduce the chances of me messing up a spell enough to hurt someone by accident.
“Thanks Reidar, I needed that.”
“Oh, umm… you’re welcome.”
I smirked at Reidar’s sudden breaking of his military monotone, “So, your assignment has you working here on Snowsdays?”
“Not exactly, I’m here today for preparatory training so that I’ll be able to begin my assigned role this fall.”
“And this assigned role is…” I tried to coax out of the spartan.
“An important duty to the kingdom.”
“Oh, are you not allowed to say?”
“No, I am.”
I let out a tiny, aggravated grunt, grateful that Reidar couldn’t see me, he could be such a straight and narrow river at times that I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
We had to pause our conversation, so that Reidar could inspect the next group, but once they were cleared, Reidar and I were able to share what had been happening with each other.
“So, thank you again for the symbol of Apheros.”
“None needed. By the way, if you’d rather, you’re welcome to join me and Jethro on Woodsday for worship, so you don’t have to go alone.”
“I… would prefer to keep my worship private for now. I… uh, not to insult your invitation.”
“That’s alright, whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Thank you. To be honest, I’d feel bad about taking Woodsday off instead, I wouldn’t be able to join my first squad on Voltsday for supper otherwise.”
We got cut off again as the current squad finished their fight. One of them had a puncture wound to their thigh that Reidar had to perform surgery on, so we didn’t get to resume our conversation until Jethro and Drozuk’s match.
While their squad fought in a terrain full of water canals against a fast-swimming turtle that kept jumping from the water to slash at the group with its pincer arms and fish tail, Reidar and I continued swapping stories.
“I’m curious, if you decide not to marry or join an existing noble house, what would you choose as a last name?”
“Hmm, not sure. Lancel said his dad chose his based on a nickname that he received in the army, but I think most Lakelander nobles choose one based on their place of origin.”
“Hmm, perhaps Aelderson?”
“No, I’m pretty sure that one’s taken…”
The stands erupted into cheers as the tail of the aquatic chimera was cut badly, preventing it from jumping, and allowing the Water and Earth Mages to trap it in a waterless pit. The Wind and Fire Mages then pelted it with Blast spells until Hector finally called the match.
“Sorry, need to resume duties, should be able to talk once more before I meet my squad-brother for lunch.”
After the final match concluded, I had to wait until I was walking to the armory with my friends to hear from Reidar again.
“Sorry, had to fill out a preliminary report before I could leave for lunch.”
“That’s alright.” I whispered back, “Oh, forgot to ask, does your ’brother’ work here on campus?”
“Yes, he’s training to be a Spartan Field Chef, so he’s working as a rotisseur in the school’s cafeteria to gain experience.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, causing Adrian to crash into me, but I was more concerned with another matter.
“By chance, is he a half-orc?”
“He is. Have you two met?”
I let out a huff, “Not in an official capacity.” I then took notice of my friends looking quizzically at me, “Sorry, I’m talking to my friend Reidar.”
Drozuk cocked his head at me, “Wait, isn’t he the spartan you told us about?”
I nodded my head, then turned it to see Jethro grinning at me.
“You should invite him to the show tonight!”
“I can ask, but I thought you only reserved a booth, will there be room?”
“Should be plenty actually. The booth I reserved holds a dozen people.”
Although I wasn’t looking forward to watching the performance again, the thought of having Reidar there to commiserate with me, cheered me up.
“Reidar, are you free tonight? My friends and I are going to attend a shadow theater show for dinner at the Exotic Axe.”
“One moment… Yes, I can attend your social gathering.”
That got me excited. I wonder what Reidar will think of the show? Hang on… That gives me an idea.
“Jethro, can I invite one more person?”
He shrugged his shoulders, “Sure, I don’t mind.”
---
Arc
Uh oh, Travis had that mischievous look in his eyes, and the helmet he was wearing helped him maintain his poker face. The question is, “Should I stop him?” The odds of it even working are slim… but then again, if it does work…
I moved my focus over towards Jethro and the others who basically bullied Travis into attending the show tonight… hmm, maybe a little payback couldn’t hurt?
---
Travis and his friends sat down with their food at their usual table, but I noticed that his head kept leering in a certain direction.
“I’ll let you know when they enter.”
Travis stifled a smirk, then gave my pommel a scratch that would make even the bestest of good boys jealous. The pleasurable feeling even distracted me from seeing the table getting ambushed by Jakob and Xruul.
The Northman Water Mage was grinning madly, “Travis! What did you think of the chimera?”
Not surprising, Travis was flummoxed by the question, and only managed to stutter out, “Umm, it was terrifying?”
Bridget let out a huff, “That ‘thing’ could outrun every spell that I threw at it. Hector literally chided us for not throwing rocks instead.”
Jakob started to laugh, while Xruul shook his head. Xruul then turned to Adrian with a scowl, “You made my Corpse-Rat King look like a joke.”
That drew some scrutinizing stares from everyone and even a metaphorical one from me.
Adrian broke the silence with a gravely tone he must have learned from his new tutor, “What do you mean ‘my’ corpse-rat?”
Jakob and Xruul started to giggle, but the orc managed to control themselves long enough to respond, “In Monster Anatomy 5, you’ll study in more depth how chimera monsters evolve. There’s even a lab portion where you get to see the process in action.”
Realization must have clicked in Travis’ mind, because he spun to look Jakob dead in the eyes, “Wait, you made that thing?”
Jakob nodded his head while giving out a sigh, “Yeah, I’ll admit it wasn’t a very good design. I mean, it barely used its tail.”
“Ok, I got to know, why the goat head?”
Travis humored me by asking, and Jakob responded, “I used a scream-goat as the base, since they’ll eat anything, but unfortunately its preference for charging in with its horns couldn’t get overridden.”
Xruul turned around with his full tray, “I told you that you should have fed it inflamadar or bat-lion cysts.”
I’m… starting to worry about how ethical the experiments in the Monster Anatomical Research building are.
The group continued eating and chatting about the matches, but Jethro and Jakob’s conversation started to meander to a different topic.
“Wait, you were there that night?” an excited Jethro exclaimed.
Jakob nodded with a proud smile, “Yep, had first row seats, could even see the princess grimace from Travis’ poor dancing.”
Jethro, not taking notice of the table’s laughing and Travis’ groaning, became excited as a puppy, “You two should come tonight!”
The senior students, ignorant of Travis’ plans, agreed to come. Just in time too, because the person Travis wanted to invite had finally entered the cafeteria.
“That reminds me.” Travis sent his [Message] spell across the room towards his target and spoke loud enough for the table to hear him, “Royal Knight Asher, this is Initiate Elementalist Mage Travis. I apologize if this is an incorrect way to do this, but my friend Jethro Bradshaw has reserved us a booth at the Exotic Axe for this evening’s dinner show. I would like to extend an invitation to Princess Seleyna to join us tonight.”
Silence and wide-eyed looks of terror filled the table, allowing everyone to hear Asher’s response.
“Given the short response time needed, a verbal invitation through me is satisfactory. For security purposes, is it just your current table attending tonight?”
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“No, Spartan Reidar will also be joining us tonight.”
“I see, I will inform the princess.”
Jakob buried his head in his arms, Bridget’s eyes somehow double in size, Drozuk and Adrian looked absolutely flabbergasted, Mattius and Xruul went motionless, and Jethro stared daggers at Travis.
Jethro hissed, “What did you just do?”
Travis, with a smug look, replied, “You said I could invite someone.”
Jethro started to breathe heavily, and his arms began to quake with legitimate anger, but before he could formulate a response, Asher’s voice echoed over the table.
“Princess Seleyna has accepted your invitation. I’ll notify the tavern and assemble the security team. Will 6:42 work as a meeting time outside of the Union Hall?”
“Perfectly, it’s where and when I told Reidar to meet us.”
The spell ended and Travis took in the looks of his “friends”.
Jethro’s heavy breathing continued, but his anger was visibly giving way to full on panic, “A princess! Travis, how am I supposed to host a princess!”
Travis leaned in to give his fellow Lakelander a comforting pat on his arm, “It’ll be fine. The princess doesn’t care much for large formal gatherings, in fact, she’ll probably ask for you to address her only as Seleyna.”
Travis’ calming pat fought with Jethro’s panic until it finally claimed victory, and soon the table was a buzz with what to do tonight.
“What I did last time was place a pair of Water repulsion arrays underneath my armpits.” Jakob coached the other Water Mages, “It’ll keep you from forming sweat stains, and if you coat your underarm in scented charcoal powder, no one will smell you either.”
Bridget moved next to Jethro and was going over proper etiquette for meeting royalty, while Travis checked in on Mattius and Xruul.
“You two going to be ok?”
Xruul gulped, “Travis, I’m a second-generation mage from an outer middle-ring family, I’m not supposed to be going to dinner with a princess.”
Mattius started to tremble, “At least your family is in better standing than mine. Travis, I haven’t told you, but my dad became infamous in the noble circles when he remarried a woman half his age. Not to mention there’s also the fact that only one of my older brothers is from his first wife. Since he retired before I turned fifteen, I was able to get personally coached by him to activate my mana and was named the successor of my clan. That kind of behavior is frowned upon, especially since he is the First Knight of Clan Tatian.”
Ok, maybe I should have stopped Travis, I didn’t consider how the rest of his friends would react.
Travis had the decency to look ashamed, “I’m sorry. I should have consulted the table first.”
Mattius let out a deep breath, “What’s done is done. Just, please don’t make me sit next to her.”
---
Travis left for class with Drozuk, and the two walked together in silence until Drozuk suddenly burst into a fit of laughter, and turned to Travis, “I just realized, you’re a genius!”
Travis, looking perplexed, raised an eyebrow at the giddy orc, “How so?”
“You saw the perfect opportunity to ask a princess out on a date, and immediately pounced on it.”
Oh, my gods and God… He’s right!
Travis stepped back, his face smothered with confusion before the light of comprehension leaked out, “What, no… I didn’t… I just…”
Drozuk grinned, showing off his tusks in a prominent display, “Don’t try to deny it. That set-up was too perfect. Going to a dinner show inspired by an event involving her, Reidar, and you; there’s no possible way she could resist! Especially with you and Reidar there. Jethro and the rest of us are just a smokescreen to make it seem like a casual outing.”
Travis started to tremble as Drozuk’s argument began to make too much sense, so I decided to join in with my own.
“Dinner and a show is a classic first date. Dinner before and then drinks after, give you a chance to talk. And the show gives you a shared topic to discuss if needed. Plus, Seleyna mentioned that she was joining the drama club, so a shadow theater production is something she may be interested in.”
Drozuk gave Travis a pat on the back to jostle him out of his catatonic state, “C’mon, let’s get to class lover-boy.”
---
Travis
Instead of heading to supper after my last class, I headed towards my dorm room, only to hear Arc giving me a warning.
“Just a heads up, everyone’s in your living room waiting for you.”
I opened the door to find the place packed with my friends, all of them spinning their heads towards me.
“There you are!” Jethro shouted at me. “We need to get you ready.”
Jethro and Xruul drug me into the bathroom and started forcibly pulling my clothes off. I tried to stop them, but my struggles were in vain.
“Stop it! What are you doing?”
“You can’t go on a date looking fresh off the farm!” Xruul crowed as he removed my arming jacket and boots.
“I’m fine, I don’t—”
Jethro interrupted me by pushing me onto a chair, “Sit! I’m going to cut your hair and shave off that pathetic attempt of a beard, so no moving.”
I instinctively reached up to touch the handful of hairs that started to grow around my mouth. Did I have to? I was so excited the other day to see the first signs of a proper Lakelander beard growing on my face.
“Don’t worry, shaving will make them grow back thicker.”
What? Why would shaving change that?
Jethro didn’t care for my hesitation and smeared my face with shaving cream using a thick brush, then pulled out a straight razor. I stopped fighting at the sight, letting him go to work on my face and around my neck. He wiped off my face with a hot damp towel that Xruul gave him, then grabbed a shears to trim my hair.
Jethro gave me a comprehensive scan with his eyes, then stepped back, “Wash team!”
Jakob and Adrian stepped in, ordered me to undress then stand in the shower.
“Guys, I can shower without help.” I tried to reason with the two.
Jakob grinned, “Not like this…” He then raised his hand, causing the water from a nearby basin to rise into the air. “You’re gonna want to take a big breath, close your eyes, and plug your nose.”
I did so just in time to feel a waterfall of Water rush over my entire body, getting into every nook and crevice. The torrent of water paused for a second, but before I could open my eyes, soapy suds lathered my skin, followed by one more blast of Water to rinse me off.
“He’s clean!” Shouted a way too excited Adrian, and I open my eyes to see the pair step out while Jethro and Xruul entered back in. The two raised their hands, and a gust of warm, dry air finished removing the excess water on my naked body.
The door opened a crack, and a black skinned arm holding a bottle of oil reached in. Xruul grabbed the oil, then began to spread the scent of overgrown forest over my body that had completely given up fighting. I was then dressed in a freshly set of laundered clothes and arming jacket, then told to sit once more so Jethro could style my hair with some paste.
Jethro gave me one last overlook, then nodded his head, “Ok, you’re ready. Let’s head out.”
I followed him out of my bathroom, and into the living room to receive nods of approval from everyone.
Now that I wasn’t being assaulted, I was able to notice that everyone must have gone through the same process to prepare. Mattius cut his hair in a style like mine, with high faded sides and longer top. Jethro’s hair was similar but cut longer and slicked to the side with some light oil. Drozuk and Xruul went with a traditional orkish buzz cut that had horizontal lines shaved down to the skin. And the two Northmen added something to make their shoulder length black hair look wavier and used black charcoal dust to create shadows around their eyes.
I gave Bridget a long look to see if she did something to change her look as well, but her bald head and nearly charcoal black skin looked the same as always. She unfortunately noticed me staring.
“What is it?”
“Sorry, was trying to see if you did something different also, but you look the same as always.”
Bridget narrowed her eyes at me, but she was distracted by Adrian grabbing her hand, “Makes sense, why change something when you’re already beautiful.”
Bridget beamed a smile at Adrian, then gave his cheek a kiss.
“Wow, didn’t know Adrian was such a smooth-talker.”
I rolled my eyes, then followed the oddly cheerful group outside to head towards the Union Hall. It was a complete inversion of everyone’s attitude at lunch, even Mattius was walking with a spring in his step, so I darted my eyes around until they stopped on Drozuk’s irritating smile.
“Sorry, I know you wanted to keep it in the undercurrent, but I couldn’t resist after seeing how stressed out everyone was.”
Deciding that I better reseed the row straight, I attempted to stop any potential misunderstandings, “Just to be clear guys, I didn’t ask the princess out on a date.”
Giant smirks, matching the type that pirates must make when encountering an unarmed river transport, appeared on everyone’s faces, and Jethro gave me a brotherly pat on the shoulder while speaking in a sarcastic tone, “Of course it isn’t. It’s just an informal outing with friends.”
I almost opened my mouth to refute further, but Arc cut me off first, “There’s Reidar. No sign of the princess yet.”
Reidar stood in front of the building with his helmet clipped on his belt and gave me the standard military wave of a raised forearm and single wrist flick, “Travis, it’s good to see you. I take it these are your friends?”
I took the time to introduce everyone, proud of myself for only needing to scratch Arc’s cross-guard once, then noticed that Reidar must have taken the time to freshen up as well. His faded brown buzz cut still showed off his mixture of Northman and Lakelander heritage with his small mouth, and wider face, but with deeper set eyes to give his cheekbones and brow more prominence. So, it must have been something else.
“Did you polish your armor?”
“A thorough sanitation was required after providing medical treatment this morning.” Reidar paused, to subtly break his neutral expression, “I… did have some free time to repaint my lines after I was dismissed for the day. I determined, since we would be going to a public venue, that I should ensure my appearance matches the high standards of us Spartans.”
I let out a nervous grin, “That’s good, because… there is one more person that’s coming.”
As if on cue, the sound of heavily armored steps could be heard, causing everyone’s head to turn towards the approaching Royal Knight and Princess. I bent forward in a bow that got mimicked by everyone, except Reidar who took a knee, then rose back up to greet our final guest.
“Princess Seleyna, thank you for accepting my invitation.”
The princess, who had freed her hair from the braid that she had kept this morning to allow use of her helmet, must have taken extra steps to prepare for tonight as well. Her long wavy blonde hair didn’t have a single errant strand, her eyelids had dark blue coloring shadowing her large blue-gray eyes, and I caught a whiff of spring flowers emanating off her.
She gave me a bright smile, “And thank you for inviting me Travis.” Her head turned to address the still bowing crowd, “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary while on campus. Rules state that I am to be treated the same as every other student while undergoing training to become a mage.”
Jethro and the others rose, allowing me to begin introductions, “This is Jethro Bradshaw, Initiate Wind Mage, our host for this evening.”
Jethro visibly gulped from the stress but managed to greet Seleyna and introduce everyone else. Asher must have briefed her on everyone beforehand because she had something kind to say to each person as Jethro went down the line. She congratulated Mattius and Adrian for their squad earning the top marks this morning, Drozuk for hilariously knocking out a honeybadger with his fist last week, Bridget for not flinching when attacked by that chimera this morning, and then gave everyone else compliments as well.
Eventually it was Reidar’s turn to greet her, “It’s a pleasure to meet you again Princess Seleyna, I hope tonight’s activities provide memorable entertainment.”
“I’m sure it will, especially with you and Travis with me in the audience, I expect the bard for tonight’s ‘The Farmboy, the Spartan, and the Princess’ performance were in for a shock when my security team was sent out.
Reidar’s stiff composure finally broke at the mention of the show’s title, and he even surprised the princess and myself when he glared at me, but I could only shrug my shoulders and suppress my laughter as Sir Asher led us to the venue.
---
The Exotic Axe was a lively place upon entering, likely because news of the princess visiting leaked, but given how extravagant the evening décor was in the Northman inspired building, it wouldn’t surprise me if the place’s evening entertainment drew large crowds on the regular. We weren’t even the only mages there, many senior students were sharing drinks at the bar that run along the outside ring of the auditorium, and I spotted a few professors in one of the booths as we descended towards the front.
Jethro sat in the middle of the crescent shaped couch with me on his right, followed by Seleyna, Reidar, Mattius, and Asher on the end. Bridget was providing support on Jethro’s left, with Adrian, Drozuk, Xruul, and Jakob filling out the other half. The table was slid forward by the waitstaff, and pitchers of drinks were set out for us to enjoy while we waited for dinner to arrive.
Arc warned me that Mattius was looking anxious, likely from getting stuck so close to Seleyna, and suggested that I help calm him down since the other half was busy chatting.
“Reidar, I heard that some spartans specialize in Wind and Earth Mana, is that true? Mattius has been debating on whether he should dual-specialize or not.”
Reidar must have been nervous also, since he perked up at hearing the conversation starter, “That is correct.” He turned to face Mattius, “That spell you used is popular for Spartans to use when preparing to close a gate during a back march. The high volume of irritants drives away most monsters long enough to finish clearing the portcullis.”
The two then began to discuss other military tactics while Seleyna gave me and Jethro her attention, “How have classes been going for you two?”
I shrugged my shoulders, “Still going well, I’m just worried that I’ll suddenly hit a wall during training and fall behind with all of my classes.”
Jethro followed with his own response, “My grandmother helped prepare me well, so everything is still just review for Wind Spells 1 and my general magic studies. My biggest concern oddly are the general education classes that I couldn’t test out of.”
Seleyna nodded her head, “I’m in a similar situation to you Jethro. I passed history and science, but my math score was embarrassingly low, I need a tutor to help me study now.”
Jethro grinned, “Too bad Travis didn’t have more free time so he could help you, I’ve seen him solve problems our study group had gotten stuck on for a half hour after only giving them a cursory glance.”
“Uh-oh, looks like Jethro has decided to become your wingman.”
I gulped, feeling my face turn red, but I managed to continue talking until dinner arrived. The main entrée was bacon-wrapped scallops seared in butter, medallion-cut tenderloins served with grilled vegetables, and slices of frozen tropical fruit from the Elven Islands. The food was dense with mana, but the portion size left a certain Spartan looking grumpy.
“I think your squad-brother has been spoiling you Reidar.”
“And you haven’t been as well?” He gestured his head towards my already empty plate.
Seleyna started giggling at our poor manners and waved to the waiter to bring a second helping for us. After the booth had finished eating, we began chitchatting again while waiting for the show to start but didn’t have to wait long before the lights in the grand hall began to dim.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Beards and Beardless, for tonight’s entertainment here at The Exotic Axe, we have, Norvin the Shadowweaver, here with his telling of ‘The Farmboy, the Spartan, and the Princess.’”
Applause filled the room as Shadow Mana began to coalesce on the stage. The inky darkness rose to a tall height, and a Sea Elf wearing a darkly colored cloak with star patterns weaved into it stepped forward.
“Although tonight’s story was inspired by true events, please understand that the characters depicted are fictional, and that any accurate resemblance to their real-world counterparts is unintentional.” The brown-skinned elf turned their head to give our booth a smile, then raised their arms into the air.
Shadow Mana began to form shifting shapes of people and places, before settling on a single outline of a man.
“Our story begins over eighteen years ago after a particularly cold winter and endless flood.” The mana shifted to show the man wearing armor and wielding a spear. They were soon joined by other soldiers inside a defensive wall as an endless stream of monsters rushed to attack them.
“Before he was known as Farmer, he was called Soldier, and he defended the kingdom from the violent hoards that crossed the Hooded One’s Ice bridge.” The image shifted, showing the man growing tired from the constant battles, but would find a second wind after a pair of soldiers wielding an axe and a hammer urged the man to continue.
“He defended the capital to the bitter end but lost those who were most dear to him.” A large monster appeared, then thrashed the man and his two friends, breaking their weapons in its struggle, and leaving only the man alive before it died.
“Now a broken man, Soldier needed a new life, so they prayed to an altar of Adamanrion, offering the broken weapons of him and his friends. Adamanrion heard the prayer, told the man to rename themselves Farmer, and to take his mementos of his previous life with him and bury them underneath an Aelder tree.”
“His commander, Knight, was saddened to see Farmer leave, but wished him well.” The mana kept narrating the Bard’s words, showing a scene of a ridiculously muscled armored man next to a small child waving goodbye.
“Farmer left to find a new home, even taking comfort with a night maiden to help ease the sorrow he still felt, but eventually found a village and a wife to help him feel joy once more.” The scene split, depicting the night maiden growing pregnant in one, and Farmer’s wife growing pregnant in the other.
“Time passed, and soon Farmer’s first son was born; Spartan.” The mana shifted to show the night maiden handing her child to a town guard, giving her child a single kiss before vanishing into a puff of air.
“Then his second son was born; Farmboy. The child brought great joy to Farmer, for Farmboy had the voice of a bard, and the dancing feet of an inner-ring noble.”
The booth’s occupants and I let out a few snickers, and I whispered to Seleyna to answer her question about if my father was even a soldier. The show continued, taking time to explain how Spartan became a ward of the Queen, how the Queen gave birth to a daughter of her own, and how Aelder himself enjoyed watching Farmboy sing and dance underneath his tree.
New scenes depicting Spartan meeting Princess the first time during a visit from the Queen, another showing Farmboy growing tired of always singing and dancing and wanting to explore, and of Princess being told by an old crone that she’ll know that she has met her true love when a boy makes her smile for the first time.
Tensions built when Spartan was tasked with protecting Princess, and how he grew upset over seeing Princess in a constant gloomy mood. Princess was told by her mother that she would someday have to marry, even if her husband failed to make her smile, and Farmboy got into trouble after Farmer caught him leaving the protection of the Aelder tree to explore.
“Farmboy grew upset, sitting underneath the Aelder tree, and wished that he could learn magic. That way he’d be forced to leave the village, and even have the strength to defend himself as he explored the world. Aelder, however, wasn’t happy. He demanded that Farmboy stay so he could watch him sing and dance, but when Farmboy refused to do either ever again, Aelder decided to compromise.”
“Aelder disguised themselves as their father Apheros using the magic that Ignitious taught him, and shouted to the north, ‘Hooded One, if only you were here, I think I may finally be ready to wed thee.’”
The Shadow Mana conjured a massive figure that took up nearly the entire stage, garnering the bard some cheers and applause from the audience. “The Hooded One appeared, but grew angry when Aelder dropped their disguise, ‘Foolish child. Why do you deceive me?’ Aelder laughed, ‘Because I need your domain to help make a deal with Farmboy.’”
“The Hooded One spoke to Farmboy, ‘Magic comes with a price, and my Domain of Commitment requires payment for rendered services.’ Farmboy thought for a long while, but eventually offered his ability to dance as payment. Aelder offered to craft a tool to teach Farmboy magic, and after both parties agreed, had The Hooded One use her domain to formalize the contract.”
“The broken weapons that Farmer buried were brought together to create a halberd for Farmboy. A spear’s tip to instruct him in the might of the humans, an axe’s edge to teach the awareness of the elves, and a hammer’s head to impart the intelligence of the dwarves. Farmboy took the fused together weapon, and felt his spirit cleave so that he could part with his ability to dance.”
“With the deal completed, The Hooded One turned to Aelder, ‘I know your father fears my domains of Ice and Death, but remind him that he will someday join me, it’s only a matter of when.’ The Hooded One vanished, and Aelder prepared to do as well, but whispered into Farmboy’s ear, ‘Don’t let her fool you, the domain Apheros is most afraid of is her Domain of Commitment.’”
The rest of the play followed close to what really happened, though I’m not sure if Reidar was taught to dance by a “mysterious old man”, plus there was one major artistic flourish at the end.
“Princess held hands with Spartan on the dance floor, her eyes closed so she could focus on the dulcet voice of Farmboy and the steady steps of Spartan’s feet, then felt something strange happen to her. She began to smile for the first time.”