The funny thing about being a formation mage is the fact that our power is so volatile, so dependent on formations that it seems to be a joke. Men that we could crush with a single wave, men that we could kill by the thousand yesterday, would be able to cut you up like a fish the next day. This is a reality all formation mages have to contend with, to accept and to adapt to.

This is not my words, but the words of my master. He has said it to me so many times and in so many places that I can even predict the length of his lecture simply from the first few words that he uses. In all of that I have to agree that I have heard what he has always told me, but today I have to come to accept it or at least understand it.

Yesterday I was at the fort, able to control an entire fort at my whim. If I wanted to I could have killed every single man there. With water spears it might have been hard, but with the rings it would have been quite simple. Heck, I fought a man an entire level above me and and came out relatively well. Most men in my place would have been a frozen corpse by now. (Well, if you can call the chill relatively well.)

It was quite an addicting feeling I admit, though I think it is for that reason that I was removed from the place so quickly too. Even if the control to the formation is usually surrendered, the formation mage remains at the location for a while (even forever sometimes) taking on a consulting role. (An outsider controlling your formations is the biggest taboo for any organisation.)

Today, I am stuck on the ground not able to move an inch while all the soldiers injured around me are still fine. They still do not dare to move though. After all, the two men who are the cause for my present situation only need to look at me wrong and I would be crushed to death. A few inches from me is my sword, but it might as well have been a couple of leagues for the help that it has done.

One of the men is actually quite familiar to me, an old man so old that he is closer to a skeleton than a man. The commander arrived at our position almost as quickly as the other man appeared. we are still almost three days from the frozen peak too. There might not have been more than a few seconds difference between the two men appearing, but those few seconds have been the worst in my life.

I still remember the other man appearing like a speck in the horizon. I did not even have another second to look at him as the world around me faded. No calling it faded was wrong. My brain has judged the world to be useless information and is using every inch of its capability to look at the man that it has felt as a threat. Even then I know that I won't be able to see the man move. I don't think he needs to honestly. Who will tell my mind that though.

The appearance of the commander a few seconds later greatly reduced this "pressure" on me. The other man is a bulky man almost thrice the size of the old man, who is covered in the pelt of what I have to assume is a massive wolf as a cloak. The mouth of the beast acts as a hood for the man, though he is not wearing it at the moment. It lies loosely behind him.

The two man continue their staring contest for a few seconds or for a few centuries. I honestly can't tell at the moment. Finally the commander speaks.

"Lord, you are not welcome in these lands. Your presence will break our treaty.", he speaks, his voice is not loud but is clearly heard like the wind itself does not dare to stop the man's word. They are projecting their voices for some reason.

"My old friend, I do not like to come to this place myself. Every time I come here it feels like I am sitting in the middle of fire.", the second man speaks. "I sometimes wonder why you people don't just melt away. It would certainly reduce quite a few of our problems."

"I am no friend to you, lord. If you do not leave at the moment I will be forced to use my sword on you.", the commander speaks, giving me a moment of hope.

"Well, you could remove your sword, I could get serious. I honestly want to know who among us two would win. I wonder whether the first blow will kill the kid or the second. Kind of pointless to kill your own men for a fistfight. Anyway I have come to bargain.", the second man speaks, disappearing.

My mind almost shuts down for a second in panic, as I catch the second man halfway through speaking.

......."Want this outsider.", he says. "Anyway I seem to have heard that one of them got pissed and wrecked one of your ancestors graves. Seems to be quite the affront."

The man is now next to me, though I honestly don't know how he got here. Maybe he simply walked and my mind was not fast enough to notice it. Maybe he teleported like the mages of the ancient times. I guess that my fear should have intensified but this is already beyond my capacity for fear that I don't know anymore.

"We are honour bound to protect him, you bastard.", the commander speaks. He is also by my side, his sword at the man's throat. The weird thing was that it is still sheathed. "It would be even more of an affront to my ancestors if I were to break a promise taken on their names."

"Give your excuses, you pretentious bastard. You would dig all your ancestors graves and personally piss on their bones if it meant you would get an iota more power.", he speaks, his voice taking on a growling tone which seemed to echo in my mind. "Such paper thin honour that sometimes I wonder why you even bother to pretend."

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"Don't go beyond your limits, you fucking half breed.", the commander speaks, his voice certainly not containing the emotion his words conveyed. It was almost like he was reading from a script and a well read script at that.

"Well, do we really need to go through these motions. I am sure your masters would be pleased with your present performance. I honestly think they know what you are doing. Such an obvious con and you call us stupid beasts.", the man speaks, laughing as if he had heard the funniest joke.

"Well, I am sure they do. All they need is that I am at least putting their interests first and that I have moved to protect their honour. After all, you are our enemy, you bastard. You never make things easy. Our last fight nearly got me court martialled.", the commander spoke, irritation finally entering his tone. "They seem to have an hatred for you especially."

"Well, I was offering to fight at another location. you are the one that suddenly charged at me. I had to go all out personally. I certainly would not have the energy to care for that abomination you call a fort.", the other man spoke, his voice finally losing that growling. "As for your masters, if my poking is enough to harm their so called honour do they really need it. Few things are fragiler."

"Regardless, you are in our territory and if I let you linger for too long, I will get court martialled again. I need you to beat it now.", the commander spoke, finally removing his sword.

"Well I would, but I need to take the kid with me now. Sadly, that is not negotiable in the least. I leave only when you let me take him.", the other man speaks.

"Well, what is stopping you. Pick him up. Take him with you.", the commander speaks, with a bit of an edge in his voice.

"I know you. You will ambush me the instant I pick him up. I also know that I will block anything that you throw at me. The kid would blow up like a pimple about to burst. That is not something that I can handle at the moment.", the other replies, causing my heart to relax. At least he is not looking to kill me instantly.

"Well, I can allow you to leave, but I will have to face quite the problem if I were to let the kid get taken in my watch. I did mention to you i have been almost court martialled.", the commander speaks.

"For that I have the ideal solution. Let me take the kid with me now and I will make sure that he has a fighting chance against the other tribes. I can also command the tribes allied with me to retreat this season. You can imagine just how much of a loss that is for me.", he speaks "you can be praised with reducing my influence on this lands while giving this lad a chance at leaving here alive. I won't bend anymore beyond that though."

"that is quite the bit, you bastard. What did he do to earn such an ire from your kind and is he your bastard, the way that you are protecting him.", the commander spoke.

"You fool, the kid is not related to me in any way. As for what the kid is. He is a child of the sages. You will get me killed talking like that. This is nothing but a business deal and quite a attractive one at that.", the other man spoke, his voice finally becoming a bit flustered. "else imagine me moving to protect a child of the sages."

"That still does not explain your presence. The kid is not really in any danger just for his heritage and if he was a sage with active abilities, i would know it.", the commander spoke. My heart sank hearing all of this. Looks like these guys do know of me or at least about my people. That is not nice, but the sages do have many enemies. If they knew of the legion that would be a different thing. Maybe they don't kno.....

"Well, just being a son of a sage is no crime, at least to the son. the crime are his skills and that he uses them. the kid uses the skills of the iron legion. Nothing of their hidden arts, but their style we will discover anywhere in any form and we shall burn it from all living memory", the other man recites, his voice finally serious.

"An orphan of the legion, eh. if that is the case I will have to admit that the kid has balls, coming here. I am surprised that they are allowing them of the mountain with how many feathers they have ruffled across the continent", the commander spoke. "Well, I shall agree to your deal. I will need guarantees though. If the kid does die I want detailed records on it, along with the identity of the killer. I will need information that I can give to the iron legion too. Those crazy bastards might just fall on me for this. I want to offend them even lesser than my masters. I would at least survive my masters ire."

"Well, always covering your ass aren't you Alveron.", the other man speaks. "Fine I agree, though I also will need to point out that there is little I can do in this case. This is a matter of all tribes. If it were any of the others, the kid would be paste on the ground."

As soon as this conversation ended, the world around me became black. It was not much later after this that my mind simply blanked out as I lost consciousness.