Consequences of one's actions

Cain laid back in his infirmary bed, staring at the stone ceiling. His entire body was hurting in one way or another. First off, the giant bruise covering his forehead. The wound had swelled up in a ludicrous fashion, giving the impression of something attempting to burst through his skin. A large gash that had scabbed over sat on the growing mound's apex.

By Fa's Blessing does that girl hit hard.

He had been in his fair share of scuffles back on the streets of Laconia, but this was the first time being knocked out cold. It didn't exactly hurt in the moment - he wasn't conscious for long enough to feel the pain - but it sure did leave a blinding headache. He also felt incredibly disoriented. The Instructor that ran the infirmary, Instructor Bela, had called it a concussion. Eleni had to carry him the entire way from to Instructor Thorne's room from the sparring grounds. The look on her face when she saw Cain's state was priceless.

He tried turning his head to the side to stretch his out his muscles and instantly regretted it. A sharp pain shot through his neck and into the base of his skull. Cain winced. He didn't know how exactly how he hurt his neck. Was it from jerking his head to the side to dodge Eleni's slash? Was it when she socked him in the face? He had no clue. Either way, he decided that keeping still was the best course of action.

His arms and legs were in no better shape. He had taken quite the beating last night. During the spar, the adrenaline was the only thing keeping Cain from collapsing. Now that it was flushed out of his system, pain was his entire being. The skin of his limbs was incredibly discolored. Gone was his usual beige, he was now red, blue, purple, and black. Luckily for him, his torso was almost untouched. Other than sore thighs from yesterday's lesson with Sir Bradforth, he was generally fine. There was no life threatening or permanent injuries. Besides, it was all worth it. In the end, Eleni had agreed to help train Cain during their free time. Of course, Cain still owed her a favor but he didn't mind.

Also, he wasn't the only one that was injured. Eleni hurt her tailbone during their fall. Not that he had any recollection of it. She also sprained her wrist punching the crown of Cain's skull. Instructor Bela guessed she fractured some of the bones in her hand too. Even though she was unable to swing her sword with her dominant hand or the foreseeable future, she didn't seem mad. Before Instructor Thorne had escorted him to the infirmary, Eleni had slapped his back with enthusiasm. Holding her injured hand to her stomach, she waved him off with the other. 'One entertaining fellow' she had called him. He didn't know what to make of that.

Eleni had gotten treated quickly this morning while Cain had stayed overnight. She was put into a simple cloth sling and was sent off. Cain, however, was nearly naked, covered head to toe in some sort of greenish-brown paste. He had no clue what it was but it was incredible cool to the touch. Apparently it would reduce swelling and ease the pain. Which it did. Otherwise, he had been given some thing green leaves which he was instructed to chew on. As soon as he pressed his tongue onto the mashed up herb, his mouth went numb. The blissful numbness soon spread and cleared the pain in his head and neck.

Thank Fa.

He was supposed to join the others once Head Instructor Neptune's studies began. But for now, all he wanted to do was sleep.

...

Cain shifted uncomfortably in his wooden chair. He had joined the rest of the Inductees in the mess hall for food and then lessons. Every movement he made was agonizing. Washing up, changing into his uniform, and then walking to the hall had been an excruciatingly slow and arduous process. Now he sat, attempting to find a comfortable position to sit in. His jaw flexed and unflexed, chewing on a new leaf Instructor Bela had given him.

Horrow had sat next to him as usual. But this time, Eleni joined in and slid into the seat opposite of Cain. She gave him a small smile. Horrow didn't seem to notice. He was too focused on Cain's condition, a look of worry pinned on his face. His gaze started from the white bandages that extended past the sleeves of his uniform. Then his gaze rose, observing the temporary neck brace that was holding his head in place. Finally, he stared at his grotesque bruise. His mouth seemed to fail to find the right words.

My eyes are down here you rat.

Eleni glanced at Horrow then extended a finger on her free hand. She lifted the hand towards her forehead so that the finger pointed away from her. She made a funny face, imitating the snorts of a wild horned pig. Horrow turned away, attempting to stifle a laugh and then ended up coughing uncontrollably. Cain simply sighed.

I sometimes forget that these nobles are still children.

"There is no need to make fun of Cain, vir Bellona. He seems miserable enough as is."

"Apologies, couldn't help it. He does indeed look quite miserable. But please, call me Eleni."

"Salve, Eleni. Call me Horrow."

I'm sitting right here guys.

As Eleni and Horrow began conversing about their families, Cain turned his body to observe some of the other Inductees at the table. He realized that the Inductees were finally beginning to get acquainted. While the atmosphere during induction was less than pleasant, Cain could actually hear some genuine conversation and laughter. It was incredible how quickly humans could adapt to new environments. However, there was a single Inductee sitting in silence.

Jorn sat at the other end of the table, seemingly uninterested with the chatter among them. He seemed to be deep in thought. Perhaps something was troubling him. But that was no excuse to act reclusive. Everyone had their demons. Cain had even seen Eleni converse with some of the others, albeit briefly. Jorn was staring out into the open. Cain couldn't understand his behavior. It wouldn't be that weird if he had only ignored the commoners. Then Cain could simply write him as a brat. Yet surprisingly, he hadn't even tried to suck up to Eleni or Horrow. He was like a puzzle with missing pieces. What motivated him? Why did he act as such? Cain supposed there was something deeper to him that he was hiding. He must have felt Cain's gaze, as he slowly turned to meet Cain's eyes. Instead of looking at the floor, this time Cain turned his body to stare at a wall.

What wonderfully carved stone. I wonder where it's from.

Soon, the workers entered again to bring food. Horrow had asked if Cain needed help eating. As much as he was touched by the offer, he refused. The last thing he wanted was for people to watch the son of a Patriarch family spoon feed him, an injured orphan. He didn't want or need the attention. Eleni almost seemed bummed out when he turned Horrow down. In actuality, she wanted to watch Cain squirm under the discomfort.

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Once lunch was cleaned up, Head Instructor Neptune strode into the hall, his uniform pristine. As he settled into his spot at the podium, he gave Cain a curious glance. Cain was tempted to flash him a thumbs up, but decided that it would be quite disrespectful acting that way towards his superior. The Inductee's saluted their Instructor and began their lesson.

"Good afternoon Inductees. Today, we will touch upon the present. More specifically, our very region."

Head Instructor Neptune once again turned towards the wall behind him with his charcoal, and began drawing another map. This time, it was focused only on the east. He drew a long line. Obviously, it represented the Line. To the east, the Greatwoods. To the north he drew the large mountain range. To the south, another. Finally, five large circles were drawn to the left of the Line. Head Instructor Neptune drew some smaller illustrations here and there, and turned around.

"This is a simplified map of the east. The long line is the Line. The large circles represent our bastion cities. The northern most one is Laconia, most of our homes. The second one from the top, Alexandria. Below is Babel, then Persepolis. Finally, Xi'an as the southern most city. The cities are governed by the three major families of the region, but I will get into that soon."

He then drew three squares, spaced out nearby the bastion cities. Within each square, he wrote a simple capital I.

"These are the Institutes. The Laconian Institute to which you all inducted is here, to the very north by the mountain ranges."

He pointed to the square which was nestled against crude drawings of tall mountains. It sat a little to the northwest of Laconia.

"While there is no law saying they must, residents of Laconia and Alexandria commonly come to join our Institute. The Institute towards the center, the Babelion Institute, takes citizens from Babel and Persepolis. Finally, to the south, Xi'an's Institute takes citizens from only Xi'an."

The Babelion Institute sat directly between Babel and Persepolis. Xi'an's Institute was similarly built near the southern mountain range directly west of the southern tip of the Line. The southern mountain range was a lot smaller than the north's. While the northern mountain range stretched the entire continent, the southern mountain range seemed to melt into the ocean just past Xi'an.

Head Instructor Neptune them proceeded to draw triangles right on top of the Line. A couple small ones, then three large ones spaced out evenly across the drawing.

"These triangles represent forts. Essentially smaller bastion cities whose only purpose is to guard the Line. They are built directly into the massive structure. Now, let me explain what the Line exactly is. It is a essentially a long wall, constructed soon after the bastion cities surrendered. It is made out of the same material as our Institutes and cities, taken directly from gargantuan quarries in the southern and northern mountains. The construction of the Line was a logistical marvel. Never before had such a structure been built so quickly. For good reason however. The walls of the Line are approximately fifteen meters tall. The Line stretches from the northern mountains all the way to the ocean, a whole five thousand kilometers. Let me repeat myself. Five thousand kilometers. The walls are approximately four meters thick and allows for basic patrols above it. Spaced out are the forts that are built into the walls."

Cain struggled to comprehend the scale of the Line.

Five thousand kilometers?

Cain attempted to visualize such a structure while Head Instructor Neptune continued.

"The large triangles I drew earlier are called named forts. The northern one is called Fort Bellona. I am sure you have all heard of it. Managed directly by the Bellona family, just over ten thousand soldiers and workers call it home. Those who graduate from the Laconian Institute are deployed to Fort Bellona or smaller forts that work under it. The Bellona are those in charge of governing and coordinating with Laconia and Alexandria. The central named fort is Fort Kayle, run the Kayle family. The number of residents of Fort Kayle total similarly to Fort Bellona. The Kayle govern Babel and Persepolis. Finally, Fort Xiang. I personally do not have much information on Fort Xiang. All I know that it is run by the Xi'an family, who in turn governs the city of Xi'an. These named forts are responsible for coordinating the defense and counterattacks of our lands and the Line.

"You may ask if the fortifications are effective. They are. The Line is long. Even with all the guards and patrols, it is impossible to simultaneously defend all points at once. Even with the abundance of signal towers and pyres, stray groups of Nomal could most definitely scale the walls and step onto eastern soil. However, it is the nature of our forts and bastion cities that dissuade even the bravest from doing so. First off, the named forts have walls taller than the Line's. That dissuades the Nomal from attacking the forts from either the front or back. Similarly, the bastion cities are walled. So any unfortunate Nomal that cross find themselves stuck between two lines of impenetrable fortresses. Essentially, the strip of land between the Line and the bastion cities is no mans land. They would find themselves flanked from both sides by our armies."

Cain nodded in understanding. It was genius. He tried to think as a Nomal. How would he be able to invade the west? His mind was turning up blank. The only solution seemed to be taking a named fort outright. But that seemed nigh impossible.

"Before I wrap up this lesson, I have on more thing to inform you all."

He had originally drew tall trees of the Greatwood standing near the eastern wall of the Line. He took a cloth and and swept it downwards, clearing out a section of the trees. Now the treeline stood further away from the Line.

"Ever since construction of the Line completed, teams of workers guarded by our soldiers have been sent out into the woods. They would do two things. One, chop downs the trees of the Greatwoods close to the Line. This way, it makes the forts less susceptible to surprise attacks and clears our line of sight. So far, we have cleared up to a kilometer of trees from the eastern wall of nearly the entire Line over the past eighty years. Two, it is to scout the woods for potential Nomal settlements to attack. Over the course of many excursions into the unknown, we have yet to find any sort of Nomal city. Instead, we discovered something perhaps of greater importance."

Cain already knew the answer. But most likely did all the others.

"The terrain of the Greatwoods varies greatly depending on where you enter from. Some parts are flat, some are almost mountainous, the only constant being the tall trees that seems to cover the entire land. However, some scouting parties started discovering caves, approximately twenty kilometers away from the Line. These cave systems are incredibly large and their paths branch deep underground to lands unknown. Around fifty years ago, it was while exploring some of these caves that we discovered epsum. Epsum, a rare substance only found within the cave systems of the Greatwoods, was brought back for studying at the named forts. We discovered that when using epsum in the process of smithing iron, elion can be made. Elion is in every way iron's superior. Stronger, lighter, more durable, and does not rust. It now is the foundation of all of our tools, weapons, and armor. It's dark shine is synonymous with our very legions, both in the west and the east. Epsum immediately became the most sought after resource within the Empire. Slowly but surely, we have began expanding into the Greatwoods. Small, heavily defended miner settlements have slowly come to be beyond the safe confines of the Line. While extremely dangerous, both the families of our bastion cities and the west agreed that epsum is a necessity. With the ongoing war effort in the west, epsum is our bastion cities' largest export. That was a basic overview of our cities and the Line. Now, any questions?"

...

Cain lay in in his bed in the Red Room, watching the only lamp's fickle flame dance. Today was another busy day with a lot of information to absorb. Brother Haggerty's lesson was similar to yesterday's. The Inductees were still in the process of grasping the Blessing. Eleni simply worked on increasing the potency of hers. Now, Cain lay about, bored and killing time. He was unable to join Eleni with their nightly training. Instructor Bela had instructed him to rest for at least a week before attempting any sort of physical activity. He was to simply watch morning training until she gave him the green light. Eleni seemed slightly disappointed. It seemed she was excited to treat him as a punching bag once again. He turned in his bed, gritting his teeth to not cry out from the pain. He had long ran out of leaves to chew on.

I wonder if I can get some more right now...