After the meeting a had Ian head straight back to inform everyone about the job offer while I headed downstairs to see whether or not Jack Winner and Luke Marida had yet found employment with one of the other companies. I asked after them at reception and one of the attendants was able to look up the relevant records which showed that they had not. Since Jack was the first to depart the company I felt that it best not to approach him unless Luke refused or any of the others were unwilling to temporarily join up with the Ebony Hyenas.
While looking for employment Luke was staying at a local bunk house located just outside Maccleston that catered to local temporary workers. When I arrived there I was informed that he wasn’t about but that I was likely to find him at a nearby tavern. This turned out to be accurate as I found him nursing his drink like it was some kind of poison. It didn’t turn out to be that hard to convince him to join up, he wasn’t having much luck finding a position on his own and thought it better to try again with a successful contract behind instead of the total fuck fest the last one turned out to be.
Convincing the rest of them once I returned to camp wasn’t as easy but I eventually managed to turn them to my way of thinking and I quickly headed back to the guild to inform captain Walker of their decision. He welcomed the news and ordered me to have the twelve of us report to the Ebony Hyenas camp early the next morning in full kit or as close to it as we could manage.
Quest: Find Employment for remnant of company Completed
Once I returned to our soon-to-be former camp I had everyone prepare for our move to the new one, not that we would be staying there for long. I had everything that we couldn’t carry ourselves moved to a small covered wagon that Gerald Flick hadn’t bothered to sell off, probably because it might have given away what he had been up to. Thankfully he had also not sold off the horses used to pull the wagon but unfortunately by the time everything but the remaining feed for our horses had been transferred to the wagon, it wasn’t even half full. And even then it was mostly enough food to feed the twelve of us for just over a fortnight and the Ebony Hyenas would be feeding us from now on so it wasn’t exactly necessary for us to bring it along.
While I was at the Guild earlier I was made aware that a letter had arrived that morning from my sister Holly but I hadn’t had the time to read it until after all but the final preparations for the move had been finished. She usually wrote me a letter every other month or so and I always made sure to send a reply as soon as possible. The seat of the baronial family I had found her employment with was located about a month's travel from Maccleston and it sometimes took her letters double that time to reach me.
Often when they did arrive I was out on a contract and I wasn’t able to receive them until I returned. There was no point in forwarding them on to wherever the contract took me as by the time they reached the location I was likely to have finished the contract and either returned to camp or left for the location of the next contract. This meant that sometimes there was more than one letter awaiting me but I made sure to respond to each of them individually.
The letters themselves weren’t usually all that long, just a page or two of text that mainly consist of the goings on of her charge, Anna FitzWilliam the third daughter of Timothy FitzWilliam the baron of North Shields and the rest of her family. Just from opening the envelope, I could see that this was one of the longer letters which could only mean one thing, she had received a letter from our brother John and amongst the usual comings and goings was passing on its contents to me.
We were unable to send messages to the world in which the mage academy I had sent him to be educated was located, well to be more precise we couldn’t afford to send them. Thankfully sending them the other way while still not cheap was affordable for him, though not very often and only ever to one of us. Before this, he had managed to send her a letter on three other occasions and they so far had coincided with him advancing in his studies.
Thankfully this proved to be the case this time as well, he never really explained precisely what these advancements entailed but from what I could gather they were to do with an increase in his control over magic and the amount of power he could make use of. Anyway from what I can tell from the letters he seems to be happy and that is all that really matters in the end.
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I sent him away in the full knowledge that I might never see him again though at the time I was told that if he ever advanced to a certain level in his studies he could briefly visit Telondia if he wanted to. It was however pointed out that the possibility existed that he would never reach this level and even if he did in all likelihood we would have died long before then. Time flows at the same rate where he is as it does on Telondia but apparently mages tend to live longer than non-mages, especially when it comes to worlds like ours.
As for Holly, when not writing about John the letter as expected was mainly about Anna who had reached the age at which her parents had started thinking about finding a match for her. Our father had at one time told us how such things had once been decided among the nobility in the part of the other world where he hailed from.
The situation on Telondia was similar to what he described though much more complex from what I could tell. Thanks to the system in place on Telondia it was a lot harder and took even longer to tell if the match was a good one or not. After all as with all the other Professions who could truly tell whether or not the intended spouse would ever advance to D Rank or beyond.
Other than news about John and Holly plus some scandal involving a neighbouring noble the only thing of substance contained in the letter was news that one of the other servants of the Baronial household had begun courting her. From what she wrote she seemed rather taken with him and while it was still early days I was happy for her.
After reading her letter more than once and mulling over its contents I of course had to immediately begin drafting a reply. I was at first unsure whether or not to include the recent unpleasantness but in the end, as our mother used to say ‘truth is a mountain that needs to be climbed”. It helped that things were beginning to look up and so I included it all in my letter and also asked after the man who was courting her.
With the letter written and placed in an envelope ready to be sent before heading out on the contract in two days, I went to sleep and awoke the next mourning while it was still dark outside.
We all quickly got ready for the move, making sure we had left nothing behind. I said my goodbyes to Samuel Hutter and made a quick speech to the men about how proud I had been to serve with the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company and how I was looking forward to our next adventure. After that I solemnly led them out of the camp we had up until then called home with the wagon in the middle driven by Luke who had his horse alongside it. We made good time to the Ebony Hyenas camp, arriving at its gates to be met by the sentries' cry.
“Halt who goes there?”
To which my reply was.
“Sergeant Niel Ryder and eleven other temporary recruits your captain has hired to scout for him.”
“You're expected but the truth is that I don’t know you from Adam so what’s the word of the day and be quick about it.”
“Fried Eels.”
“Alright, I’m Sergeant Glen Wyman just give me a moment to open the gate.”
Once the gate was open we quickly entered it and it was closed behind us.
“Sergeant the captain asked to see you as soon as you arrived I’ll have someone show the rest their temporary billets for the night and where to park your wagon. I expect he’ll let you take it on the contract but no doubt he’ll want one of ours to drive it to leave all your lot free to scout ahead if needed.”
“Well, then where do I find the captain?”
“I’ll just hand over my duties to my second and show you the way myself.”
It didn’t take him all that long to lead me to the captain's office and we even ran into one of the company's three lieutenants who he introduced me to as Rodger Berger.
With three lieutenants and a hundred and seventy-four men, the Ebony Hyenas were a larger company than the Brothers n Arms Mercenary Company had been.
“Sergeant Ryder glad you made it, you managed to find your full complement I hope?”
“That we did sir.”
“Good, no doubt you're all able to head out tomorrow, is there anything you need to make that happen?”
“Well sir we need a resupply of arrows and lances but we can make the latter ourselves if we have to. I’m sure we’ll have to reshoe some if not all of the horses by the time we get to our destination but for now, they're all fine. We brought a small wagon with us that has enough feed for them for a few days but replenishing it on the way won’t be hard and our employer should be able to supply us when we get there. Other than that everything is fine though I am sure we could do with a few small lanterns for scouting at night we should be able to get those on our way.”
“Good to know, we have our own fletcher so the arrows aren’t a problem. Myself and the Lieutenant have our own horses so I know what having them along entails and as for the lanterns you’re no doubt right about them. You're dismissed for now, I’ll be having a meeting with my lieutenants and sergeants at noon, I expect you to join us so I can introduce you to them and the finer details of our upcoming travels.”