The doors of the commander’s office closed behind us with a heavy thump. I looked around, slightly surprised, seeing the unusual number of dwarfs staying inside the place. It was filled with the somewhat familiar faces of the outpost’s soldiers. I could easily recognize most of them, since they were usually at the sparring hall doing their solo weapon wielding practices or fighting mock battles at the specified location.

They were the people who watched my spell casting on a daily basis, but I barely talked to them aside from saying hello and receiving a curt nod.

I won’t lie. I felt a bit overwhelmed seeing that at least thirty dwarfs were staring at me as I entered the hall behind… I don’t even know how this guy is called? Let’s call him blue eyes for now, since there are other blondes, but I never saw another blue-eyed dwarf yet.

Among the large group of dwarfs, I saw two friendly faces… Well, aside from the commander’s, but that couldn’t be called friendly seeing his strict expression. The others belonged to Emrum and Tymur, of course. Oh, and I even saw Regmir, whose lips immediately moved into a position ready to sneer at me, but before that could happen the commander’s strong baritone boomed across the large room, which strangely enough felt quite stifling with all the dwarfs inside.

“Now that our resident witch arrived, we shall begin the discussion about capturing the second base position. The location is about a day’s travel from here to the north-western region of the cave system. This part is well mapped thanks to your work and would have minimal risk.”

The dwarfs around the room nodded agreeingly while I glanced around, a sense of foreboding coming over me. The commander continued his explanation.

“We have long since found a somewhat acceptable position, but until now we decided to not act on the opportunity. Because it had far too many openings for a future base, it would never be well defensible. There were too many entrances leading into the crux of the base complex, and it would be too much work to close them off.”

The dwarfs nodded, simultaneously murmuring words of agreement under their beards.

I, on the other hand, was starting to feel a light sheen of sweat forming on my pale skin. Gulping down the excess saliva in my mouth, I realized the commander’s intentions.

“What do you say now?” — The commander asked while pointedly looking at me who was standing out like a sore thumb among the hairy and muscular dwarfs.

The dwarfs following the gaze of the commander looked at me, then exchanged thoughtful glances among themselves. Soon the room was filled with the unruly sounds of whispering dwarfs.

The commander waited for a few minutes until his men once again turned mostly silent, then looked at them questioningly.

One dwarf I many times saw watching my spells blast against the rock spoke up in a confident voice.

“If the young shaper is willing and capable of closing off some of the excess tunnels without weakening the core structure of the cave partition, then I see no reason to not do it. Bless the paragons, finally we are getting somewhere after being stuck for months without any real progress!”

Another dwarf spoke up in a similarly eager voice. — “Yes, if we prepare another outpost, we can call in another company to help our progress. If this goes as it should, I might get to see my wife before the end of the year.”

A third voice spoke up excitedly. — “Then what are we waiting for? We should leave right away and get it done!”

More and more eager and energized voices filled the hall, and I saw as Balgrun smirked behind his black beard.

He clapped his large hands, to which the room slowly came to order. Then he spoke again, looking me straight in the eye.

“Yes, yes… I agree with you all. That’s why I decided to call you here to begin with. But you shouldn’t overlook the most important part of this plan.” — The dwarfs, realizing what their commander was speaking of, turned towards me with conflicted expressions. Some looked at me with hope, others even pleadingly, but most weren’t sure what to expect. I could feel that distance slowly coming to the surface, the sense of frustrating shallowness.

I understood the game the commander was playing here. Even if I wanted to shout at the bastard for luring me here without warning me previously.

If I accept and succeed, the dwarfs will owe me one, and no doubt stop treating me like a stranger, borderline enemy, but if I fail, they will probably dislike me even further, saying things like what did they expect from an elf to begin with and so…

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This was no doubt a tough situation, but there wasn’t a real choice for me here. I need to try my best… On top of it; I was actually planning to practice the earth wall spell… So there is no reason to complain, either.

The moment I made up my mind, I looked back at those scheming eyes of the commander and nodded firmly.

“I will do my best, sir. However, bear in mind that I need a few days to practice the required spells to close off said tunnels… also, depending on their size, I might not be able to fulfill this task…”

Balgrun smirked, and I could feel as the dwarfs in the chamber once again became excited, the atmosphere became a lot warmer too as the people began to talk over one another once again.

A familiar voice shouted over the people, getting the attention of most. It was the voice of Emrum.

“The tunnels in that cave partition are similar to the corridors of our current outpost. Is that doable Miss Selora?” — He asked, and the people looked at me again.

Recalling the general description of the earth wall spell from my mind, I quickly nodded.

“Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem at all… I meant spaces of the height and width of chambers, like the sparring room or the dining hall. Remodeling such places would likely prove too much for me and take up a lot of time, even if I managed to do it.” — The dwarfs chuckled after hearing my answer. One of them slapped me on the back good-naturedly, even if I had to step forward to balance myself under it.

An amalgamation of voices filled the office. My ears twitched rapidly and most of the voices slowly blurred into the background while one particular conversation was lifted out of the throng, seemingly randomly. The voices came from the back of the room, and I couldn’t see their faces, not even the ones who were speaking.

“This girl got some guts for sure…”

“No surprise there. I can still hear those maniacal giggles she did back at the sparring room. I could hardly sleep, afraid that I might end up turned into a frog or something…”

“Haha! I would love to see that…”

“Shut up! She might hear us, you idiot!”

“She is a witch. Fool! What did you expect? Still, fair enough, I guess… I didn’t think she got what it takes either, not after she collapsed, barely stepping foot into the outpost… Apparently she was like that because she had to kick Emrum’s ass back from the other side.”

“Did you see those lightnings she wields? Her talent with magic must be extraordinary. Especially since lightning is called the most volatile and hard to manipulate energy. I wouldn’t think raising a few earth walls will cause much of a challenge to her after that.”

“Oh, is that so? And tell me, wise lord, since when did you become such a master of magic?”

“There was an earthshaper in my family line back in just about eight hundred years. We still have some of his notes and textbooks guarded as a family heirloom. And since paper tends to rot away, after a few hundred years, I was asked to make a few new copies of it a few decades back.”

“Wait what? Is that true? Then where did you pull out that stupid idea with frogs? Like… seriously, there is no way you can turn someone into frogs, right?”

“But that’s just it. There are known curses and hexes that can do that, idiot! And those curses are one of the favorite of witches, that is known by everyone!”

“Hell… Now you have got to show me one of those copies when we get home.”

“I just might do that when we get back!”

“It’s a promise then.”

“Right.”

I shook my head, my ears twitched again, and the cavalcade of voices came back. I didn’t know what the heck that experience was just now, but I had a hunch that my ears were much more terrifying than I initially expected.

The commander shouted at the people.

“Well then, you get today, and tomorrow, to practice your magic, Selora. And the morning after that, you march out under the command of subcommander Groolgaet Lavacoat. Who you have already met.” — The man waved in the direction of the blue-eyed dwarf who brought me here in the first place.

The man nodded to me once again, which I robotically reciprocated.

“I expect you to follow his orders for your own safety and the succes of this mission. Remember, you are also one of the members of the company, even if that might change in the future. You also get paid from the dwarven kingdoms, and you asked me to treat you like the rest of my men, so don’t even try to complain. Is that clear!?”

“I… yes sir, I understand, sir! I was already planning to practice the earth wall spell, sir.” — I quickly stood at attention towards Balgrun, while saying that. My old military experience is coming back to me like it all happened yesterday. The strange action caused a number of raised eyebrows around me, and I could feel a light blush climbing up on the back of my neck while struggling to keep a straight face.

Eventually, the commander nodded and dismissed me with a quick wave of his right hand.

“I am happy that you are motivated, but I hope for your own good that you didn’t intend to practice such a troublesome spell inside the outpost, right?” — Hearing that question, I sweat dropped, since that was the exact plan… of course I still denied it without blinking an eye.

“Of course not, sir.” — I said.

He gave me a skeptical look, saying. — “Of course… Emrum and Tymur, along with Tum and Skod, will escort you out of the outpost right away. They will lead you to a nearby cavern where you can practice your magic without risking a cave in. Go to the kitchen for your rations and get out of here already.”

With that said, the five of us were rushed out of the office while the rest of the dwarf remained inside, discussing the plans for the main operation, most likely.