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A Soldiers Life - 229 - Home Is Where the Heart Is
🕑 Added 2024-07-13 00:46:09 +0000 UTCChapter 229: Home Is Where The Heart Is
The reality was settling in that I was alone. It felt odd, as there should be no other human within thirty miles of me. My new home was about a thousand feet up a rocky slope from the water. Only a few bare bushes dotted the path down the slope. Lines of white foamy waves crashed below, and a hint of cold salty air reached me.
Behind me was the dense forest where we had come from. I walked into the cave, pulsing earth speak to map the barely lit space. My new home was a tiny cave carved out of rock about ten feet wide and fifteen feet deep. The entrance had an overhang, protecting it from wind and weather but more importantly, preventing it from being spotted from the sea. A heavy door, painted the same texture and color of the rock, was the only security.
The small room was orderly and packed with furniture: a bed, desk, shelf, six casks, and four large chests. On the desk were heavy goggles and a long brass spyglass covered with fine runic writing. These were the devices I would need for my watch. The shelf had a dozen worn books, and checking the titles, they were mostly stories, probably brought here by Hounds to relieve boredom. One book was a log book for sightings, and I paged through it.
The index had the silhouettes of various ships from numerous kingdoms. The logbook extended back five years, and it looked like only one entry a week was common. Most of the entries noted ships, but every few months, a monster sighting, such as a kraken, was noted. It looked like the bay was named Kraken Bay because it was the breeding ground for ocean beasts. Fortunately, the records indicated that spawning time was in late fall—half a year away.
Clodius’s clear and neat handwriting noted all the orcish fishing vessels by the time of day, size, and direction they were headed. Even though I had been given no training for this posting, I could figure my duties just from his log books. Curiously, I did not see any entries for the shoreline activity he had noted. I guess making a daily entry for the mere folk was not worth his time.
I found a scroll case containing a detailed map made from thick paper and saturated with preserving wax. It took me a moment to find the lookout and what I assumed were marks for two other lookouts in the bay, one fifty miles north and the other about seventy miles south.
All six casks were filled with water and there were jugs to carry fresh water up here from the forest. The last fresh water we passed on our way here was two miles back, so I thanked Clodius silently for his effort in filling these before he left.
The bed had heavy wool blankets and a shredded straw mattress. It wasn’t uncomfortable when I tested it. The four large chests were separated into weapons, foodstuff, bedding, and tools and materials for setting and maintaining the traps. I left the room and walked the hill, noting where the traps were with my earth speak.
The ridge line extended north and south, and my station was not at its tallest point. The sun was currently dipping on the horizon, so I grabbed the goggles and spyglass to test them. I spent some time planning my best vantage point and making sure the lens wouldn’t be reflected by the sun during the day and give away my position to ships.
The spectacles were heavy with bulbous lenses and reminded me of aviator goggles. I put it to the side and used the spyglass. Holding it up, I quickly figured out how it worked. The lens apparently magnified about ten times without channeling aether into it. When I channeled aether into it, it added another factor of ten, about a hundred magnification.
I scanned the water as the sun set and then focused on the beach, watching the surf and crabs on the rocks. Waiting for the sun to set, I checked my message book. Centurion Sergius had only written a single line.
“Confirm one orc fishing vessel sailing north tonight. Should pass around midnight.” This confirmed that there was another sentry south of me. It also confirmed that they were suspicious of the orc fishing vessels.
I took out Zyna’s anchor stone. Now that I was alone, I would have to take it out after sunset in case she contacted me. I had never been on the receiving end of a message being sent, so I was not quite sure what to expect, but I would check diligently every time night.
At sunset, I used the goggles and was slightly shocked. I had expected the image to be black and white. Instead, it looked like midday, with the sky being a cerulean blue and the sea a navy blue. I was fascinated as I focused on the rocky, sandy beach below. The nocturnal activity had numerous crustaceans scurrying over the rocks and numerous fish trapped in the tide pools. I scanned up to the horizon but couldn’t see the far shore.
By my estimation, it was forty miles at the narrowest point in bay from the map I had found. The spyglass, when activated, was maybe seeing half the distance, if that. If the orc ships stayed on the far shore, then I would not be able to see them. Something seemed wrong, so I started to examine the spyglass in detail.
It was a clever design, and it would have been nice if they had shown me how to use the device before they left. The tubes of the device could be rotated, changing the rune’s alignment. There were three positions where the runes lined up. On the highest setting, I could barely see the far shore, and it was difficult to hold the device steady. A thought occurred to me, and I went to the shelf and pulled something that looked like a rack to hold the spyglass.
It was a tri-pod, and I could slowly adjust the elevation and horizontal angle of the device. The problem I ran into was channeling my aether to activate the device. I was so used to holding the device to channel aether into it, which disrupted my focal point at a great distance. I used my dimensional space to carve out a level shelf to rest the apparatus on. Then, I practiced channeling my aether over a short gap into the device while scanning the horizon at each magnification setting.
The lack of instruction had to be a test. Maybe there wasn’t even an orcish fishing ship, but then again he said he expected it to pass my lookout around midnight. I retreated into my cave and I decided it was too small and had no escape exit. If a creature found the lookout, the only thing protecting me was the heavy door. It was banded with rusty iron but a giant could make short work of it.
Using earth speak and my dimensional space, I started to carve out another room in the back of the cave. The doorway was narrow, about half a yard wide, and I saved that slab of stone to use as a door. I deposited the excavated rock on the slope in a neat stack hidden from view of the water. I kept the size to match what people thought was the size of my dimensional space. I paused every hour to check the spyglass, finding nothing.
The new room slowly expanded to be five feet wide and twenty feet deep, and I needed to rest from using my aether. I munched on a burrito as I checked the spyglass again. This time, I found the sails of a ship. A second ship was just a little behind, and they were extremely distant, near the far shore, and difficult to focus on at the highest magnification. Both silhouettes matched orcish fishing boats in the index. I spent another hour searching before writing my message in the message book.
“Two orcish fishing boats passed along the far side of the bay about two hours after midnight. Both sails appeared to be shallow water cutters.”
I closed the book and started moving the bed into my new room. It was an extremely dense and heavy wood, but if I planned to use the amulet, I needed to do so in a secure room. I could expand the room in the coming days if needed, but for now, I replaced the doorway slab, pulled a glowstone, and entered the dreamscape for a few hours to add books and get some weapons practice. When I woke, I checked the message book and didn’t find a response from the Centurian.
I checked the far shore again and found nothing as I slowly started to establish a routine for the next three weeks. The first thing I did was leave the black jade chalice on a shelf in my new secure room. Every day the artifact could transmute water in elven ambrosia. I planned to store the majority of it empty bottles.
Every two hours, I would set up the spyglass and cycle through the magnification on the horizon. It took me about half an hour as I got more proficient using it.
The only interesting thing to do was watch the merfolk come ashore at night. The goggles were amazing, and I was even able to send an earth pulse into them to see the complex layers of runes that made them up. I wondered how common they were in the Empire and if I could purchase them somewhere.
The merfolk were awkward on land and focused on easy fishing from the tide pools that had trapped fish. Even with their alien fish-like humanoid bodies, I assumed these were the youth of their species.
My free time was spent enlarging the secret room, refreshing traps, and setting my own. As the room expanded, hiding the large stone blocks was becoming an issue, so I scattered them along the slope. I added a narrow descending escape tunnel into the rock, coming out on the slope and heading down into the forest. I did my best to conceal this second entrance and plugged it with a thin stone slab that I could break if I had bottomed out my aether. I also added two small ventilation shafts in the secret room, which were probably unnecessary since I left every two hours.
The final room was much larger than needed, twenty by twenty feet with a ten-foot ceiling. I admit I made the taller ceiling due to having a goliath friend—not that I expected Maveith to visit.
I had an alchemy station in the room and used the cooking thermal stone for heat. I was fairly comfortable and usually tracked one orcish fishing vessel every other day; sometimes, they operated in pairs. The only messages I got from Sergius were to confirm sightings of the other Hound sentries.
All the work had distracted me for three weeks, but I was feeling the press of loneliness and boredom. I almost wished for Sergius to send me something to do. I had thought more than once about the merchant’s wife and children in my dimensional space. The risk of taking them out was too great. A Hound could visit me, and also, right now, none of the three could identify me which I preferred. Still, I was tempted just to have someone to talk to.
On the morning of the 23rd day, I finally got an order from Centurion Sergius that was not checking on the fishing ships.
“A First Citizen has betrayed the Empire. She is being protected by two legionnaires as she flees. Hound Hercule will bring you a blood sample of the First Citizen. Track and kill her. They arrived in Varta three days ago and are expected to be heading south near you on their flight from the Empire’s justice.”
I studied the message for a long moment before writing:
“Why isn’t Hercule tracking them?”
Immediately, words appeared on the page as Centurion wrote them. “Hercule lost them in Varta, and they are racing south but are on foot. Hercule needs to be elsewhere. I cannot spare a full Pack, and they should be passing within fifty miles of your post.”
I stared at the page for a moment before writing, “When will Hercule be here? Will he be taking over the post? Are there any spell forms in the targets I should be made aware of?”
I stared for minutes until the words started to scrawled across the page. By his penmanship, I could tell he was getting irritated with me. “Hercule has elsewhere to be and will not assume your watch. Hunt them quickly and return to the sentry post. The First Citizen is water mage. She can cast true spells and has innocuous spell forms as well. Hercule will be there in the morning and can tell you more.”
I was about to ask another question but paused my quill above the page and eventually closed the book. I sensed there was something more to this, but Sergius wasn’t going to tell me. For the last three weeks, I have been blind to what is happening in the Empire. The spring thaw had started, and that meant war was coming.
I spent the night making sure my secret room was concealed, rubbing stone dust into the seam. I hauled the heavy bed back to the common room. If Hercule was not replacing me, I assumed that meant I could take the goggles and spyglass with me. An hour after sunrise, a lathered horse climbed up from the forest. Hercule dismounted heavily, clearly exhausted.
As he talked, I noticed his teeth had been shattered. He talked with a hiss, “Watch out for the bitches guarding the First Citizen. The legionnaire with the staff is more dangerous than she looks. The shorter blonde one is a pest with her spear too.” He pulled a bloody rag from his belt and pressed it into my hand.
“What did the First Citizen do?” I asked, placing the fabric into my prepared blood compass.
Hercule barked angrily. “Doesn’t matter. Just follow your orders. Burn the body of the First Citizen so Centurion Sergius can confirm the task is complete.” He relaxed a little, “Her spell form is a large bubble of water that can stop arrows. If she touches you, she can drain your strength and take it for her own. That is all I know.” His agitation told me he was not up to the task of hunting these three—women. Yes, he had identified all of them as women. Maybe he thought his masculinity was affronted by losing to them. He spat, “The horse is yours, and I will walk back to Freidival.”
I looked over at the horse. It looked to be a good mount but had been pushed too hard for too long. I had only used a portion of the bloodied cloth and placed the remainder in my dimensional space. The pull was very faint as I activated my compass, but it gave me a direction of pursuit.
Hercule descended into my little cave, probably to rest. It irked me as I heard him rummaging through my chests, but even if he found the room beyond, I had already emptied it. I decided to leave before he asked where the spyglass and night vision goggles were.
I led the horse down the steep slope and walked him two miles to the spring, where I got my water. I rubbed down the mount and used my farrier kit on the mount. The warhorse seemed to relax, realizing it would not be pushed again so soon.
I treated his saddle sores and stored the saddle and tack. Then, I took a lead line and started to jog in the direction the compass was pulling me. The horse trotted happily behind me without a rider.
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Comments
J. L. Mullins
I feel like he'd at least TRY taking some sea-life and using the collector on it. At least that way he might get more essences to use in one way or another.
Erick Thiemke
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Brianna Stormcloud
Thanks 📖🍿 So does he get to kill a kraken at some point 🤣🤣🤣
Andrew Crews
If *I creature found the lookout, the only thing protecting me was the heavy door. If the creature found the lookout, the only thing protecting me was the heavy door.
Andrew Crews
Once the *sunset, I used the goggles and was slightly shocked. Once the sun set, I used the goggles and was slightly shocked.
Andrew Crews
On the desk were heavy goggles and a long *spy brass spyglass covered with runic writing. These were the devices I would need to watch water. On the desk were heavy goggles and a long brass spyglass covered with runic writing. These were the devices I would need to watch water.
J S
Richard move lathering the horse.
Jordan
Once the sunset, I used the goggles and was slightly shocked. Sunset -> sun set
Jordan
On the desk were heavy goggles and a long spy brass spyglass covered with runic writing. …and a long brass spyglass… Remove ‘spy’ before brass.
Keven Leigh
I love how good to horses he is. It's a small thing but I appreciate it
Tetsu-nii
Typo: /water as the sunset and/ => /water as the *sun set* and/ … and again, later: /Once the sunset/ => /Once the *sun set*/
Tetsu-nii
Typo: /for the mere folk was/ => /for the *merfolk* was/
Tetsu-nii
Typo: /odd, as soon as there would/ second "as" should be removed.
striderfighter
And we haven't even gotten to Alantium yet
Silver Beard
yohan gu; Eryk is not picky. He has a charm affinity of 5... so boosting that won't be bad. Might actually be a good thing as he might be able to learn a passive resistance spellform. That grand-daughter he sold the amulet too via Zyna was already talented in charm and he just boosted her potential by a lot. He'll need something to able to ignore her.
yohan gu
@Silver Beard, farming the merfolk or any kind of monster in the area is a good plan. He'll be rendering the Empire a service too. About the essence, though, I don't think water affinity essence would be plentiful with the merfolk. The monsters need to be of high rank to give affinity essence and mermaids would be more geared towards charm, wouldn't they? Like the harpies. But any kind of essence helps. Even the physical ones, though they are incredibly weak.
yohan gu
@Silver Beard, I agree wholeheartedly with this comment. Especially the magebane part. I expect the mage will have too high a resistance for him to box, like the elf summoner, and he'll have to use other methods.
yohan gu
I'd hope it would be as simple as just doing the assassination, with the assassination being pretty complex
yohan gu
That's right, I had forgotten about that. yeah, displacemnet is way in the future. Before he gets any new spell form he'll have to farm a lot, right? There is no affinity high enough to get anything interesting and his pool is too low for the good stuff anyway, correct?
Silver Beard
@yohan gu He can be a hero later; today he's the Centurian's Hound. Yes, his space opens possibilities but there's a big difference between a merchant family and a First Citizen Mage used to power and prestige. The Wife/kids might be able to keep their heads down with the right incentives and avoid scrutiny, the Mage will never stay hidden for long. Esp in a time of war. Eryk should do himself a favor and not 'talk' to his prey. Just end them, take their essence, and be done with it. He hasn't used mage bane in a while; looking forward to it.
Erick Thiemke
a lot of it has to do with his limited aether pool for using the aether intense spell forms in the displacement affinity
Erick Thiemke
the scholar would have had to make a copy of himself to add the knowledge to the dreamscape. since the mc makes the manifestations it is limited to what the MC has in his understanding. that is why his combat partners are constantly improving as he practices and watches them in the real world
Silver Beard
I like the idea of learning more languages; but he'd need more than an echo to get pronunciation, etc. correct. He's got a copy of the scholar in his dreamscape and been adding more books every chance he gets. Will the scholar become a BS? I don't think that's the way it works, but it is fiction. rofl
yohan gu
@Zurko, this is unlikely. The high spheres of Tehlian politics are dangerous, but 1) The bureaucracy seems quite efficient and central power strong. When things get serious the nobles don't get to play around. They have limited power to annoy individuals of lower importance, like Castile who is considered of low offensive capacity and not a First Citizen, or simple legionnaires who own items beyond their state, like Eryk (and if you think about it, with the powers Eryk has revealed, for the Empire it makes sense that a dreamscape amulet should be taken from him to be given to someone who could use it more effectively, a la Zyna) 2) If she is a loyal powerful mage, it is against the interest of the Empire to eliminate her. Sergius, who is said to be loyal, would not plot against her. Also, Truthseekers would prove her loyalty and, as a first citizen, if she is accused of anything, she has a right to call on them. Bribery would not work with her as it did with simple conscript legionnaire Eryk
yohan gu
Yes, killing a first citizen and a True Mage on top of it is a big deal, especially in times of war. She probably did betray the empire or chickened out of her duties and chose to flee.
yohan gu
@SIlver Beard makes a good point with his usual advocacy for ruthlessness and @Karnnie is certainly right about the importance of obedience in a military structure. To the latter point, however, I'd point out Eryk has latitude to be creative to achieve results that preserve his morals and his standing in front of his superiors, thanks to his powers and the absence of direct scrutiny. To @Silver Beard's point, true, if things get complicated, doing the job he is asked to do may be by far the most secure way to ensure his survival. However, some compromises with his morals may reduce his standing as the hero of the story for readers. I would personally prefer him to try and square his principles with his survival impertive, as he did by saving the children, who could reasonably not be accused of any crime. If the mage actually did conspire against the empire in any way, her and her guards are fair game in my opinion. This would be a rightful task for a Hound to carry out and not an abuse as the merchant family was. Since the murder of a First citizen true mage would not be ordered lightly (Castile's circumstances were special and she was to be killed to further plans in a ligitimate military strategy, when it failed, the empire preserved her as it is stupid to rid oneself of such a tool), especially when a war is on the horizon, I suspect the Mage to truly be a traitor or a deserter, and thus, go collect essence Eryk!
yohan gu
What @Zurko said. He may have found some more forms in the library in the mage college in the capital but that has not been discussed yet, though I hope it is at some point. As for the waiting part, it makes sense since he knows he can procure affinity essences, in the Shimmering Labyrinth and from displacement mages, that will be prime targets during the war. These last ideas have not been spelled out, and Eryk maybe does not think that way (he has been reticent to the idea of delving again and he probably does not plan on being in the middle of the action during the war) but they are excellent reasons to hold off from underwhelming forms.
Karnnie
As a veteran, this is very well stated. In the Military, we are not taught to think. We are taught to follow orders. Everything we know about the roman empire and that time period tells us that it was a very hard life. Questioning the orders of your superiors would lead to death with little to no questions asked beforehand. Even in todays military, there is very little in the way of questioning orders, let alone outright disobeying them. Eryk has to ride a very fine line with what he does, it is inevitable that he will need to do what needs to be done. Soldiers learn to shut down their emotions in order to follow orders, most can turn them on and off like a mental switch. It is one of the best skills I have ever learned. I can promise you that anyone that has ever served overseas did not look forward to getting into a gun fight where there is only one victor.
Karnnie
We all make mistakes, english is not exactly easy.
Karnnie
he is supposed to be there for 2-3 years. I am hoping for a time skip where in that time he reads a lot of the history books and learns the elvish language. It would be nice for Eryk to not be as naive about his location as it has been pointed out to him many times. Oh and he should probably learn tinga (?) as well. Since he claims to be from there.
Silver Beard
He can't afford anyone to know how big his space is. Releasing the family, they will immediately try to make contact with the Father alerting the Centurian they aren't dead... and Eryk will be hunted for treason and for his space. I'm all for getting them out of his space; but not until the archive has been wasted.
Jo
Don't worry about it you can't make everyone happy no matter what you do. We all understand that this is your story and it shouldn't matter if you go in a different direction then we would because you have the overall plan of what's going to happen. Besides I love how Eryc's story is going
Silver Beard
I'm surprised he hasn't been grinding water essense from the Merfolk. It was the first thing I thought of when mentioned. Open a new affinity on his core and grow it over his stint until it's in the 40-50's.
Ben Walker
Maybe store the mage and release the three he already has in his space and have the two soldiers escort them out … could be handy to have a an extra mate though I hope he doesn’t give away more essences! The utility he gets out of each one is fun to see (though writing it must be hard)
Silver Beard
Access to the Archive is paramount (he doesn't know his blood isn't there); to do that he has to keep doing dastardly things. Eryk need to do what it takes to gain access to the archive and move on then. If he stashes them; it'll have to be all 3 and as gruesome as possible to avoid Herucle checking up on him/their corpses. He can't save everyone- hard choices have to be made. Nice setup for the Mercenary arc down the road. Right now, he has to be the best and do the Centurian's bidding. After he burns down the archive, he can try to reconcile his morals. Until then morals get stashed like everything else.
Erick Thiemke
again? i guess i am just stupid. thought i had the right one this time
Erick Thiemke
he does. he is hesitant to take it. the interaction has yet to play out and no matter whihc way it goes, some readers will not be happy
J H
does he still have the apex water essence? could be a quick way to gain her trust. store the mage, send the legionnaires to castille, gain 3 allies for the upcoming escape. they really need a healing mage though.
Blorcyn
Faint not feint, regarding the pull from the blood compass? Nice to have a peaceful solitary post, interesting to find out what this water mage has done. I imagine it's not going to be as simple as just doing the assassination.
Angus
If I creature found the lookout. If A* creature found the lookout.
Zurko
it was said that Sergius is in cahoots with a few nobles. he could have put a fake crime on her, for a succession dispute or something. noble politics and shit
Zurko
it was mentioned before. the ones he wants are all greater than 70 affinity. he has 66 affinity. he is going to wait before putting one on his core.
Deliver roo
One thing I would like explained is why Eyrick is not practicing a displacement spell form, escape exits wouldn’t even be a problem if he got one.
Mason W
Hard to believe we are coming to the end of book 4.
dethrothes
This story never fails to suck me in
Andrew Glass
They probably actually did something as apposed to Sergius just making up a reason to kill them right? I mean randomly killing a First Citizens gotta be a big deal
Andrew
Thank you!
Prinny Knight
Possible allies?
Lemes
I am certain that one of the legionaries is Helena, MC's training companion during his initial training in the legion. It will be interesting to see how he goes with those three women.
Erick Thiemke
2nd of 4 for cycle, next is due Sunday. So things all about to get very interesting for the MC (and hectic). about 15 chapters left for Book 4 but it may go a few extra.
