AO 5 Ch 9

Chapter 9

The man leading the supply caravan waved at us as Cyam dropped a carriage full of me and the anchors off.

At the front of the caravan the caravan master greeted him, “Mage Aldis” he bowed, a slight chuckle on his lips. "I had worried that you had forgotten about us."

“Me forget about you? No. How could I forget about the vital supply caravan that I had just been guarding.” In my defense it had been a hectic two days and I had been fighting for our lives.

The man frowned, confusion crossing his face. "Is everything okay at the fort, sir?" he asked.

"Okay is a relative term," I replied. "Come. Let's get the supplies to the fort and we can work out everything else from there."

I walked over to the supply wagon and gave it a cursory inspection. To be honest, I didn't even know what I was supposed to be looking for inside. But satisfied, I slapped the wagon and nodded. "We should get these to the fort."

The man nodded and started waving to the rest of the caravan. It was clear he was eager to get on the road.

I turned back, realizing that I didn’t want to shock him. "Unfortunately, the fort has seen better days," I glanced at the man leading the caravan. "What are the chances that any of you know how to fight with a spear?"

"We're part of the military, sir, though we are in the logistics division. We can hold a spear."

I nodded, but apparently my question had not eased the man’s fears.

"Is the fort under attack?” He asked.

"It was under attack," I said haltingly. "It's not under attack anymore. We're rather short on personnel though, and until reinforcements come, I'm guessing General Travis will want you guys to stick around and help."

"That can be done, Mage Aldis," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. "It's an honor to serve for General Trevis."

I flashed him a smile. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get everything packed up and get going."

All around the caravan, people were already starting to clean up their camps. It seemed if a caravan was left alone for too long, they started to settle in. Though as I watched everyone, I noticed a fair number of people were looking warily into the surrounding forest.

"Has everything been okay?" I asked.

"Fine. Just a few monsters. Not anything we can't deal with," the man straightened himself up.

"If there are monsters, we should really take care of them," Zuri said sharply. I nodded in agreement. Regular soldiers could definitely take out monsters in a group, but there would almost always be injuries. Anchors and mages could take monsters out on their own in a far less dangerous manner.

"What are we dealing with?" I asked.

"Pale, gangly, super long claws.” The man cringed.

“Does its head twist around?" I asked, trying to recall the one time I'd seen a Vrul fight.

"I don't think I saw it do that.” The man said, sweat forming on his brow. “We didn’t get close, just fired arrows at it until it left.”

“It's probably a Vrul. With all of the death that has happened around the fort, I wouldn't be surprised if a few had been attracted," Aurelia said, hefting her axe. The Virel really wanted to continue to test the edge of her favorite toy.

"That's the case then. While you all get packed up and moving, we'll check around." I glanced at my anchors to see if any of them had a problem with the idea, but they did not.

Aurelia and Zuri seemed almost eager for a fight. Meanwhile, Maribel and Emlyn seemed like they were just happy to be away from the fort and being used as basic labor.

When I had picked Emlyn up, I had found Melida had tasked her with clearing rubble. Failing to use her earth magic to do so, Emlyn was left throwing rocks, which may have been fun for a minute, but not hours of it. And then Maribelle, well, she just did what she wanted, which is also, in theory, what I wanted.

My anchors fell into line behind me, only for Aurelia to step out up front. We weren't going to leave the caravan too far behind us. It was important that we finished our escort of them to the fort. Now that supplies were dangerously low, it would be vital that we got what we needed for at least our small company to survive in the fort.

As for other basic supplies and the equipment for soldiers, we would have to hope the new army that came by would be able to provide those or make them themselves. It wasn't as if I was going to become a blacksmith.

"Do you really think it's a Vrul?" Zuri asked Aurelia ahead of me.

"I hope it is, and not another one of whatever Colin was."

I paused mid-step. "Wait, you didn't think it was a Vrul?" I turned to Zuri.

"Pale, gangly, somewhat human-shaped. Colin would have fit all of those characteristics. Only difference was that he talked and wore armor. In fact, he wasn't that different from a Vrul creature, stuffed with so much life magic that it was hard to kill him with any normal weapon." Zuri observed.

"I really don't want it to be another Colin," I said. "Besides, if there was another one of those at this point behind the fort, there's no way the supply caravan would still be around."

"That's a fair point," Aurelia said over her shoulder. "We also have to be aware that Melida's fort was having some sort of powerful corrupted causing them trouble before the Colin ordeal."

"You think they're connected," I said, realizing where they were going with their logic. Colin very much seemed like a powerful serpent corrupted.

"If he is an experiment from Garrish..." I shook my head. "Then the ones that pestered the fort before may have been the earlier phases of the experiment," I finished for her, rubbing my forehead. "And you think there could be more out here.”

“It's a possibility we can't rule out. Though I too hope it's just a Vrul. If those were the early stages and Colin was where they're at now, where will they be the next time we fight one of them?" Emlyn asked.

It was a question I really didn't want to think about. 

"Well, hopefully we're not the one fighting them," I smiled at Emlyn, but the smile was weak.

Colin was terrifyingly powerful. If he had more sense than whatever animalistic urges were driving him, I think he would have been something beyond us.

I looked around at the grim expressions around me. We all acknowledged just how powerful Colin had been. 

"That's only more reason for us all to continue to increase our power," Zuri said. “Unlike other mages that have years of practice and experience to build their magic, Ard has a cheat. All he has to do is kill other mages and monsters to dip the goddess' medallion.” 

"It's not a cheat.” I stated.

“It's kind of a cheat," Emlyn agreed with Zuri.

"I still have to kill the things." I argued.

"Actually, you don't," Zuri said. "Aurelia or any of us could kill them and you could still dip the medallion into the blood."

"Well, in so many ways you guys are an extension of me." That statement earned an eye roll from multiple of my anchors. Only Mirabelle smiled at the thought.

"You would claim credit for all of my work," Emlyn said bitterly. 

"If I didn't, what would you do, Emlyn? Squander it all? You've never been very good at saving.”

“Watch it.”

“It wouldn't shock me if you’re broke," I said, earning a glare. "That's when you know I'm right. Besides, I can also use the medallion to infuse Emlyn and Meribelle with some of the soul juice now."

Aurelia and Zuri shared a glance. And even without knowing the secret code that my anchors sometimes use to communicate silently between each other, I knew they were then asking if the other was ready to join the ranks of my immortal Meribelle and Emlyn. It required them to essentially give up their bodies and entrust me with their soul.

Frankly, I wasn't going to push either of them towards that. It was a terrifying thing to do. I mean, who would want me to control their soul? I don't think anyone who's sane would make that call, but that was why Meribelle and Emlyn had joined.

"Ard is thinking something ridiculous," Emlyn said.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "And how would you know that?" 

"Your brow does this funny thing," Aurelia chimed in, poking her eyebrow and making it wiggle slightly. "When you think you're being funny in your head. And almost all the time, that means it's something ridiculous and most likely slightly rude towards Emlyn."

I gasped in mock horror, placing a hand to my chest. "I would never."

"You literally do it every day," Emlyn retorted. 

"Fair enough. That's why I have you to call me out when I need it." I gave Emlyn a giant grin, knowing that she enjoyed our banter just as much as I did. 

"You know, we may not find the monster that easily if we're talking so much," Zuri interjected. 

"No, I'm pretty sure, unlike animals, monsters go towards the voices." I said.

Zuri glanced up at Aurelia to see if she would confirm. 

"I don't think that's a general rule or anything, Ard," Aurelia said, looking almost guilty to shoot my idea down. "However, I wouldn't say you're completely wrong. But the kind of monster that goes looking for humans talking is not the kind of monster you really want to find."

"Because it's the kind that purposely hunts humans," I said, earning an obvious look from Aurelia. "Well, maybe we'll have to go on some forest walks in the future, hunt down some big game and some scary monsters. Because we're likely going to be stuck in the fort for quite some time."

Aurelia held a fist up and I froze mid-step while each of my anchors tensed and drew their weapons. "Ahead," Aurelia said softly, motioning forward with a slow wave of her hand.

We crept through the forest. I kept looking down at my feet, ensuring I wasn't going to break some twig and comically alert our prey. 

Through the clearing, I saw several Vrul digging in the ground, their long dagger-like fingers topped with another dagger-sized nail. Those fingers were disturbingly effective at digging in the ground. 

"Ard," Aurelia said softly, gesturing towards the monsters. I had fought a Vrul once before, however this time was going to be drastically different. I lifted my hand as several manticore claws of ice formed in front of me before zipping out and cutting through the Vrul as if I was cutting the tops off wheat for harvest. The three monsters died quickly, their bodies collapsing in a heap. 

As I stepped out into the clearing, I looked around, frowning. All around was dead and rotting wood, a large number of trees had been knocked down around us as well. Based on the growth around them, it had happened before the winter, and spring was rapidly trying to reclaim the clearing. There had been a battle.

Aurelia moved quickly around the clearing, checking some of the trees and pulling off several loads of fungus to look at the wood beneath. "I'd say about three or four months. Probably just before winter," she confirmed.

I pursed my lips and looked around. "Some of the wood is charred," I said. "That means it was a mage or an anchor."

"That would be a good bet. If I had to guess, I would say lightning mage," Aurelia said, looking over some of the fallen trees. "If it was fire, there'd be a lot more burns. Instead, I see several instances like this." She pointed where a tree was broken and it was just pinpoint blackening of soot.

I had seen that type of mark before; I'd done it myself using lightening.

I glanced around at the clearing again, stepping in a circle. "So a powerful lightning mage died here." I put my thumb on my cheek before glancing at the spot where the Vrul had been digging. "Well, let's see who it is."

"There wouldn't still be a body," Aurelia said.

"Well, the monsters were trying to dig something up here... I can't help but be curious. You?" 

The Virel shrugged her shoulders, walking over to the dead monsters and nudging them aside with her boot. The Vrul didn't exactly have any meat on them, not to mention they were creatures stuffed with disease that only stayed alive because of the life that flowed through them. They were, however, heavily attracted to death. Even worse, they were quite attracted to dead mages and anchors. 

With a wave of my hand, I lifted up the earth that they had been digging out, spilling the soil over the Vrul corpses and hopefully burying them in the process. As the earth moved, the body surfaced after several seconds. I had been deep enough that the monsters wouldn't have been able to dig this up. Yet they still sensed the body.

"Avente colors," Zuri said, seeing the faded and dirty blue mage. 

"Emlyn," I said, "a powerful Avente lightning mage that died not far from the fort." I looked at the corpse. "Do you think this could be Elder Brimsam?" 

"No," Emlyn gasped. "Someone killed him and an earth mage stuffed his body deeper in the ground. That sounds plausible to me." 

I studied the body. TThere wasn't much of a corpse left for me to be able to identify the Elder.

Meribelle stepped forward immediately, not at all concerned with the body and fishing into its robes to pull out the mage's medallion. “It's him," Meribelle said confidently. "I know all of the noble houses, even an insignificant one like Brimsam." 

"I wouldn't call them insignificant, they had at least one Elder on the council." I offered.

Meribelle shrugged off the comment and left the medallion with the body. "What do we do with it?" 

I waved a hand, the dirt around him blowing off before a stone coffin encased his body. "We'll bring it back. At the very least, we could give it to General Trevis and possibly give his house some closure. I don't think there's a whole lot we could learn from his body this long after, but it tells us one thing.”

I looked around at the others. "It tells us whoever killed him at least had a wolf's sphear.”

“It could have been Garish," Emlyn tried to say, but I shook my head, knowing better. 

"This far behind a fort and without any secondary attacks coming after. No, whoever did this was an Avente and didn't want his body found.”

“Do you still think it was Carmilla?" Emlyn asked. 

I nodded, hating the idea. I did not want to accept that Carmilla was this strong, but I had seen her fight with my mother. She was truly a powerful mage. Even with everything I had learned and all of the growth I'd had, I was realistic enough to admit I wasn't sure I would have been her opponent had it been me instead of Elder Brimstone. 

"Let's get the body. Let's bring it back to the caravan and focus on what we can do at the fort," I said after a long moment. After turning to look at Zuri, I added, "I have something to tell you. General Trevis' wife will have returned by the time we get back. She went down to the base south of the desert to confirm its status." 

I set my teeth and gave Zuri an apologetic smile. "We'll know what happened to your family when we get back." Rather than crumple like I worried, Zuri stood tall, hope still flashing in her eyes.

I hoped her parents had made it through whatever had happened. I would be happy to avoid seeing the pain that I was fairly certain would come next.

"I would be there for Zuri through it all, though I knew much of it would just take time. 

"So yeah, don't worry," Emlyn said, patting Zuri's shoulder. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

I wanted to shake my head and stop Emlyn from encouraging her, but it would be what it was. Instead, I lugged the stone coffin back to the caravan as we set out to return to the fort. I was interested to see, what came next.