A Soldier's Life - 432 - The History Of The First Legion (edited 8-6-25 +300 words)

Chapter 432: The History Of The First Legion

The next morning, I traveled down to the Last Reliquary Vault. A Sentinel stood guard, whom I did not recognize. The dark-haired elf nodded and stepped aside for me to enter the open heavy stone and steel door, and I found Baelira inside. “Did you sleep?” I asked her. As she looked up, her eyes were bloodshot, and I knew the answer.

“This Vault holds everything the Death Sentinels know about the Isle of the Dead,” she answered tiredly.

The air inside the vault didn’t have the scent of ancient paper, and I noticed the metallic runes in the polished stone floor—probably preservation runes. “Where is Bharok?” I asked as I scanned the shelves of books and scrolls.

“He had had enough. He went to eat, sleep, and exercise,” she said, irritated with the dwarf.

“Can you save me time?” I asked, indicating the deep vault of high shelves packed with records.

Baelira huffed. “There are books on the dungeons, the undead lords, the soulless, each expedition the Sentinels have undertaken to the island, and history books about what the undead lords were before they came to reside there.” My mind latched onto the last, and Baelira pointed to the shelves that held those accounts.

I started searching for any books on Legate Septimus Aquilinus, the commander of the First Legion. There were three accounts in the records that I found easily.

Of Blood and War: The Arrival of the First Legion by Calion Telvarien

Calion Telvarien was an elven historian. Paging through this book, it was the record of the First Legion and how they came into conflict with Esenhem after they united all the human kingdoms and began an expansionist campaign. There was even a chapter devoted to the genocide of the Elven City of Caelora. It confirmed what I already knew. The First Legion surrounded the Elven city, set up containment arrays, and released poison gas to flood the city. It only briefly mentioned the curse the Caelorian King placed on his people to guard the city for eternity.

The earlier passages in the book describe Legate Septimus Aquilinus as a charismatic leader and master strategist, but extremely ruthless. He skillfully used his legionaries’ spell forms and deployed conscripts as fodder. Although an elf wrote it, there seemed to be admiration for the Legate’s methods and tactics. I skimmed through the book and paged to the end before picking up the second one.

When Empires Whisper: The Private Writings of Caracalla Lepidus

This was Lepidus’ diary that started from before the First Legion arrived. It included the legion’s arrival and ended when Emperor Septimus Aquilinus ordered the gate open to Earth. There looked to be one or two short entries every week. Since it was in Elvish, I surmised it might have been selectively translated from Latin, removing unimportant passages. I paged through the book, so I could get to the last book before I had to ascend to the artificing workshop. Titus Aelius wrote the last book, but it was a history of the rise of the Telhian Empire.

Legate of War: The Doctrine of Emperor Septimus Aquilinus by Prefect Titus Aelius

I paged through it for now, and I could use the dreamscape to summarize all the books for me tonight. “Get some sleep,” I advised Baelira before I left to climb back to the plateau. She gave me a displeased look, and I could tell the woman was struggling internally. I leaned over her and placed an oblivion pill in the book she was squinting at. “This will help you sleep. You need the rest, Baelira. We can talk about all this tomorrow,” I gestured at the collection. She needed someone to talk to, and I appeared to be the only one available, but I did not have time right now.

I raced up the stairs, making sure I would not be late for my exciting afternoon of cranking out wire. I made it in time to find all the artificers already working when I entered. Lepidus and the others only looked up briefly from their projects as I made my way to my bench. The extruder was there, but all the metal bars were missing. I knew I left a supply here before everything had gone to shit. I figured it was some more hazing and started to walk to the store room for more.

Lepidus interrupted my progress, stepping in front of me. “There is no need for you to continue with the wire.”

I got angry, raising my voice. “I thought that we didn’t have to work yesterday.”

The other artificers wouldn’t make eye contact with me as I looked for support in the workshop. “Indeed,” Lepidus said in his monotone. He gestured at the collection of rune books. “You are to select a rune and trace it one thousand times in each of the three sizes found in the book.”

“You mean?” I whispered, feeling a bit embarrassed. I thought he was kicking me out and wondered if the master alchemists had stepped in and conspired to get me into their workshop, even though I hadn’t told them I was the one who brewed the aether restoration potions.

“Yes. You are an apprentice now. The top shelf has the simplest runes, but you can choose any one for your first,” Lepidus said dismissively. Velkryn, the initiate elf I arrived with, finally met my eyes and chuckled. He was an experienced artificer before he arrived. The others clearly knew about Lepidus’ decision and let me flounder. I didn’t care, because now I could page through all the runic books while deciding on my first rune.

Each book was a collection of bronze plates etched with silver. The first two pages contained tightly written Elvish script describing the function of the runes, followed by the plates with the runes themselves. Most runes had multiple layers that needed to be oriented precisely. Some volumes included paper inserts with notes from master artificers. I started on the bottom shelf with the thickest volumes and most complex runes. Slowly, I worked my way up to the top. Lepidus’ body language looked annoyed, probably because he thought I was going slow to spite him—that was just a side benefit.

After paging through all the books, a few of which needed their spines repaired, I took the book for a simple heating rune to my work station with a chalkboard and a box of chalk to start practicing my tracing. The rune was simple as it only had two layers. Lepidus and the other artificers walked by my station and gave me instructions on how to hold the chalk to keep it steady, and how to set up a grid to make sure the dimensions were correct. I realized that cranking the extruder in a steady, constant rhythm had greatly enhanced my hands’ steadiness. I could hear Mister Miyagi in my head echoing out the phrase, “Wax on, wax off,” as I worked and caught Lepidus in the corner of my eye. I didn’t get far in my tracing before sunset and went to have dinner with Blaze and Evie.

It was strange not having a lively Benito at the table, sharing his exploits for the day. He usually had two or three humorous tales about things he did or something he saw. Benito had become a great storyteller partly because he was oblivious to how funny his own actions and observations were. Lesna was missed as well. She usually had a story or two from her explorations of Sanctuary. It was also her turn to cook tonight.

I made some simple batter for the fish fillets and quickly fried the fish for us in shallow oil. Blaze broke the silence as we were eating. “I passed two more exams today,” he said.

“That’s great. You have two left now?” I said toasting him with the mild ale.

“Just one, and then I will be promoted to Watcher,” Blaze said confidently with a half-smile.

I quickly pieced together his plan. “You cannot come to the Isle. Someone needs to watch Evie,” I said more emphatically than I planned.

“I can come too,” Evie said.

Blaze and I echoed together, “No!”

“Why do you have to go! It is dangerous and you might die!” Evie blurted out.

I paused in my reply. I had fallen into my legionnaire training of not questioning orders and trusting the superiors. Well, maybe I did not trust Lepidus. “I will be fine, Evie. We are just going to confirm the dungeon’s status and come back.” Evie was grouchy the rest of the meal, and it killed the conversation at dinner. We settled into our room after some stretching and light sword forms for exercise. It felt odd with there only being three of us.

We settled into our room, and I took my chair, while Evie took the bed, as I produced the amulet. In the dreamscape, I immediately added the three books on the Legate. I set up a discontented Evie to practice with Cassius the Red before adding the runic tomes. I found I could add nearly three dozen of the runic books because they were only a few pages long. It was probably going to be months before Lepidus allowed me to use one of the styluses to draw functional runes, but I now had one of the most complete sets of runes on Desia in the dreamscape. 

I monitored Evie’s training and switched her opponents while I had the Dreamscape summarize the history of the First Legion from the three books, creating one short book. The Legion was deep in Britannia chasing Celtic tribes when it was pulled to Desia by the dungeon engines. Only four thousand of the five thousand men in the Legion had been pulled to Desia. Lepidus noted the Legion’s sentries and Cavalry camp were camped further away. They arrived naked, like me, and deep in an ancient forest.

At first, the Romans believed they had died and were in the afterlife, expecting to be judged by Pluto. This idea was quickly dismissed when scouts discovered a nest of goblins. The Legate rallied his men to build defenses and craft wooden spears; they swiftly defeated some hundred goblins that they thought were corrupted men. After finding a road days later, they soon reached a small town, where guards attacked them as they approached.

This was something the legionnaires knew—war. Even naked and wielding wooden spears, the First Legion conquered a large town of more than six thousand people. From there, their rise was swift as they became better equipped, discovered their magic, and set their sights on uniting the human kingdoms. The Legatus used the existence of other races as a rallying cry to unite the humans.

There were details of battles, both small and large, during their conquest, but it was the spell forms that the legionnaires discovered that made them so formidable. An army of four thousand innate magic wielders, who were also exceptional fighters, was unstoppable at that time.

It took them only twenty years to conquer the northern part of the continent. Then things started to get unclear in Lepidus’ entries. At first, Lepidus was supportive, even admiring of the legate. His legionnaires took the power they had gained to lord over the conquered people. But as the brutal conquest and massacre of other races continued, you could see the doubt ebbing into his writings.

The legate, now Emperor, discovered there was a way back to Earth in ancient Elven records, and he had big plans to bring magic to the Roman Empire and become Emperor of both worlds. Lepidus' journals revealed that he was part of a team tasked with rebuilding a world gate. Their quest stretched for years as they searched ancient ruins and even climbed Olympus to talk with Chronus. Chronos tasked the group of legionaries with tracking down and killing Hephaestus, the architect of the dungeons and world engines that controlled the gates. He offered a reward for Hephaestus’s head.

Not only did they find Hephaestus, but they also coerced him through magical means to give up the secrets to the world gates. Hephaestus trained a dozen men to become master artificers—and Lepidus was one of those men. They didn’t need to bring his head to Chronos because they got the knowledge they wanted from Hephaestus. Having met Chronus/Khrusos, I doubted he would have given him the knowledge anyway.

It took the First Legion fifty-seven years from the time they arrived to build a new gate. Of their original number, only 655 were still alive according to Lepidus, and more than half, including Emperor Septimus Aquilinus, planned to return to Rome and bring the Roman Empire to new heights on Earth. He planned to rule both planets.

I already knew what had happened before I read the summary that the dreamscape created. They opened the world gate, and the five legionaries entered. Before they could return with confirmation that the gate had worked, demons spilled out. The legion was pushed back and had to rally repeatedly to reach and destroy the gate to stop the horde. An entire city was laid to waste. The Emperor announced that the Legion had stopped the demons from conquering all of Desia, and that was the last record.

I had many questions after reading the summary. First, where was Hephaestus now? Was the titan still alive? What became of the schematics to build the world gates? Did the five legionnaires who entered the gate successfully make it back to Earth? Who were they, and did they have a place in history?

“What are you reading?” Evie asked, stepping away from Maveith, who had been teaching her how to dodge as he swung his maul in telegraphed motions.

“Just a history lesson,” I said dismissively and placed the summary book back on the shelf. “Show me what you have learned for the next hour, and we will exit.”

The next morning, I met Baelira in the vault after dropping off Evie at the hatchery. I started talking with her, trying to get her to open up. It was clear she was angry about several recent revelations: the dungeon, her mother’s death, the existence of the soulless, and being assigned to guard me. I hoped she would get over the last one. She needed to vent, and I felt I needed allies on Sanctuary.

Together, we talked as we read aloud from the books we were evaluating. She had a lot of grievances to air. “I was born on Sanctuary. I have spent a few days in Nausis and Bubenge during a resupply trip. Maybe I have been blind because we were always taught the Sentinel council knew best, but look what has happened!” I just nodded and encouraged her to continue.

She told me about her mother, and how close they were before she didn’t return from what she was told was an expedition. Baelira had just assumed it was an expedition to the Isle of the Dead. Her mother’s death had hardened her against the undead and drove her to train harder and be the best Sentinel she could be—a good, obedient soldier. I listened with a sympathetic ear, and told her of how I was brought to Desia and forced into the legion. Our conversations sparked a friendship and trust.

Over the next few days, things began to return to normalcy on Sanctuary as everyone awaited the collapse of the dungeon entrance. Evie and I spent our nights in the dreamscape. Blaze was promoted to a Seeker and, against my objections, had his skull inscribed to resist the nether essence. Evie only had one class left to pass before she could also be inscribed.

I spent my mornings with Baelira, and sometimes Bharok joined us, but he was not as bitter as Baelira about the deception. In the afternoons, I worked on tracing the heat rune while watching Lepidus in a new light as I digested his journal entries. Lepidus and the other artificers constantly corrected me, and soon I was moving from chalk to ink. Paper was a commodity in Sanctuary, so it was a big step forward. After every finished heat rune, it was appraised, and my mistakes were pointed out. I found the repetitive drawing soothing, and it allowed my mind to wander as my hands worked.

Fenlorian was growing anxious that the dungeon entrance had not collapsed. After nine days, it was rumored he was considering sending a scouting party inside to ensure the core had been completely destroyed. It turned out this was unnecessary, as on the eleventh day after the dungeon break, the oily surface of the dungeon entrance disappeared. It was a signal that the expedition to the Isle could now proceed.

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