A Soldier's Life - 412 - The Citadel of Veilmark (minor edit 6-24-25 +200 words)

Chapter 412: The Citadel of Veilmark

I could hear the others talking well into the night, long after I had bathed and nestled into fresh sheets on the soft bed. The griffin down pillow rested under my head and reminded me of Baldo and, by extension, Raelia. Maybe I would send her a message sending to let her know we had arrived in Nausis. With Evie almost to the Death Hunters, I should be able to return to her, but even now, guilt nagged at me for thinking about leaving Evie with the Death Hunters.

That damn dwarf alchemist, having me toast to Evie, brought that to the forefront. This was going to be as painful as leaving Maveith, maybe even more so since the girl relied on me and trusted me. I sighed and fell into a guilt-ridden sleep.

The others left early in the morning, but I was not certain when the recruitment hall opened, so they might be gone for a while. Evie and I were left alone. She was stumbling through an Elvish story wearing the amulet of clarity, and I was correcting her. She suddenly stopped reading. “Do I have to go to the Death Hunters? Can’t we just hunt monsters and go into dungeons? Benito said you were the luckiest delver on the continent.” Her words were encouraging, as she hadn’t mentioned Earth or her family and was accepting her new reality.

“No,” I shook my head solemnly. “You need to control your necromancy.”

She stewed without reading for a time. “Why do you get to learn a spell form and I don’t?” Evie had seen me tracing the spell forms out in the evenings, as that was one of the tricks to help with visualization.

I sighed and tried to explain it to her again. “You only get one spell form for each affinity you have awakened. It is best to consult the trainers at the Death Hunters for which ones will help you the most.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she had clearly laid a trap for me. “I thought they were just going to help me control my necromancy. Why do I need to learn spell forms to help the Death Hunters if we are leaving after?” She leaned on the edge of her chair, studying me.

“Because they are going to teach you how to hunt the undead,” I said flatly. “They will not help you otherwise.” I could tell Evie had been preparing for this argument for a time.

“What if I don’t want to hunt the undead? What if I want to hunt monsters with you and the others?” Evie pushed, her blue eyes wide and full of emotion. She was trying to corner me into saying the unspoken truth.

“We can discuss it after you have trained in necromancy,” I said firmly. Evie glared at me, stood up in a huff, and stormed off to her room, slamming the door behind her. The door didn’t close properly, allowing her to slam it again. Okay, maybe I was not as good at parenting as I thought. I sat uncomfortably waiting for the others, and I think I heard Evie sobbing in her room. I was torn over whether to talk to her or not. As I stood to do so, steps in the hallway sounded the return of my companions.

Benito was through the door first, holding a large copper coin in front of him. “Eryk, they gave me a copper coin! You all got silver!” He said, indignantly tossing it to me.

“What does the copper coin mean?” I asked, bemused by his anger and pushing Evie’s dilemma to the back of my mind for now.

Blaze answered as he was right behind Benito. “It is an assessment of your potential for the trainers at Veilmark.” Veilmark was the name of the citadel. He briefly showed a silver he had received before pocketing it and collapsing on the couch with a mischievous wink.

I consoled Benito as Lesna had a silver coin flipping over the back of her fingers, smiling merrily. “I am sure you can demonstrate what a capable Death Hunter you will be when we get there.” I turned to Lesna. “You didn’t place an illusion on this, did you?” I said, holding up Benito’s coin. My earth pulse was telling me it wasn’t copper.

Lesna’s face fell. “Ugh, you take all the fun out of things, Eryk.” The coin in my hand turned a weathered gray, and I tossed it back to Benito, who was wide-eyed and happy now and not showing any anger at the halfling. Lesna’s prank surprised me, especially since she had been showing some signs of affection toward Benito, like touching him at meals and watching him when his back was turned.

“We will ride tomorrow morning. I will go get us lunch.” I turned to Evie’s door. “Evie, do you want to help me get lunch for everyone? You can pick whatever you want.”

A strangled, “No,” came back. She was clearly still upset. I sighed and left my companions. I walked through the city, taking in an interesting sight. I paid a silver coin to walk through a warehouse. It was a sort of mini-zoo that had caged creatures: kobolds that looked like halfling-sized dragon men, a well-fed ogre whose belly was almost to his knees, a pair of massive gray stone bears, something that looked like a triceratops, but was called a trihorn beast, and a huewalker fox. The fox had weak chameleon abilities to blend into its surroundings. It was a brief distraction from my conscience.

The city was mainly calm, despite the events unfolding in the east. I couldn’t really stir the rumor mill due to the language barrier, so I mostly people-watched while waiting for food to be prepared at my stops. I tried to get as many sweet and savory options as possible for Evie, thinking it might cheer her up a bit. I talked briefly to a passing elf, but he had sailed in from the west and had no news of the troubles east.

Evie was still in her room when I returned and didn’t come out as I unpacked the food. I had gotten enough for twenty people and would store whatever wasn’t consumed. Although with how Benito and Blaze were attacking the food, there might be nothing left. “If you don’t come out now, there might be nothing left!” I yelled a warning to Evie. She had some food in her small dimensional space, but nothing substantial.

The door cracked open, and Evie slinked out to sit petulantly on the couch. Blaze and Benito were oblivious, but Lesna glanced back and forth between Evie and me several times. I didn’t think she was ready to talk. Benito and Blaze carried on the dinner conversation, discussing the differences in women from all the nations we had visited. Benito couldn’t hold such a conversation as well as Mateo, but it kept us entertained as they talked. It was a pleasant evening, and Evie couldn’t quite hold her foul mood all the way to bedtime.

The next morning on the ride, Lesna asked me accusingly. “What did you do to Evie?”

“Nothing. She thinks I plan to leave her with the Death Hunters—abandon her,” I said quietly. It felt weird having an adult conversation with Lesna as she was rarely serious.

Lesna chewed her lip. They shared a room last night, and the fact that she hadn’t gotten it out of Evie already was a little concerning. “I can talk to her—make her less angry,” Lesna said after a while.

“There is no need to. I will stay with her until she is trained and can leave the Citadel,” I replied.

Lesna twisted in her saddle to look back at Evie before turning to me. “And have you told her that?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, the silence stretching just long enough to feel uncomfortable. My mind churned with doubts, but I forced myself to speak before I second-guessed everything. “I never said I wouldn’t,” I replied at last, my voice low but firm. The words felt both like a concession and a promise.

Still, even as I said it, another worry uncoiled in the back of my mind. Did they even let powerful necromancers leave?The thought lingered, something I didn’t want to look at too closely. I exhaled slowly and turned my gaze away. Her expression was unreadable.

“What about you?” I asked. “What are your plans, Lesna?” It was easier to focus on Lesna than Evie. Easier to turn away from the unknown than to face it head-on.

“How long does training to be a Death Hunter take?” she asked after a moment.

“We are going to find out,” I stated flatly.

“Hiding in your shadow has been profitable. I will continue to do so, until it is not,” Lesna said with mirth and a grin.

“Death Hunters are not paid,” I said, amused.

“Good thing you have other things to offer!” she tried to slap my ass, but her arms were too short and she almost fell from her saddle. She giggled and turned to ride with Evie. I assumed she was going to smooth the friction between us.

Evie was much better at camp that night; she was smiling and teasing Benito with Lesna. I wish I had made the decision to see Evie’s training to its conclusion before we left Nausis so that I could have sent a message to Raelia. At least she knew where to find me, and maybe there was a mage at the Citadel who could do a sending.

The next day, we saw Veilmark Citadel long before we reached its gates. It stood tall, silhouetted against the horizon. Blackstone towers rose upward, jagged and uneven, as if built over the centuries by different architects. On approach, a thick mist clung to the walls—too heavy, too still. It was definitely some warding magic—probably against the undead.

The road became stone about a mile from the fortification. The horses' hooves clicked on the pavers as we passed the grasslands. It was evident they had cleared trees for over a mile around the citadel as a defensive measure.

As we neared the main gate, we passed old statues, some of which were broken, flanking the causeway. Their faces worn smooth by time or intentionally defaced. The fog clinging to the walls seemed still from a distance, but flowed like a river when we were close enough. You couldn’t spot the movement because the cloud maintained its shape like the fog was contained behind an invisible cocoon.

The gate was a solid slab of ironwood and steel, banded in black runes that pulsed faintly under my aether sight—more wardings. At its center, carved deep into the wood and inlaid with tarnished silver, was the sigil: a skull, pierced straight down by a dagger, a sunburst flaring behind it like a dying star. “Do we knock?” Benito asked. There were no guards, and the stone walls were over eighty feet in height.

I didn’t know what to do either, so I held the silver token above my head and yelled the password. “When the dead rise! The living stand together!” Nothing happened, and we looked at each other, confused. I was about to try again when the gates creaked open; the sound echoed like a scream swallowed by stone. The ambiance was not welcome to me or my companions.

A man stepped out from the crack, dressed in heavy scale armor with a broadsword at his hip. The armor had the crest of the Death Hunters on the breast. “Damn it! Rhydan,” he yelled. “Grease the cursed hinges already!” He looked us over for a moment, seeming to be appraising us. He paused, slightly confused by Lesna and Evie. “Which of you is the necromancer?” He was clearly informed of our impending arrival.

I dismounted and a little protectively spoke, “Neither. The young girl has a fascination with necromancy. The halfling is an illusionist.” We were all tense, not quite knowing what came next. The human guard was middle-aged and had a thick, muscled neck. He clearly knew how to use the sword on his hip.

“Very well. Dinner is at sunset. We can get you settled. For the new recruits, women are in the north tower and the men in the west,” he said in a cordial tone.

“The girl doesn’t leave my side,” I stated firmly. Until I knew how they treated necromancers, I was not going to leave Evie alone.

“Ah, yes. The step-daughter,” the Death Hunter said. I heard a shrill gasp behind me at the man’s words, and I guessed it was Evie—but it could have been Benito. “I am Solvar, guard captain of Veilmark. You can all register together. Stables are to the left.”

“Does everyone speak Elvish?” I asked before entering.

Solvar nodded. “The language has endured and remained unchanged for millennia, so yes. Also, most of the Sentinels are elves, so we short-lived folk got outvoted.” He cracked a slight smile and moved inside. The doors opened wider to allow for easier entry. I went first, leading Ginger.

What lay beyond was not what I had expected. Atop the high walls, a few guards dressed similarly to Solvar patrolled. Their presence must have been shielded from outside eyes; still, there were not nearly enough to defend this massive stronghold. The courtyard stretched over a hundred yards to an impressive castle that loomed above the walls. Each corner of the castle featured a daunting tower, easily over 150 feet tall. Each tower appeared to have its own unique architecture and even varied in the stone used to construct them.

Gardens lined the base of the walls, a somewhat unexpected sight. I guessed that the famed alchemists tended some of the gardens, but many looked like ordinary vegetable plots from a distance. That made me notice the weather change inside the walls. It was warmer and had a slight humidity to it, making it feel artificial.

Dozens of people, primarily men, crisscrossed the courtyard. Still, the population looked thin for the expansive Citadel. Lesna, not wanting to be separated from us, moved with us toward the western tower as Solvar escorted us.

The gate thudded closed behind us, and a young man was dragging a ladder and jug toward the gate. I guessed that was Rhydan going to grease the hinges. Solvar spoke as he walked, seemingly unconcerned that Lesna trailed us. “Bring your tokens to dinner. The Hierophant will assess you following the meal.” I nodded, knowing the Hierophant title meant he was the commander of the Citadel. Evie took my hand nervously, and I squeezed hers in reassurance.

We diverted to a long stable along the walls. A number of young boys tended the hundred or so stalls. Most appeared occupied as we passed to reach the open ones. I was slightly nervous that the Death Hunters would appropriate our horses, but Solvar alleviated my fears. “You can ride your horses in your free time, and the initiates will take good care of them in the interim.”

“Aren’t we initiates as well?” Blaze asked.

“No, not with a silver token. Varek is usually a good judge of potential. After you are indoctrinated, you will have the rank of watcher,” Solvar informed us.

It took some time to get the horses settled, and Ginger seemed comfortable. Depending on how long we would be here, that would determine whether I should give Ginger a vacation in my space. For now, she could rest here and enjoy some relaxation. I slipped her an apple and joined the others to climb the tower.

The tower was an aged black stone with lots of mortar patchwork done over time. Although the Citadel looked imposing from a distance, it appeared aged and heavily repaired on close inspection. The lower tower had open doors to a multitude of storerooms. We didn’t have time to investigate as Solvar started climbing a long, winding staircase.

“This dining hall is in the central building. Don’t be late for dinner, if you want to make a good impression on the Hierophant,” Solvar said as we climbed higher and higher, skipping landings to floors. When we finally stepped off onto a landing, Lesna was slightly winded. Not because she was unfit, but because she was carrying her saddlebags.

“Initiates use the stairs to train in the morning, so do not be alarmed if you hear men running up and down them,” Solvar said as he stopped at an aged, banded oak door. The door opened smoothly to reveal a small room with a tiny window. A bed and a desk were the only furniture, and it had a slightly musty smell of limited use.

“If the halfling is staying with you, she can take this room. It is unusual for a woman to be in the tower, but I don’t think there will be objections from the trainers. The other rooms are only slightly bigger, and the one at the end of the hall has two beds,” Solvar informed us. “Claim an empty room and relax. Once you are assessed, the training will begin.” Solvar turned and headed for the stairs, leaving us.

“They are awfully trusting,” Blaze said suspiciously when he was sure the man was out of earshot.

“Death Hunters have a good reputation across the continent. I also don’t think they want to scare off the volunteers. We can leave whenever we want,” I said, looking out the small window. Benito was already down the hall, opening doors, trying to find a room he liked. He adapted quickly to changing environments. “Lesna and Evie can take the room with two beds. I will take this one,” I told my group.

The others left, and I pulled the weasel pelt from my space and unrolled it. The griffin pillow followed, and I lay down. Sunset arrived too soon, and Blaze was rounding us up to meet our fellow Death Hunters and the Hierophant. I still wore my armor, but the others wore comfortable clothes. We were about to find out if our course was the right one.

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