Chapter 5

"First things first. You will refer to me as 'master'. Understood?" Taliarrah said, standing in front of Krarshe and Lycia in the yard outside her house, cloaked in a heavy fur mantle. It seemed odd in contrast to her delicate beauty, but she seemed warmer than either of her students.

"Yesh, mashter," Krarshe said through a yawn, tired from his fight with eager sleeplessness. It had been a long time since anticipation and excitement had kept him from sleeping. A first, perhaps.

"Dza rada."

Krarshe felt the ground below his feet suddenly shift from under him and found himself lying flat on his back.

"And you'll pay attention. Understood?"

Krarshe got up slowly, rubbing his backside. "Yes, master..." He glanced at Lycia next to him. She was doing a poor job trying to suppress her giggling. Krarshe could feel his embarrassment rising. She'd been smiling since he'd arrived, after the apparent shock of him appearing at her door earlier in the morning. Being laughed at, however, made him feel awkward.

"So, my daughter has told me quite a bit about you, Krarshe."

She did? He looked over at her. She was looking off to the side still, but he saw no signs of laughter. Just her tracing the braid behind her ear. He smiled.

"The bit about your magic being peculiar, however, was most interesting," Taliarrah continued. "I'd like to see you demonstrate it. It'll also give me an idea of how much mana you have."

"A demonstration? Uhh..."

"Is that a problem?"

"Well... Could I ask we move somewhere... else?"

"Like?"

"Somewhere away from the houses here."

Taliarrah raised an eyebrow. "I suppose we could go into the forest, if you'd rather."

"Isn't it dangerous?" Krarshe asked, suddenly recalling what Marcel had said before living with him.

"The only real danger is the howlers, and they only hunt at night. The rest of the beasts aren't a threat to any competent mage. Come, let's get going." Taliarrah led them through the gate behind the house and into the woods.

"Weren't you sleeping out there?" Lycia whispered to him.

"I mean, yes, but I didn't know there was some kind of dangerous monster out there."

"You didn't?! I figured you'd just erected some kind of barrier spell or something."

"I can barely cast magic, let alone some defensive barrier..."

"Lucky you're alive then..." Lycia said, picking up her pace to match her mother's.

Krarshe followed suit, jogging a few paces through the dry leaves.

"Will this work?" Taliarrah asked suddenly.

"Mmm..." Krarshe surveyed the area. There were a few houses a bit of a distance from them, but still visible. "Could we go farther? And maybe somewhere with more open space?"

Taliarrah looked back at him. He couldn't tell if her expression was one of annoyance or curiosity. "Very well."

They pressed on, going further into the woods. After a long while, they came to a large clearing on the crest of a rather large hill. "How about this?"

"PLEASE... let this be... far enough..." Lycia gasped, trying to catch her breath.

"Y-yeah... This... should be... good..." Krarshe breathed heavily. "Can I... catch... my breath first?"

"... Very well."

Taliarrah turned to look over the forest while the two younger elves rested on the ground. "Is... Is this... normal?" Krarshe asked, still trying to catch his breath.

"Normal...?" Lycia replied.

Krarshe nodded. "For your... training..."

Lycia took several long, deep breaths, trying to regain control of her breathing. Finally, she said, "No, not at all. We usually just train near the house."

"So I don't get to look forward to this hike every day. Good to know."

"You were the one who requested this."

"I wasn't expecting it to be all uphill..." Krarshe laid back, flopping onto a rare patch of leafless grass. He watched his white breath rise as it gradually slowed to a normal rate. In the silence, he heard something. Something rhythmic. Like drums. He'd heard it occasionally in his merchant travels but never did learn what it was.

"It looks like you're ready to go," Taliarrah's voice pulled his attention away from the distant drumming.

"I- Yes, master." He stood up, dusting off his cloak. "What should I do?"

"What spell are you most comfortable with?"

"Did you want to see the anomalous behavior?"

Taliarrah shook her head. "First, I want to see your full power."

Krarshe gulped. Well, we ARE a long way from the village. It should be fine, right? "O...kay..."

"Aim it that way," Taliarrah said, gesturing off in the distance. "There's nothing for a long ways, so no need to be worried."

Lycia got up and made her way next to her mother.

Krarshe breathed slowly, trying to calm and reassure himself that it'd be fine. "I guess I'll begin then."

Krarshe assumed his stance at what he deemed to be a safe distance from Lycia and Taliarrah. With his palm forward, he relaxed, feeling the mana flow. This time, with no structures around, he'd be letting it flow freely with no restraint.

He began his spell. "Se Esfiru hinoras, suesoo shu zeraus dzam mea'anom..." Lightning immediately began to arc down his arm, the energy surging within him. Bolts of electricity struck the ground, kicking up dust from the hilltop. "Grunda sem te, mem krandza zonya..." Krarshe could see Taliarrah off to his side saying something, but couldn't hear her over the crackling of the spell as it intensified. A shimmer of light formed a dome over and around her and Lycia for a moment before vanishing. "Sem tsaru mrom, dun zerais!"

Krarshe could feel the energy explode from his leading hand with immense force. Enough that his feet left the ground. He could see Lycia and Taliarrah's startled looks grow distant for a brief second before a sudden pain shot through his head.

Then, darkness.

* * *

Krarshe awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling. His mind was still out of sorts and he struggled to recall what happened. He rolled his head to the left. The walls were bathed in the orange of the late-day sun. A bookshelf with only a few books stood in the corner, with a desk and chair next to it in front of the window. Krarshe tilted his head down to see the adjacent wall: a dresser with a few clothes spilling out, caught in the closed drawers. A bedroom?

The door opened suddenly. "Oh, Karshe! You're awake! Mom!"

Krarshe looked behind him. Lycia stood in the doorway. "Lycia?!" Krarshe immediately sat up, which he just as quickly regretted. A sharp pain shot through his head like he'd been struck by a hammer. Flopping down on the bed sent the pain shooting through his skull again.

"Karshe! Try not to move too much!" Lycia came running over to the bedside. She put her hand on his shoulder. "Just lie still, okay?"

"Ugh... My head..."

"I know. Just stay there for now. We had a cleric come in while you were unconscious, but miracles take some time. Unfortunately, there's still a potion scarcity, so just be patient, okay?"

I hope it's faster than last time... He groaned again. "What happened?"

"You flew into a tree. Head first."

"I what?"

"Your spell threw you backwards into a tree," Taliarrah said as she entered. "Despite the pain in your head, you should consider yourself lucky. If you'd been impaled on a tree branch, you might have been among the dead now. Pardon me a moment." She grabbed him by the chin, holding his head still as she leaned in. "Hmm. Can you focus on the ceiling a moment?" She studied his eyes a bit longer before gently turning his head to each side. Carefully, she ran her fingers through his hair, parting it while avoiding touching his head directly. "I think you'll be fine. The miracle seems to still be working, albeit slowly."

Krarshe heard Lycia breathe a sigh of relief.

"I think I understand why you wanted to move away from the village now. Though, it did make for a stressful journey back after you got injured."

"Sorry..."

"What's done is done. And, fact is, you're alive and recovering. Still... I can't say I had anticipated that. If I hadn't gotten the barrier up, we might have all been in trouble."

"What do you mean?"

Taliarrah held up a hand. "That's for after you're fully recovered. Get some more rest. I'll let Marcel know you'll be late getting back." With that, she left the room.

"Karshe, you scared me!" Lycia said after her mother left.

"I'm sorry. If I'd known the spell would do that, I would have cast it farther away from you two."

"Not that!"

"Then what do you mean?"

She sighed. Walking over to the desk, she dragged the chair next to the head of the bed and sat down. "Karshe, you were lifeless. Not moving. Completely unresponsive. I really thought that..."

"Was I?" Krun. This body is so fragile.

Lycia nodded. "We were kind of in shock after that spell. I've never seen a lightning spell powerful enough to scorch the ground like that. Without striking the ground at least. My mom- mother was the same. Then we turned and you weren't there. We found you on the ground just as the slope steepened, not moving, head bleeding. There was blood on the tree too. I was- I just-" She bit her lower lip as it quivered. She shook her head. "We had to carry you back to the village. You're lucky the cleric was around."

"Some god or goddess must love me. Maybe Teva's fond of me. Though, she did leave me with that black eye..." Krarshe joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Lycia stared at him blankly for a moment before finally smiling. "My mother always says if you can joke, then you're fine." She got up and started putting the chair back.

Krarshe stared up at the ceiling again. I hope this doesn't take too long. He heard the sudden clatter of drawers and turned back to look.

Lycia stood unassumingly in front of the dresser, now without any of the clothes sticking out of it. The smile on her face was anything but natural. "Well, K-Karshe. If there's anything you need, just call for me. I'll leave you to rest some more."

"Okay." He thought for a second. Wait, what was that?

"Thank the gods you're okay..." Lycia whispered as she opened the door.

"What did you say?"

The only response Krarshe got was the closing of the door. Left alone in the room once more, Krarshe resigned himself to watching the shadows stretch on the ceiling until he fell asleep.

* * *

"You still okay?" Lycia asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just don't go too fast." Krarshe clung to her, using her for support as they walked.

"I won't. I don't need to watch you fall over again."

"You try walking with your head like this."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't making fun. Here, you're almost back to Marcel's."

"Your mother did explain everything to him, right?"

"Umm... I think so. Why?"

Krarshe gave a sigh of relief. "Good. Otherwise, I know he'd pester me about everything."

Lycia chuckled. "Knowing him, I feel he'll still do that."

"Oh, so he's not just nosy with me."

"No, no. Literally with everyone. His job as headman or something."

"Mmhmm..."

"You wouldn't believe how many times he asked me about where I was going each time I went to that store to talk."

"You went to talk? Not for an errand?"

Lycia stopped walking. "... Never you mind what I was doing there."

"Whoa! Wait, slow down!" Krarshe nearly tripped over his own feet as Lycia's pace suddenly increased, dragging him along.

The front door opened as they stepped up to the house. In the doorway, Marcel called out, "Well now, I was wondering who could be flirting outside my door in the middle of the night. Can't say I'm surprised."

"F- What?!"

"W-we were just talking!"

Marcel just laughed as the two elves protested. "It's fine, I'm not judging. In fact, it brings a smile to this old headman."

"I'm telling you, we're not!" Krarshe said. His head throbbed as his embarrassment and frustration rose.

He continued to laugh. "Come on in, then. Ellycia, thank you for helping him home. Would you like to come in for a bit?"

"No, I need to get home. Thank you though."

"Will you be all right on your way back, little miss?"

She nodded. "Not the first time I've had to walk around the village at night. Not like the creatures from the forest can get in anyway."

"True enough. I can't thank her enough for that, either. Take care on your way home then."

Lycia gave him a bow. "See you tomorrow, Karshe. Or... If your head is better by then."

"It should be fine. Most of the pain is gone already," Krarshe said, the pain pulsating in his head still.

"I'm serious. If you need another day, it's fine. I don't want you dying during our training."

"Okay, okay."

"Marcel, make sure he's okay before letting him leave."

Marcel bowed. "As milady says, so shall I do."

Lycia shot Krarshe a glance. "Okay, good. Good night, and rest easy."

Krarshe gave her a nod as she left.

Once the door was closed, Marcel said, "So, flirting on your way home, huh? So bold."

"I told you, we weren't flirting," Krarshe said as he sat at the table in the kitchen. "She was helping me home. The room was still spinning a bit when I got up."

"I'm sure you could have stayed there. In fact, she may have wanted you to, if you know what I mean..." Marcel gave his signature smirk. "Chicken soup work for you?"

"I don't know, nor do I want to know, what you mean. And yes, that's fine." Krarshe laid his head on the old wooden table. It felt as though his head pulsated against it with each throb of pain. "Ugh..."

"So what happened?" Marcel asked, placing a wooden bowl of soup next to Krarshe and sitting across the table with his own bowl.

"I know Taliarrah already explained it."

"Guess you caught me," Marcel said with a laugh. "But, I didn't hear your side of it."

"I have nothing to add. The spell did as it was supposed to."

"And sent you into a tree? That doesn't sound normal. Otherwise, there'd be a lot less mages around."

Krarshe slowly picked up his head. "Just me being strange, I guess. I don't know why." He dragged his bowl to him, some of the golden liquid splashing out as it caught on the coarse table. "Maybe it WAS normal. I never released that much mana while like this."

"Like what?"

Krarshe didn't answer. He knew it would be an endless conversation if he did. Instead, he blew on a spoonful of soup before slurping it down. "Mmm. This is good."

"Thanks. Had some good stock from the man next door."

"Be great if we could have some bread with it."

"Bread, huh?"

"I love fresh bread."

"Mmm, yes, fresh out of the oven. Too bad grains are so hard to come by. Especially here, no intrepid merchants visit." Marcel drank the rest of his soup from the bowl and got up to get more.

Too bad I lost all of my wheat... Krarshe thought. His mind wandered to his time as a merchant, on open fields, travelling between each kingdom. Seeing nothing but fields of grass and open sky, like earlier today when he was on the hill. "Oh. I have a question."

"Hmm?"

"When we were training this morning, I heard some drumming in the distance. Not the first time I heard it either. Do you know what that was?"

"Drumming? Was it in a fairly steady rhythm?" Marcel asked as he sat back down with a fresh bowl of soup.

"I think so. It's a little fuzzy right now."

"I can't see why it would..." he joked. "Well, that's probably bards with a platoon."

"Like, with soldiers?"

"Mmhmm," Marcel answered with a mouth full of soup. "Ooh, that's hot." He blew on his bowl a few times.

"Why would they have a bard?"

"Mages aren't the only ones who use magic, lad."

"Bards too?"

"Among others."

"I don't think any of the bards I've seen have used magic."

"Well, if they're trained for it. It's different than mages. They use musical tones. I don't really know the details, but that's what I heard from my platoon's bard once."

Krarshe looked up at the man across the table from him. "You were a soldier?"

Marcel nodded. "Was many years ago now. And I'm glad it's behind me. I never was good at killing people. Not like any of us really wanted to be there. On either side."

"That's... the first I'm hearing of this."

"Hmm? Of what?"

"I always assumed soldiers wanted to fight, for whatever reason."

"Well, I don't know what it's like now. If anything, I suspect many want to be there even less than when I served, given most of them are conscripts. A lot of us were commoners with no true reason to be fighting, aside from us answering the King's call. Or Queen's now. Sorry, I served when we were still ruled by our king."

"I figured most were serving for honor or something. I always overheard soldiers talking about that."

Marcel shook his head. "Nobles and knights do sometimes. But I'm neither, nor were many of my platoon. Besides, most of the nobles were mages, hiding behind us commoners." He took another sip of his soup and then quickly added, "No offense, of course."

Krarshe remembered his classmates and his chest tightened. "I don't understand."

"Well, you see, typically commoners lead the charge, serving to protect the mages-"

"No, not that. Well, okay, that too. But I mean, this war. Why? Why is this war happening to begin with?"

Marcel cocked his head to the side. "Why is this war going on?"

"Yeah."

"... Oh, right. I thought everyone knew, but you did mention once that you're not from Armia, didn't you? Well... You see, Armia was once unified as a great empire."

"I think I heard of that before. I even- I've seen some of their currency. Once." I probably shouldn't mention the one I have still, given how that money broker reacted...

"Well, about a hundred years ago now, it collapsed, seemingly overnight."

Krarshe leaned in closer. He was more attentive to this than any of Marcel's other stories. It was a strange experience for him, actually listening to the old man. "Overnight? How'd that happen?"

Marcel shrugged. "No one knows. I don't know if it's true, but I heard the capital city was found deserted. As if everyone had vanished."

"What?!"

"Exactly. I'm sure there's bards with more tales about it, and Taliarrah might know more, since she was alive for it. But I wouldn't be surprised if she's just as mystified."

"How does a whole city vanish overnight?"

"I don't know either, but I'm with the people who believe it was the work of demons."

"Demons..."

Both of them glanced over their shoulders, before both laughing at their simultaneous reflex.

"Either way, apparently the incident took the whole ruling family. Many of the nobility at the time too. Which brings us to the answer to your question."

"Que- Oh, right. The war."

Marcel nodded. "With this sudden collapse, and no plans for how to handle it, factions started emerging, claiming the right to rule. As time went on, more factions emerged and, as too often happens, war broke out."

"And that's this war."

"Right. Each faction is vying for control, and are killing each other for it."

"That seems..."

"Foolish? Idiotic? I agree," Marcel interjected. His gaze became distant. "Especially after losing so many friends..."

Krarshe watched Marcel in silence for a minute. He finally decided it was best to distract him. "Well, I think I WILL have more of that soup. It was quite good."

"Oh, here, let me get it for you, lad!" Marcel, back to his cheerful self, jumped up to refill Krarshe's bowl. "Hmm... Maybe I'll have more too..."

"Best not to waste it, right?"

"Right you are, lad!"

As the two laughed, Krarshe decided it was best to leave that subject alone and leave his questions unanswered. After all, as annoying as he could be, cheerful Marcel was the best Marcel.