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Thane
As Thane and Kisha left to meet up with Castor, Thane hid his spear and bow near the butcher’s stall. The cobblestones and dirt were still stained with blood from the fighting but the bodies were no longer there. They found Castor at the edge of town with Mahs and Sarah a step behind him. “You won’t need that” Castor said motioning at the sword, “While you were gone, the snow falcon delivered a message.”
After a few moments of waiting, Thane realized he wasn’t going to continue and asked, “What was the message?”
“They will be sending four people down to discuss recent events with the village representatives, but before that…” He crossed his arms and looked at Thane irritated, “What exactly were you thinking using that technique again so recklessly?”
After Thane was silent for a moment he continued, “Listen, you have a gift. There are advanced mages who spend decades honing their mana manipulation and they still lack the mana control that comes natural to you. You’re using this gift to force a bunch of chaotic energy into your body which only is about as effective as high level augmentations.”
“Father, they are coming.”
He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head, “Listen, tonight you and I are going to have a talk. There is something you need to understand. Before that happens a quick lesson. Even though we are not an enemy force, these people are following the rules of battlefield parley. There will always be at least four people. The leader who will be speaking, a mage whose main task is to make certain there are no underhanded spells being cast, and a bodyguard whose job is to make certain there is a safe escape if a fight breaks out. The fourth member is a runner, a squire or attendant who will run messages between the parley and the main force in case something or someone is needed.”
“So which one of us is the attendant?” Mahs asked.
“We don’t need one for two reasons. First we are not obligated to follow the rules of parley since we are not a military force, and second, even if we were, they are coming completely into our territory. Our numbers and station mean nothing in that instance. If this were a battlefield it would be the same as holding parley in the middle of an enemy encampment rather than in neutral ground.”
The four visitors rode up on horseback, Thane tried to pick out which was assigned to each position, a task that was disappointingly easy. The mage was the woman with the snow falcon, which was now hooded and sitting on a perch attached to the saddle. She appeared to be around in her mid thirties, and rather than robes she wore a layered tunic with a few odd designs stitched on it and a pair of riding trousers. She carried a large leather bound and buckled tome under her right arm and she might be a bit attractive if it were not for her glare which seemed to be a mix of derision and boredom.
The bodyguard was similarly easy to pick out. He couldn’t immediately tell if it was a man or woman, since they were covered in metal from head to toe and wearing a closed face helmet. The only thing about their appearance that stood out was the ornaments on the front of each shoulder. The ornament started where the pauldron met the breastplate and spread up the shoulder into 4 points with a curve that resembled wings.
The attendant was unremarkable, a nervous boy who was actively avoiding eye contact with anyone. The leader, however, was much more noble in appearance than Thane was expecting and had a powerful presence. He was an older man in his 50s with a neatly trimmed greying hair and beard. Something irritated Thane about the way he was carrying himself, slightly condescending and proud. It was a bit of a surprise to him when the man’s stern expression turned to shock, and his first words were a jumbled mess. His composure was completely lost when he set eyes on Castor.
“You-...My...Captain?”
“I’m not your captain anymore, just call me Castor.”
“I couldn’t possibly do that, you’re-”
“Castor.” he emphasized one last time, “And you should dismount from your horse, Marcus, unless you want to keep talking down to us.”
“Of course.” The leader of these mercenaries quickly dismounted, as the rest looked on in confusion. In mere seconds his domineering aura was gone and his companions looked at eachother questioningly before dismounting as well.
“What in the hells is going on here?” Kisha whispered to Sara, “Who exactly is your father?”
Sarah kept her mouth shut, simply observing and Mahs answered, “You know as much as we do at this point. He never mentioned being the captain of anything.”
Thane’s watched the back and forth conversation between the two for a moment, not really hearing anything as he was lost in thought. Eventually he turned his attention to the adults' conversation, the armored man was speaking now, “So you’re saying these four took out twenty armed men by themselves?”
“Of course, anyone in this town will tell you the same. We have eleven confirmed dead and nine prisoners. Let me introduce them and you can have the Glass Diviner over there take a closer look if you need more proof.” The woman carrying the tome tensed up at the mention of her second name.
“This is my son and daughter Mahs and Sarah, they are twins who turned 17 not long ago. The boy here is Thane, the son of my friend Xander who will do the same next spring. The youngest here is Kisha, daughter of Caitlyn who will be turning sixteen next week.”
Marcus bowed “It is a pleasure to meet you all, I am Marcus, the leader of the Stone Fox mercenaries. Accompanying me is a representative of the kingdom who prefers to go by the name Lance, and Gailwyn, as you mentioned, she received the second name of the Glass Diviner from the mage council of Attica.”
Lance gave a short bow and Gailwyn was staring at them over the top of her book that was now open. The space above the book was shimmering like a heat distortion over a fire, and she was examining each of them through the distortion. “One Tamlin, three humans, all of them...are second or third circle mages with at least two domains, and one... how have they advanced so far at such a young age?”
Castor laughed, “Because I trained them myself, that’s how. Now, let’s discuss the mess you chased into my town.”
Thane only half listened to the rest of the conversation, keeping his focus on the representatives. The mercenaries agreed to take care of the corpses and prisoners and the kingdom representative would provide remuneration to Davik’s wife. Finally the officers would be lodging at the inn and no more than a dozen soldiers would be allowed into the village at any time. The number of mercenaries waiting outside of town was over a hundred, which was more than double the population of the small village. Eventually the conversation ended and the mercenaries left to go about their business with Castor and his son Mahs following his old acquaintance Marcus.
“What in the hells is wrong with them?” said Sarah. “You noticed it too right Thane?”
Thane nodded and Kisha looked confused,”What do you mean?”
“Well, their leader Marcus didn’t have any issues, probably because of my father, but the other two were looking around the town as if they were staking out a den of criminals.”
“Are you sure you’re not imagining things? They might have been nervous.”
“No they were definitely suspicious of us” Thane added, “I’m not sure why. They bring a small army that chases a group of armed mercenaries into our village, and for some reason they think we are the suspicious ones?”
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