Just a few days had passed since the event with Campo’s goons. Astrid recovered surprisingly fast and had been working with Hamil, teaching him her magic stuff and things. I didn’t really pay attention to their lessons since Jaime wasn’t a mage.

Early in the morning, in a field just outside of town, Jaime and Damian were working to remove the stumps from trees harvested by the townspeople. With his magic, Damian was able to cleanly pull the stump from the ground with his bare hands, after which he would hand them to Jaime who would carry them over to the pile nearby. The black aura emanating from her eyes had grown slightly stronger compared to when it had first appeared. The purpose of this exercise, as Damian explained, was to help her get comfortable with activating and deactivating her aura efficiently.

Before she picked up the stump, she would place a hand to her chest and activate her aura, giving her the strength to be able to carry it. She would then drop the stump into a pile and repeat the same action to deactivate her aura, repeating the process as the day went on. Damian and Astrid were both able to activate their aura at will; Astrid simply explained that it would come with time and more experience.

It didn’t take long for Jaime to become tired, but compared to the past few days, her endurance had strengthened considerably. She had grown to like the tight feeling in her arms and gut that developed as she worked. The growth that she had experienced made her feel proud.

A few more minutes passed and Damian raised his arms to the sky, “All done!” He stretched as the aura faded from his eyes and started towards the inn.

Jaime deactivated her own aura and followed after him, “What’s next?” She asked as she caught up to him.

“I haven’t decided yet. I figured that you should sit in with Astrid and Hamil while I thought about it.”

In their short time together, Astrid and Jaime had grown to be very close. When there was no work or training to be done, the two of them would be sitting together, talking about pretty much anything that they could. Damian and Hamil had grown close as well, just not in the same way; they were more accidental friends. With Astrid always occupied with other things, Damian was forced to find his own things to do during his free time, so he decided to start talking to Hamil. It was awkward at first, but they eventually found their common ground which was, strangely enough, gardening. The hostess had a small patch of plants in the back that she would use as personal rations if she was ever short of food. The two boys found it and asked the hostess for permission to care for them. She happily gave them permission.

In the back corner of the inn, Astrid and Hamil sat facing each other. Hamil’s creme colored hair was drenched in sweat. They had both arms extended, though Hamil’s were trembling as the purple aura flowed from his tightly closed eyelids.

“What are they doing?” Jaime whispered to Damian.

“This is a part of how Astrid trains. I’m never sure what she’s doing, but I guess it works.”

Noticing our less than silent voices, Astrid flinched and dropped her arms to the table in exasperation. Hamil took this chance and dropped his own arms, the aura fading from his eyes.

Astrid’s expression was irritated, though she didn’t say a word, choosing to instead glare daggers into her companion.

“I hope we aren’t interrupting.” Damian muttered, avoiding her gaze.

“We were about to take a break anyway.” She replied, narrowing her eyes at Damian who had begun to sweat. “Come sit down Jaime. I assume he’s finished his lesson and can’t think of what to do next.” She said in a smugly mocking tone.

Jaime ran over and sat down next to the exhausted Hamil. I felt bad for the boy. I experienced this kind of non-stop training in the military, but he’d been going through this ever since Jaime met him, and possibly even before. Astrid was not easy on him, though he never tried to get out of it. The boy was admirable.

“Where should we start?” Damian asked as he approached the table.

“Let me take this one.” Astrid said, patting him on the arm.

“Yes ma’am.” He replied quietly as he obediently sat down in the chair.

I’d noticed a very common behavior from Damian during our time with him. He frequently acted tough and cool, but was the exact opposite around Astrid, bending to her every whim and getting easily embarrassed. It was obvious what was going on and I felt sorry for the man.

“Neither of you has any kind of formal education, so I’ll start from the beginning.” She then got excited and spoke with a wide grin. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.”

Over the next hour, Astrid taught the two kids about the world we lived in. Personally, I never had the chance to receive any kind of education, so I joined in.

We lived on the continent of Teleth. On Teleth, there exists two warring countries: Farrol to the north and Kiech to the south. Pyle, where we currently are, is in Kiech and near the far southern edge of the continent. Both of these countries have been locked in a stalemate for the past century, both sides throwing manpower at the other, leading to the perpetual loss of countless soldiers from both powers. This I already knew. If I hadn’t been forced home, I would have probably been just another soldier lost in battle. I wouldn’t have been able to be with Jaime like I was now, but I also might not have lost my sons. Though I shouldn’t dwell on the past. I have Jaime now, and protecting her is all that matters.

Astrid continued to share, mostly about Kiech now. The current monarch was His Highness, King Regna Kiech. His Highness had five children, three daughters and two sons, with the eldest, Princess Faria, as next in line for the crown. The other four of the royal family were still vying for the crown, or rather, others were doing it on their behalf. Various groups among the nobility were planning on using members of the royal family to gain more power. This was all possible since the royal family was new, and the children all still young and impressionable.