Chapter 2. The Royal Mercenaries
In the great ballads and bard’s tales about heroes and legends they always tell you much about their heroic battles, but they rarely ever tell you about the aftermath. When we fight, we only think about winning, and pay little attention to the effects of our fight. It’s not like there is a choice in the matter, trying to think of every possible consequence of a battle is a good way to lose.
Sometimes people die that you don't want to, sometimes they have friends and family that will blame you for their death. Precious things get damaged or destroyed. Perhaps a single wild swing of a sword could accidentally destroy everything you have lived for up to that moment and change your life forever.
…
There are direct and indirect consequences to every battle. Directly, Thane and his friends had to deal with the fact that they had killed another human for the first time. They carried on with regret, collapsed with intense shock, or moved on with cold indifference.
The indirect consequence was how their fight affected the people of the town. They had just watched a group of four who could barely be called adults take out a group of twenty heavily armed and armored mercenaries, and they did it without a scratch. The people of the village now knew that the children playing with swords in the woods were dangerous, far more dangerous than any bandit. In a matter of seconds these children had turned the village into a blood soaked battleground. The villagers were afraid, Thane and his friends no longer had a place in the village.
No more hiding.
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Thane
When Thane woke he was on his back with his head resting on a soft surface. He felt the warm magic of healing closing up the tiny tears in his body from the mana ruptures. He looked up to Sarah who was holding his head on her lap while she attempted to heal him.
Thane looked at her focused expression and shifted his gaze to the chest that was surprisingly close to his own face. “If this is what I have to look forward to, I should use that technique more often.”
The flow of healing mana suddenly stopped and the open palm clenched into a fist and came down on him. “Ow, gods, my nose...why? You’re not supposed to injure a patient further.”
Her eyes narrowed, “Father always said that pain is a good teacher, you could have died you idiot.”
“It hasn’t killed me yet, it just knocks me out and the worst I get is a few cuts and body aches for a couple days.”
She clenches her fist a second time, “Oi, you still haven’t learned yet? Perhaps my teaching methods aren’t strict enough? I swear to Syllanar I’ll break your nose this time. IF you didn’t notice, you “just got knocked out” in the middle of a battlefield surrounded by people that wanted to kill you.”
“I get it, I was just...when I saw Davik get cut down, I couldn’t hold back.” If I didn’t slip up at the end there and lose focus I could have kept going too, Thane continued mentally. He didn’t say it out loud since he didn’t want to get hit again. If there was one thing he knew about Sarah it is that she was completely serious about breaking his nose and would say something like ‘since I’m already healing you I’ll just fix that too’.
“Now that you’re awake you should get up and finish the healing yourself. You probably have dozens of tiny muscle tears again and you know how bad I am at healing magic.”
In defiance to her request, Thane shifts his shoulders making himself more comfortable on her lap before he realizes something and pauses. “Come to think of it, why are you doing the healing? Don’t you usually leave that to Kisha? Is she all right?”
“Ah, Miss Feyblood is fine. She is uninjured but didn’t really have the stomach for killing. I found her covered in someone else's blood and puking her guts out at the edge of town. My brother is fine too, he is speaking with father now.”
Thane sat up quickly and looked at his hands. His knuckles had traces of blood from knocking the man out and he looked around. The townsfolk with tougher constitutions were cleaning up the mess; dragging the bodies to the edge of town and tying up the ones with minor injuries. “That’s right, I killed two...three men.” He saw the man with the stomach injury was no longer breathing. The dirt and cobblestones were dyed red due to the trail of death left behind by him and Sarah. Thane was a bit shocked about how nonchalantly she was taking this, as well as his own cool headed reaction. “I guess her reaction is the more normal one isn’t it?”
“Maybe you’re just used to blood. You have been killing skinning and draining the blood from the animals you’ve hunted since you were eleven.”
“That’s different...”
“You’re right, the deer and rabbits never grabbed swords and axes to try and kill you.” She placed her hand on his shoulder, “Don’t regret what you did,and don’t feel guilty about a lack of regret. They were ready to kill us and anyone who got in their way. They would have forced the town into starvation if we did nothing and likely would have killed more than just Davik before leaving.”
Thane stood up, “I’m going to check on Kisha, see if she is all right. I’ll be-”. He paused and looked to the sky. A large white bird was circling around the town, as if it was examining the aftermath.
“A scavenger? Probably sees a lot of meals laying around right now.”
“No, that’s a falcon, it’s pure white...I think it’s a snow falcon. Teacher said they are common in the white crowns. It shouldn’t be this far west.”
“So it flew a bit far from home then.”
“Teacher also said they are very popular as familiars for mages.” Thane quickly gathered up his weapons from the ground. “This might not be over yet.”
The two followed the path of the falcon with their eyes as it circled the town once more. It broke from the circle and flew back over the grain fields where the invaders came from. Soon it landed on the forearm of a woman on horseback. She was in the center of a formation of mounted soldiers. Nearly 100 of them by Thane’s count.
“No banner, those are either more thieves or mercenaries...a lot of them.”
The two were thinking the same thing, but Sara was the first to put it into words, “What are we supposed to do now?”
The deep voice from an older man responded to her question from behind. “You are going to come with me, Thane is going to go fetch Kisha.” Castor interrupted the two as he walked up to them with Mahs following closely behind.
“Father, do you know who they are?”
“The men who attacked the village did not come here by design, they were chased by those people. We’ll understand more once they make contact. Don’t do anything stupid and wait for them to come to us. There won’t be a fight this time.” After answering his daughter's question he nodded over to Thane motioning him to move along.
When he found Kisha, she was sitting on a pile of drying firewood. She was leaning over with her forearms propped on her knees. A large bloodstain covered the left half of her tunic over her shoulder, and was beginning to dry on her cheek.
“Kisha, are you alright?”
She looked towards him and forced a smile. He changed his question, “Are you going to be alright?”
“I will be, I knew it could happen but...it was so close...and there was so much blood.”
“Let’s get changed and cleaned up. Castor is calling for us.”
Still downcast, Kisha stood up, “Right, ‘Never stop moving forward’. I remember.”
Thane wanted to say something but couldn’t bring himself to. He knew the weight of those words. And so, the two of them walked silently back to their house.
The house belonged to Thane’s family, and was one of the two largest houses in this small town, and one of three buildings to have a second floor. The other two were Castor’s house and the local wayfarer’s inn that would house passing merchants and served double duty as the only tavern for the locals. Ever since Kisha and Thane lost their parents 5 winters ago this house had been their home together, with frequent visits from Mahs and Sara.
When Kisha went to change, Thane opened up a large storage cabinet near the stairs. Inside was a display of arms and armor that had belonged to his father. Blades of differing sizes and shapes, a war spear, and at the center of it all was a suit of armor. It used to belong to his father, but Thane had it altered to his personal preference and adjusted to fit him. There was a solid metal breastplate that had most of the shoulder guard plates removed to give his arms more vertical motion and make it easier to use a bow, and the rest was piecemeal. The thickest and strongest metal was a pair of thick bracers that he used like a shield, while other metal plates were made to be strapped on his shins and upper legs. He had an arming doublet and leggings to cover the unprotected areas but he didn’t like being restricted by the weight so he never wore them after the first time Castor suited him up.
Thane sighed and pushed the armor aside, instead he grabbed a chain vest that could be worn under his shirt and the pair of bracers. Castor made it clear that he didn’t want to fight the visitors, so going in looking like a soldier ready to go to war didn’t seem like the best plan. So instead Thane would take minimal protection and a single long sword, and leave a spear and bow nearby in case they were needed. Unlike before these weapons weren’t for hunting or clearing underbrush, these were made for war.
Thane was just finishing his preparations when Kisha returned. He had placed the bracers in a bag that hung from a strap around his shoulder down to his waist and was in the process of fastening his sword belt.
Kisha, however, was now completely disarmed and wearing a pale blue dress, “Are you getting ready to fight again?”
“Castor thinks the fighting is over, but I just want to be safe. Davik was cut down in front of his own stall and I don’t trust these new arrivals to be any different.”
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