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21st day of Xenar

128 I.E.

High above the city of Rogust sat the Providence, the Golden Palace. It sat on top of, and within, the over-hang of a cliff as it looked down into a shallow vale in which the city proper was located. Between the city and Providence was the military headquarters that housed the central military that answered directly to Emperor Brinley himself.

The high stone walls of the headquarters stood proudly at the top of a long staircase that was fenced in by numerous towers. Behind that was the only entrance into Providence, making the palace itself almost impervious to attacks. In the several hundred years since Rogust was established, no enemy had ever made it past the first gate.

Summer had begun to roll in, and the proximity to the ocean made the heat that much more unbearable. There was no breeze to cool off the Rogarian people who lived in the capital. On top of a balcony on the western side of the base stood Dane Trueshot as he looked out into the ocean as he often did while waiting. His tunic clung to his sweat-covered, clammy skin. He tugged at the collar, pulling the cloth away from him, but it did little to help. He stood by his window and looked out at the harbor.

He never liked traveling by ship. The thought of being cramped below the decks of a swaying, rocking ship upon the sea made him feel more nauseous than what teleportation magic used to do to his well-being when he was younger.

Beyond the twisting maze of brick-and-mortar homes that sat at the bottom of the steps leading up to the base, he could see the wide open ocean and the port that sat at the edge of the city within the vale below. He cast a dubious glance towards the ships moored there, already feeling his stomach twisting as he looked upon them.

He sighed and ran a hand through his short, shaggy hair. His arms were heavy and slick with sweat beneath the mithril plate bracers he always wore on his forearms. The metal had runes etched along the edges that glowed faintly, offering him magical protection against swords and spells alike. At his hip, he had a scabbard strapped to his belt. The sword was light, but had enough weight that he could feel it as he moved. Dane was grateful that he didn't need to be in his full uniform, which included a tabard over a suit of heavy chain mail armor. With the heat as intense as it was, he didn't need an extra thirty pounds of metal weighing him down.

A gull flew overhead as it circled above the city, and Dane envied the bird's ability to be free and to go where ever it pleased. Today was one of those days that Dane wished he could be a free man, instead of being forced into the military as all sorcerers had to do. While certainly he could have chosen to be a scholar, to study and do research for the empire, he was never good at such things. He would much rather be a dog of the military than be the kind of soulless, quiet person he would have become if he pursued the path of a scholar.

Granted, his new orders did make him question that decision. He had been ordered to travel north by ship to deal with a problem that had been brewing in the Wersgrauff province, one that the local militia had either failed to take care of, or didn't care to look in to. His mind wandered back to his discussion with Geshtalt Digran, his commanding officer.

It had been early in the morning when Dane had been called into Commander Digran's office of his Commanding Officer. Whereas many of the soldiers he had met in the last year carried themselves with a sense of pride in what they did, Digran was quite the opposite. He made it a point to rule his troops absolutely, and ensured that those under his command knew that he would not be crossed.

Dane found it incredibly intimidating working for such a man, and he wondered why he had been placed with such a unit by Master Heshun, the Academy's resident military expert.

"It's about time you showed up, boy," Commander Digran had addressed him as he stepped into the room. His voice sounded rough, like an animal huffing. "I'm sending you up to Northpine. The locals have been asking for some assistance with an orc infestation. Since they can't take care of the problem themselves and Wersgrauff doesn't seem to want to deal with it, it's up to us." He scoffed. "Orders from the top, no less. I wouldn't care otherwise."

"N-northpine?" Dane stammered. "Up past Tran?"

There shouldn't be any orcs up there, Dane thought, his heart racing. Why are they there? Is this a new clan, or did the Fleshgorgers return? Dane never imagtyined he'd ever be returning to Tran so soon, at least not to deal with a clan of orcs. He was afraid of what he'd find there. Did the orcs raid the village, much like they had done four years ago to Tran?

The older man shot him a baleful stare. "Is there another Northpine that you know of?" He scoffed. "Yes, up near Tran. Where else, rookie?"

Dane swallowed hard. Digran was nothing like the tyrant everyone said he was. He was ten times worse than that. The only thing that gave him a small bit of comfort was that he wasn't going through such a hell on his own. Aiden Philem, his loving partner, was still by his side. Even though he'd been with Digran's unit for almost a year, Dane still hadn't gotten used to the abrasive manner and harsh tone that his Commander spoke in. It was as if the concept of troop morale escaped the seasoned veteran's consideration entirely, and instead of ensuring the health of his unit, he forced them to work like dogs using fear as a motivator.

How this man became commander of anything was a question that Dane would never find the answer to.

"At any rate, you're leading the troops up north. I have business to attend to here in the capital."

"Why me?"

Digran rolled his eyes. "You're from around that area, and I hear you were especially good at eliminating those orcs during your proficiency test at the Academy. What, you didn't think I knew? Heshun sent me the results from your trials, and your history. I know more about you than you'd care to realize."

Dane gulped audibly at that point. He remembered the Test of Magehood he took at the end of his training. He could almost recall every detail of that day, right down to the breakfast he'd had before his test. The professors at the Academy, as masters of the arcane, tested him through one final trial by combat, conjuring a number of phantasmal opponents to face off against.

Most of them had been orcs, conjured to look like the same clan that had ransacked Tran when he was younger. The last thing Dane wanted to do was to see more of the red-skinned menaces.

"You should be an expert at this sort of thing. Killing orcs, that is," Digran said, with a snort. "It's only fitting you go in my stead, to prove to me whether you're worthy of being part of my unit. Understood?" Digran raised his voice to accentuate the importance of his orders.

Dane clapped his feet together, stood up straight, and saluted. "Yes sir!"

"Hmph," Digran mumbled something under his breath, and though Dane could only catch one or two words, he knew that it was nothing flattering. "I'm sending Sergeant Vedray along with you. You made enough of a mess in Mullead, so she'll be making sure you don't screw it up and ruin the name of the Dreadnaughts any further than you already have."

I appreciate the vote of confidence, you balding ogre. Dane wished he could say the words right in front of Digran, but he feared the repercussions such actions would bring down on him.

"Yes sir. As for the rest of the unit...?" he let the question hang, hoping to find out more about who would be going with him.

"Take whoever else you want, I don't care. Take that tub of lard Philem with you. He looks like he could stand to lose a few pounds." Digran's lips curled into a smirk. Dane wasn't entertained by his choice of words, and he found himself struggling to keep from showing his anger over Digran's disrespect towards Aiden. He didn't have a right to speak that way, especially not about a new recruit he knew and cared nothing about. He really wanted to give the Commander a piece of his mind.

Instead, what came out of his mouth was, "When do we deploy?"

"You deploy tomorrow morning. Take twenty men with you and board the Tide Runner. Take the ship up the coast to Wersgrauff, and then ride by horse from there. I don't care how you get to Northpine from Wersgrauff, or what you do once you're there. Just get the job done. If you need to requisition any supplies from Northern HQ, do so and have them contact Rogust if they have any problems with it."

One thing Dane was quickly learning was that Digran didn't seem to care for a lot of things, especially not the little details. The man was in a position of power, and yet he seemed unwilling to command his own troops. He also didn't seem that interested in anything but the end result. Dane wasn't sure whether his resolve to remain in the military until his service was up would last long enough to keep him from striking a superior officer.

"Yes sir. I will not fail." Dane said, saluting again.

Sneering, Digran said, "You'd best not. Or else..." The hanging threat left at the end of that sentence made Dane shiver. He didn't doubt that the threat existed. It was as real as the sweat rolling down the back of his neck. He had no idea how a man who could do nothing but wield a sword could strike fear into a skilled sorcerer such as himself, but Digran easily pulled it off. "Now get out, I have other things to deal with than some bumbling child," Digran added as he waved Dane away with a thick, calloused hand.

At least the time up north will give me a break from Digran, Dane thought as his mind was snapped back to reality by a knock at the door.

"Enter," Dane called out as he straightened his back and stood at ease, feeling his shoulders tense up. He was relieved when he saw it was only his second-in-command, Sergeant Elizabeth Vedray, a woman he regarded as the most loyal soldier to Digran in the entire unit.

Elizabeth was a small, thin woman who carried herself with an air that commanded respect from those around her. She had shoulder-length, strawberry blonde hair that neatly framed a face that always seemed devoid of a smile. She carried the burden of a full suit of armor with ease, as if she were more at home in her uniform than in her fatigues. The steel plates that showed from beneath her blue tabard shone in the sunlight coming in from the window. If Elizabeth had been wearing her helm, the only thing that would've given away the fact she was a woman would've been the soft, fair, and unblemished skin of her face.

Elizabeth saluted Dane, and said, "We're running behind, Lieutenant. The rest of our unit is already aboard the ship."

"Good. Has Corporal Philem gotten all our belongings on board?" Dane asked.

"Most of them. The Corporal was having issues with Warrant-Officer Welshy and getting him to do his job though."

Dane shook his head, sighing. "Of course. That kid thinks just because he comes from rich blood he can slack off." Despite himself, Dane could feel a smile creeping onto his face when he thought of the trouble maker. "Well, at least he keeps things interesting."

"That's not the first word that comes to mind when describing his actions, sir," Elizabeth said. "Shall we get going? The ship is on a schedule and is liable to leave without us."

Dane ran off a mental checklist of everything he needed before he held up a finger and darted over to his lock box at the foot of his bed. There was no latch or lock on the chest, yet he knew his valuables would be safe in there. He ran his hand over a carved insignia of a dragon on the lid of the chest, and the edges of the scales and the inside of the dragon's mouth began to glow with a golden light. Dane pulled his hand back as the chest began to open of its own accord, revealing the sparse contents inside.

"I can't leave without this," Dane said as he held up a green stone on a length of leather. The stone was a hand carved piece of jade, with thin swirls of black and white in it. On its polished surface, a bear's claw had been carved into it. "Can't believe I'd almost forgotten it again."

Before closing the chest, Dane hesitated a moment as he saw a glimmer of gold at the bottom. He picked it up, and it was a band with the letters "D.T. & A.P." engraved along the inside. He was debating leaving it behind to keep it safe, but the more he looked at it, the greater his desire to wear it. The ring wasn't magical in nature like his bracers, and structurally the ring wouldn't have been able to handle having a rune carved into it anyways. But even so, it held more importance to Dane than either the bracers, the pendant, or his sword.

It marked him as belonging to Aiden, while the other man had the exact same ring that marked him as belonging to Dane. Their bonds went deeper than friendship, and he couldn't imagine traveling anywhere without such a keepsake close to him, even if it was into the heat of a battlefield.

He plucked the ring from the bottom of the chest, and slid it onto his finger. Dane gazed at it for a moment, and smiled to himself before he looked back up. Elizabeth had begun to tap her foot lightly on the floor, and he knew he was pushing his luck with her. He slid the pendant over his neck and tucked it into the blue fatigues he wore.

"You don't need those trinkets," Elizabeth said.

"They're my good luck charms."

She blinked at him in disbelief. "With all due respect, sir, that's something more akin to what a child would believe in. However, adults know should know better. We make our own luck."

"You don't put much faith in anything, do you?" Dane asked.

"I put more stock into my own abilities than that of superstition or the Gods, sir," she said quickly. "Can we get going now? At this rate we're going to miss our ship."

It was quite a walk to the pier, and if they dawdled any longer they'd have to run to make it in time. Dane was skeptical that the ship would leave without the unit's officers aboard, but being on time would keep Elizabeth from complaining any further than she already was.

"You're right. Stay close to me, Sergeant," Dane ordered her, and grabbed her wrist without making eye contact with her. He kept his eyes on the harbor as arcane words flew from his mouth. Before Elizabeth could protest, the two of them were flung through a blue-white rip in the world that should never have been there. The void they traveled through was cold, noisy, and wet, as if they were standing beneath a waterfall. Dane could barely hear his own thoughts, and it felt like he couldn't breath. Though it seemed like seconds had passed, the teleportation to the harbor was actually instantaneous. They reappeared through a second rift over the docks and near their ship, the Tide Runner. Once Elizabeth was through, the hole in the sky sealed itself up, as if some invisible hand were sewing it shut.

"We're here," Dane said with a smile.

Elizabeth fell to one knee and clutched at her stomach with her hand. She heaved a few times, but managed to keep the contents of her stomach within her body. A few strands of her hair hung loosely in front of her eyes, and she brushed them behind her ears as she stood back up. Though she was trying her best to hide it, she was clearly having trouble catching her breath.

"Sorry about that. I'm so used to teleporting that I forget how others can be affected by it," Dane said, remembering the first time he had traveled by portal. "I'll warn you next time we're to travel by translocation."

It didn't surprise Dane that Elizabeth was unused to travel via portal. Humans were not commonly gifted with the ability to manipulate mana, the fuel used for all magic on Galria. This meant that human sorcerers were both a rarity and a commodity for the empire to exploit, which was the reasoning behind having all mages either serve Rogust when they completed their training, or be forced to wear dampening shackles to keep them from using their gifts.

However because of how rare human sorcerers were, especially those enlisted in the military, few soldiers were given any formal training in how to work with a mage or what to expect from them. Digran's Dreadnaughts had never had a sorcerer in their company before, let alone two of them. Dane and Aiden were regarded with dubious glances and were treated with an air of respect born out of fear rather than because either man had earned it.

The two soldiers boarded the ship, and Dane bid Elizabeth a farewell as she went to ensure that all their supplies were secured for the journey north. Across the deck, Dane saw Aiden leaning on the railing and looking out at the sea, unaware of his presence.

Dane crossed the deck and he stood behind Aiden. He wondered if he was aware that there was someone standing right behind him. Without waiting to find out, Dane cleared his throat nosily, making Aiden jump.

The bigger man turned around and smiled. "Good afternoon, Dane!"

Aiden was a heavy-set man, seeming to have never been able to shed the soft layer of fat from his childhood. His father had been a knorian, a tribe of plainsmen that lived within Rogust's imperial borders. The knorians were for the most part on amiable terms with the Empire, but they were a people regarded with suspicion and had almost been wiped out through genocide centuries ago. Only in recent years had their people begun to recover and resettle in their communities, but much of their culture had been lost.

Aiden's heritage granted him a larger stature and slightly darker skin compared to other humans. He had clean cut black hair and sported a thin mustache that he had trouble growing. His arms had grown thick with muscle over the years of training, and he stood proudly with broad shoulders. Even the fat that covered his paunch stomach made him seem more imposing, rather than lazy. It struck Dane as odd that even though Aiden had a strict regiment of combat training and exercise, the man never seemed able to shed the extra weight.

There were people milling about the deck, and Dane coughed, then subtly motioned with a hand towards a group of soldiers standing nearby.

"Ah, forgive me for speaking so informally with you sir." Aiden saluted, then corrected himself, "Good afternoon, Lieutenant Trueshot. I hope you are well."

Dane breathed a sigh of relief when Aiden addressed him with his rank. He was grateful the man was able to catch on to what he was hinting at so quickly. He mouthed the words "I'm sorry" then spoke, "I'm faring well, though honestly I'd rather not be heading out on this mission. How is everyone else aboard the ship?"

"Grouchy, as expected," Aiden whispered low enough so the nearby troops didn't hear him. "No one wants to go in and do Wersgrauff's job for them, but their commander seems incompetent at protecting his own people."

"That's understandable. I'm about done with cleaning up other people's messes," Dane grumbled.

"Well at least this time we won't be dealing with a crooked baron. The Wersgrauff province doesn't have one," Aiden said. "The towns just sort of, take care of themselves."

"I grew up there for most of my life and I didn't even know that," Dane remarked, then shrugged his shoulders. "Who is the Wersgrauff commander that's at Northern HQ? I know you did you research last night," Dane asked as moved to lean next to Aiden. The ship began to rock as it moved away from the harbor, and already he could feel his stomach turning and twisting.

Please don't be sea-sickness. Please don't be sea-sickness, he chanted in his head. Just don't look down at the water, or out at the horizon and you'll be fine.

"That I did. I'm beginning to worry that the librarian at the archives has been bringing me food to eat when I'm down there too long," Aiden replied and chuckled, a deep rumble that came from his chest and made Dane's heart melt. He loved that sound. "Northern HQ's commanding officer is Colonel Nicoli, but apparently he's getting on in years and has been doing less and less to protect the north lands. There's been a lot of complaints about problems cropping up here and there, but there's no associated military reports stating that they've been looked in to," Aiden told him, "Probably just leaching off the empire until his retirement."

"Probably," Dane remarked dryly.

Aiden always seemed to have his fingers on the pulse of the community at large, and that included internal affairs within the military. If there was something that Dane wanted to know, then Aiden was the one to talk to. He was more outgoing, and better at remembering names and faces, so he was best suited to be an adviser to him. Aiden had the skills and the knowledge of where and how to get the information Dane needed to use his leadership skills. They fit together perfectly. Where one man had his deficits, the other filled them in.

"Commander Nicoli, I've heard that name somewhere before..." Dane thought aloud. Then it dawned on him. "Was he in service around 124 I.E.?"

"I'm not sure exactly when he took the rank of Colonel, but I know it was before 121. Why do you ask?"

"I think he was the commander that brought me to Rogust's orphanage all those years ago."

The steady beat of a drum below decks could be heard as the oarsmen got to work and the ship's captain began to give orders to his crew to set a course for Wersgrauff.