Sederan Tales

The day was a hodgepodge of loose ends and awkward goodbyes. Rex warned the elders as best she could, but they ultimately decided not to take any drastic action without more solid evidence. She also appointed a new guard captain (a Lyrenite), although she was still a little scared to leave her little army in someone else’s hands.

Leaving was hardest on Asher, who had gained the respect of almost everyone on campus. There were some tearful conversations in the Lyrenite quarter especially. As the evening rolled in, he realized that individual goodbyes across the entire campus would not be feasible, especially given the lengthy series of questions after such an announcement. He eventually had to tell some of his close friends to spread the word after his departure.

Although she was well-liked, the lightest of the burden of leaving fell on Arlia—most likely because she had suddenly and irrevocably left a life behind just a few years prior. At least this time, she got to keep those closest to her.

A less frantic night gave the group more time to make preparations, so Petra and Katelain were able to get rooms in the small guest quarters on campus for the night. Rex, Asher, and Arlia each returned to their dorms to make final preparations for the morning’s departure.

At this moment, Rex was sitting on her bed, holding a pen and staring at a blank sheet of paper. She knew she had to inform her parents of her decision, but was at a loss when it came time to put words on paper. A letter seemed entirely inappropriate for such a thing. She sighed and slouched down against the wall behind her.

Read the rest of this entry »

The morning brought with it the early hustle and bustle of a large school of magic, along with the awkwardness of five people sleeping outside on campus. Rex was the first awake. She slowly disentangled herself from Asher’s arms without waking him, then sat up, leaning back on the small bench behind her. The fire had gone out, leaving her much colder than she was the night before. She pulled her knees up close to her and wrapped her arms around them.

The oddest thing, in her opinion, wasn’t simply the news that she had heard; it was the fact that she had believed it so easily. Now, having calmed down, the news seemed less like a curse and more like a missing puzzle piece. She had always been an exceptionally talented Rexelian, but it had never wavered with her being in the right (or wrong) mindset, as most other mages dealt with. Even though she was the top of her class, and had been her entire life, she still had a vast well of untapped potential. And how did her parents know before birth that she would grow to become a Rexelian?

And then there was the matter of leaving. While she implicitly trusted her sister’s warning, she knew it wasn’t quite believable. But she couldn’t leave without warning the elders. She also couldn’t leave without explaining her departure. And who would oversee the town guard?

She glanced down at Asher’s sleeping body. He had always been understanding. But how understanding would he have to be for this? Rex didn’t know the extent of her experimentation, so she assumed the worst.

Read the rest of this entry »

Asher, Arlia, Katelain, and Petra were gathered around the campfire near the Rexelian women’s dorm. The sun had long since set, and most of the Rexelians had turned in for the night.

Katelain had explained to them that the school was no longer safe, and that Rex would likely be going back with them. Asher was initially irate at this news. Anger led to accusations, but accusations gave way to questions, and answers finally made room for concern, which was the feeling held now by all four of them.

All of the questions and conversations had since passed, however, and the group had sat in silence for about half an hour.

Asher got up and took a seat next to Katelain. “So when do we leave?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“As soon as possible,” Katelain said. “I realize there are some things to wrap up first, but we have some important things to get to.” Asher seemed content with this, although he was definitely not excited. “I noticed you said ‘we,’” Katelain said.

Asher nodded. “I’m coming with you.”

Katelain nodded without looking at him. “I’ll leave that decision to you and Rex.”

Read the rest of this entry »

“No, no, no,” said Rex, waving her hands to show her disapproval. She was addressing a Rexelian student standing next to her in the training grounds. “Stance is everything,” she said. “There is no force without resistance, and you have to be prepared for that.”

“I’ve never had a problem before,” the student whined.

Rex shook her head. “Well, not with rocks!” she said, motioning toward some small boulders on the far end of the practice grounds. “You’ve never been up against an opponent who was fighting to reach you. When a target pushes back, that creates force, and you never know how much there’s going to be until it hits you.”

Asher, who was leaning against a tall wooden post, took a few steps toward them. “I’m probably going to regret this,” he said, “but try to knock me down.”

Asher instantly began running straight at the student. The student’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, and he quickly raised his hands and pushed toward Asher, sending an invisible shockwave of concussive force. Both of them fell over backwards.

Asher quickly jumped to his feet in one graceful motion, unfazed. The student clumsily got up and groaned.

Rex stood with one foot placed firmly in back of the other, her knees slightly bent. She raised her hands dramatically and then pointed down toward her feet, then shot the student a look that suggested that she would hit him if he didn’t practice this. The student sighed, assumed the stance, and resumed his practice against the boulders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lenus awoke with a splitting headache and her head on a table. She pulled her head up and looked around. She was in the Unsavory Maiden tavern, and could smell the alcohol on herself. She glanced out the window and winced as her eyes met the early rays of light from the rising sun.

She looked around and groaned. The tavern was deserted except for her. She noisily pushed her chair back and attempted to get up, but then immediately sat back down and groaned again.

The barkeep poked his head in through a door, spotted Lenus awake, then stepped through the door. “You’re awake,” he said.

“At the risk of my dignity,” Lenus said, her voice cracking, “what happened last night?”

“You went through an entire bottle of wine, then started picking fights with the other bar patrons,” the barkeep said. “You claimed to be an emissary of Leorus, and I think you sentenced a man to death for being ‘painfully unintelligent.’ You broke his nose, and yelled, ‘The pundits will come for you with their threshing books,’ as he fled the tavern.”

Lenus sighed and buried her head in her hands.

“And then,” the barkeep said, “I’m not quite sure what happened, but I think you accused a man of being a spy from the ‘little people.’ He ended up fleeing the tavern, too.”

“And then I passed out?” Lenus asked hopefully.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lenus paced down the familiar aisles of the open market of Amalia. The open market was where almost all commerce occurred in the small town. Growing up in a tailoring family, the market was the setting of many of her childhood memories—playing in the aisles when work was slow, manning the booth when the work was busy, buying and bartering from the many merchants scattered about, learning simple math and rhetoric in preparation of inheriting the family business.

The market’s aisles were the hub of social interaction in Amalia. Many made visits simply to bump into friends, or perhaps meet new ones. At this moment, the street was fairly busy (by Amalian standards) with most of the merchant and artisan booths open and many people wandering about, chatting, and engaging with the merchants.

The odd mixture of smells, including meat, crops, spices, perfumes, and fresh leather goods, had become very comforting to Lenus. It made her feel at home, no matter what was going on. She and Reese and dubbed it the “market bouquet,” and the term stuck. The last few weeks had been spent on the road, in the tailoring workshop, and in the training grounds. She’d forgotten how much she missed the market bouquet.

Lenus smiled as she walked past the butcher’s shop. On a childhood dare, she had snuck into the shop, stolen a knife, and run up and down the market’s aisles while the butcher chased her. Market patrons shouted, screamed, and scrambled to get out of the way as a plucky, audacious red-headed child ran like mad through the market with a butcher’s knife in her hand, followed by an angry, shouting butcher who was red in the face. After a few laps around the market, she lodged the knife into the door frame of the butcher’s shop, and hid away for the better part of the day. She was caught, of course, and punished, but she didn’t remember the punishment—just the pandemonium. To this day, the door frame still showed the scar of that day, but only if you knew right where to look.

Read the rest of this entry »

After the attack on Bertram, both prisoners had their arms tied down to some rings bolted to the floor. They were left enough slack to stand and eat, but not any more. The pairs that went to check in on them turned into trios, and they were treated with much more caution. This didn’t stop Bertram from bringing them provisions again that evening and the next morning.

By mid-afternoon the next day, Djinly decided another round of questioning was in order. She was accompanied by Bertram and Alenard, and hoped that Bertram’s presence wouldn’t incite the rage it had before in the Ardellian officer. Still, nobody knew more about Ardellian prisoners than Ardellian traitors.

They entered the house, walked down the hallway, and stopped at the door. Djinly briefly made eye contact with both Bertram and Niklos, then unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The officer’s eyes showed considerable restraint, although the rage was still visible beneath them. He stood poised, as if he expected to be attacked. The other soldier looked afraid yet again and had backed up against the wall.

Djinly and Alenard entered and leaned back against the wall. Bertram shut the door behind them. At once, the officer dashed at them. The piece of the floorboard that his constraining ring was bolted to flew forward. He had obviously spent the last day methodically breaking this portion of the floor off. The piece of board hit Alenard in the side of the head and he went down.

Read the rest of this entry »

“So you’re saying you don’t actually know what your group stands for,” Bertram said.

“No,” Alenard replied, “I’m just saying we’re not happy with the current state of things and we want to see some change.”

The two were seated around a derelict table in Djinly’s house. Niklos and Caelum quietly observed from across the room, mostly because they were still looking for some answers too. The arrival of the prisoners served to ease the tensions between Bertram and the others, but he immediately introduced some new tension by asking tricky questions about the resistance.

“Not being happy with things is not a cause,” Bertram said.

“But asking endless questions apparently is,” Alenard retorted.

“What’s going on?” Djinly asked, walking into the room.

“What does your group stand for?” Bertram asked as Alenard sighed.

“Well, we want to see the Ardellian occupation end,” she said. “And we’d like to see Sedera stand as its own nation again.”

“And do you have a plan for that?”

“That’s not for discussion,” Djinly said sharply. She walked and sat down in an old rickety chair in the corner of the room.

Read the rest of this entry »

Niklos explained to Bertram how he had come to join the Sederan resistance and find Caelum. For being such a life-altering event, he used few words to describe it. Bertram still had questions about the resistance and its goals, but he was more curious to see what would become of the two prisoners.

Now, Bertram was sitting on a table, holding a cloth to the wound on his arm. Niklos had gone to join Djinly for the initial questioning of the soldiers, and Lenus had left to go back to the house for something, leaving Bertram and Caelum in awkward silence, as Bertram wanted to avoid another line of questioning like he’d gotten from Lenus earlier.

Bertram heard some muted voices through the wall, occasionally accented with one of the soldiers yelling something. Try as he might, he couldn’t make out the words that were being exchanged.

Lenus walked through the door holding a small leather pouch with a cap over a small opening.

“This is for you,” she said, handing the pouch to Bertram.

“Is this some sort of healing elixir?” he asked.

“Close,” Lenus said. “It’s red wine.”

“That’ll do,” Bertram said, opening and taking a swig of the wine.

Lenus laughed quietly. “It’ll dull the pain,” she said. “It’s the best I could do.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Bertram awoke to the sound of knocking on his cabin’s door. He had slept through the sunrise—something he never did. Days of long training followed by late nights of waiting for Djinly had finally taken their toll, however, despite his early night in.

He shuffled to the door, still a bit groggy, and opened it to see Lenus holding a small burlap sack. Her red hair was a bit tousled due to sleep and days on the road, but she had made some effort to tame it into a loose ponytail. She was wearing the same grey tunic she had worn the day before, and Bertram could see the faint outline of light armor underneath it. She also had both of her daggers strapped to her belt. Her appearance was an odd mixture of utility and class, which Bertram admired.

“Good morning,” Bertram said, smiling and leaning against the door frame.

“Djinly got caught up in some documents, but she wanted me to bring you this,” Lenus said, offering the burlap sack to him. “It’s breakfast.”

“Thanks,” Bertram said, taking the sack from her and peering inside. In it were some bread and cheese, and a flask of water.

“Djinly will probably be a little while, but she’ll be down here,” Lenus said, arms folded in front of her.

“Well, will you join me for breakfast?” Bertram asked.

Lenus opened her mouth and looked down at the ground. She took in a breath as if to speak, but didn’t. Bertram’s warm gaze turned to one of concern. Lenus looked back up at him.

“I’m sorry,” Lenus said, “I just…”

“What is it?” Bertram asked.

“Were you one of the ones who attacked Amalia?” Lenus asked.

Read the rest of this entry »