A Soldier's Life

Chapter 45

When we got to the villa, Konstantin had a fine saw to slowly cut the rear of the bolt off. I was extremely uncomfortable waiting for the return of Castile. My breathing started to get strained, and the wound tightened, making any movement painful. I understood they wanted to wait to remove the bolt until they had a healing potion, but it wasn’t very pleasant, and being stoic was taking a lot of mental energy.

I awaited Castile, but it was Linus who returned with the healing potions. Lysander was treated first. It was a quick rub into the open wound, and then he drank the remainder. I was a bit more of a project.

Linus looked at the bolt. It had been cut off in the back, “We are just going to pull it the rest of the way through Eryk. The blood has coagulated a lot in the three hours, so it is going to be painful. Take this and drink it later,” he handed me one of the cure poison potions.

“Was the bolt poisoned?” I asked with the potion in my hand.

“The healing potion is going to focus on the tissue and correct the damaged muscle. Normally, it would also handle any infection, but that bolt has been inside you for hours. So, after I pull it, we will pour the potion into the wound rather than have you drink the sure poison potion. The cure potion is just insurance as the healing potion may not have enough aether left to cleanse your blood after it heals the wound.” He explained, “A potion works its way out from where it is administered until it expends its aetheric stores. Usually, drinking it is fine if the wound is not too severe, or you could take two potions. We only have one,” he held it up.

He didn’t wait any longer and just reached out and pulled. My body held the shaft for a moment before it pulled out. I grunted, holding in a scream as that was what a stoic man should do. If I had been alone in private, I would have definitely screamed.

Linus worked quickly, getting my armor off and clothes as my wound oozed dark blood. He quickly cleaned the area with water and then red aloe. He then carefully opened the hole wider with tongs to make sure no potion was lost. That hurt more than anything so far, and I let out a cathartic scream—forgetting all about being manly. He carefully poured the entire vial into the wound, and I felt the warmth spread and the muscles heat as the magic worked to repair them.

After a few minutes, Linus inspected the work, “You look good. Three inches lower, and you would have been in trouble. Let’s check mobility.” I went through ranges of motion, and the shoulder was tight, but I had no issues. Linus reminded me to drink the potion of cure poison in an hour or so and left.

I locked my door again. I was lying on my bed with the griffin pillow under my head. I was rolling what I thought was an apex healing essence in my hand. I was only hesitant to consume it because of the nasty surprise the last apex essence had given me. What if my theory was wrong and the pain was not from a new magic affinity establishing itself on my core? Could I go through that again? Also, I was not even sure this was a healing essence. It just came from a mage that could heal.

A knock at my door disturbed me, and I sent the pillow and essence to my storage. I opened the door, and Firth was there, “You know, Eryk, if you keep locking yourself in here, people are going to create rumors about what you are doing in here alone.”

I shrugged, “Sleeping without having to listen to a symphony of snoring is worth it.”

Firth got serious, “Just wanted to apologize for the patrol. I was not expecting the Bartiradians to be there.” He handed me a satchel, “some food, and you have off from tonight’s patrols. You are on the wall at first light, though. Get some rest.” He turned and left.

I realized it was midday, and Firth had brought me lunch. There was even a pouch of griffin jerky in there. We had been told it was all gone. I resumed my previous position with the essence in my hand and munched on the jerky. When the jerky was gone, I popped the essence in next, committing to it.

I braced myself for another unpleasant experience. Instead, as the essence dissolved in my mouth, my skin cooled, and I got goosebumps. The coolness spread to my breath, and I shivered. The feeling slowly disappeared, and that was it—much more manageable than my last affinity essence. I was fairly certain that had been a healing essence. I couldn’t differentiate the affinities on my core, but it definitely added to something already there. That also confirmed that I had awoken a new essence with the brown apex essence.

I immediately pulled the healing spell form book out of my storage with a glow stone. The light from the covered windows was not enough to see clearly. I had studied this book for almost two weeks and had been frustrated. As I reread and studied the forms in the book, I felt it was possible. I put the book down and reviewed everything in my mind that Damian had taught me when I imprinted my dimensional space. Then, I returned to the reading. Making sure I was being careful about my intent and picturing the simplified spell forms from the book.

A knock and Mateo’s voice came from the door, “Eryk, dinner is served.” I heard him walk away and was grateful he had alerted me. I had been studying for hours, and my eyes were dry and aching from the effort. I cleaned the room and joined everyone.

Felix blurted, “Look, he is absolutely glowing!” Panic welled up—maybe my change was noticeable. Instead, it was just a joke about my large amount of alone time in my room.

Mateo added as I sat beside him, “He does smell funny. Does he smell funny to you, Pavel?” Pavel was on my other side and took a big sniff.

Pavel considered his words, “I do detect a faint scent of perfume.” Everyone started laughing, but Pavel had a good nose. The perfume from my bed’s prior occupant tended to linger for a while on my clothes. That was the end of the joking as Adrian started to assign the night patrols. As Firth had told me, I had the night off. No one seemed upset about it.

I returned to my room after visiting the privy as they geared up. Securing myself once again, I resumed my studies. It was late into the night, and I kept weighing whether or not I should get some sleep; then it happened. I was blurry-eyed and exhausted, but my need to learn to heal after being shot in the back was too much. It felt like all the pressure I had been trying to force into me had just been released; the dam had broken, and I was now satisfactorily filled. I knew I had a new spell form, and it felt like I had correctly imprinted what I wanted on my aether core.

I took out a knife and cut a thin line on my forearm. I focused on the wound and my aether core together and pushed my aether into it. The thin line of red remained, but the flesh underneath pulled together. I wiped the blood away and found just smooth skin. Well, hairy skin but no cut—no scar.

I became a little masochistic as I cut and burned myself a few times to get comfortable with the healing ability. Closing a minor cut took less than a relative point of aether, a deep cut, maybe an entire point of aether. I was not stupid enough to damage muscle tissue or organs during my impromptu testing. When I finally fell asleep, I felt much better about my chances of surviving my legion tenure.

At first light, Konstantin banged on my door, “Eryk, you have slept enough. Wall duty after breakfast!” I scrambled to clean up and felt like an idiot for not storing the book last night. I had gotten so caught up in my testing that it had remained on the bed. I sent it with the pillow to my space and dressed. I took a short sword and the bow I had requisitioned with me as I made my way to breakfast. I did not need to carry the arrows as there were bins of arrows on the wall.

Everyone was tired from the patrol and was mechanically eating. It was not long before five of us headed to the wall. Konstantin leading with Pavel, Regis, Malcolm, and myself. I walked next to Konstantin and asked, “How were the patrols last night?”

“The upper city was fairly tame. The city guard had a number of issues in the lower city,” he said calmly as we walked.

There were a lot of citizens about—much more than normal. I asked, “Why is everyone so active so early today? Is that a sign of trouble to come?”

Konstantin nodded, “Nice observation, but no. There is a curfew from mid-day to sunrise. Everyone needs to get everything done in the morning. Especially get water. There are only four wells in the city. Be glad we are not tasked with guarding them as the civilians draw water. The wells can barely support the population.”

We reached the wall and climbed the stairs to our section. I asked another question of Konstantin, “Why only five of us today?”

Konstantin smirked, “Eryk, this is what happens when you spend all day in your room. We are only on the wall for show and to give the regulars a spell during the heat of the day. Five men are enough to do that. If there is an attack, we will group at the Legion Hall with Gregor’s men. From there, we listen to the mages on where to go.”

Fortunately, today was cloudy as we reached the top of the wall, and the morning had a cool, humid air to it. I was astounded at what I witnessed in the distance. Beyond the abandoned farms and buildings outside the walls below us, a pair of mounted griffins flew over an army.

“Shit,” was all I managed to say. Hundreds of Bartiradians were setting up a sprawling camp.

The others laughed, and Konstantin gave his feedback. The griffins are not the true threat if that is what you are thinking, Eryk. Any flying mount is useless on the ground, and almost any strike on their wings brings them to the ground like rain in a storm. They are used as scouts and to relay messages when magic arrays prevent magic sending.”

“Still, it would be amazing to ride one,” I said, watching them glide in the skies just over a mile away.

Konstantin grunted in what sounded like a disappointment at my fascination. Pavel said, “You are too fat! All those riders are women and weigh less than half your beefy frame.”

Konstantin affirmed the fact, “It is true. Griffins may be large but tire quickly with a heavy rider. Those riders are most likely slender elves and most likely women. That has been my experience anyway.”

“Is it the same for the Empire? Do only women ride griffins here?” I inquired.

Konstantin seemed in a talkative mood. “Griffins are kept as pets for hunting. Some people do fly them. The Emperor doesn’t like them. He has a cohort of drakes ridden by the Draconic Legion.”

“How do you get selected for that job as a legionnaire,” I asked jokingly.

Konstantin grunted, “They are more for show than combat. Fancy-suited legionaries to fly over parades or march in them. Taming a drake isn’t as hard as a true dragon, but half the men in training die to their own mounts.”

“That is not true,” Regis voiced loudly.

Konstantin shrugged, and Regis continued, “I was almost selected for training. I had the attribute requirements on the tablet reading. I was just afraid of heights back then.”

“You still are!” Pavel teased his fellow bowman.

“What are the stat requirements to train as a member of the Draconic Legion?” I moved closer to the tower for shade as the clouds evaporated.

“Besides the normal potentials, they look for forty-seventy in quickness, dexterity, and coordination. They also want a high empathy score as it helps in dealing with animals. My empathy is thirty-seven, and its potential is even higher,” Regis boasted.

I thought this might be a good time to get answers on what attribute scores were good. “What does it even mean? I never saw a tablet reader before coming to the Empire. Why is it based on one hundred, for instance? Can you pass one hundred in potential?”

Konstantin stood, “Damn Errk, what kind of backward village did you come from?” I didn’t answer. He scoffed, “I can forgive your ignorance, I guess. All Empire tablets are calibrated for humans. The epitome of human ability is determined at birth. If you are perfect in an attribute, they say your potential in that attribute will show as one hundred on the tablet’s potential. Never seen it all my years, though.”

Pavel butted in, “They say the Emporer has attributes over one hundred from consuming apex essences.”

Konstantin looked annoyed, “With how many essences he consumes, it is not surprising.” He looked at me. “The other races, if they use a tablet calibrated for a human, can have potentials over one hundred. I have seen a male elf evaluated with 122 in aether shaping and and a female orc with endurance and constitution over 110.”

Pavel, Regis, and Malcolm were also listening intently. I asked, “So what is average for a human? In terms of the attribute and potential?”

Konstantin grunted, “There is too much variation to say definitive values. I would guess that most men’s physical values are in the twenties, with potential in the forties and fifties. But if you stop training, they are just as likely to go down unless you fortify them with an essence.”

I was not the only one with a confused look on his face. Konstantin laughed, “Ah, one of the great secrets of the wealthy and First Citizens! No harm in telling you. Maybe an example is best. Pavel, let’s say your strength is 30, and you have a potential of 70. You train for months and raise your strength to 50. If you take any strength essence, you will keep that 50 in your strength for years without putting in much effort. Without taking an essence and ending your training, your strength score will fall back to 30, maybe even lower if you are lazy.”

All of us were silent. Konstantin had a massive smile as something flashed in Regis’ eyes, he started to speak, but Konstantin cut him off, “Exactly, Regis. That is why Castile divides up the essences the way she does after talking with Adrian and Delmar. She tries to spread the attributes around to fortify the company’s scores.” His smile grew, “It is why we are one of the strongest of all the Mage Companies in the Legion.”

There was a long pause of disbelief before Pavel asked, “Why is this not common knowledge?”

Konstantin laughed, “It is to those who can afford essences! Also, the more people know, the more valuable essences become. I am sure in some lands, it might be common knowledge; in other lands, they like to keep people ignorant.” He looked pointedly at me.

As we walked back to the villa, I found I had a lot more respect for Castile and our commanders after we were relieved.