Bloodfallen: Curse of The All Knowing

“Dear gods, why are all of you people so heavy!?” Calavia groaned as she dragged one of the dead empire soldiers out towards the area that had been designated for their corpses. Taking a moment to catch her breath she dropped the arms of it which she had been using to drag it and looked around at everyone else.

Unsurprisingly most of the other mages were having just as terrible of a time as she was aside from Arthur who was carrying a corpse over his shoulder. Like her they didn’t really invest much time or energy towards their physical strength and instead focused on their intelligence and arcane attunement for magic power.

The scrimmage between the kingdom’s and the empire’s forces ended around an hour earlier with the empire suffering too many casualties and retreating. But that didn’t mean that the kingdom got off scot free. They also suffered high casualties but for the most part that was only their melee fighters, unlike the empire most of their mages were still alive and capable of casting spells.

But to keep their allies from rotting alongside their allies they were forced to put up and either bury or store the bodies along with their equipment. Since just leaving the bodies of their enemies would be considered cruel they also carried their corpses far away enough that they could collect them when they wanted to.

‘Gods why didn’t they allow us to take a small break before they had us do all this work. If I had a moment to restore some of my mana I would have been able to do far more than I can right now.’ Calavia inwardly complained as she started dragging the corpse once again.

She wasn’t the only one with this sentiment, even Arthur who was having a half decent time carrying corpses around thought it would have been smart to allow at least the mages a small break so they could use their magic to reduce the workload of everyone.

*******

Lyra entered the central building of the fort and followed the stairs upward to the office space belonging to Captain Bjorn, the Captain of the fort she is currently residing in. His office was located on the first left when exiting from the southern stairway, the right led to a large open room that had a variety of uses depending on the situation. As Lyra peeked around the corner she saw that he was busy writing something at his desk. “That was quite an interesting magic staff you have there, Captain. Just where did you find it?”

Captain Bjorn nearly lept out of his seat at the sudden intrusion, but he quickly calmed down when he saw who it was. “Oh, it's just you. I thought you were one of the empire’s assassins for a moment here to strike me down. Please knock at my door next time.”

“Sure thing, but you didn’t answer my question.” Lyra smugly stated as she sat down. “Where did you of all people get a magic staff with such power, and don't think I wouldn’t be able to recognise tier 6 magic. Even with the power toned down only a tier 6 spell could have such power at such a range.”

Captain Bjorn looked up from his desk with annoyance slightly visible on his face. “I received it as my inheritance from my father. When he found out that I was joining the military he wanted me to stay safe regardless of what might happen, so he made sure that I had something that could tip the tides of any battle I may take part in.”

“And do you know how he came into possession of such a powerful staff?”

“No I do not, and I know for a fact that he didn’t make it himself as he knew very little about magic other than how to start a fire. Now if you don’t mind I have a message to send.” Holding the unfinished letter up Captain Bjorn gave Lyra an annoyed look telling her that he wished to be left alone for the time being. Lyra didn’t say anything and just gave a quick salute and left the same way she came.

The moment she was gone Captain Bjorn stood up from his desk and closed the door to the office and locked it. “Argron, how quick do you think you can deliver this letter to the Major?”

A small black creature roughly the same size as a house cat crawled out from under the Captain’s desk and spoke. “If he is still at his fort then just a few days.” Argron stretched and extended his wings connected to his arms not unlike a bats.

“Good, I need you to deliver this to him. It is very important to the well being of the fort and everyone within it. We need reinforcements or the next attack from the empire will likely overrun us.” Walking towards the window Argron crawled over as well and took the letter with his feet before jumping off and flying away. Before closing the window Captain Bjorn took a moment to feel the spring breeze and calm his mind.

“Good luck Argron.”

********

Everyone slowly shambled towards the mess hall for dinner as the sun started to set, it took the combined effort of almost everyone until now to carry the corpses of both the kingdoms and empires deceased forces. The easiest part was dragging corpses, but then they needed to sort out the weapons. Thankfully the empire's soldiers all had identical styled weapons with very simple and effective designs with no personality. And since they weren't their own allies they didn’t need to figure out who owned what weapon.

By the time this was done everyone was tired and starving, the mages for the most part were having difficulty walking still after all the physical labour they weren’t accustomed to doing, some needed help to walk back to the fort.

Slowly everyone found their seats in the mess hall and sat down taking their first bit of rest since the fight. Everyone was far too tired to do or say anything and just wanted something to eat. Thankfully the cooks within the fort were working throughout the day to make enough soup to feed everyone and quickly began to hand out bowl after bowl.

The soup was quickly eaten and everyone who wasn't on duty for the night rushed back to their dorm to get some sleep. Unfortunately for Arthur and the rest of his dorm they were assigned to the night watch and would need to stay awake even though their bodies ached and practically begged for them to lay down.

Looking down at the empty bowl Arthur dreaded standing up, the exhaustion in his body was for the time being faded as long as he was sitting, the moment he would stand up it would come right back like it never left. ‘I either do this now or I do it later. Might as well do it now.” Arthur thought to himself as he slowly stood up, the exhaustion wasn’t quite as bad as he thought it would be but it was still significant.

“Come one, we need to get to our post before we get reprimanded.”

Calavia turned and looked at Arthur with dread and exhaustion in her eyes. “Oh gods, I don’t even know if I will be able to make the trip without falling. Just give me a moment.” Calavia slowly stood up from her seat, her legs trembling as she did so. Arthur stepped forward and helped her keep her balance. “Come on, I’ll keep you steady.”

The two slowly walked to the tower that was their station and unlocked the door before locking it behind themselves. Reaching the halfway point Calavia needed to sit and take a moment to rest and took a seat on the stairs to do so. Arthur took the moment to look around and noticed that those on duty on the walls looked just as tired as he did.

‘Looks like everyone feels like absolute crap. I hope we receive some refinements or something soon, the only problem with that is I haven’t seen or heard of a messenger leaving to ask for some. I hope that happens before the empire launches another attack.’

After a short breather Calavia was able to stand up again and the two finished climbing the tower and took their positions at the top overlooking the open space between the forts.

Everything looked exactly the same but felt so very different. It was as if the very air itself had been changed by the recent battle, like the blood spilled had changed the earth in a way that couldn’t be entirely explained. It was an uncomfortable feeling that remained over the course of another week when reinforcements arrived.

*********

A formation of one hundred marched up to the front gate of the fort with the banner of the kingdom, the banner depicted a yellow and vaguely humanoid figure that appeared to be dressed in armor and holding a sword in front of itself pointed downwards with a pure red background. The leader of the one hundred rode forward from his men on horseback with a longbow on his back and was dressed in leather armor and a cloak that looked to be designed for forest combat.

“Good day to you all, I am Lieutenant Pius and I am here to reinforce you on orders from Major Falco. Where might be your commanding officer?” Everyone was surprised by the sudden visitors and those on the walls and towers quickly looked around for the Captain, one soldier even ran off to inform him of the situation.

Minutes later Captain Bjorn climbed up to the wall and took a good look at the visitor claiming to be his reinforcements with his staff in hand. “Good morning Lieutenant, I am Captain Bjorn. I wasn’t exactly expecting any mounted archers from the Major, I was under the impression that he liked to keep you all for himself.”

“He normally does, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Hence he sent me with a small company to assist with the situation. I also have a letter for you from the Major for your eyes only.” Lieutenant Pius said as he reached into a bag on his horse and presented an untouched letter. Conjuring up a gust of wind one of the nearby mages ensured that it found its way to the Captain who quickly opened it and read its contents.

When he finished reading he placed the letter down and shouted to his men. “Open the gate and show these men to their dormitories. They are our allies and I expect you all to treat them that way.” Quickly the front gate opened and the company was allowed inside the fort. The horses were quickly stabled and the men resting from their long journey.

*********

“Oh my gods, that is my brother. Arthur, look, that's him right there. The farthest on the back.” Calavia excitedly pointed towards one of the mounted riders at seemingly random claiming it was her brother. Arthur leaned over the tower wall and took a look at her supposed brother, he had to admit he was both the youngest of the group and did share a resemblance with her. But the best way to be certain would be to speak with him in person.

“If you say so. Though I would recommend that you speak with him first before you go around telling everyone that he is your brother, you know, just to be sure.”

“Well obviously, I wasn’t going to go around telling everyone that he is my brother like a child. But you are right, during breakfast tomorrow I will speak with him. He never did tell me anything about a promotion to mounted rider though, he must have done something really impressive to receive it so quickly.”

While Calavia was talking to herself about her brother Arthur was focused on something else, something dangerous was coming. It was hidden like a snake amongst the grass, but it was waiting and he could feel it as small tingles down his spine. Overlooking the open space between he could feel its presence far clearer than anywhere else. It was watching what just happened, and it was changing its plan accordingly.

********

After four hours of sleep Arthur awoke in the morning to have a decent breakfast before he would eventually return to sleep for a few more hours. Unexpectedly Calavia didn’t appear to be tired or sleep deprived in the slightest, quite the opposite actually. She looked like she just had the best night's sleep and looked and sounded almost like a cheesy bardic tale.

Calavia practically skipped out of the dorm and up the stairs to the mess hall while everyone else who was at their station the night before lazily climbed up after everyone else. Slowly Arthur made his way to the mess hall and found that Calavia had kept a seat for him just down the table from where her supposed brother was sitting. “Hey Arthur, over here!”

Slowly walking over like a bear out of hibernation Arthur plopped down on the chair and looked down at the soup she kept for him. It was nice and warm and a welcome sight for his tired eyes. Slowly he started to eat and space out from his surroundings.

********

Calavia peeked over at her brother several times as Arthur silently ate next to her. Despite not getting very much sleep the night before she was still very much energised and could get the thought of her brother out of her mind. It had been ages since they last saw each other in person, and that was before he left to join the military and she the mages guild for her studies. As a result she was fretting about their reunion.

‘Oh, what if I make things awkward by mentioning his promotion. What if he doesn't want to talk about anything related to the military and I ruin it by not getting his hints. This is our first time seeing each other in several years now. I wonder if he would still like those dried fish that mom and dad would always buy us for dinner at the end of every week. Agh, focus!’