Rune mage

Chapter 49: Additons

The enemy didn't return for a while.

When they did, they brought innocents.

They pushed two youngsters, children really, and one young woman in front of them.

The message was clear: I would have to kill the innocent if I was going to kill the enemy.

They didn't understand my powers.

I had once cocooned a mage to keep him safe during my final test. And that was before I held the power of an entire mountain.

The three innocent I wrapped in safety. I wish I could have spared them from seeing their captors destroyed by magic piece by piece. But I couldn't.

I hoped it would not matter as long as the innocent ones lived.

When the danger of my runes passed, I sent Longslim out to guide them into the fort.

They followed docilely.

The woman told me her name. She and her younger twin brothers had been captured five months prior. She told me their names as well.

I recorded their names in my commander's book and then forgot them. They would leave soon, when their bodies weren't beaten and starved, when their eyes weren't as haunted. They would heal and leave.

None of my men wanted to send them away quickly. So we invited them to join us.

To our surprise the woman and one of her brothers volunteered to stay in the kitchen and help us. Our meals had been mostly stew and boiled eggs, because none of us were particularly good at cooking and Cook had died some time ago. We welcomed the idea of a proper cook.

The other brother helped our lone healer. There was little that needed doing, my wellness runes and the lack of fighting meant mostly the healer focused on preventing accidents and injury and illness. And ambushing me with sleep when it was clear I had gone too long without it.

The boys were thirteen. They had a lot of energy. Their sister was eighteen. I made it clear to my men that she was not yet considered an adult and would not be treated as a woman ready for sexual pursuit.

Thankfully they agreed. So we treated her like a sister.

And like a sister she could get annoying. She insisted that I ate with everyone.

The men tried to tell her that I preferred to eat alone most of the time, but she was stubborn. Because of her I began to fill out again, because I hadn't really been eating as much as a man my age should.

And because of the twins I began creating fun runes. Things that had nothing to do with war.

There was a rune that glowed whenever they were around, created because they liked to surprise people from unexpected places. Poor Carver had almost run one of them through before he realized there wasn't a threat.

There was a rune that the one twin helped me create, it would glow if an egg was bad, and also made a fart noise, because when he suggested it the delight in his face made me want to make it possible.

There were no more attacks that year. And our guests stayed despite opportunities to leave. None of my men left either.

Ten men, two boys and a girl in a Fort made for two hundred, holding a pass that no longer required physical might to hold.

The only thing required was that I be alive to make the magic possible.

My sergeant saw how much the girl's food improved my health and realized I had been shorting my own rations to keep my men fed. So he assigned someone to me each day to make sure I ate.

To make sure I drank water.

And at night he himself would badger me until I crawled into my bed.

It was almost like having a page again. But he knew I wouldn't want one specific person to grow attached to, so he wisely rotated everyone in and out of my day.

We were all healthy, well feed, well rested.

Instead of feeling like a fort that could be at any moment under siege, it felt like we were a family, secluded from the rest of the world, but we had each other.

I might have completely lost track of time if the caravan hadn't come.

I had hoped to see the men who had departed last year with the caravan, but they had found other lives to live.

Before they left, the elder pulled me aside.

"Would you be willing to host one of ours for the next year?"

It was such an odd request.

"We are at war, and this fort is often attacked," I replied.

She titled her head back and forth, "yes, but my mages tell me you have this place coated in magic. The tales you have told me of the last year speak to your ability to hold the fort with no harm to yours. The lad I would like to leave is old enough to do chores. But his parents died last year in a raid and he hasn't been joyful since. Ours is a specific kind of life, commander. I need to see if perhaps a more...rooted way of life is better."

So we took him in. He had a name. I forgot it right away. He didn't speak at all, simply nodded or shook his head and did as asked. His fear was nearly a living thing.

He was first given to our new cook, since she had brothers and would know how to care for a lad of ten.

But he inevitably made his way to my side. He began to talk, slowly, softly, hesitantly.

I taught him reading and math. He had the basics, but had probably had no interest in such learning even before his parents died. So we sat at my desk and I wrote messages that he would try to read. Some times I would tell him what I wanted to write and have him write it. We calculated supplies to practice his math.

And at night when his nightmares overwhelmed him, it was me he sought out.

He slept where my page used to sleep, and it didn't anger me. He sat where my page used to sit and it only made me smile.

Ten men, three boys, and an almost woman in a fort meant to hold two hundred...