Rune mage

Chapter 57: disgruntled

I roamed at night.

Not outside of the walls because the damn fort wouldn't let me out at night.

And, after one test where I went out of the walls during the day and stayed out beyond nightfall- still within sight of the fort and my men of course- the fort often denied me exit altogether.

I was rather disgruntled.

So I roamed at night.

It was cooler at night anyway. Summer had come early, the heat stifling.

My fire mage's father had never returned.

He was disgruntled too. Plus fire mages weren't useful in the heat. We had perfected combining stone and fire and rune magic into stones that could be placed down and could explode with a faint brush of power. Or could be thrown.

The boys had gotten good at slingshots, as well as their other training.

My men weren't disgruntled, focused on training and going to the village to place down new stones with runes that would add the village to what I could feel.

There hadn't been much to save, some few animals and seeds.

We planted seeds at the bottom of our hill, away from anywhere death had visited. My men and the twin boys went regularly to make sure the seeds grew and weeds did not. I gave them runes of strength and growth on stones to place near the crops. Because they got to leave the fort.

I rarely could step out of the walls.

So I roamed.

And noticed when one of my men wasn't where he was supposed to be.

There didn't seem to be any alarm, no fear, no sense of doom. This was Archer out of place, a man who had many a time proven himself trustworthy.

I flashed the runes in the woman's room. What reason would Archer have to be in this room? My confusion was turning to anger by the time I approached their door.

The flash of runes was all the warning they had before I was opening the door.

"Why are you in here with the woman?" I asked before my brain caught up with my eyes and I realized they were naked under a single sheet, which she held tightly to her body as she glared at me.

"I am a grown woman," she said. "And use my name damnit."

I swallowed once.

Then twice. "I'm not going to apologize for thinking something untoward was happening. It is against army policy," I paused, "but the army forgot us long ago, so I assume their rules can go hang themselves." Then I slowly closed the door.

I walked away, feet taking me to the tallest battlement, hand trailing along the wall.

Archer found me there a few moments later, his clothes clearly put on in a hurry.

"Sir,"

I shook my head. "I'm not forbidding it," I said, then sighed heavily and sat, back against the stone.

He sighed. "I want more than lack of disapproval," he said and sat next to me.

I stared at him.

"You may not remember why I was sent here."

I frowned. "I don't remember being told. It never mattered to me, what a man did in the past, as long as he did his job."

Archer nodded. "I stood between a commander and the woman he intended to rape, and might have killed him if another hadn't stepped in."

I leaned my head back against the wall.

"I want you to understand that Jess and I are..."

I shook my head. "I don't need to know, Archer."

He smiled at me. "I want you to know. I had asked her today if she would consider marriage. She agreed. We will want you to officiate, as we have no cleric or clergy and thus only an officer would make it official."

I pulled my heavy head forward to meet his eyes. "You have been together a while then? This is not a sudden affair led to elopement?"

He nodded. "The moment she turned 19, I began making my interest known. The others...they're all older than me, and a lot older than her. They treat her like a sister."

I sighed and leaned my head back again, closing my eyes. "I am not your father, you need not get approval, but I am glad enough to give you a formal union, as there isn't even a village anymore to send you to."

"We will name our first born after you," he said happily.

"Please don't," I grumbled.

"And our second born will have your name as a second name."

"Please, do not."

"And we will name you godsparent."

I cracked open an eye and saw he was smiling ear to ear. I closed my eyes again. I smiled slightly, "For the love of all that is holy, do not give me responsibility for children. They poop and piss and cry and..."

My smile faded and I blinked. We hadn't been able to save the one babe.

"Please," I said, tears pooling behind my lids. "Do not."

He grew silent then, and we sat for a while without words.

He rose and departed without saying anything further.

The tears fell unbidden. I wasn't even sure if I cried for the babe we could not save, or the men lost, or for the hope that these men, and those we had collected, that they might not only live but have some semblance of a future.

I watched the sun come up.

My disgruntled feeling became something else. These men would one day be able to walk away. They would one day leave this fort and have lives beyond these walls.

I had somehow inexorably tied myself to these stones and land. My future would be here, regardless of what my desire was.

I wanted to rail at my fate. To scream and shout and wail.

But it would do no good. I suspected my magic had permeated the fort well before I bled onto it, but once that had happened, my magic became mingled with whatever lived in these mountains, deep under the fort. With the stones that were all around us forming walls.

Levi sometimes told me about stones having feelings. He was a stone mage, I expected that of him.

For a heartbeat I eyed the space in front of me. No amount of mage runes would prevent death if I threw myself off. A healer had already proved that.

I considered throwing myself into the shadows, still untouched by the morning sun.

But then the sound of laughter reached me. And some singing from the boys. It was too late to be natural. No, this was the fort sending forth sounds on its own. Haunting me.

I turned away from the edge and walked slowly down the stairs.

I was something more than disgruntled, but it would pass. Probably.

In the mean time I had a couple to congratulate.