Elements of Change

The War-Sworn

Jaroh's Traveling Players moved through the countryside in a meandering path, city to village to seaport without a plan that Ezo could tell. In the month since he'd joined them, they'd visited three towns and stopped at a questionable seaport before they decided to head on without performing. Jaroh wasn't skittish, but he was a superstitious man and when the train ran into a swollen bridge coming into the area, he declared it omen number 1. Ezo had quickly fixed the bridge, but it didn't change Jaroh's opinion about the area. It had improved his feeling about Ezo though.

An attempted robbery at night and the appearance of a fire in the seaport as they broke the ridge convinced Jaroh to leave that one alone. He let his people go into the port for supplies and to take an afternoon to make coin however they saw fit, but he didn't take the caravan down and he made certain there were enough people to guard it in case of trouble.

Today's slow pace ate at him. He wanted to see the world but the traveling players, while great company, were not the fastest way to get places. In fact, he'd traveled much further on his own two feet than they did on any given day. And that was without wagon and horse troubles. Their most common delay, to date, had simply been the players themselves. If they passed a large stream, it was time to stop and wash clothes. They disagreed about where to travel next. They argued about when and where to stop for supplies.

"I know that look," Alvrey said as she took a seat next to him at the back of the slowly moving wagon.

"You let Mathis drive?"

"Tamis. Mathis is teaching him." She opened her hand, and a white light filled the air above it. Unlike the element of air which looked like a pure cold white to him, the light of healing was warmed with other colors.

"So, you decided it was time to teach me as well?" he asked. He opened his hand though and concentrated. It wasn't like using the elements as he was used to. There was no calling on an individual power. He had to focus inward, instead of pulling from the elements around him. When he opened his eyes, there was a small light. It was nothing compared to the brilliance of Alvrey's power, but it was something.

"One thing the players have taught me is to take the time when you get it." She poked at his power with a finger and sighed. "You have to stop using too much earth. You have to pull from them all equally."

"It's the one I pull on naturally," he confided, not for the first time. "It's gonna take a while to stop that habit."

She laughed. "That's why healers aren't elementalists. We use our magic differently. Most people can't do both."

"Well, most elementalists don't use more than one element. Maybe that's why?" he asked.

She closed her hand and looked behind her shoulder, silent and still. A moment later the wagon stopped moving.

"What is it?"

"Someone's hurt."

"You can feel it?"

"Only when I've opened myself to healing, as I do when I teach you."

They moved through the wagon to the front where Tamis and Mathis were sitting. Jaroh was already running towards them when Alvrey hopped down from the cabin to see what he needed.

"Alvrey, we came across a camp. The men there might need your help. We didn't speak to them yet, but they are War-Sworn."

Ezo watched as Alvrey looked towards the front of the wagons. There were six in all, each carrying players and the basic necessities of their nomadic life. Alvrey was assessing the safety of the wagon against the lives of men who were considered little more than weapons.