Legon Restoration (15 page)

"So, what, simple missions for the newbs and moderate missions for the vet unit and..."

"Advanced for yours," Barnin said.

Ankles jaw tightened a bit as Barnin went on, "You know I hate putting the brunt of the dangerous work on your shoulders, and maybe in a week or two the other veteran unit will be able to handle it."

Ankle relaxed. "No worries Sir, I'd do the same thing as you and truth be told we've had it easy for a while, but now I'm nervous."

Barnin laughed. "Why is that?"

Ankle smiled, "Because I have to lead on my own without you as a baby sitter."

"Oh really? I thought you'd been in charge for years, are you telling me that's not true?" Barnin jabbed.

Ankle smirked, "I don't recall making such a comment captain…you must be mistaken."

* * * * *

Sasha peeled back thick plant skin that covered the crystal she'd just grown. It was like peeling a banana, but instead of a sweet fruit, in her hand rested a slightly opaque, square crystal. She held it to her eye gazing inside, she could see flaws and it wasn't supposed to be clouded. Her mind reached out to the crystal and she started to fill it with a small amount of energy. It glowed red, flickering a bit. She kept putting in energy, there was almost enough to heal a small cut when it cracked, losing what energy it had.
 

She placed the broken pieces back on the table and sighed. "What did I do wrong?" she asked Edling.

"The plant isn't forming the crystal’s structure properly," Edling said touching the plant, reading its makeup.

"Why can I make crystals with magic that can hold power just fine, but not grow them?" she said exasperated.

"We use magic when growing the crystals but that’s not the point of this lesson. You need to create a basic functioning crystal with just plant life before you augment the crystal’s creation with magic. You are doing well for how long you have been able to control plants."

"I know, I know, but it bothers me that I can do a better job working with the enemy’s technology than my own." Sasha said.

"I'm not bothered," Edling said. Then reading her face added, "Because you're not the enemy. We have seen many breakthroughs in the last few years because of your thinking," he said sincerely. "Now come on, we are done with crystals for the day. I want to work with you more on growing plants into structures," he said taking her hand.

Sasha went without much in the way of a fight. She walked with him outside the Palace, her guard coming with them as they walked through Seeon until they came to one of the magic academies.
 

"What are we doing at the Biologic Academy?" she asked.

"They have a training ground for Venefica learning how to build large or complex structures,” Edling explained.
 

Edling lead her through a set of tall heavy doors opening to the inside of the academy. They made their way to the front desk, Edling telling the attendant that he had an appointment. Sasha noticed some of the Elves looking at her, some doing a double take.

Sasha turned to Cynta. "What are they looking at? People see me all the time."

"Yes, but not in the academy and not since you've Ascended," she said.

Sasha felt self conscious but tried to ignore the onlookers. Edling came back to her side leading her further in the building. They entered a courtyard that was around one hundred yards on all sides.
 

"This is one of three training grounds," Edling said, taking her hand. They walked to the center of the yard.

Sasha looked around, grateful to see there were no windows looking in on them. Edling pulled a master seed from his pocket. "OK, we aren't doing anything big today, just a small building," he said handing her a master seed.

Sasha knelt down, using magic to dig a small hole. She placed the seed in it.

"What do you want me to grow?" she asked nervous.

Edling smiled. "Anything you like, I want you to focus on the functionality already built into the seed. Learn how it makes claimant control and water management work. When you grow it, feel how weight is displaced along the structure and how to weaken and strengthen places."

Sasha reached out to the seed with her mind and power. She was amazed at the complexity that she found. Edling was right; the seed had the ability to grow far more than a simple tree that looked like a building. She found everything Edling had said and more. There were functions to grow windows and lighting, she found colors of every shade. Sasha found herself getting excited.

She told the plant to start growing a thin shoot rising up. She stood holding a branch from the shoot. The plant kept growing, Sasha directing it, doing as Edling said, feeling where weight was misbalanced. She sent branches into the ground correcting the balance and thickened support beams. When she was done she looked at her handiwork and frowned, "I forgot to add a door."

* * * * *

Sara contented herself with cleaning. The healing centers in Noris and Bonta were starting to clear out. It had been a lot of work but Sara finally felt like things were getting better. She knew that at any time she and Keither would be moving closer to the front, but she wasn't going to think about that.
 

When she was done cleaning she decided to look at inventory reports. She looked over reports for centers in both Bonta and Noris. Her eyebrows knitted as she read them. Bonta was running low on things like bandages and other basic items. The cause was increased insurgency in the city. Sara knew that both Elf and human forces were working to contain insurgents but it was slow going. Most insurgents were targeting things that were easiest to hit, like Sara's medical supplies, but there was also many that were killing those in the resistance. She shook her head putting down the report telling herself,
this is what war is
.

Sara looked up to see a family of three enter the center. The father was holding what Sara presumed was his son in his arms. She walked over to them, the mother eyeing her child nervously.

"May I help you?" Sara asked.

"We need a healer," the woman said.

"You're in luck, what can I do?"

The woman eyed her. "Perhaps there is someone a bit older, with some more experience? I don't mean to be rude, but my son broke his arm and..."

"I am the Head of this center and more than capable of fixing a broken bone, please come this way," Sara said firmly but not unkindly.
 

She didn't get upset at people anymore when they implied or said that she was too young. People were sick and scared, so Sara figured that gave them some room to be a little rude. She led the family over to a bed and asked the father to set the child down. The small boy was cradling his right arm, his face scrunched in pain and determination not to cry. Sara reached out gently, placing her hand on the boy’s arm. She closed her eyes, feeling with magic, inspecting the bone. The bone wasn't broken all the way, just a minor fracture.

"Excuse me," the mother said frustrated, "but my son is hurt and shouldn't you be doing something like making a splint instead of feeling the injury?"

Sara didn't pay any attention to her, she felt within herself feeling the magic grow, the energy shot down her arm to the palm of her hand as she whispered a spell. The family gasped as there was a slight silver glow from Sara's palm. The little boy's face softened and he rubbed his arm.

"It was just a minor fracture, nothing serious. It's completely healed now, there is no need for a splint," Sara said turning to the boy’s parents.

"You're a Venefica?" the man asked.

Obviously
, Sara thought. "Yes, we try to always have one at each center at all times. Is there anything else I can do for you?" she asked.

"Thank you for taking care of my son, but we don't have the money to pay for a Venefica..." the mother said.

Sara smiled shaking her head. "There is no charge, this is only a temporary center to help townspeople after the invasion; the Pawdin Empire and Cona Republic are paying for everything. Even if that were not the case, I used magic and not very much at that, I wouldn't have charged you. I can't remember how many times I hurt myself as a kid," she said, then addressing the boy, "Fall?" she asked.

He scowled, "From a tree," and then brightened, "but I made it real high up!"

Sara laughed, "I'm sure you did."

"Thank you so much for your help and sorry if I was rude," the mother said.

Sara told her not to worry and after a few moments the family was on their way.
 

* * * * *

Barnin rode out ahead of the rest of the unit he was working with. He had decided that giving all three of his units names would be annoying, so he would call them by number. Today he was with unit three; it was comprised of all men that had just gotten out of training back in Manton. Based on Barnin's experience with new guys in combat, he was pretty sure that he would be killed in the next week or two.

To the North of Bonta were steep rolling hills. While the terrain made it hard to build towns and cities, there was the occasional farm. However, the hills made a perfect place to hide people and supplies which one could use to fight back against an invading force. That was why Barnin and all three of his units were in the area. They were looking for anything that could hurt their side. Thus far they'd found nothing, which suited Barnin just fine.
 

The other two units had separated from Barnin's current group so they could search a larger area. Barnin crested a hill seeing the charred remains of a caravan below. He held up his hands, stopping his mount. The others in the group where not as fast to stop and there was some chattering about people running into other people.

"SHUT IT!" he barked back to them. "Three teams, two check the perimeter and the other on me to the caravan."

A kid next to him snorted, "Not taking any chances with this burnt wood, huh Sir?" Some of the men snickered.

Part of Barnin wanted to just hit the moron next to him but he decided to make this a teaching opportunity. "Burnt wood, huh?"

"Yeah, it's black and there's smoke" he said like Barnin was an idiot.

"What does the smoke tell you?" he asked.

The man frowned, "I don't know, that the fire has only been out a little while, does it matter? The Elf dragons hit caravans like this all the time."

Barnin nodded, "And tell me, when was the last time you saw a dragon in the area today?" The man said nothing. "And being how we are the only unit dispatched to clear this part of the land around Bonta, what does that tell you?"
 

There was an uncomfortable hush with the men now, as the one who'd spoke out said, "That means that whoever did this was an enemy."

Barnin smiled sarcastically, "Very good, I'm glad you figured that out. What we are going to find down there is either our own people dead or refugees fleeing the area dead. If we are lucky the ones who did this are still in the area, if we are unlucky that burnt caravan is a trap." He spoke louder to everyone, "This isn't some training exercise, you have to start thinking faster and you cannot look at everything like it's harmless. If you see something that seems off to you, then treat it like a possible threat. Now move out," he ordered.

He started down the hill towards the blackened wagons and as he got closer he saw charred bodies. The smell was horrid but sadly something Barnin was starting to get use to. The men in his unit were not however and he heard one vomit off the side of his horse. This shouldn't make Barnin happy but it did, most people right out of training died for one of several reasons, one of those was they were cocky and had no sense of reality. Now they had a sense of just how real war was.

There looked to be four wagons in the group, all burned and from the lack of debris Barnin figured they were stripped of valuables prior to being set on fire. There were bodies scattered about.

He looked out to the two groups searching the surroundings. He asked each if they had found bodies, both had. The team to the west had found significantly more; it was a collection of men women and children, something that bothered the new guys.

"Listen up, look at these bodies, look how they lie, look at their tracks. This will tell you in what direction they were heading, and in turn tell you how they were attacked." He pointed to the east. "People were running west, meaning they were running from something over to the east, you can see that most of the people were killed with arrows, they were shot in the back."
 

Barnin started east, away from the wreckage, looking for clues to the number of those in the attack and where they might be heading now. He found the remains of a camp, the grass flattened in the form of bodies in about five places. He showed his men how they could read a camp to try and learn more about the enemy, explained to them that all of the skills they learned, if they hunted growing up, could apply to them now.
 

"What do we know?" he asked.

One man answered, "We know that there are only a small number of them, which will make them harder to find. We know that they are archers and if they managed to kill that many people they are good ones at that, and we know by tracks that they went north east."
 

Barnin grinned at the one who'd spoke. "Hunter?" he asked.

"Four sisters, it was all my father and I could do to stay sane, Sir," he explained.

Barnin laughed, "I'm sure it was and he is correct, so now it is our turn to go hunting."
 

* * * * *

Legon banked to his left keeping on Iselin's tail. He was using their mental connection to help him learn to keep himself more stable in the air. When he'd first met her he never gave any thought to how difficult flying was; now he was thinking about it.
 

"Stop over analyzing everything, flying is about feeling the air in your wings, about letting yourself go," Iselin said sagely.

"That's fine for you, love, but every time I let myself go, I go straight to the ground," Legon said