A Shadow in the Mist

“Wardens spend their entire lives in combat, training for combat, or out on patrol. A few Fire Wardens take up weapon or armor smithing, but the life of a Warden is defined by violence and how good they are at it.”

-from Training a Warden by Sir Lindren Beige, 455 AB

Cain- Thursday, August 8th, 564 AB

I woke with the dawn and Aranea opened her eyes as she slid her head off my chest. She sat up, her hair a wild mess. She took a brush to her hair; I enjoyed watching her tame the waterfall of golden waves and do it up in a long braid down her back. I helped her fasten her corset, and we packed up our things and took down the tent, folding it up and storing it on our pack horse. I lifted Aranea up into the saddle and mounted up behind her.

If we made good speed, we would be within sight of Mistwall before sunset. Aranea spun the corruption she absorbed from me into ether thread. Her familiar danced between her fingers as she drew out the golden hairs and pulled them together, the drop spindle spinning in her hands and her comb straining them as she turned the hair into thread as thick as a fishing line. Sweat beaded her brow until at last she finished, collapsing back against me breathing out heavily.

A golden glow emerged from her skin as she completed the Quest to purify the corruption and reached level ten. I watched as she pulled up her character sheet and invested her five available stat points; she put one into Might, Agility and Endurance and the last two into Senses.

It was good to see her able to defend herself better; she was already stronger than all but the strongest normal man. We kept riding through the whole day, a pleasant breeze cooling off the summer heat. Far to the south we could see the dark clouds of a storm brewing as it slowly drifted nearer. The clouds did not fall over us, but we could see the torrent of rainfall and the flash of lightning from where we traveled.

A shiver passed through my body at the sight of the lightning, my muscles tensing up.

“Are you all right?” Aranea asked me.

“I don’t like storms,” I said, wanting to spur our horse on faster but holding back on the urge.

Memories of flames, screaming, and the thunder of lightning flashed before my eyes before I pushed them down. My pulse quickened; the fear storms always set my heart to racing. Aranea was silent but her presence helped to calm me. Soon the storm passed, and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease. The mountains had been growing closer, and we approached a gap in them.

Mistwall was built near the ruins of an old city lost in the Mist, next to the old road that went through the mountains into Casway. The border town was built prior to the last Fell War. It had belonged to the Carswain’s, but they had lost the territory during the war. The war had ended over a decade ago but there were still those who held grudges from it. The Fog Lands crowded the pass, creating only a narrow stretch of road at most points, meaning that travel was fraught with threats from both sides of the road. The pass also funneled those threats to the walls of the town, making battles against the djinn a regular appearance.

The area also had more ambient ether than most places. My father’s home was in a low ether zone meaning djinn spawns were few and far between, the reason he was away at the borders of Emmeria instead of guarding the homestead. Academies for training Wardens had to be built in high ether zones to give their trainees enough djinn to fight regularly.

The summer air grew a bit colder as wind blew down from the mountains and the road turned, heading straight for the pass. Aranea pushed against me more. Her dress, perfectly suited to the summer heat, was suddenly inadequate. Reaching behind me, I pulled my cloak from the saddle bags and wrapped it around her shoulders.

It took hours as the mountains grew larger and larger, towering above us but we eventually came within sight of Mistwall. Fields of summer wheat and barley and orchards lay on the southern side of its walls with small walled farm settlements around it. Those settlements would do well enough for standard djinn attacks, but the inhabitants would need to take refuge in the town proper during an ether storm.

The light of the sun was fading behind the mountains to the east as we rode through the gates. We stopped outside of a large inn; it was too late in the evening to work out assigned housing, so we’d spend the night here. Aranea held onto my hand after I helped her dismount, I realized this was the biggest settlement she’d probably ever visited.

“You nervous?” I asked, putting my arm around her.

“A little,” she admitted leaning into me. “There are so many people here! They say the capital is even larger than this?”

Rineer laughed as he heard her. “Emerald is more than twenty times the size of this town,” he said.

Aranea and I walked into the timber inn, smelling the sweet smell of good cooking wafting from its kitchens. Tables were filled with people eating and drinking but when Sir Valren walked in the innkeeper quickly made space for us. Aranea and I dug into thick beef stew with fresh bread and roasted potatoes, salted and seasoned with spices from the south.

Sir Valren came over to us, a goblet with a red wine in his hand. “I’ll take you to the academy tomorrow,” he informed us. “You two are married so you can choose to live in the apartment provided for you, or seek more private accommodation here in the town. There are townhouses for rent here in the town if you would prefer that.”

“Thank you sir,” I said. “We’ll take a look at our assigned apartment first, I wouldn’t want to spend gold unnecessarily.”

“A wise decision,” Sir Valren said. “You have a month before the next term begins. You can start your training before then but this is the first wave of new students. We allow all our students to return to their families over the summer, so older students will also be returning.”

“How long will we be expected to train?” I asked.

“Until you reach Knight tier,” Sir Valren said. “At that point the church or crown will begin offering you different positions based on the reputation you’ve built up.”

Sir Valren left us and the innkeeper came by.

“I have a private room for you two,” she said, a matronly woman with plump features and a kind disposition. “It’s small but you won’t have to share it like our common rooms. You don’t have to worry about the bill, the Academy has already seen to it.”

“Thank you ma’am,” Aranea said, taking the bronze key.

We finished our meal and went up the stairs, looking at the number on each door until we found the one matching our key. Unlocking it, we entered the room. It was small, the mattress barely wide enough for two people. We luckily didn’t have much. I set down Aranea’s bridal chest along with my own things. There was a small privacy screen with a chamber pot in it, along with a mirror and wash basin.

Aranea’s fingers unbuttoned her overdress, and I helped her slip out of her exterior garments. I stripped out of my shirt and trousers. The air was cold, and Aranea and I slipped under the covers. Finding a way to sleep with us both on the mattress was awkward since we’d both have to lie straight, like planks of wood to fit. Aranea rolled on top of me, her legs straddling my hips.

Suddenly, thoughts of sleep were the farthest thing from my mind. Aranea blushed realizing the position we were in now. She tried to shift and move but it only made it worse, her cheeks flushing more. My hand traveled up her thighs and she stiffened. The only light came from the window behind us, casting us both into shadow. Pulling her close, our lips touched. About an hour later Aranea was asleep, laying across my chest exhausted from our lovemaking. I smiled, running my fingers through her hair until I drifted off too.

---

Aranea- Friday, August 9th, 564 AB

Cain and I came down from our room after using the wash basin and putting on a fresh pair of clothes. Our breakfast consisted of fresh eggs, bacon and a light beer. The rest of the young Wardens we had traveled with all came down, filling up the tables around the inn. We left the inn as a large group, mounting up and following after Sir Valren.

Our column moved through the streets of the town, heading uphill towards a colossal structure of stone and iron. The original fortress this town had been built around had walls that were even taller than those around the town. We rode through the gates, into the fortress’s massive bailey, servants took the reins of our horses as we dismounted.

I dimly remembered seeing this fort as a boy, but I hadn’t been this close to it. The castle rose a staggering five stories, with narrow arrow slit windows, and a slate roof. I felt dwarfed by its size. Aranea was equally in awe, her eyes wide with wonder as she took in the castle. Sir Valen dismounted and a tall, stately woman exited the castle. Moving towards him, she extended her hand.

Bowing low, Sir Valen kissed her hand, meeting her eyes with a sparkle as he pulled her close.

“Marian,” he said. “How fare our children.”

“Very well my lord,” she said, running her hand over the rough travel scruff he’d grown. “Come in and I’ll get you cleaned up, you should have made us open the doors for you last night.”

“I didn’t want to wake the children. They wouldn’t have gone back to bed if I’d shown up in the middle of the night,” he said, bending down as a young boy around seven barreled into his leg. Laughing, he lifted the child high above his head. He turned back to us, the boy held against him.

“This is my wife, Baroness Marian Valren,” he said and looked to Aranea. “While I am head of the academy for the Wardens it will be she who trains you Weavers.”

Aranea raised her hand hesitantly.

“You aren’t in my class yet, child,” Lady Marian said. “You don’t need to raise your hand to ask a question.”

“I’ve heard that many of the Wardens who come here are not bonded to a Weaver when they take their oaths, and you let them choose among themselves. How do they get their skills if they don’t bond to a Warden?”

Lady Marian gave Aranea a look over. “You were raised in a Convent I take it? Your question is not without merit. While you were raised with the good sense to only give yourself to your husband…let us say, not all young women receive such good instruction.”

Aranea and I both flushed when we heard this at the blatant scandal of such a repugnant practice.

“The improprieties of the upper nobility are well known,” Sir Valren said. “While I cannot forbid them outright, we do go by the old traditions here. I don’t allow my Wardens to go around claiming whatever girl they want then discarding her, which is why I allow them their Companions. When a Warden and Weaver bond, it should be until death parts them, not until they spot another partner they think they’d prefer.”

The conversation clearly irritated him, but the irritation was not directed at us.

Lady Marian put a hand on her husband’s arm. Our conversation had not been directed at everyone, but I did see some of the nobles who had ridden with us looking at me and Aranea disdainfully, as if we were to blame for Sir Varlen’s disapproval.

Without another word, Sir Valren led us into the castle. The walls of the entrance hall rose up as tall as oaks, the banners of innumerous Wardens lining the walls.

“Welcome to the hall of heroes!” Sir Valren said, having recovered his good spirits. “Each one of these banners bears the crest and colors of the Wardens who have graduated from this academy.”

I looked at the banners on the stone walls. There were hundreds of them, their colors covering the stone. There were blank spots available, but I wondered what they would do when they ran out of space for new banners. There were alcoves with statues depicting heroes of old.

We passed through the hall into a large dining chamber with polished wooden tables and benches, enough to seat over five hundred people. There were stone counters along the side with kitchens behind them. Most of them were inactive but, if they were all running, they could easily feed an army.

“This is the mess hall and commissary,” Sir Valen. “This is also where general announcements and academy ceremonies will take place. Every ten days we will gather here for mass.”

He led us down a side hall that was much less grand than the entrance hall. There were doorways leading into lecture halls and spinning rooms. As well as crafting rooms for metal, leather, textiles and alchemy. These rooms wouldn’t be used by me, but instead would be where Aranea and other Weavers trained and worked. Lady Marian took Aranea, and the few Weavers with her, separating our groups into Weavers and Wardens.

Sir Valren led us outside into the muster yard where the grass was cut low and cordoned off into many training fields. There were outbuildings with a stable stretching around the Castle’s outer wall.

“This is where you will spend most of your training time,” Sir Valren said, gesturing to the wide expanse of green. “Your time will be split between training here and live combat against the djinn. That building,” he said, pointing to a large circular building, “is the Quest Hub. These quests are not like the ones granted by the Voice, but they do still offer rewards. We need people to patrol the roads, culling nearby Djinn. There are also more advanced quests, requiring teamwork for escorting merchants down the Mist Road, or answering calls for assistance from nearby settlements.”

“You will be required to do these quests to remain enrolled here. They are not just to help others, but also to test you and see how you will act in the field.”

One of the other Wardens raised their hands. “What sort of rewards do they offer?”

“You get points with the academy,” Sir Valren said. “These points can be spent to buy equipment from the Quartermaster. Don’t bother trying to use gold, he won’t accept it. Some of you will be more suited to certain quests based on your etheric element. You will be assigned certain quests per week you must complete, but there will be plenty of time for undertaking additional quests, and also working on learning to better harness your Relic’s power.”

“Since all of you are Pages, you will be required to work with a partner whenever you go out on patrol or to complete a quest,” Sir Valen said. “Partners will be assigned from your classmates in the same school as you.”

He pointed to the eight major buildings built in a circle formation around the muster ground.

“Each of the etheric elements has their own school. You will join the school with your Relic’s primary element and receive instruction from the Master of that school,” Sir Valen explained.

“Will you be teaching the Storm School?” someone in the group asked.

Sir Valen shook his head. “I am the Head of the Academy. While I will oversee the teaching all of you receive, no school will receive any preferential treatment from me. The master of the Storm School is making his way back from the capital where his extended family lives. He will arrive here before the fall term begins with the rest of your classmates and returning students.”

“That’s all I have to say for today,” he said, clapping his hands. “You are dismissed, take the rest of the day to explore the grounds and familiarize yourself with the surroundings.”

---

Aranea

Lady Mirian led the small group of other women into the crafting hall.

“This is where you will train,” she said. “While I’m sure you are already accomplished in using a loom and spinning thread, being a Weaver is more than just removing corruption from our bodies. If that is all you’re interested in then you should seek the life of a Companion.”

“We are the armor our husbands rely on. We are called Weavers, not just because we can draw corruption out of our cores into thread, but because we can further use those threads for enchanting. The clothes and walls of our homes can be enchanted to resist the breath of a fire Dragon. We can make a room stay frozen, even in the heat of summer. This is what you will learn here,” Lady Marian said, gesturing to all the stations around the room.

“Now tell me, which of you have already drawn corruption out of your core?” she asked.

Aranea raised her hand, seeing she was only one of three girls there with her hand up. There were twelve girls her age in total. Some she’d met briefly while on the trail, while others had joined their group only this morning.

“Show me your spools you’ve gathered,” Lady Mirian said to us.

Me and the other two girls pulled out the golden spool of thread from the pouch at our side. I saw my spool was more than three times the size of theirs, and felt the envious looks of all of them on me.

“Well done,” Lady Mirian said to all three of us. “What is your name, girl?” she asked me.

“Aranea Le’meer,” I answered.

Lady Mirian studied me for a long minute before raising an eyebrow. “You’re already level ten? I suppose you’d have to be after collecting this much ether thread.”

She held out her hand, gesturing for me to hand it over. She pulled out a length of thread examining it closely.

“Very good, the thread is all smooth with no fraying; did you have any further training after bonding with your Warden?” she asked me.

“No, my lady,” I replied.

“Then you are a prodigy my dear,” she said. “The rest of you would do well to ask Aranea for help,” she said, looking at the other girls before looking back at me. “However, do not let your talent go to your head. Natural talent only goes so far if it isn’t matched with hard work.”

“I am the headmistress of the academy so I will not be responsible for teaching you. That will fall to the Weavers of each of the elemental schools. These schools are more important to the Wardens, but your primary etheric element will determine where your weekly tasks will be assigned.”

“Like the Wardens, each of you must complete a certain number of quests given by the academy per week,” she said. “We won’t be asking you to go out and kill djinn, but you will be required to ride out to the farms, mines and lumber camps to place Wards. Your teachers will inspect your work to make sure it is up to standard.”

Lady Mirian’s voice grew suddenly severe. “There will be harsh reprisals if your work is continually faulty. It is the job of a Warden to kill djinn that spawn. It is our job to ensure those djinn don’t spawn in our own territory. If you fail to ward a field properly and a djinn spawns inside it, it could kill one of the farmer’s children, or the farmer himself. If we find that someone dies, not due to chance but because of a lack of effort on your part, you will be dismissed from the academy immediately. Do I make myself understood?”

“Yes headmistress,” we all said bowing our heads.

“Good,” she said. “You are dismissed, you can take the rest of the day to explore and familiarize yourself with the school.”

For the next few minutes I learned the names of the other girls as we chatted but soon, we all spread out. I wandered the halls, eventually climbing up to the top of the castle’s battlements. The mournful call of a flute caught my ears and I followed the sound until I found Cain sitting on the edge of the battlements, his legs dangling out over the air. His eyes were closed as his fingers rose and fell with the notes of his song.

“That’s beautiful,” I said softly.

He opened his eyes and put his flute away. “Thank you,” he said. “My mother taught me to play. This is her flute, it’s the only thing of hers that wasn’t in the house when…” his voice drifted off.

“How was your orientation?” I asked changing the subject.

“Fine,” Cain said, shrugging. “This place just seems bigger the more of it I explore.”

“Do you want to go see the quarters they offered us?” I asked.

Cain swung his legs over the battlements, landing down on the boards that formed the walkway. I took his hand and pulled him along after me as we descended back to the main hall. I wasn’t sure who to ask. Sir Valren had told us about it but some details, like the room assigned to us, were far beneath him. I spotted a senior staff member and pulled Cain after me.

“Excuse me sir,” I said. “My husband and I were told that the academy had an apartment we could use? Are you available to show it to us?”

“Of course my lady,” he said, bowing to the two of us.

I was about to say I wasn’t a lady then stopped. By the laws of the land every Warden had the minimum rank of knighthood. The rank didn’t come with a title or land, but it did provide us with certain legal privileges. We followed the servant through a network of halls and up several flights of stairs until he stopped at a door and took a ring of keys from his belt.

He opened the door and gestured for us both to enter. Cain and I stepped inside. There was a spacious living area with a fireplace, a stove for cooking, as well as a water pump and a small table with four chairs around it. There were three adjacent rooms, including a large bedroom with a wide bed covered in heavy quilts. Adjoining the bedroom was a bathing room and a toilet with plumbing, instead of the usual chamber pot. The third room was mostly bare with a single desk and empty shelf the only furniture inside it. Each room was lit by a sun ether gem set into a brass fixture, with reflective glass to help magnify and reflect the light.

“I thought this would be a lot smaller,” Aranea said. “Why would someone need a townhouse if they already have this much space?”

“Many couples have servants attending to their needs who live with them,” the staff member said, removing the key and holding it out. “Will you be staying here or taking accommodations within the town?”

I looked to Cain, who looked around the apartment with a small smile. “It’s more space than I’ve had to myself before. I don’t think we’ll need to find other housing until we start having children.”

I smiled at that. “Thank you, this is fine.” I said and took the key.

The staff member bowed and left us.

“I’ll go get our stuff and bring it back,” Cain said, and left.

I opened the cupboards above the stove, but they were all empty. There was a chest next to it made of stone and metal. Opening it up I saw a mist ether gem; it wasn’t powered, but I could inject some ether into it. We’d need to purchase some dry goods, as well as cutlery, plates and bowls.

Cain returned, setting down my bridal chest along with his pack. He went to the washroom, and the sound of running water could be heard. I looked in to see him messing with a pump that fed into a large copper tub set into the floor. A fire ether gem was attached to the pump and Cain was feeding ether into it, heating up the water as it entered the tub, steam rising up and fogging the mirror that rose over the washbasin.

“You joining me?” he asked, taking off his shirt.

I blushed, but removed my dress and slid into the hot water next to him. It was a very different sensation than when we had bathed in the river together. We spent a long time in the bath together, spending very little of it bathing. When we had dried and lay under the covers together, I felt tingly all over. I pressed up against Cain and finally drifted off, the warmth of his skin like the comfort of a hearth fire.