by Zack Finley
More guards stood before the hospital door to King Rufix's wing. I was pleased to see at least one mage in the group. A second mage admitted us to the rooms where Alba was examining our patient. She had gotten some rest overnight but still looked exhausted.
"I saved the heavy lifting for you," Alba said to me as we joined her beside the bed. The king looked noticeably better today. He was breathing on his own. His bleeding had apparently stopped because the liquid in his drip tubes was clear.
"His hips and legs were broken and did not heal well. I need you to fix them so we can encourage the flesh around them to heal. The other healers and I can repair the other soft tissue if we have a good bone to tie in to. This type of healing takes a lot of healing energy, and you are good at it. Argon, I'll be there with you both to direct and assist. I need you to stop any bleeding and back Steve up."
We stripped down and put on medical smocks before returning to the room.
Alba, Argon, and I quickly reestablished the three-way bond we had used before. Alba wanted me to check yesterday's repairs before moving to the hips then legs.
The magic from the other healers had accelerated the repairs to his vertebrae. I was pleased to find only two needed significant repairs despite the fragmented bits I used to build them. Alba and Argon were satisfied even these problems had inflicted no further damage to the king’s spinal cord.
The rebuilt pelvis had a few more problems. I'd reassembled it from a combination of pieces and crushed bone, using pictures Alba showed me as a guide. Alba pointed out four areas, which needed significant changes, but these were minuscule compared to the original rebuild.
When Alba was satisfied with the pelvis, I moved on to the new work of repairing the two hip joints. I was glad she had illustrations of how these were supposed to look.
The king's hip joints didn't look much like the illustrations. His crushed and broken bones had healed in distorted positions. If left in this position the king would never walk again. I banished thin segments of bone and used force magic to bring the pieces into alignment. When Alba was satisfied, I poured on the healing magic to encourage the bones to knit in the right position. Argon concentrated on repairing and reattaching the soft tissue torn by my shifting the semi-healed bones.
By the time, I was done with the second hip and the leg bones I was exhausted again. This type of magic took a lot of concentration. I was not used to being that intense for so long without really moving. With plenty of healing magic left in my tank, Alba had me apply more of it to general healing.
Alba thought there was a good chance Rufix would wake up normally later in the day and we arranged to return at that time to talk with him. There was a lot of healing left for the king, but much of it would have to occur naturally with only minor magical assists. He would be weak and would need rehabilitation to relearn how to digest food and ultimately to walk again. There was also a good chance he would need further internal magical healing to fully restore bodily functions and mobility. The king's injuries were so extensive and had been left untreated for so long, Alba expected the king to have problems and pain for the rest of his life.
Despite the issues ahead of him, the king was on the mend. Knowing he had diverted nearly all the local healing capability, we offered to use some of our remaining healing magic on other patients. Alba was happy to put us to work.
We met Tobron at our new office building after finishing up at the hospital. He was proud of the progress he'd made, despite the combat operations. Inoa was back at the Klee keep, we assumed continuing to question the prisoners although Argon wondered whether she had moved on to set traps for the traitor. I just hoped Inoa’s mind magic replenished rapidly because it looked like she was going to need it.
The hustle and bustle of activity at our new offices was a pleasant surprise. Tobron had hired a bunch of contractors to help him kick-start the facility. He was using my embedded iron concept but had expanded it to include several different shapes to support the floors of the upper stories. He still had plenty of bearing walls, but it allowed for larger rooms, especially on the ground floors. He had done most of that heavy construction in private, not wanting to share his new talents for conjuring iron or making the combined iron and stone construction.
He hired the contractors to install interior doors and partitions and bring in furniture and appliances so we would have a suitable site to conduct business within days. He showed us the area on the fifth floor reserved for our suite of rooms. He didn't want us to move in until the building had all its wards in place but wanted our okay with the basic layout before he continued with construction. I requested a slightly larger bathroom. Tobron raised his eyebrows but agreed to do it.
He announced our new warehouse would be ready to receive Captain Malek's ship bringing our first cargo from Augun. He apologized that he wouldn't have time to make the changes he wanted to the warehouse before the cargo came. We all agreed the other things we were working on took priority.
He told us privately Cleon and Inoa were leading the effort to locate the Klee traitor and we would likely not see either of them until they were successful. Cleon relayed a message from the queen mother; she wanted us to meet her at the hospital after we met with her father.
We planned to return to Augun and get a situational update from the lieutenant we had left in command before our first interview with King Rufix. I was happy we'd received no emergency calls from the commander and hoped that meant the assassins had not returned. I called him on the com-card and arranged to meet in the ballroom in about an hour.
I wanted to get the Augun crisis on the mend and help resolve the situation in Klee, before scoping out Kavil or Ylee. Based on the black geas hold on the Augun crew, it seemed unlikely we would learn much from reconnoitering in either Kavil or Ylee. It seemed likely we'd run into a pack of suspicion and chaos. I wanted to be better prepared before we dropped in there.
We teleported into the ballroom in the Augun keep, prepared for anything. Our dead man's teleport trigger would have taken little to discharge. But, it wasn't needed.
The situation was calm, and Lt. Valso briefed us on current events. We told him his king was on the mend, but we hadn't spoken to him yet due to the extent of his injuries. We shared nothing about concerns over the potential coup in Klee.
Lt. Valso had been busy during our absence. He secured the keep, including the exterior walls. Most of the Augun King’s Guard press-ganged into the secret police remained on duty. Any who had looted or demonstrated unnecessary violence toward others were now sharing prison cells with the secret police. They found no mages either in prison or on the keep grounds.
Lt. Valso let the imprisoned civilians out of their cells, but he was not allowing them to leave the keep until the king gave the okay. We agreed this was reasonable for now. I promised to discuss their status with the king.
Of the more than 20 mages routinely employed in the Augun keep, none had been located. I contacted Tobron and wondered if this might not be a clue. Either the assassins killed them all, kidnapped them or they’d gone to ground. Perhaps mages from Augun were going to be used to subjugate Klee. In exchange, they and their families may have been promised safety if they cooperated. We doubted the assassin leadership mentioned they'd be equipped with a black geas to prevent betrayal.
We had no solid facts, but it seemed to fit the spacing between raids. I wondered whether the captives we picked up were all from Kavil or Ylee or if the assassins were prepping the Augun mages for Klee or maybe Losan. I also wondered whether King Ruton was considering warning Losan's king about a potential coup.
It was risky since we didn't know whether Losan played any part in the coup attempts. We agreed that stopping this kind of disruption was in everyone's best interest. Tobron promised to pass on my observations.
At least Tobron thought my theories made sense.
Lt. Valso believed the Augun mages had helped the assailants. Despite my assurances that none we captured was fro
m Augun, he could not be swayed. Even if they did not actively attack the king, they left their posts. I was afraid if left unchecked he would order his men to kill any mage unlucky enough to cross his path. This could bring about the civil war we had barely stopped.
This reaction also concerned me about what we might find in either Ylee or Kavil. Mundane against mage warfare would leave no side unscathed.
I would brief King Rufix and let him deal with the Augun commander's problem.
Meantime the commander had the king’s guard standing watch and patrolling the grounds. The keep employees and many of the released prisoners were removing debris from the keep in anticipation of the king's return. They had sufficient stores for the small cadre of people remaining in the keep.
The guards apprehended several more secret police when they brought in a new group of prisoners. Valso now believed they had accounted for most of the former secret police. They had a list of the missing agents, who they intended to search for once the king returned.
Argon gave him the location for the secret police headquarters we learned about in downtown Augun. The commander's eyes lit up at the chance to hit back. We knew he would have no trouble gathering volunteers for that raid.
A reminder that many of the former king’s guard were co-opted into the secret police and told they were searching for the assassins nearly fell on deaf ears. The commander's desire for revenge against those who tried to destroy his country conflicted with his responsibility toward the kingdom.
I told him he could run his own operation but that he would likely need all the trained guards he could recruit to keep the peace in the coming months.
We promised to be back in touch by nightfall, after speaking with King Rufix, but that depended upon the king's condition.
The commander was happy to have a raid to focus on but was uncomfortable acting without discussing matters with someone in authority. The assassins had eliminated the entire upper echelon of the Augun King’s Guard and Valso was not prepared to assume sole command.
I knew he was the best of the officers remaining but shoving a lieutenant into a commander position was not without peril. He had never even met with the king one-on-one before. He was uncomfortable taking orders from us, but we had liberated the kingdom and put him in charge. At this point, he was unwilling to shove us aside and declare he was in sole command, especially if we intended to produce the king anytime soon.
I could tell he had been a good platoon leader, but he would have to mature quickly to handle the burden and politics of higher command. Whether he could make the transition was yet to be determined. Some good officers lose it when faced with broader responsibilities and some okay officers improve as they moved up the line. Bad officers mostly just stayed bad or got worse.
Once we united him with the king, we planned to step out of his chain-of-command as soon as we could. Argon remained concerned about his problem with mages, but the other two officers left alive were even less qualified.
Before leaving the Augun keep, we com-carded Jeref. He assured us our cargo was already in route. He had no trouble receiving payment for the cargo and looked forward to our next business deal. He expected Captain Malek would arrive in Klee within a few days, weather depending. We assured him we'd be back in touch.
Keeping our business empire moving forward while also juggling the affairs of two kingdoms was taking its toll. We were optimistic that either King Rufix or his grandson King Ruton would agree to provide a suitable location for our new keep. Having positive relations with the two kingdoms would help us recruit and build a solid core of supporters. All we had to do was thwart King Ruton's assassination, restore King Rufix to power, and help Augun recover from an economic collapse.
Argon reminded me I'd only been in Jaloa for 11 days.
She was right. As always, I was so focused on what we had left to accomplish, I failed to appreciate how far we'd come. I found a soul mate, we now had solid allies, we owned property, and we were well on a path leading to acquiring a refuge. Unfortunately, my to-do list vastly exceeded my list of accomplishments.
I was no longer as frantic about what we had before us and could set aside future worries to concentrate on the things directly in front of us. I had a CPO when I first joined the teams who told me to "never borrow trouble." He recognized my penchant for worrying about every possible scenario. He told me in our line of work, plenty of trouble would find us. We didn't need to hunt for it. At some point, needless worry could blunt our ability to act decisively when needed.
I had forgotten that sage advice.
We returned home for another meal and the agreed upon after-action-review. I mentioned some of my conclusions to Argon during our travels. She was excited to review the day's battles. She suggested Tobron, Inoa, and Cleon might each have insights into some of the ideas I was considering for future tactics.
Allo greeted us when we arrived. We delayed the review for a little cuddle time. We told her we'd be moving in a few days and she would get to meet a lot more people.
Training our familiar in her three magic types was on the to-do list but so far hadn't made it to the top. That Allo didn't seem to care was part of the trouble. Before moving into our new suite, she would need protection from physical and mental attacks.
The after-action-review was lively and enlightening. I was particularly impressed with her solo capture of two enemy mages. Argon said she had never tried it before and her trainer would be shocked to learn it was possible. Air mages practiced removing air from a room, but none of her trainers had ever thought of banishing only the oxygen from the room. Banishing all the air had several bad effects, it usually gave the target mages time to exit, and any windows or weak structural elements blew in. Not a very stealthy spell.
My conjuring iron had caused her to think of doing something similar with the different components of air. Next time she would swap the oxygen with nitrogen. She was glad the mages didn't notice when about 20 percent of the air disappeared. She figured they probably felt the air pressure drop but failed to connect it with a threat. If she swapped the oxygen with the same volume of nitrogen, there would have been no drop in air pressure.
She showed me her spell, and I added it to my repertoire.
We agreed my lava flood was a bad idea, although she did appreciate learning how to reduce temperatures, immediately catching its application when combined with water. We discussed possible applications, including conjuring a thin layer of ice to coat the floor and interfere with the enemy's footing. This seemed a long shot to me. Banishing the dirt beneath the enemy and dropping them into a pit of churning lava seemed a better choice.
We also discussed ways to stage a series of spells and execute them simultaneously using a single command. We even discussed ways one of us could issue a command that launched a joint attack series. Something we needed to practice, but we were confident our mind meld was up to it.
Argon admitted she had been shocked the mind mage avoided detection, not just for his or herself but also for the whole group.
While she was confident tweaking her mind detection spell could yield better results, she agreed we needed as many ways to locate the enemy as possible. Fine-tuning our fire magic to locate body heat seemed a good start, but as we saw when the lava got tossed, subtle temperature differences weren't always reliable.
Argon had nothing to offer when I showed her mental pictures of a fiber optic peeper. I showed her a simplified mechanical device comprised of a tube with bends and mirrors as an alternate example. Neither image inspired an immediate solution.
On the issue of layered bullets, Argon was very excited by the potential this provided, especially when combined with multiple casts executed with a single command.
"I can imagine ambushing a mage with a simultaneous launch of multiple shots configured to overload any ward and kill or stun him," said Argon. "For you, a lava blast wrapped with fire, force, and earth dispel spells to weaken or disable any fire, earth, and
force wards could be a one-shot killer. I suspect the mage I killed with the lava blast in the ballroom had weak fire wards. Force wards blunt anything thrown at you, including rocks. But, they aren't effective against fire and heat. Only one of the mages we ran into was a fire mage. Earth, water and mind seemed their specialties."
We agreed that the layer that impacted first should be a force magic dispel, then earth dispel, then fire dispel and then lava. With time, I could set up three or four simultaneous launches, which could even take down someone with our wards.
This thought made me uncomfortable. With so much power between the two of us, we should probably be spending more of it on our own protection. I definitely had to think more about the nature and limitations of personal protection.
Being sure we would teleport out the instant we became incapacitated or realized we were in over our head was our ultimate protection. Argon wasn't aware of any force or mind spell that could prevent our dead man's switch from working but agreed it was worth trying to learn more about.
With so much to do, it seemed cheating to sit in the living room with Argon draped over me with Allo in her lap, just enjoying my ladies. Argon assured me we needed the time to decompress and catch our breath.
"Do you want children," she asked, immediately catching all of my attention.
Her warmth spread over me, reassuring she didn't intend to pressure me but that we had never discussed it.
My panic subsided, as I seriously considered the question. Fear of the uncertain times warred with the happiness I knew children could bring.
"I feel the same," said Argon, still soothing me with her mind. "We need to build our refuge and make it safe for our younglings first."
"I finally realized you weren't aware of some nuances involving sex usually taught to younglings by their parent. Sex between Jaloans can only result in children when both parties agree. Either can block the creation of new life. This ensures children are only brought to parents who want them."
I felt some shame that contraception had been the furthest thing from my mind and started to apologize, but Argon stopped me with a kiss.
