A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Beam shook his head. "Worse. Much worse."

They didn\'t want to hear any more. Garth took the opportunity to leave.

"By your leave, Vice-Captain," he said, with a slight dip of his head, before turning on his heel.

"Well?" Beam asked, once he was gone.

"Well what?" Tolsey said in reply.

"What was that?"

"…I have no idea. But it certainly did not feel human," Tolsey said grimly. "Let us pray that we do not have to encounter whatever the source is. Perhaps it might only be weather – that would be a blessing, for once."

He began to walk towards the northern front, where the Captain awaited, Beam hurried to follow.

"What a painful expedition this has been," Tolsey lamented. "If we have to deal with this mage, either now or after the Yarmdon arrive… I fear it will decimate our ranks."

"Do we even stand a chance against a mage? My master said that even the weakest of them have power enough to destroy a whole village with a click of their fingers," Beam said.

Tolsey was unfamiliar with the standards of magic. He knew mages were strong, indeed, but he found himself shivering at Beam\'s words. "If that\'s true, then they must be equal to, or greater than knights of the Fourth Boundary… If that\'s the case, then we do not stand a chance. Tolsey agreed."

"Yet, you don\'t look worried," Beam noted.

"Do I not?" There were creases across Tolsey\'s brow. By all accounts, he looked like a man under intense stress.

"Or at least no more than you were earlier," Beam said.

Tolsey laughed at that. A weary sort of laughter. "You don\'t look so good yourself, boy. You\'ve got regret nestled on your shoulders. Will you be able to manage?"

"Ah…" Beam felt an icy chill pass through his heart at his weakness being spotted so easily. It hurt to think about it, so he\'d been trying to avoid it. He still hadn\'t sorted his feelings out on the death of Charlotte yet, nor the death of the children. He\'d merely been moving because there were things to do.

Guiltily, Tolsey looked away from Beam\'s pained expression, clenching his fist, and cursing himself.

They arrived on the northern front, only to see a scene of quiet. Battle had seemingly ended minutes before. By the light of the torches on the recently completed defences, they could see Lombard standing there, by his lonesome, with his sword at his side ready, as he stared into the forest.

Two Half-Titan corpses were on either side of him. Men hurried to take them away.

He must have sensed their approach, for even though they had yet to even make it to the edge of the defensive line, he turned to look at them. With a nod of acknowledgement, he once more spared the forest a glance. He must not have been able to sense any new enemies approaching, for he turned away from it, and slowly began to walk back.

"A grim expression you wear, boy," Lombard noted. Tolsey grimaced, knowing that he\'d been half the cause of it. "Do you bring me bad news?"

"The children that went missing have been rescued. But, we discovered evidence of a mage, and there were three dead children down there amongst the rest as well. It is not much of a victory," Beam said.

"Hm," Lombard regarded him with a scrutinising glance. "What made you conclude that there was certainly a mage?"

"The body of the Elder. He had a hole in his stomach without shedding a drop of blood. The wound had somehow been instantly burned closed," Beam said.

"And what else?" Lombard asked.

"We found some purple powder. I think it belongs to those crystals the shadows used," Beam said.

"And what else?"

"…A pattern drawn on the floor, with blood in the centre. Papers with similar inscriptions. And then a blank book with the sigil of a boar\'s head on a stake, with the whole thing set on fire," Beam said, blurting out all that he could remember, at the Captain\'s continual insistence.

"Mm… Well, that is intriguing," Lombard said lightly. "What of the children? Did you discover a purpose behind their kidnapping?"

"They were all found wearing collars, with a crystal embedded at the throat. They were too weak to move before the collars came off them," Beam said. "As though they were getting the life from them drained. Would that be useful for a mage?"

"Perhaps," Lombard said. "Apparently, we all have mana in us. It is only the mages that are mad enough to put time into controlling theirs. And when they do manage it, they achieve the most potent of power. It would not be unreasonable to assume that there was something useful about the mana of a child. Though I am too uneducated on these arts to give a certain conclusion.

Your master would likely be able to deduce the reasons better than I."

"…I see," Beam said.

"On that note, it seems the monsters have dried up," Lombard said. "Since that thunderous noise earlier, it seems as though they\'ve all been scared off."

Beam wasn\'t sure if he was the only one feeling a terrible feeling of wrongness at those words.

"What do you think that was, Captain?" Tolsey asked.

Lombard met him with a smile. It didn\'t seem to be a false one, but given the words that followed it, Beam couldn\'t figure out what Lombard had to smile about. "I dare not say," he said.

Tolsey interpreted those words with a good degree more worry than Beam. The man visibly paled. "That bad?" His voice almost croaked.

The Captain merely shrugged. "We shall see… I have a feeling our fate marches steadily towards us."

The man looked towards the eastern horizon to accent those words. At first, it was merely the blank gaze of a man casually assessing something. But then his eyes narrowed, as though he\'d picked something out. Beam turned to look in the same direction, but he could not yet see anything.