Shadows in the Smoke - 18 - Naive Youths

"Ingenuity is key to the Republic's success. Giving opportunities to every man in our great nation means that they can apply their talents to the greatest extent for the benefit of the People. It is these talents that lead to inventions that will transform the Republic, like the gas lights that replace and expand on the network of witchlights in our cities, the Spinning Gjertrude, the railway and the hot air balloon."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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"Yes!" Ester had to stop herself from shouting. "Yes, I would be very pleased to meet Arcanist-Colonel Lindholm."

"Hmm," Sonja looked up for a second as she thought. "I'm sure it could be arranged. As you might have guessed, she's very much in demand, but I'll get something in. Let me see. You're here to be a liaison, I'll tell you what. Lindholm is likely to be busy for a while, why don't I take you to meet one of the newly graduated Arcanists first? That'll be quite similar to your own position in many ways, although here in the Republic we don't tend to over dramatise these things quite as much."

Ester ignored the dig at the Empire, she was too excited to get angry. "That sounds like an excellent idea, Sonja, thank you." After seeing Lindholm's performance and the comparative disappointment of the new Arcanists, she was rather less keen on meeting one of them. But it was her job after all and maybe they'd have something interesting to say.

"Very good, let's get going." Sonja didn't even pause, just turned and started walking, leaving Ester to hurry to catch up.

"Is there some reason we need to rush?" She held her skirts up as she almost jogged after her guide.

"Hmm? Well, I expect they will want to get to celebrating and it wouldn't be fair to keep them from it. The graduation parties at the College can be quite legendary."

"Oh." Ester hadn't had a party when she'd been awarded her Charter. Just congratulations from some of the professors and then an assignment to Vass Karan. She gave herself a shake. She shouldn't be jealous and it was no reason to begrudge the Arcanists their fun. "Of course, I would not want to keep them from their celebrations."

Maybe she could make friends with them, even if they were Republicans. Or perhaps she might be able to have a friendly spar with one of them. They didn't seem to have problems fighting women and, even if they were less skilled, she'd no doubt learn more from that than she had from being beaten up by Mohsen. Maybe them being less skilled would even be a good thing. Less complicated techniques might be easier to learn. She might even win!

Sonja led Ester through the maze of corridors, up and down various staircases and past apprentices and professors without slowing her pace. Then, suddenly, she stopped outside a wooden door that looked no different to any of the others they'd passed.

She rapped sharply on it and, with barely a pause, swung it open.

As Ester followed her in, a young blonde man shot to his feet and bowed low to Sonja, barely concealing a wince as he did so. Ester tried to keep her eyes off the large bruise on his face.

"Arcanist! I am here as requested."

Sonja gave him a genial smile, "None of that now, you're no longer an apprentice, young man. Now you greet me as a fellow Arcanist."

She held out her hand and after a moment he clasped it with a broad smile.

"Thank you."

Ester pursed her lips. It was still difficult to get used to the way the Republicans would touch each other without so much as wincing. Maybe it wasn't such a strange thing between two Arcanists, but for people without the Talent… They instantly put themselves at the other's mercy.

With a jolt she realised Sonja was talking to her.

"Now, Ester, I'd like you to meet Arcanist Agnar Dahl. He's one of our new graduates who's just had the pleasure of a bit of a lesson from the Ashen Vow." She chuckled as if he didn't look like he'd been mauled by a bear. "Agnar, this is Ester Mazar."

"Pleased to meet you, Arcanist Dahl." Ester bowed politely.

"The pleasure is mine… Citizen?" He added a slight questioning tone to his words.

"Ester isn't a Citizen, more's the pity. She's here as part of a diplomatic delegation from the Empire."

Dahl's face went utterly blank at that. "I see." Ester did her best to keep smiling, despite his reaction. "So she's one of their Mages?" Ice threaded its way through his words, contrasting with the anger flaring in her.

Before Sonja could say anything, Ester replied. "I am." She stubbornly kept smiling. "I am also here in the room with you so you can speak directly to me."

Dahl glanced at her and then back at Sonja with a scowl. "I…" Ester could have sworn he suddenly turned paler, although it was hard to tell when Republicans were already so pale. "Of course, I apologise, Mage Mazar. I was just… surprised by your presence and it's been a difficult afternoon." With a visible effort he forced a smile onto his face.

Ester blinked at the sudden turnaround. "Oh, of course." She needed to be diplomatic. "No apology is needed." She hesitated looking for something more to say. "I was very impressed by your fight with Sigrid Lindholm," she lied. "You must have trained very hard."

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"Thank you," Dahl's expression softened, slightly. "I hadn't expected to have to fight someone like her, but we never really had much of a chance against the Ashen Vow."

"She was very impressive, I have never seen anyone fight quite like that before." Ester relaxed slightly as they seemed to be moving onto a safer topic. "Did your professors teach you similar things to her?"

"Well then," Sonja interrupted cheerily. "Now that the two of you are getting on, I shall leave you to it. "I've got some more meetings to arrange," she winked at Ester, "and there's a lot to do. You'll be able to get back to your partying soon enough, Agnar, but I'd be grateful if you could keep Ester company for now. You might even learn a bit from her. She discovered Vass Karan's governor was a powerful necromancer and went toe to toe with him, without even having any proper combat training."

Ester felt her face heating, partly from the praise and partly from Sonja just telling Dahl about the Empire's embarrassment like that, not that she should expect anything better from a Republican. How had she even known?

"Really? You did?" The irritation was completely gone from Dahl's tone. He leant forward slightly as Sonja made her exit.

"I did." The sound and smell of the undead flashed through Ester's mind.

"By yourself? Was he powerful?"

Ester shrugged, modesty warring with pride. "I had some help. He was powerful," she grimaced, "more powerful than me, but not so skilled."

"That must have been so exciting, fighting and beating a necromancer! All I've done is train. I can't wait to get to the front so that I can do my own part to defeat the undead."

All encompassing fear. Rotting hands reaching for her. The warm, soft voice of a Mehrzad demanding her flesh.

"It was…" he suddenly seemed so young. "It was the most frightening thing that has ever happened to me." Why had she said that?! He was hardly going to be impressed by that. "I spent most of my time thinking I was going to die and just hoping I could survive long enough to make sure that the necromancer was not unleashed on Vass Karan." Ester forced herself to breath normally.

"Oh." Dahl leant back again, looking a little disappointed. "I suppose it would be frightening, but you still won in the end. I know it's not the Republic, but you must have been pleased to have been able to serve the Empire too."

He was so naive! Ester took a calming breath. "Of course I was." What other answer could she give?

Dahl nodded happily, his early frostiness completely forgotten. "Tell me all about it! What spells did he use, was he like the Liche Kings? How did you beat him?"

With a small sigh, Ester started to talk. She still woke up in a cold sweat sometimes, remembering the Marcni Vaults.

As she made her way through the story, editing out bits that she thought a Republican Arcanist shouldn't hear about, especially any that portrayed the Empire in a bad light, Dahl kept on interrupting with questions. If he wasn't so obviously enthusiastic about the whole thing, she'd have found it more annoying. As it was, it wasn't long before he started to wear her down. It hadn't been heroic and exciting, it had been terrifying and a frantic struggle to survive. Dahl seemed to think that it was all like an adventure out of the books, but telling him that too forcefully would be like kicking a puppy. And it would make her look bad.

Eventually though, it became too much. If he kept on pressing her for more details she was going to either scream at him or burst into tears.

"Oh, I am sorry, I have just been talking about myself all this time, but the challenges the Republic faces are far greater." Ester felt a little surge of pride at how neatly she'd turned the conversation back to him. "I know almost nothing about what you will face when you leave the College. What sort of challenges do the Liche Kings bring to the Republic?"

It helped that she was actually quite interested to know. She'd learnt a little about the Lands of the Dead, but the Academy was extremely tight lipped about the details. Spirits only knew why when it was such important information.

"Oh," Dahl hesitated, nervousness flashing momentarily across his face before it went back to pride. "Well, their degenerate magic is powerful, of course. If it wasn't then we'd have smashed them, but our training and technology allows us to outmatch them. While they were able to take us by surprise at first, now we have fought them to a standstill. Soon we'll be driving them back. With our spirit and our weapons they certainly won't beat us."

"Of course." Ester carefully kept her tone neutral. How indoctrinated was this boy? She wanted to say something, but that would be undiplomatic.

"The Liche Kings themselves are powerful, they wield foul magics, but individually they can be defeated by our ingenuity and spirit. It is their minions that are the problem. The sheer numbers of bodies that they can throw at us can overwhelm even the most stalwart of defences."

"So they have a lot of undead?" Ester thought for a second. "Can they not be obliterated from a distance? The undead I saw were not very subtle or powerful. Surely a Mage, Arcanist, on open ground would have little trouble or even some of your cannons?" Cannons would probably work, right? It might be useful for her mission if he told her more about them too.

"Of course and this is why the Republic will win this war, with people like me helping to keep the world safe."

"But…" The Republic didn't seem to be winning the war, not from what Ester had seen and heard. Maybe they weren't losing, but the very fact she was sitting there speaking to Dahl was a sign that the Republic was struggling. "Of course." She changed course before she upset the boy, because that was what he felt like. "I had heard that there were other types of undead though?"

He nodded at that. "The Liche Kings have many disgusting and esoteric spells and sometimes they produce even more powerful undead, but they are rare and often ineffective. That's why it's important to have combat trained specialists like me at the front lines, so we can protect the ordinary troops who are able to face lesser undead on an even footing."

Ester's brow furrowed. "I see." Surely it wasn't that simple, he made it sound like the Republic easily dealt with every threat. "What kind of undead might they face?"

"Well, for example, you might get a horde of walkers and then some hulks among them. They're just bigger and tougher undead. They're still very slow and stupid and not much of a challenge for our army, but you need a bit more magical oomph to put them down, or special ammunition for the cannons."

Frankly, she couldn't imagine Dahl succeeding against many powerful enemies. Something must have shown on her face because his brow furrowed slightly, so she barreled on before he could get offended.

"Special ammunition?" That actually sounded interesting.

"Yes, you know, when you put a Schema on the cannon ball."

Ester nodded sagely, as if it was something she saw all the time. It wasn't even completely untrue, she'd bet her house that Dahl had never been shot with some of this special ammunition.

"Is the special ammunition not quite expensive?" There was a reason so few common soldiers had access to Schemas in the Empire.

"Well, yes, but with the new fa-" Dahl was cut off by Sonja throwing the door open.

"Still getting on?" She didn't wait for them to reply. "Wonderful. Now, Ester, I've arranged your meeting with Sigrid Lindholm, but we'll need to hurry she's a busy woman."

"Of course, thank you, Sonja." Ester stood.

"Wait, she's going to meet the Ashen Vow?" Ester wasn't sure whether Dahl sounded more jealous or offended. "But she's—" He suddenly cut off and nodded. "My apologies, it was an interesting conversation, uh, Mage Mazar."

Ester hesitated and then bowed. "Thank you for your time, Arcanist Dahl, I enjoyed our talk. I wish you good luck in your fight against the undead." It felt like she was getting the hang of being diplomatic!

With that, Ester turned to follow Sonja.

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