“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you three directly,” General Egilhard greeted Jadis’ three selves. “Your exploits are the talk of the town, and not just because of your frankly miraculous origins. The way the three of you were able to take down that Burning Rancor was astounding, especially for a trio of melee combatants that haven’t even reached CLR sixty yet. Truly impressive work.”
The general made a point of firmly shaking each of Jadis’ hands as he spoke. He looked each of her selves confidently in the eye, his polite smile plastered on his face. He wasn’t the most handsome man Jadis had ever met, but his salt and pepper beard gave him a distinguished look while his self-assured demeanor enhanced his charisma.
“Thanks,” Jay said, feeling a little awkward with the interaction. Something about the way the man looked and acted gave her the feeling of being a cashier who was being congratulated by a regional manager. “Had a lot of help on that one, but yeah. Tough fight.”
“Take credit where it’s due,” Egilhard insisted. “That greater demon would have caused a lot more damage if you three hadn’t shown up when you did.”
Looking past Dys after shaking her hand, he made eye contact with Noll.
“Noll the Savage. I had no idea you had travelled to Weigrun.” He took a few confident steps forward and shook the older mercenary’s hand. “I doubt you’d remember it but I also fought at the Battle of Silverleaf Pass when I was a young captain. Your flanking maneuver at the Crowsbill Ridge saved my company from what could have been a rout.”
“No problem,” Noll grunted but made no further attempt at communication, instead he simply folded his arms across his chest.
“Yes. Well,” Egilhard turned back to the three of Jadis. “Just like Noll here, your contribution to the battle at Far Felsen had a major impact. A shame you all weren’t in the city when it started. Fewer soldiers may have been lost.”
“Yeah, getting lost in those tunnels wasn’t great,” Dys muttered. “Would have been nice to not have been ambushed by a matriarch.”
Jadis couldn’t help but notice that Egilhard made no attempt to greet Sabina. In fact, other than a slight glance in her direction where she stood next to Syd, he made no acknowledgement of her presence at all.
“This is Sabina,” Syd put a hand on the uncharacteristically silent smith. “She’s the newest member of our mercenary company.”
With a flat smile the general took Sabina’s hand and shook it.
“A pleasure.”
“Ah, yes! Nice to meet you, general, sir!”
“We were hoping to show her the town,” Syd continued after Egilhard had withdrawn his hand from Sabina’s nervous grip. “A lot of shit went down here. Kind of wanted to revisit, give the place one more look over, pay our respects to the place where some good people lost their lives.”
“I see. Paying respects to the fallen is certainly an honorable notion. But it is just you five?” he swept his hand before him, indicating Jadis and her two companions. “The rest of your… mercenary company, they did not wish to revisit the town?”
“Spur of the moment kind of thing,” Jay admitted. “Didn’t really mean to come this far east, just sort of ran in the one direction and we came across the town. The rest of Fortune’s Favored might want to visit later, though.”
“Fortune’s Favored,” Egilhard repeated while looking like a man who was trying to hide the fact that he’d bitten into a lemon. “I’d heard Magistrate Vraekae had given provisional approval for a new mercenary company. Recruitment going well?”
“Well enough,” Jay shrugged noncommittally. “Looking more for quality over quantity.”
“Does that mean…?” he looked towards Noll expectantly.
“No,” Jay shook her head after a beat. “No, Noll is just—just tagging along. He’s not a member.”
“Mm,” the general hummed before giving a brief nod. Renewing his smile, he looked up at Jay. “Well, if your mercenary company doesn’t work out, I just want you and your impressive sisters here with you to know that there is always an open spot in the ranks for promising combatants like yourselves. The imperial army needs talented recruits to keep up the fight against the demonic invasion. With the skill you three have shown, an officer’s rank would be well within possibility. And remember, you have to plan for what comes after the invasion is over.”
“After?” Jay echoed.
“Indeed,” Egilhard nodded while raising one hand to motion towards the distant northern horizon. “The demonic invasion is the current trouble in the world and so the mercenary life is the attractive option while the bounties are high and the sources are plentiful. But the Hero will slay the Demon Lord eventually. Maybe in the next couple of years, maybe sooner. When he does, those bounties will dry up and there won’t be quite so large a need for mercenaries. On the other hand, the Empire always needs soldiers to secure its borders. Steady pay and room for advancement is a smart path to consider. Even a champion like Noll here will tell you that.”
Jadis wasn’t exactly experienced with the concept, but she knew a sales pitch when she heard one. General Egilhard was clearly angling to recruit her. Honestly, the offer wasn’t that surprising. She was a valuable commodity, in the sense that she was powerful, and rapidly growing more powerful by the day, if nothing else. No, Egilhard offering her a seat at his table wasn’t odd. What was odd, now that Jadis had been presented with the idea, was that Vraekae had never offered her the same.
Why hadn’t the Magistrate offered her a position in the military? Was it because she knew Jadis would reject such an offer outright? Or was there some other hidden agenda taking that possibility off the table? It was hard to know what the icy elf was thinking behind those bloodred eyes, but she wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if there was some kind of third angle to the reason that Jadis simply wasn’t aware of. Vraekae was definitely a schemer.
Speaking of schemers, Jadis wasn’t sure if General Egilhard was one, but she sure as fuck didn’t want to find out. She was absolutely going to reject the smooth-talking military man. However, she did still want to take a walk in Alawar, so she tried her best to keep the rejection polite.
“Thanks for the offer,” Jay smiled and turned to performatively regard her two false sisters. “If things don’t work out with the mercenary life, I’m sure we’ll keep it in mind. But for now, we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got.”
Seeing Dys and Syd nod in agreement, Egilhard grimaced but seemed to take the refusal with aplomb.
“The offer stands,” he straightened his back to military rigidity. “Just bring up my name and I’ll be sure to vouch for you. But if you all will excuse me, I need to get back to sorting out things here in Alawar.”
“Are we allowed to come in?” Jay asked, causing the general to halt halfway as he turned to go. “You know, to pay our respects?”
“This is an active military zone,” Egilhard smiled tightly. “Non-military personnel can’t be allowed to walk around freely. That said, I’ll permit a trip to the docks and back. Under escort.”
“Thanks,” Jay said while hiding the roll of her eyes by pulling her helmet’s visor back down over her face. “We won’t take long.”
On Egilhard’s command, the two soldiers that had first stopped her at the gates joined her as an escort as she entered the town. The general parted ways with her group, returning to the group of men he’d been talking with before. Work around the gate and walls resumed in general as Jadis and her own group made their way through the gate.
Entering the town from above felt odd. Jadis had vivid memories of Alawar, especially with all the chaos and blood that had pervaded the sole visit she’d made to the place. But seeing it from the top made it feel like a completely different town, even if she could recognize the docks where she’d nearly died down below.
“What’s your name?” Dys suddenly asked the younger of the two soldiers escorting her, the one who’d wanted Noll’s autograph.
“Holger, ma’am,” he answered.
Turning her head towards the second guard and motioning with her hand, he gave his name as well.
“Karl.”
“Hello Holger, Karl,” Dys nodded to them both. “Mind if I ask, does the general back there always try to recruit soldiers personally? Or are we just lucky?”
As she spoke, Dys hooked a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the man and his cadre standing off to the side of the wagon. Jadis had already made a good distance from the gates walking down the sloping road that snaked its way through the town so she was fairly sure he couldn’t hear her anymore.
“Not that I’ve ever seen,” Holger shook his head. “Doesn’t usually talk to anyone below sergeant if it’s not to give an order of some kind.”
“Just lucky then,” Dys mused.
“He must really want you three,” Holger continued with an incredulous tone. “Never seen him make an exception for anyone, much less a merc.”
“Well he’ll have to get used to disappointment if that’s what he’s after,” Dys said with a huff of a laugh. “Older men aren’t really our idea of attractive.”
“Oh, no, uh,” Holger stumbled over his words. “I didn’t mean it like that! Was thinking of your arms—I mean your strength at arms! I mean, I would never presume to imply that the general would pursue a new recruit for ungentlemanly reasons—”
“Shut up Holger,” Karl finally barked out to save the man from choking on any more of the foot he’d stuffed into his mouth. “Just lock your teeth before you dig yourself a deeper hole.”
Jadis appreciated the awkward soldier’s commentary. The opinion of the man’s subordinates was good to know, for one. Egilhard was perhaps respected, but not well loved. For another, Jadis welcomed the distraction. Seeing the streets of Alawar up close had brought a worse reaction out of her than she’d thought it would.
Jay came to a stop at a bend in the road where murky stains on the cobblestones were all that marked the spot where Thurstan, the jovial gnome, had been killed by the Twisted Wretch Matriarch. Visions of that horrid moment flashed before her eyes—the foul toxic fumes pouring out of the abomination’s mouth as Thurstan froze in front of it, too stunned to run before the noxious gas enveloped him completely.
She’d barely known the man, had just met him that day in fact. But that moment… she hadn’t been able to see his face. He’d been facing the other way. Yet she could see his horrified expression in her memory as clear as day, she was so certain of what he would have looked like in his final moments…
“Jay?” Sabina asked, catching her attention. “Something wrong?”
“Huh?” She startled, then realized that all three of her selves had stopped in their tracks while the smith had tried to get their attention. “Oh, uh, no. It’s nothing. Sorry.”
It did Jadis no good to dwell on the darker moments of the past. With nearly physical effort, she put the thoughts and memories out of her mind and continued down the road.
They made it all the way down to the docks where, thankfully, the only thing there to greet them were more soldiers and a small ship moored to a rebuilt dock. The remains of the bodies from that fateful day had been cleaned up, either by demons or the soldiers who had come looking for her. Jadis wasn’t sure she wanted to know which was the case, so she didn’t bring it up. Instead, as she looked around, she took in the sight of more activity than she would have guessed.
The other tunnel entrances that had been located around Far Felsen had hastily constructed fortifications around them with dedicated garrisons of soldiers to guard them. Still, with the reduction in manpower after the battle and the focus on rebuilding the forts along the forest line, the number of soldiers at each tunnel entrance were limited. The town here had seen a great deal of rebuilding in a short amount of time. The streets were cleared, the damaged buildings torn down and materials repurposed, and the wharf was whole and functional again. Further, Jadis was seeing three times as many soldiers in Alawar as she’d seen elsewhere.
They were also all Imperial soldiers. Not one mercenary, so far as she could tell. She, Noll, and Sabina were the only combatants not a part of the imperial military she could see. Though there were, she noted, workers who did not look like military at all. Instead, they were men and women who had the look of laborers, carrying tools like hammers and shovels. She’d seen more than a few go by as she had come down the road, and more still unloading supplies from the ship at the docks.
“Any sign of that wretch matriarch?” Syd asked Karl and Holger while Jay walked along the wharf with Sabina, talking with the smith about what had happened quietly. “We’d love another shot at that bitch if she hasn’t been taken down already.”
“No sightings,” Karl shook his head. “None reliable, anyway.”
“Hope you do find the blight,” Holger added. “If you three could take down that Burning Rancor, I’d wager you could do the same to that mother wretch. And if you three find it and kill it, then all the better for me.”
“Very brave of you,” Karl muttered.
“Does the general think she’s going to show back up here? Is that why there’s so many soldiers?” Syd motioned towards the activity around them. “Seems like a lot for one tunnel.”
“General’s orders are to secure the place by any means necessary,” Holger told her with a shrug. “Some of the other units have been making pushes into the tunnels. Probably trying to clear them out from this end.”
“A lot of tunnels to clear out,” Syd murmured while looking back up the cove walls towards where she knew the tunnel entrance was located.
As she looked back, she saw Noll standing nearby, arms crossed and wolf-like face unreadable. He watched Jay as she walked with Sabina, recounting the events of the battle that had forced them into the tunnels.
“Alright,” Dys cleared her throat, breaking into the conversation between her other self and the two soldiers. “We told the general we wouldn’t be too long, and we don’t want to take up any more of your time. We’ll get out of your hair now.”
“No trouble here ma’am,” Holger shrugged again. “This was just a nice break from standing at attention while the general’s around.”
With that, Jadis made her way back up the road and to the village edge, putting past misadventures firmly behind her. She wasn’t one to dwell on bad memories to begin with, and she needed to stop thinking about these ones anyways since if she continued to tell Sabina the details about what had happened the poor girl might just be sick.
As they exited the village gates, Egilhard called out to them from behind.
“Remember,” he said with that smile that never reached his eyes. “The mercenary life is temporary. To be a true soldier of the Empire is where you’ll find a future.”
“Thanks for the advice,” Jay called back with a wave before scooping a surprised Sabina up in one arm. “We’ll let you know if we’re ever interested in that future.”
Not wanting to reengage with the man, Jadis quickly took off at a heavy jog. In seconds she was far and away from General Egilhard and Alawar.
“Tell me I wasn’t the only one who thought that guy was skeevy as fuck,” Jay said aloud.
“I don’t know what that word means,” Sabina answered the general question, “but if it means ‘unpleasant’ then yes, yes he was.”
“Agreed,” Noll growled out as well.
“Glad it wasn’t just me…”
397