Chapter 7: The Road Less Travelled

I saw the blonde woman come storming across to me with a look of absolute rage on her face. The young knight was striding across the square with murder in her eyes and before I knew it, she had her hand around my throat and had roughly shoved me up against the wall. At least this was far more like the reaction that I figured should be normal for this situation. And whilst I was in no way comfortable with her hand around my throat, her reaction to this was much the same as my own might have been if I found out someone else had just accepted a slave.

“What are your intentions towards that poor girl?” she hissed at me. “Did you demand the life debt? DID YOU?” I felt a point of a knife against my side, and I grimaced at the fierceness of her accusation.

“No! Of course not! This is insane! Do you actually think I’d want any part of this madness?”

She stared into my eyes with suspicion, searching for intent. “I don’t know! I met you yesterday. Who knows what kind of man you are?”

I pleaded with her with my eyes and slowly moved her knife hand away from my kidney where it was threatening to end my life. “She demanded it of me! And I tried to get out of it. Ask Gregory, he presided over the ritual thingy. He’ll tell you I didn’t want this! He wasn’t pleased either! But he said I didn’t have a choice!”

She backed away, let her hand drop from my throat and afforded me a moment to draw a long clean breath as she spoke.

“He was irritated because now we need to feed three civilians, instead of two. You are under our care until we reach the city, and she is under yours. So with Asha, Erica and you, we have three mouths to feed and three bodies to protect.”

She held the bridge of her nose. “I, on the other hand, am furious that this insane tradition still persists. No sentient being should ever want to be a slave.”

I held my hands up in defence. “I certainly don’t want it!”

Captain Deriostos interjected, having exited the building and overhearing our conversation.

“It’s true. I don’t like it either, but at least for tonight we must play by their rules so that we can leave here cleanly and without violence.”

He looked at me carefully. “Asha and Erica have a close bond, so I’m told, which is why Erica tried to fill in for her sister. They are twins and believed that this would suffice to fool the test.

You did very well to see through their deception and better still to save her life. Due to the events that happened in that building I would have had to arrest young Erica for obstructing the process and she was going to be dragged with us to face judgement. This way, she will come of her own volition.”

Laura seemed sated by this, nodding as if this was acceptable and I could see her relax.

“What is more important is that Asha is more willing to come knowing that her sister will be joining her so, in a way, despite this mission being a little more unusual than most, it's worked out well. If you can keep up the ‘Master’ act until we’re away from the village, it will allow her family to keep their way of life and us to avoid putting people in chains unnecessarily.”

“Ok…” I reasoned. “That I can do.”

“When do we leave, Sir?” asked Laura.

“Tomorrow morning. The villagers are saying goodbye this evening and the girls are packing their things. We have been offered a field to camp in, which is nicer than what we sometimes get.”

He eyed me curiously. “Which leaves me an afternoon to figure out a mystery.”

***

I groaned, sore and bruised as the Captain stood over me with a wooden sword. The sparring match had drawn the entire unit; no one was going to miss this. Word of my altercation with the deceased Donatu had spread and even some village boys had stopped by the field to watch.

This was brutal. The man was a champion with the sword and with my meagre training decades old, I was out of my league. I stood again and raised the sword like I had been trained, but his knowledge of the strong and weak of the blade was instinctual, whereas mine was intellectual. I knew what to do, he actually did it.

He advanced upon me again and I defended his strike high, deflecting it to the side and sidestepping to his offside. As I brought the sword down he stepped towards me and under the swing of my cut, knocking me back onto my arse.

“Good fundamentals,” he commended me. “Someone taught you well. But you’re rusty and green. It’s not the sword work of a typical Shadowspine Plainsman. Something to work with though, if nothing else.”

“I don’t remember how I know it at all though.” I lied.

He offered me his hand and I took it. He lifted me onto my feet and then brought me close to make sure I was paying attention.

“Good fundamentals will save you against ruffians and thugs, but a wild mage has tricks up their sleeve. Wizards are not to be trusted. Best not to stand and fight, always strike first. Never let them see your hand before it’s around their throat. Understand?”

I nodded and he returned it as Deriostros stepped back. Picking up my training sword, which I’d dropped, he thought for a moment, then he called out to the onlookers.

“Danzt. Unarmed.”

I stretched my muscles. In my old body I would have been destroyed by now, and my new body was faring better, but the kinks were still there. The knight came forward and tagged out with the Captain and stood in front of me. Danzt and I hadn’t talked, he was even more standoffish than the others and I could see now he had a look of disdain, as if I wasn’t worth his time.

He took up a boxer’s pose and I blinked unsure.

“Boxing?” I asked.

“Use what your mama gave you!” he spat. “No knives, no weapons, no rules.”

His movements were those of a brawler. I predicted powerful strikes, big movements, little subtlety. The kind of unarmed combat a man uses when he’s used to being in armour.

I nodded, feeling far more comfortable in this fight than before and then, with a roar, he closed on me and swung his fists. He threw a jab-cross combo first and I tapped the jab away, blocked the cross and wrapped his arm, locking it to my side. At the same time, I hit him in the throat with a knife-hand strike to stun him for a half second and then wrapped my fingers around the back of his neck. Throwing my knee into his ribs twice, gently to simulate a strike, I used the distraction to push his head in a circle, under his pinned arm and he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

With him flat on his back in surprise, I dropped my knee into his chest to knock the wind out of him and Danzt opened his eyes in time to see my fist, halted, millimetres from his face. It had taken under three seconds. There was silence from the onlookers. They’d never seen anything like it.

I smiled and offered him my hand as the Captain had to me, but Danzt snarled and slapped it away to get up on his own.

“Again!” he snarled, his pride hurt.

I pulled my hands back to a guard and waited for him. “After you,” I smirked.

It was funny watching him move around with his hands out wide. It was clear that oriental martial arts had never influenced this world and Danzt had not been taught anything other than how to punch. On Earth, pure boxing was a sport and real self-defence utilised the whole body. Granted, his strikes were fast and powerful, but like the early days of the MMA when grappling was introduced, this man was baffled by the way I had grabbed him.

He swung at me again with an insanely powerful hit, which I slipped again, but this time to his inside and hitting at his face to distract him. Grabbing his arm and positioning my hips, I used his forward momentum to throw him over my shoulder in a classic Judo throw and he hit the soft earth with a thud.

“Yield!” called Deriostos and the crowd looked at me like I was some kind of oddity. Danzt rolled away from me and painfully got to his feet. He was sneering at me with hatred.

“What the fuck kind of fighting was that?” he snarled.

“Something I would pay to see again!” chuckled Laura and Danzt shot her a glare. But she ignored him, looking at me impressed.

“Indeed, it seems like an interesting fighting style. You have remembered it like it was second nature to you,” said Deriostos, looking like he was musing to himself. “I wonder where you studied it, as no nation I am aware of practices such a style.”

I shook my head and walked over to the Captain.

“I don’t know, Sir, but I’m sure it doesn’t really matter, against a sword I’d be skewered.”

The Captain nodded. “True, but plenty of fights involve situations where you are disarmed for one reason or another. Do you think you could train others in this style?”

I shook my head. Not only did I not particularly want to share this small advantage I held, I had to lie to uphold my act of lost memories.

“As you said, they were second nature. My body just moved and I couldn’t tell you why. It just felt right. Maybe, if my memories return, I will remember the forms and how to do them out of combat.”

He seemed content with that and dismissed me and the others to our duties. For the Knights, it meant tending to their horses and maintaining their gear, for me it meant hanging around Laura as she made poultices and healing balms with the herbs and ingredients she bought from the village.

It was medicine, she explained, not alchemy. Her mixtures were all the result of natural reagents being mixed to improve their effects and she was quick to deny any healing magic was involved. From my understanding of what she was doing, she had some decent knowledge of chemistry and these were her world’s version of pharmaceuticals.

The blonde woman was making the supplies for the next step of the journey and she grilled me again about how I planned my relationship with Erica. I assured her repeatedly that I considered her a slave in name only and that I wouldn’t be considering the elf girl and I in any form of relationship other than very recent acquaintances. But she smirked dismissively at that.

“You are a man, after all.” She muttered. “And you cannot speak for her feelings...”

***

The next morning we walked into the village square before dawn. This time there was no need for peering under the eyelids, I was awake at the first stirring of the Knights. The camp was broken and the men had packed down quickly as was their custom with a long march.

“It’s five days to the city of Westfall, and the Lord’s keep.” The Captain informed me. “There we will pick up our healer and say farewell to Knight Lauraphine. If you follow your training well and impress me along the journey, I will put in a good word for your adoption into the Iron Shield as an initiate...”

“A ‘Bedpan’...” laughed Pheros snidely as he walked past to complete his duties.

“...yes that is the slang for it. But we’ve all started there.” The Captain reminded him. “You aren’t useless in a fight, and you can follow orders... what do you say?”

I had to be honest with myself. Whilst these Knights were certainly being helpful, I had noticed some red flags with the way they were treating people. Laura seemed quite nice, Gregory maybe was ok, but Deriostos and his men were not the chivalrous knights that naïveté might lead a young man to believe they were. And, despite now looking it, I was not a young man. I had seen these kinds of people before. They were definitely prejudiced, at least a little, against arcanists, and maybe even against women in general. They may not approve of slavery, but that didn’t mean they were good people.

But something also told me that rejecting this man’s offer outright could lead to serious ramifications, and soon, so I thought about the best way to approach the situation.

“Certainly, I’d appreciate any good word you could put in for me,” I started. “But I can’t even remember my family name yet. Do you think it would be wise to give an oath to the Iron Shield not knowing what previous commitments I am bound to?”

This amnesia act was paying dividends by the minute.

Captain Deriostos nodded at my question thoughtfully and seemed to consider my words.

“Boy, you’re wiser than I gave you credit for your years. Even without your memories you think clearly. Yes, a decision now would be hasty. But give it some thought as we travel, soldier. If your memories don’t come back, we might just need to fudge some documents to give you a chance at a good life.”

And there it was. For the ‘right’ people, documents could be forged and rules could be bent. I’d seen it before in schools where the head didn’t like certain people. Their sycophants got the best gear and funding, whilst those who stood up to their crap got loaded with the hand-me-downs and poor budgets. So I nodded politely, grinned and shook his hand.

With that, we arrived at the square and standing there was Asha, Erica and their extended family already waiting for us. It was amazing to see the two elf girls side by side; they were definitely identical twins and I’d never tell them apart if not for the hair.

“Master!” called Erica excitedly. She ran up to me and it looked like she was going to hug me, but she remembered herself and stopped just in time, blushing profusely. She stood about five and a half feet tall, and stared up at me with a nervous grin. She looked gorgeous with her dark brown hair braided and gorgeous green eyes which looked like emeralds. I realised then that Laura’s comment last night had been correct; I might resist her, but I was a man and, if Erica pushed the issue, it would be very difficult to stay strong.

But I was 40 years old! I had experienced teenage girls batting their eyelids at me trying to get better grades for years. I could be hard hearted when I needed to be. She was not mine. I would not take advantage of this poor deluded girl.

“Come meet my parents!” she squealed, grabbing me by the hand.

Oh fuck.

I was led/dragged to her family where I recognised her father from the day before. I nodded and held out my hand and he grasped it smiling.

“Mathew, I believe?” he asked.

“Yes. I don’t have the pleasure?”

“Felreandriar. Well met.” He said firmly. “My wife, Seluuristar, would thank you if you would take it well.”

I didn’t fully understand what he meant by that, but he had indicated to a brunette elf to his right who looked all of 25 years old, barely older than her daughters and almost identical to Erica and Asha. She stepped forward and embraced me warmly, pressing her head to my chest.

“I will never be able to thank you enough for saving my Erica.” She whispered as she squeezed me tight.

“I am honoured to be of service to your family.” I stuttered, not knowing what else to say.

She looked up at me and then to Erica and gave her a knowing look, to which Erica blushed bright red and buried her head in her hands.

“It’s not like that, ma’am.” I reassured her quickly. “I will treat your daughter as an independent woman and a respected travelling companion. I expect nothing from her at all like that.”

The elf looked at me smiling slyly and nodded. “I can tell. We have only just met, but I trust you, more than I would some of the Knights, in fact.”

I couldn’t fault her judgement of character, but it was humbling, nevertheless, and I gave her my thanks. She stepped back and, putting a hand on each of my shoulders, looked me directly in the eyes. She whispered to me so that the knights could not hear it.

“There is a deep magic lost to us that the Gods once wielded. A piece is kept safe within every elf. We are magical in a way that no bracelet those Iron Knights use could ever detect. A blessing of the Elves that I wish to give to you that will be forever with you and one you will need if you travel with our girls.”

With that she leant up and kissed me full on the lips. I felt her life force enter my own and I could feel it affect my soul. A bright, invisible warmth of the morning sun filled my body and, when her lips left mine, she smiled and took a step back to her husband who nodded approvingly.

I had no idea what magic this was, but it was my first experience with something truly magical in the mortal world. I had felt magic for the first time. Actual magic! I grinned from ear to ear at the feeling and Felreandriar lifted his finger to his lips to signal I should keep the secret.

“Though they will look for you, they will not see you. Though they will listen for you, they will not hear you. When the wheels of time roll on and on, the gift of the Elves will be upon you until you choose to pass to what comes next. Such is the blessing of an Elf.”

I bowed my head in thanks and gave as sincere a promise as I could manage that I would take care of Erica as long as she was with me. They seemed amused that I was treating the right of indebted servitude as something temporary and just shook their heads knowingly until I moved on.

Asha was next to say goodbye. I didn’t know much about her in all honesty. I guessed I would learn more on the journey and from her sister. But she was being brave, clinging to Erica for comfort and holding back her tears until the final goodbye.

The Knight Laura explained that if Asha was to travel without trying to run away, that she would be afforded the same liberties as her sister however, any attempt to escape the journey would be met with chains.

“You are not a prisoner. But you are NOT free to make your own decisions at this stage.” She reminded the young blonde elf.

And with that in place, and our final goodbyes given... we set off for Westfall.

As we travelled, I walked with the twins, and I asked Erica about her mother and the kiss we shared. She blushed as she recalled it, she was obviously embarrassed, but she explained the meaning to me quietly as we walked behind the others.

“The blessing of an Elf can only be given once and only to a non-elf. It is visible to other elves, but not to any other species. You won’t be able to detect it in others, but all Fey creatures will sense it on you.”

“But what does it do?” I asked.

Asha grinned. “It makes you harder to see if you are hiding, quieter when you want to be silent and gives you a lifespan comparable to that of an elf.”

“How long do Elves live?”

“Hard to say as there are external factors involved, but some of the eldest of our kind are past their 25th.”

“Only their 25th?” I frowned.

“Century...” chipped in Erica.

My brain exploded. “25 centuries???? I’m going to live 2500 years???”

The twins laughed themselves silly at my shocked expression and it was several minutes before I could get any sense out of them.

“Oh mother was right… that WAS the best way to tell him.” Asha wheezed, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Most elves get tired and move on beyond the veil before then.” Responded Erica. “Or they are taken by tragic accident or war. But a peaceful Elf away from danger can easily expect to live at least 15 centuries. Though most will get bored by 20.”

“But being human, you’ll just age really slowly and eventually die around 17 or so,” quipped her sister.

“I can see why the Elves keep this blessing secret,” I exclaimed. “People would be knocking down Elven doors to kiss them.”

Asha’s eyes fell. “They've tried. But it’s a blessing that can only be given if it is not asked for. An Elf coerced loses the ability to grant it. Like a built-in defence for that exact scenario. People still try though, which is why we keep it secret. You’re one of the lucky ones.”

I nodded. “I feel lucky.”

Erica giggled. “Did you enjoy kissing my mother, Master?”

I blushed furiously as the two girls exploded in giggles.

We walked a while as I ruminated on what a lifespan of 1700 years might mean for me. Imagine the things I could do, the skills I could learn, the difference I could make!

But it wasn’t long before Erica interrupted my thoughts.

“Have you thought about whether you will join the Iron Shield, Master?” she enquired cautiously.

Master... Nope. Need to nip that in the bud right now.

“Erica, I absolutely do not need to be called ‘Master’. I do not need my ego inflated to that size. You might be my slave by law, but I do not want you to serve me.”

Well, you would have thought I’d hit her across the face. No sooner had I uttered the words than her face fell and she looked despondently away from me.

Asha huffed angrily. “I know that you don’t understand our ways, but you need to realise how serious this is. You SAVED ERICA’S LIFE, you idiot. She doesn’t see servitude as a punishment, she sees it as a reward you very well deserved and every time you try to lessen her offering you cheapen the sacrifice!” With that she stormed ahead, leaving me alone with Erica.

To make matters worse, from where she rode ahead of us, Laura shot a look back towards me at hearing Asha’s raised voice. The eyes she gave me silently screamed ‘You fucked up. Fix this now.’

Damn sisterhood. They always gang together. She’s doesn’t even want me to HAVE a slave, how can she be angry that I agreed with her?

I walked in silence for a while whilst Asha fumed ahead of us and Erica sulked. I wanted to respect her, but my idea of respecting her was disrespecting her culture. I did understand the concept of cheapening her sacrifice by rejecting it. Her service was the greatest gift she could give me and to have it thrown back in her face would certainly sting.

But weren’t there fundamental rights and wrongs in the universe? I still didn’t think that allowing this servitude could be seen as anything less than me taking advantage of her. And heaven forbid that meant she had to submit to me sexually. Having a person wait on your every need was bad enough, but if she thought her body belonged to me too...

My brain went there. I imagined it, my cock hardened and I felt immediately guilty. I couldn’t deny that the thought of a woman begging to let her pleasure me was extremely attractive. But what would that do to her self-esteem in the long run? How broken would she be by that kind of degradation? She might think that her service was honourable or even enjoy it now… but what about in 10 years, in 20 years… hell, she was an elf and if I was to live that long, she could regret her decisions for a very long time.

But then I heard it. Shit. I was always a sucker for a crying woman and, as I heard Erica whimper, I realised I was going to have to say something.

I have to tell her where I’ve come from. I have to tell her why I’m finding this so difficult.

I knew that it was risky, but I could also assess that risk. She wouldn’t betray me to the Iron Shield, she didn’t trust them, that much I knew. But how to tell her in secret without anyone else hearing? Well, that was going to be difficult.

“Erica...” I whispered to the young elf gently and she sniffed angrily in response. I took a breath. “Erica, there is a reason I am finding this all very difficult and it is to do with my past.”

She turned to me with eyes welling with tears and my heart broke. I just could not stay strong when a woman cried!

“But you can’t remember your past. You said you have amnesia.” She countered, confused.

I slowly shook my head very slightly and raised a finger to my lips. Her eyes went wide, and she raised her hands to her mouth.

“You lied to them?” She hissed in surprise.

I nodded. “But I can’t tell you everything here because nobody, not even your sister, can know. I cannot let them find out where I come from. But I want you to know that I respect you...”

“Funny way of showing it.” She jabbed, bitter once again.

“The way I have tried to show my respect to you is strange because of where I have come from, from the customs my people have. I have been treating you by my... lands’ standards of manners and conduct. I realise that has caused you offence.”

“You think, huh?”

I grimaced. “As a peace offering, and to assure you that I don’t mean offense, I will not try to stop your acts of service again until I have explained myself fully, and then we can discuss your debt to me without restraint and on equal understanding.”

Erica looked up at me hopefully as if she was trying to see if she could trust me.

“So you don’t think I’m worthless?”

She might as well have punched me in the face. I looked at her horrified.

“I am truly sorry that I gave you that impression, Erica.” I said genuinely. “I guess I just didn’t yet fully understand why my opinion matters so much to you. We have only just met.”

Erica’s eyes looked at me with a lovesick gaze that confirmed just how much trouble I was in.

“You saved my life.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You are my everything.” And with that, she burst into tears.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and hugged the young elven woman to my side, as platonically as I could, as we walked. Eventually the tears stopped and she apologised to me for the emotional display.

“You must think I’m a crazy wreck!” she half laughed, half sobbed.

I grinned and remembered consoling my ex-wife, back then merely my girlfriend, through her own emotional episodes.

I tore off a section of my sleeve and handed the linen to Erica as a handkerchief.

“Listen, yesterday you found out your twin sister was a wild mage and she was going to be taken from you. You tried the ol’ switcheroo to take her place and got discovered. Then you almost get murdered in front of your family, but you were saved by a man you hardly know only to find that you are going to lose your sister after all. THEN you pledge yourself to the man who saved your life and not only does he not understand the magnitude of such a sacrifice, the bastard tries to reject you at every turn. You leave your family and the life you know to follow this idiot who underestimates your devotion and is a complete moron because he doesn’t seem to appreciate how amazing you are. All in under 24 hours. Does that sound about right?”

Erica chuckled through her tears at my summation and sniffed into my makeshift handkerchief. She nodded.

“I reckon you’ve earned the right to be a little high-strung, don’t you?”

That seemed to appease her somewhat and we walked on in silence for a little while again, but this time with less of a heavy fog around us.

I saw Laura glancing back from her horse and she smiled when she saw I had begun to put things right. Of all the Iron Shield, she was the only one whose opinion actually mattered to me. I had quite enjoyed the conversation that we’d had on the way to the village the day before and I could see her becoming a good friend if we had the chance to get to know one another. Had I been younger, mentally speaking, I might have been interested in her romantically, only it felt wrong being so much older than her, regardless of how my body actually looked.

“To be fair...” Erica said breaking the silence and smiling through her tears, “You don’t know anything about me, you don’t know what skills I have that can help you.”

“That’s true!” I said jovially, trying to lift the mood further, “You should tell me everything about you!”

And she did. Asha, noticing that we seemed to have sorted things out, fell back to walk with us again and the three of us chatted about this and that for the rest of the day.

I discovered that they were actually only 19 years old and their parents were also relatively young at about 110 years old, or ‘1’ as the Elves referred to it.

Erica enjoyed weaving and drawing, the first being a skill I hadn’t even thought of learning but instantly fascinated me as the type of thing I would have learned in my former life, just to say I could do it. Both the girls enjoyed tracking and hunting as well, as they had joined their father on many a trip to get special hides and pelts to sell to the travelling merchants who periodically visited their home.

She was also a great singer as she taught me an Elvish folk tune and, having sung a lot during my years as a music teacher, I picked it up quickly and learned the beautiful melody. The twins and I sung for more than an hour as we walked, and even Laura started humming along.

The other Iron Shield did not participate.

As I learned more about her, I became more comfortable with the young girl. She was innocent and idealistic but made me feel young again. Despite my body being 18 or 19, my mind was still 40, and a certain weight comes with the wisdom gained from the extra life experience. But, with Erica, I felt like I was younger again in mind, not just body. We told silly jokes and played silly travelling games and competitions and by the time the afternoon came I knew that, whatever else, we would be fast friends.

The girls told me that they were originally identical twins, but that Asha had turned into a blonde after her ‘Harrowing.’ Her hair had magically bleached. She had never even cast a single spell, despite technically being a ‘wild mage’. I learned that at about the age of 15, she had felt the magic begin to build in her body and had run away from home. Alone, and in the forest, she went through ‘The Harrowing’.

From what they told me, the Harrowing was a point in every arcane potential’s life where the body tries to adjust to the arcane weave that flows through it. It usually only lasts a matter of hours and the one thing that every mage has in common is that they all went through it. It happens at some point during puberty and is usually proceeded by the arcane weave making physical manifestations on the body.

Asha didn’t know the full story, so they called Laura back and she filled in what could happen.

“The body tries to accept or reject the arcane weave.” She explained.

“If it is able to manage and accept the flow of arcane power, the person becomes a mage. They are able to control and use their power. If the body rejects the arcane power, then it pushes the weave from their body, and they can no longer use magic of any kind. But the third option is why the Iron Shield are so adamant in our duty. If the body can’t acclimate to the arcane weave and there is too much to push out and reject, the arcane potential can explode with arcane energy and destroy absolutely everything in a radius that could measure 100ft, or it could measure up to a mile. I’ve seen the craters, the loss… it… it changes you.”

Now that I understood the situation better, the zealotry and fear made sense. It was like every potential mage was a small, hidden nuclear device waiting to explode and kill everyone.

“The chances of a mage exploding during the Harrowing is about 50/50.” Laura explained. “But centuries ago, the Wizards’ Collective discovered how to improve those odds. With training and assistance from more experienced mages, we can get the survival rate up to 90%, and the Harrowing can take place in a special chamber that contains the explosion from the last 10%.”

“But Asha went through her Harrowing...” I countered, “Is she still in danger?”

“Not really,” replied the Knight, “But if she doesn’t know how to control her arcane energy, it can leak out and hurt others during times of stress. And self-taught mages have been known to explode in a similar way to the Harrowing if they try to perform magic that is beyond them. They basically induce a second Harrowing by trying to channel more of the arcane weave than their body can handle.”

This conversation went on for some time as we discussed the legality of magic in different domains. Asha was very keen to hear about the Wizards’ Collective and what her training would be like.

“One thing confuses me, though,” I said to Laura. “The Iron Shield is a mage hunting order. Your job is literally to hunt down evil mages and take them out, how do you possibly do that when they can shoot lightning and fire?”

The other two girls were apparently curious about that as well.

“It’s a combination of factors.” Laura explained. “Human bodies are naturally resistant to the arcane, as apposed to Elves, gnomes, dwarves, halflings etc. It’s why most Iron Shield are humans, and why the best mages aren’t. But we then train our magical resistance to such a degree that most low-level magic simply doesn’t affect us at all. That said, we can still be hurt by magically summoned fire or a stone flung with a magical force, but mind-altering spells or magical afflictions and curses are less likely to take hold. The most disciplined knights of our order can ignore them completely.”

She tapped her armour. “This is the other half of the story. Our armour is designed to resist magic. Don’t ask me the specifics, the Dwarves at the forges would be able to tell you but I can’t. It’s a combination of metals and other reagents that results in a magically impervious metal. Magic, and anything borne of magic runs off it like water on oilskin. It’s not perfect...” she sighed as she remembered her fallen comrade, Raphael. “But it’s saved my life more than once.”

I nodded. “So the ‘Iron Shield’ is more than a name, it’s literally the source of your protection.”

“Exactly.”

We continued on, talking between the four of us until evening began to fall.

Camp was set in a clearing by the road, surrounded by a scarce wood. The knights all had their duties and Erica seemed to be placed in charge of the three civilians, with the Captain keeping half an eye on me as his new ‘recruit’.

“You said you would let me serve you, Master!” protested Erica as I insisted upon setting up my own bedroll.

“But that didn’t mean I would absolve myself of all my chores!” I clarified. “These men are Knights and proud men. They’ll look down on me if I have a slave do everything for me.”

Erica nodded, understanding if still a little annoyed, but helped me unpack and start collecting wood, which was my task for the evening. Given that we were able to bring back twice the amount of wood for the fire and, most importantly, that I did my share, no-one minded much.

Erica insisted on sitting by my side at the evening meal and wouldn’t let me get anything for myself. We did have great conversations though. Erica and Asha told me about their life in the village and I learned more about their likes and dislikes. There were smirks from some of the Knights as Erica fetched my meal and washed my plate for me, but it was when she came back and the small elf started massaging my shoulders that the wolf-whistles started and the men openly showed jealousy for the first time.

“You can do my shoulders next,” called one of them.

“Get your own slave,” I said jokingly, enjoying the Elf’s fingers rubbing my sore shoulders. “This one’s mine.”

I’d meant it as a joke and I had no intention of treating Erica like a slave. But that jokingly uttered, possessive comment must have hit home. I could almost ‘feel’ her swell with pride at the statement. Her hands became warm in the cool night air and they tenderly caressed my ear and neck in appreciation. It was going to be harder to keep our relationship equal than I thought. I was beginning to understand how power corrupts. The devotion and care would be too easy to get used to, and then; expect. To make it worse, her hands were heavenly; she knew how to give a relaxing shoulder rub.

“Thank you,” I whispered sincerely, as I looked her directly in the eyes. “That was very relaxing.”

Erica blushed and smiled a wide grin. She bowed her head in embarrassment. “I can be a really good slave if you give me a chance.”

The Captain called sack time and men grumbled, but one-by-one turned into the sack. I decided to lie down too and found Erica’s bedroll next to mine.

“I would have thought you would sleep close to your sister?”

She smiled shyly. “I should be next to you, master, if you need anything in the night you can wake me.”

I lay back grinning at the implication; I couldn’t help myself. Thankfully it was easy to resist the temptation with all the other men around. But damn, if we were alone, that would test the limits of my chivalry.

Luckily, Erica didn’t try to seduce me in front of her sister, or worse still, Laura.

But she did reach out and lovingly scratch my head as I rolled over to sleep, which I can’t deny was hypnotic and relaxing. It wasn’t sensual at all. It was simply to help me relax because she could. And, like a magic all of its own, it sent me into a deep and peaceful sleep.