He wasn’t wrong either. Everything was hectic and stressful until the last caravan finally started on its way through the pass. The rainy season was starting early too, which reduced the amount of time that they could safely get wagons through the pass. At best, they could expect to get one more caravan worth of goods and belongings through before it closed. Now that all of the people were evacuated the hunters began laying out the traps that Sebastian had been making. Driving the stakes into trees near the line, and laying the plates out in the fields.

History claimed that the Twisted were less than intelligent, so most of the hunters didn’t put much effort to hide the plates either, just laying them out in plain view so they didn’t step on them accidentally. Reports on their movement were coming in depressingly quickly now, the line having gotten close enough to town to make it about a day’s travel there and back. So far all that had been spotted was lots of goblins and occasionally an orc or two.

He did manage to find out whether the stake traps were effective or not, the hunters found shattered trees and scattered bodies in some of the places they had planted them. The victims had been left scorched and impaled by large shards of wood, as the trap froze the tree it was staked into so quickly that it exploded as its sap expanded, followed by the stake exploding with a blast of fire that propelled those wood splinters and shards in every direction. If it hadn’t been for the recent rains and the overall moisture present in the forest, it would probably have caused massive forest fires.

Sebastian almost wished they had caused forest fires. Killing dozens of goblins with randomly placed traps didn’t seem to be deterring them much. If anything they seemed to be speeding up, which was both good and bad, since if they actually assaulted the town before they were forced to abandon it completely then they would be able to cause some damage as well as report on the actual threat level. If they weren’t attacked before it became too dangerous to stay longer then they would still have very little solid information. For all they really knew, everything they have done is a horrible overreaction, and there is just a wandering tribe of orcs and goblins that patrol back and forth for several miles.

Sebastian snorted at that thought, every legend and ancient historical record pointed to the Twisted as races that reproduced very rapidly. It was highly unlikely that there were just a few of them running around out there, and if he were to guess just from the number of bodies found around his traps, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of them. The only thing that confused him was why they would take so long to attack. His father vanished ten years ago, why didn’t they attack then? Why didn’t they move their direction at all for ten years, only to suddenly start moving south faster and faster? Were they running from something?

A peal of thunder in the distance heralded another storm’s impending arrival. Sebastian sighed, then jumped when a different kind of explosion sounded. He was in the workshop, so he climbed through the trapdoor and up to the roof. There was a small column of smoke near the tree line, and a fair bit of the grass on the field nearby had been burnt away. He could barely see a few bodies lying in the blast area too. Looking down into town he saw guardsmen making for the walls and Owdel heading to the gatehouse, probably searching for the captain.

Sebastian scanned the tree line for a couple minutes. It seemed like this was just another small group that triggered one of his stake traps. They had sped up again. Estimates had put them at least another couple days out, based on how fast the line was moving. If they were hitting the edge of the forests now, then they would probably start assaulting the town at any time. After nothing else happened for a while, Sebastian decided to go join Owdel and the captain. He glanced at the trapdoor, then at the crenelated walls of the tower roof and grinned. Gotta have a little fun every now and then! He flipped the trapdoor shut and jumped off of the tower, laughing as his ring caught him and he drifted to the ground.

He broke into a sprint when he landed, hurrying to the gatehouse. When he got there he spotted Owdel and the captain on the wall and he charged up the stairs to join them. He was slightly out of breath when he got there, but since they stopped talking and turned to face him he jumped right into his report, “Just another small group getting caught by a trap.” he took a couple deep breaths, “I didn’t see any other groups from the tower, but I thought they weren’t supposed to get here for another couple days at the least?”

Owdel nodded, “Yes, but they have been speeding up in spurts.” He turned to the captain, “No more scouting missions, seal the gate and keep watch from the walls, if they are starting to come out of the forest now then I don’t imagine it will be much longer before they come en masse. Sound a horn if a genuine threat arises.”

The captain just nodded, staring out at the forest. “Never thought I would ever look out on this forest and fear what may come out of it.”

Sebastian shrugged, he had feared whatever was in the forest most of his life, all this had merely proved that he had been right all along. Since the excitement seemed to be a false alarm, Sebastian and Owdel bid farewell to the captain and headed back to the tower. About halfway back Owdel broke the silence, “Boy, you should know that you are likely in danger from inside the Guild. You risked your life to be able to stay here and help fight, and it’s only fair to warn you. When we get to Clearlake be careful who you trust, and never go anywhere without a means of protecting yourself.”

Sebastian nodded, “I figured that would be the case anyways.” He looked down at himself briefly, “I might hold the answer to enchanting living beings etched into my skin. Seems pretty likely that those mages that have tried so hard to solve that riddle might enjoy dissecting me. Or at least locking me in a cellar somewhere to study me. I’ve been working on a few things that should help, and one really big thing that would definitely help if I can work out all the kinks in the idea.”

Owdel looked briefly surprised but chuckled, “I guess I shouldn’t have assumed you wouldn’t catch on to the implications of surviving your enchantment. Do let me know if you ever figure out how to replicate the process, you could end up revolutionizing magic. Although, that raises another point, should you learn how to enchant others, you need to be extremely careful who you share the process with. I’ve never been one for political machinations, and have no intention of starting, but most of those that have been trying to do what you have done are doing it in order to gain power.”

Sebastian decided not to mention that his pattern had stabilized weeks ago, and he had spent his spare time for days studying it, or that he may have done a teensy bit of tinkering when he finally worked out enough of it to feel safe trying to change things. It was astoundingly hard to modify, he figured that he could probably enchant someone else provided he had enough time and mana. Well, that and if he were willing to risk other the lives of other people by attempting to give them something different than what he had. His enchantment basically warped the mana he generated to match what was used by enchanted items. It had bothered him for a while, since he had never experienced any pain when charging magic items, only when he made them, until he realized that the runic patterns on them actually converted the mana, whereas the initial enchantment required that the mana change while still inside the mage.

There were other fringe benefits of course, like his ability to see the spell patterns, and even ambient mana. That last one took him a while to notice, most of the time he had charged his eyes with mana had been when he was working on an enchantment, he didn’t figure out that he could see mana itself until he saw Sarah casting while his eyes were charged. He saw the patterns of her spells just fine, but he could also see a faint multihued aura floating around her. The only bit he still had trouble figuring out was that stupid red circle on his palm. It was somehow tied to that stupid orb, and it didn’t matter how far he got from it, the connection was always there.

He was still resisting studying the sphere. It had probably saved his life that day it absorbed the excess mana from his system, but although he hadn’t noticed it right away, once he actually thought about it he realized that while he was stumbling blind around his room it somehow moved on its own. He was at least ten feet from the table when it had somehow found its way into his hand.

Sebastian realized the silence was dragging on somewhat awkwardly, “Err, yea I didn’t plan on sharing that with anyone anyways. What if I were wrong? I don’t want to be responsible for a bunch of people suffering, just because some idiot thought he could make magical soldiers. Why doesn’t the guild just make a bunch of enchanted items for their private guards again? Oh, right, never mind, the whole ‘if someone kills one of them that person now has a magical arsenal they can use to kill more of them’ thing.”

Owdel gave a somewhat morbid laugh, “Yes, because those fools can’t see that a bandit with enchanted weapons is likely less of a threat than a permanently empowered guard that decides he wants more, or just that he doesn’t like the mage he is supposed to protect. Free will can be a potent thing, and I doubt that torturing someone in an effort to give them magical strength and speed is likely to encourage them to spend the rest of their days protecting you.”

When they got back to the tower they found Sarah pacing and chewing on her fingernails in the entry hall. She looked at them expectantly, her expression worried. Owdel answered her unspoken question, “Nothing to fret about girl. Just another wandering group setting off one of the boys little toys.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and shrugged, “Not like it matters, couple more storms and we will have to leave whether they attack or not.” A sudden peal of thunder followed his statement rather ominously.

They went and ate dinner, sitting quietly at the table. After they were finished Sebastian went to his room and started digging through his books and making notes in his notebook until late into the night. Every peal of thunder in the distance made him pause and listen for the horns that would signal an attack. He sighed, normally he could distract himself with his work but it just wasn’t happening tonight. Giving up for now, he climbed into bed, hoping he would be able to fall asleep.