For the briefest of seconds Kaden felt almost as if he could sense everything. The feel of a gentle breeze on his face, the lingering scent of nearby Heliconia flower, the feel of grass and dirt beneath his feet. For that brief moment he felt every Spine-back, every villager, every breath, every movement no matter how subtle. It was as if he was back with Sofia looking outward that very first time.

Taking a step forward he almost disappeared from where he was standing and stabbed the nearest creature. He was onto the next Spine-back before the previous one fell to the ground. Kaden could feel his fatigue building every time he made the slightest move. The toll and stress on his body increasing. He broke his spear while stabbing another of the reptiles, seeming not to notice Kaden forced the remainder of the weapon down the throat of the next closest creature.

Exhausted, almost at his limit Kaden retrieved a hatchet and a hide bottle with some Recoberry juice off a dead body. The bitter-sweet thirst quenching liquid felt wonderful as he took a deep long drink. His fatigue disappearing quickly.

Kaden killed another ten Spine-backs before he heard the familiar sound of a particular Spine-back issuing orders from outside the barricade.

“ARRRRRRORRR”

The remaining Spine-backs started to retreat back into the jungle.

Kaden fell to his knees sitting amongst the dead, dying, and injured. He desperately wanted to let sleep take him right there and then. “It’s over”, an indescribable sense of relief washing over him.

“ARRRRRRORRR”

He looked up and stared at the creature in command of the pack and oddly enough it was staring back at him. No, he said to himself. “You don’t just get to walk away.”

Kaden abandoned his bloodied hatchet picking up a nearby spear. Using the last of his strength he leapt up into the air and in a swift motion threw the spear as hard and fast as he could. A loud whistling sound was heard as the spear disappeared from his hand to reappear in-between the Spine-back’s head as it passed through and exited the other side.

Kaden finally collapsed unable to move, his eyes heavy as sleep took him.

“Rakhail old friend, I know I am asking for a lot after all this. But, could you take care of it?” Padvor handing a tired dark haired man some Recoberry juice.

“I will do this, until our next meeting my friend”, the dark haired man wiping the last of the Spine-back blood from his sword turned away from Padvor and disappeared into the Jungle.

“Walk silently my friend and may your steps always be light” Padvor whispering under his breath. He begin to heal those still alive as Gion issued commands to those still standing.

Kaden awoke in his bed a day later, his stomach growled with hunger.

“Your finally awake”, Sofia’s voice called from the bedside table.

“AAhhh… my whole body feels sore and I feel like I could eat an entire goat by myself.” Kaden sat up slowly getting out of bed. “Where are my clothes?”

“Padvor undressed you. I guess he figured torn blood stained clothes weren’t the most comfortable way to sleep.” She answered slightly amused.

“Sleep? I don’t feel like I slept at all. Why do I feel so tired?”

“I think you slept just fine. What were you dreaming about? I kept hearing you call my name and you had a grin on your face the entire time.”

“errr… I um, don’t remember. I hope I didn’t dream loudly?” he spoke sounding embarrassed his face a bright shade of red.

“You had a few thoughts out loud although they were vague but I think I pieced everything together.”

His eyes widened as she uttered those words. In that moment Kaden desperately wished the Spine-backs had done a better job. At least then he wouldn’t have to die of embarrassment.

“You were dreaming of us being chased by Spine-backs; I kept hearing my voice telling you to go faster. As if I would actually do that. You know I would probably be too busy laughing at you while cheering for the Spine-backs” A huge wave of relief washing over Kaden ignoring her teasing remarks.

“As for why you are tired. You pushed your body too hard with that spell. It was like running a distance that would normally take an hour in less than a minute. Now your muscles have a lot of micro tears in them at least that was what Padovr said to Gion while he was examining you. You also broke your arm, leg and jaw although you didn’t seem to notice at the time because of the adrenalin running through your body. Padvor healed most of everything although he was running out of whatever those drops he puts in the water were so you’re still going to require a little time to recover.”

After cleaning himself and changing into his spare set of clothes Kaden set out to see what was going on around the village.

He noticed that the villagers had hauled most of the Spine-back to a central area and were busy skinning, cleaning, smoking and tanning the creatures.

“Your finally awake boy”, Gion familiar voice called. “I thought you’d sleep forever, we’ve got a lot to talk about. Particularly your ability to use magic. I’d like to know how a non-highborn has come to know legion spells.” It sounded more like an order than a question.

Scratching the back of his head, “about that… I”

“Yes, about that. How about we move over to somewhere more comfortable. I am also sure you’re hungry after that display.” Padvor walking over to them.

Kaden wolfed down a portion of Grilled Spine-back meat, it was truly delicious. He had decided to be selectively honest about himself. “I am actually from very far away. I don’t remember much of how I got here, the last thing I remember was going to sleep in my bed before…” Kaden stalled, taking another bite of meat. “I woke up somewhere in the Jungle. The reason I can use magic is because I saw the commander fight a member of the Tribe and figured the rest out”. He selectively narrated the rest the story of his journey there and outright lied about how the written languages of their people were so similar to his own so he was able to figure things out quickly.

“That is a very good story boy, but do you think I’d believe it so easily.” Gion challenged the truth of his words. “Gi Vem Es Wif Tn Ess. Do you know how many times I have heard those words? Those words and others like them. I know them so well that I could recite them all in my sleep and don’t think I haven’t tried. If magic were so easy the high-born and legion would not hold all of the power in Rakan. So I ask again boy, how do you know magic?”

Kaden took another bite not sure how to answer. “It’s true, I just saw him and figured it out.”

“If that is true, how did you escape the tribe scouts? You’re not exactly quiet moving through the jungle.” She glared at him with an intensity that made him feel uncomfortable.

“I don’t know, I just hid and I guess they didn’t see me. If it is such a big deal I can teach everyone. Can’t Padvor already use magic, I have seen him cast that healing spells all the time.”

“Boy…” she was interrupted when Padvor placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Gion my love, it is true he isn’t telling us everything but I am willing to offer him my trust.” Gion took a deep breath, the tension built up in the room had noticeably relaxed.

“All right, I am sorry boy. I didn’t mean to be so aggressive. Magic is a sore subject with us low-born as it is the reason we are where we are in Rakan. The only way to have any kind of decent life for us is to join the Legion as a soldier. The very few of us that manage to live long enough and have some skill can get promoted to Estarte but that is as high as us low-born can go.”

Padvor continuing where Gion left off, “What you see me do when I heal someone isn’t so much magic in the same sense. All units in the legion have at least a single battle-healer, this is done for various reasons but overall it more than doubles the survivability of the entire unit. For this reason we are taught a version of a spell called Transfer life, the drawback is that this spell requires Life-drops in order to be used. Life-drops are tightly controlled by the Legion, it is an extract made from various plants and the formula is as you can imagine kept secret. After a lot of testing I managed to figure out some of the formula and maintain a small secret supply for the village. If Rakan were to ever find out… well you can guess what would happen to me.”

“They only teach you the bare minimum so you can accomplish whatever they require. They offer you only just enough to feel as if you have some hope for a better life so at least you won’t complain too hard. Many will fight for these little scraps and do anything to ensure they keep them.” Gion shifted in her seat reaching over taking a drink.

“What about your glow in the dark tattoos? And I get the feeling your weapons are a little more than meets the eye?” Kaden asked.

Gion finishing the remaining liquid in her glass, “our weapons are the highest honor we can receive when we are promoted. Estarte weapons are based on Old Kingdom weapons, they are stronger and tougher on average but that is it. Even Commanders don’t receive much better. Forgotten Old Kingdom knowledge is why Rakan is interested in Tribal lands and is also the reason the Legion can’t advance any further.

Our tattoos are similar to the Life-drops, the Legion makes the ink and marks Estarte and Commanders so they can give or receive orders. Since we are the only two remaining with ink from that batch there was no reason for them to remove it when we retired.”

Excerpt lost Grimoire: Runic Tattoos are created from the same batch of ink (6 people per batch) and magic allowing for instant communication between branded individuals even over great distances. –Alchemist Sadou

“That would explain why the barbarian I saw had a glowing weapon.” Kaden selectively described the fight he witnessed between the Legion Commander and the Tribal Intruder. “If these weapons are so strong how come the Legion hasn’t put more into acquiring these weapons?”

“It is not like they don’t want to but Rakan is set up so that the High-born rule and the Legion enforce. If Low-born were to learn magic it would threaten those in charge.

If the Legion were to try and take even a single of the Old Kingdom runes in tribal lands they would be annihilated. The tribes are not united and fight amongst themselves, survival of the strongest. If they were to ever unite, Rakan would not last a year.

What you described is a hunting party, the lead warrior was strong enough to be granted an Old Kingdom weapon and he has the help of a Shandra. They come into Rakan terriroty to hunt every now and again. Both the tribe and pack choosing this as their hunting grounds has created a big problem for us” Gion paused for a moment as Padvor refilled their glasses.

“The tribal hunting party would normally have left the village alone as it is no challenge for them. They would only have had a few scouts watching the village just in case something were to change. It is most unfortunate that things did change when the Spine-backs followed us. We have no choice but to leave or become the prey and all the tribe has to do now is wait for their hunt to begin.”

Padvor continued when she stopped, “We will not be able to cross this section of jungle and get to safety without the help of the Legion. We also cannot stay here and fend off the pack because of how fast Spine-backs breed. The pack will be back up to full strength in four months, even if we managed to hold them off in the village they would eventually hunt as we went into the jungle in search of food and supplies. This is where we need your help Kaden. I thought of this ever since we found out about you being able to use magic.”

Kaden hesitantly smiled

“Don’t worry boy, we are not asking you to face down the pack or tribe by yourself. All we are asking is that you teach us magic so we can increase our chances of survival. Our only choice is to run and it still may fail unless we were able to even the odds. We need to reach the safety of Quarter Point Fort. Once there the Legion’s garrison would protect us and deal with the tribal hunting party. From there we would all need to split off and disappear in the various cities of Rakan.” Rakhail walked towards them as Gion finished speaking; Padvor waving him over.

“Thank you again my old friend, did your hunt go well?” Rakhail pouring himself something to drink as Padvor turned towards him.

“They sleep in the Jungle Mother’s eternal embrace. Her roots offer them new life.” Rakhail took a moment to pause. “Two of them stayed to watch and would have seen young Kaden, the rest were far away, eyes blind to the battle. I tracked them back to camp. What you are thinking will be possible, Jungle Mother willing”

Padvor offered Rakhail a plate with Spine-back meat. “I offer thanks”, Rakhail said as he accepted the food.

Kaden had briefly met Rakhail when he first arrived but hadn’t spoken to the older man outside of a brief greeting and nod. Padvor decided to offer Kaden a better introduction. “Rakhail was a former soldier in the legion and is very good at what he does. He WOULD, have made it to Estarte if he didn’t annoy a certain someone.”

“A certain several someone’s”, Gion added.

“A certain several dead someone’s”, Rakhail corrected. “They are with the Jungle Mother now and I am no longer part of the Legion”

“Rakhail was a scout in the Legion, he also handled special assignments.” Gion continued.

Padvor cutting back in. “Back to the topic on hand for everyone else other than Rakhail.” Rakhail always able to piece together what Padvor was thinking from the tiniest of details. “We have a timeline of four months. Four months to prepare for our escape and learn as much magic as Kaden can teach us. When the time approaches we will need to eliminate the tribe’s scouts and make a hasty exit into the Jungle. It will buy us a few hours head start. I also propose…” Kaden went back to his bed after Padvor finished the rest of the plan. He wanted to get some rest before the Village mourned the dead that evening.

Kaden sighed, the next four months are going to be busy he thought to himself.

“Hey, so… I was thinking. Can you get me a Spine-back? A whole one, there should be enough so no one will notice” Kaden’s moment of quiet contemplation vanished interrupted by that o so familiar voice.

“Anything else princess?”