Alaric read the last report again, once he finished he read it again and stopped when his eyes found the words he so enjoyed. Survivors of the First scouts, group of nearly ten men and women was found at the edge of Blackriver's influence nearly starved to death but alive nonetheless.

A weight dropped from his shoulders, the ambush had failed, his valuable veterans were still in play. A thorn was that neither Summer nor Wolf were among the survivors but the remaining soldiers would do well as scout leaders. They now had the knowledge to carry out missions in enemy territory with borderline no supervision or backup from Blackriver.

Alaric leaned back in his chair, now the next phase of the plan could begin. With Winter training a small army and veterans ready to form scout groups and deploy them behind enemy lines. Even if Goldhill deployed ten times their numbers scouts were hard to catch and with so many new groups they would bind ten times their numbers into defence.

A knocking sound tore Alaric from his thoughts, Letra was standing at the entrance to his chaotic study,a thick scarf wrapped around his head. Alaric raised an eyebrow at the sight, it wasn't that cold yet.

"The first years are getting together for drinks and invited the seniors... wanna join in? You technically are a first year after all." Alaric shook his head, first year? Seniors? What was all that abou-... he raised a hand to his forehead. Right, he was technically still in training... there was a school... had he been supposed to show up there?

"Ahm I will be right there... just gotta find m coat and uhmm my purse... have I been getting payed for my work here?" Letra sighed and walked over to a particularly thick concentration of papers and pulled a coat from under it, scattering the papers all over the already covered floor.

"Yes, you have been getting payed... I took care of your finances in the hope you would realise it one day... that was over four months ago." There was a slight edge to the young man's tone but Al decided not to inquire, without Letra he would have very likely died in the last couple of months.

"So where are we going again?" Alaric slipped into his coat and looked into the copper mirror next to the door, he had slimmed down even more, dark bags under his eyes and the reddish colour of his eyes told of the countless nights he had spent brooding over plans and strategies.

His hair had grown past his shoulders, both of his hands were ink stained and his fingertips had the lines most scribes had from their constant work with the feather. Letra on the other hand was well dressed una red coat and a black scarf with golden lines woven into it.

His hair had grown longer as well and his green eyes shone like the day he had met him.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" The boy walked over to Alaric and looked into the mirror.

"Come on, the others are probably wondering if you finally worked yourself to death." The cold tone had returned to his voice and Al wondered what he had done wrong over the last couple of months.

"You do realize we are allowed to have a life outside of this building right? I doubt there is any use to you killing yourself in that room of yours before the war even starts." He stopped himself before he said any more, eyes flaring with anger and something else, worry?

"Well I can'z really go out and have a drink while soldiers I sent on a mission are dying because I messed up can I? They are fighting for their lives at the front and I am supposed to call it a night and go to sleep? How is that supposed to work? If anything to few of the generals around here think about what they are really doing. If they mess up the worst they face is Era screaming at them for their incompetence while people die because of them... Wolf and Summer are dead! Two of our most successful soldiers because I failed to notice the second army moving in! So excuse me for not taking a break before I had at least something to ensure this won't happen again." The two of them glared at each other for a while, then Letra took his hand and wordlessly pulled him out of the room past estranged looking scribes and strategists that were looking for the source of all the ruckus.

"The fact that you care that much is the reason why you should take a break, If you overwork yourself it's the soldiers that will be stuck with incompetent fools giving them.orders... so do both sides a favor and rest every now and then." He had a point and Alaric shut up and let himself be pulled towards the inn.

The next couple of minutes neither of them spoke, the air outside was cold and Alaric's breath hung like clouds in the air the cold swept away his tiredness and it felt like life returned to him, he clearly should have done this some time ago.

Just outside the complex of buildings he and Letra worked in was the inn they would be visiting. It was the unofficial gathering point for scribes that worked for the rebellion and usually well visited, tonight the inn was completely filled with people. Scribes of every age and gender were lining up to get something to drink. When Letra approached with Alaric the line parted, scribes whispering to each other and pointing at them.

Al tried to listen in on the whispering but he couldn't fully understand what they were saying just something about dragons and magic. When they reached the bar Alaric saw Era sitting there a bottle of wine in front of her. Letra sat down next to her and pulled Al onto the next chair. The Innkeeper looked at Letra and she nodded, the innkeeper turned around and got three bottles of a light golden colour.

Letra, Alaric and Era each got a bottle in front of them. Era nodded tiredly to Letra and drank the remainders of her own bottle. Alaric smelled on the bottle opening, the liquid smelled like honey and spices, mead. He eyed the bottle, the last time he had drunk alcohol things didn't exactly go well... but a glance to his side told him that refusing to drink would not help to improve Letra mood.

Era was wearing her usual cloak a coat and a hood to avoid being seen, luckily for her Letra bad mood formed a circle of protection around them. The mead was good but stronger than he had expected, his eyes watered, next to him Letra had already finished half of his bottle and Era was already signing for three more bottles. Something was definitely off, he has never seen Era or Letra drink alcohol.

The mead began to spread a warm feeling from his guts and things seemed to brighten up, after all this was his first free evening in months. A couple of the others Alaric had started with began appearing one after another and after the second bottle of mead Al was discussing the work with his fellow scribes.

Letra soon joined in and began complaining about the work she had been given and all the things she had to do for Alaric. Which was kind of weird for Al but understandable after he got a rough picture of the boy's duties. Era was the last one to join their conversation slightly slurring her words and only offering the occasional comment.

“Look what the cat dragged in! If it isn’t the wonder boys… I thought you two were too important to show up around these parts anymore…” The familiar voice died down and Alaric turned to see who was speaking, it was the boy form when he had joined the ranks of scribes at the very beginning. He couldn’t remember his name, the boy was staring past Alaric, his jaw slowly dropping.

The fact that Era was sitting right there might have been the reason for the reaction, the two more from the beginning were at each side of the boy like guards. Their faces told that they had spent just as much in front of paper as Alaric had, the red eyes were a dead giveaway.

“Well hello umm…” Al realised he had no idea what the boy was called…

Letra sighed, “Hey, Marv, drop the attitude and get drunk like the rest of us.” He waved to the barkeeper for another round of mead, Al had not yet finished his first bottle and three more were already waiting for him… he suspected the evening would go badly if the others kept up their pace. The boy opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and sat down next to Alaric.

The two boys that were with him sat down next to him and began staring at their hands as if they had just realised what marvelous tools they were. Alaric thought of something to say when the boy Letra had called Marv turned to him.

“I heard about your soldiers… I am sorry, nobody could have known the enemy had additional troops in the area, I mean only because of your idea with the supplies we knew there were any around at all… What I mean to say is there was nothing you could have done ab-” Alaric slammed his hand down on the counter silencing the entire room for a second.

When the others continued their chatting and laughing he turned to the boy.

“There was a way to know, two weeks earlier the amount of food purchased for the army was considerably higher than they should have been, so much that after looking at it again I must have been blind not to see it. They bought all they needed to take a shortcut over the mountains and circle around the position they assumed we would have oru men stationed. They knew we were in the area and they outsmarted me, costing most of our scouts their lives.” He hissed angrily and Marvin closed his mouth and looked down on his hands as well avoiding Al’s eyes.

The smack on the back of his head nearly smashed Alaric’s face into the counter, when he turned Era was standing behind him.

“Can’t catch everything you arrogant prick, did you think this war would be won without us making mistakes or orders being delayed or ignored? Shut the fuck up and get drunk like the rest of us when we mess up, then get back to work and make sure you never make the same mistake again… nothing else we can do really.” She took another sip from her flask and stumbled towards the door leading outside.