Before I knew it, the week was over. Part of it was Sadistic Sebastian, as I referred to him in my mind. He was an expert at driving me to the limits of what he called a muscle group could do, before switching. I would swear that I couldn’t move, and yet he always managed to find some sort of exercise that I could do that wouldn’t affect the muscles that were already exhausted. He also went over the basics of sword work, but held off on devoting a lot of time to it. Instead, he wanted me to spend a bit of time on our trip heading to the capital working on it, as any stout tree near camp could be used as an improvised pell. When I wasn’t learning ways to improve my strength or swordplay, I was marching. Always marching. “The army’s strength is its ability to move as one! Move forward in lockstep!” Even after a week of work, I still wasn’t up to par for his standards.

“Brandon! Glad to see you’re up!” Father Ennarion called out as I entered the kitchen before dawn.

“Good morning to you too Father,” I nodded.

“Excited about your trip?” He asked.

I again nodded, sitting down with my breakfast. “I am. Sebastian and Elder Stannich have done a lot for me, but I’m excited to see what the other branches have to offer.”

“Excellent, excellent! Not that there’s anything wrong with a soldier, they are important for our stability after all, but you shouldn’t limit your options before checking them all out. Before you go, though, I do have some more presents for you.”

“Oh Father, you shouldn’t have!” I tried to interject, but he shook his head at me.

“Nope. You’ve done a spectacular job. I don’t think the sanctuary has looked cleaner. You did it all without complaint, and that’s yet another mark in your favor. So first, I have your pay. I went ahead and threw in a few extra, so instead of seventy copper, you have ninety. All your food and lodging will be covered for the trip, so no worries there. The other present is more practical.” He set a small bag of coins on the counter, and motioned next to it to two large water bladders.

“These have the same enchantment as your first canteen, but they have two extra ones that should be helpful. The first is a preservative, blood should last up to a month in each one. They should have enough blood for a week each, so you won’t have issues there. The other one is in the nozzle. If you put it up to an exposed artery of a dead animal, it will suction the blood out of the carcass, stopping when it is full. They should each hold the blood of an adult goat, so keep that in mind.”

I sat there, fighting tears in my eyes for a second, before answering, “Thank you. Thank you so much, but how can you afford all this? I’ve never owned anything enchanted before, and this has to be a unique enchantment.”

He came over and started rubbing my back, saying, “You are worth it. First, if it helps there are a lot of hunters that use something similar. While the blood isn’t terribly useful, it helps to have a place they can discard it all at once without drawing attention to their camps. Besides, if I didn’t do this, you would have an issue getting to the capital. Not all cities are a day of travel apart.”

The thoughtfulness of his gifts really hit me, and things started to sink in. I slumped down in my seat as what exactly I was about to do came crashing down on my shoulders. I was going off to the capital city with two letters of introduction and a handful of silver to my name. I was disowned by my family, and my only skills revolved around farming. I had an impressive talent for magic, but it was sealed for my safety.

“I’ll be ok. I know it seems heavy right now, but Solaris has faith in your strength. The Lord of Light never puts us on a path we aren’t equipped to travel.” Kind words broke through my depression, and I felt a tingle of something flowing from his hands as he placed them on my back. Ennarion continued, “The hunters will need you to have a bit of magic unlocked, and will teach you to use it. I’ve only allowed you access to five percent of your power as a precaution. Now come on, we don’t have much time before you need to leave.” I hefted the bladders over a shoulder, and followed Ennarion down the road.

The caravan was almost ready, it looked like they were just loading up the last of the six wagons. Ennarion walked up to the one man looking over everything, and I was rather surprised. I admit I was expecting an extremely well dressed merchant like Molly heard of in most of her stories. Instead was someone who could give Old Klein a run for his money. Sturdy clothes that could take quite a bit of punishment, all in muted colors. “Derrick! Good to see you again!”

The man turned, and smiled, “Ennarion! Just like you, pushing the start time just to see the sun come up. I take it this is the customer the church is putting through?”

“Indeed. Derrick, this is Brandon. Brandon, caravan leader Derrick.”

“Pleasure to meet you sir,” I said, offering my hand.

“You too. Paul! Grab this from him and stow it on the last wagon!” He called out to a passerby, who struggled under the weight of the bladders at first. Derrick continued, “Theatrics of my men aside, what are we looking at for expectations here Ennarion?”

“Well, we have a bit of a unique circumstance here. I hope you don’t mind, but I was wanting the Ladies to teach Brandon here a bit of being a hunter, as he is heading to the capital to join the church. He might be able to make it in the mage corps, but we don’t have anyone competent enough to teach it way out here.”

“A bit of an open mind eh? I like it. If you don’t mind, can I toss him in a bit of guard duty as well?”

“I’d be fine with that, sir.” I said before Ennarion could answer, though he did give a bit of a smile.

“Excellent! Glad to see you can stand up and answer questions on your own Brandon. That’s important, especially considering where you are heading. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the Ladies, and we can get going. As for the guard duty, I promise it’ll be light and you won’t be put on your own. Think on it today, but if you want I can give you a bit of practice on the hardest watch.” As he was talking, Derrick led me to the last wagon. I didn’t appreciate it immediately, but his take charge attitude kept me from a lingering goodbye to everything I had known, and also kept me from seeing the sad smile Ennarion gave before he headed back into the city.

“Catherine! Katy! This here is Brandon, and he wants to see a bit of the hunter experience on our trip!” Derrick called out to two nearly identical women. Dressed in muted leathers, they had a multitude of weapons on them. Most involved flat knives with next to no handle, but they both had a gladius at their right hip and a small buckler at their feet. The only way I could possibly tell the difference between them was the incredibly dark, nearing black hair of Katy instead of the more brownish tint that Catherine had.

Catherine was the first to answer, and she did so with a sadistic smile, “Oh Derrick, you brought us a gift? You know we are weak against fresh meat!”

“You know the rules, girls. No breaking the paying customers.” Derrick scolded.

Katy responded this time, “But just look at him. Farmer or a miner, you don’t put on muscles like that without some type of hard labor. Do you really think little old me could break such a stout young buck?”

Derrick turned and walked away, laughing as he did, “BWAHAHAHAHA! BEHAVE LADIES, HE’S YOUR PROBLEM NOW!”

Having lost my protector, I nervously climbed into the back of the wagon. Sure, the majority of me realized that they were mostly joking, but there’s always that one part. Niggling at the back of your head. Insisting that maybe, just maybe, they were being serious. I looked up to see Catherine staring at me with one eyebrow raised, something I had always wanted to be able to do. Once I looked at her, she turned to Katy and the oddest thing happened. Within the next ten seconds, the only thing they did was change facial expressions yet I would swear that they just went through nearly ten minutes of conversation before bursting into giggles.

“Here rookie. We’ll get you trained up for what you need, but before we get going you’ll need this,” Katy said, reaching into a bag at her side and handing me a scarf. At my confused look, she showed me what to do, “Put it over your lower face like this. Caravans kick up a lot of dust, and since we are in the back, we will be getting the most of it. This will at least filter a bit out as you breathe.” Nodding in understanding, I copied what they did as we finally got underway.

For the first hour, we were mostly silent as the caravan went along. The girls continued their silent communication, and I watched as we gradually left the only home I had ever known. I was just starting to drift off a bit out of boredom when Katy startled me, “Ready for training Brandon?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I nodded.

“Excellent. First, we will do a bit of magic practice. While usually only hunters use this trick, it can really be done by anyone with enough magic. When the first vampires appeared, humans had limited weapons to battle them with. The most potent was the light of the sun, but the vampires could easily avoid it. So Solaris gave us the limited ability to imbue the light of the sun into steel. While we can imbue it ten times per day, the magic instantly bursts out once it contacts something. And so each morning, all hunters will imbue ten arrows with the light of the sun. The enchantment will last for three days.” I nodded along, as the explanation was rather simple.

Catherine continued the explanation, “So. Easiest way to do it is to feel the light of Solaris in your chest. Once you feel it, imagine it running down your arm and into the arrowhead. Make sure that the arrowhead is being pinched safely between your fingers. You wouldn’t want to cut yourself. And don’t worry, it usually takes a while for people to pick this skill up. But if you want to be a hunter, this skill is a must.”

Again I nodded, taking a breath to try and calm my nerves. She had given me an obviously blunted practice arrow, but that was fine. I wasn’t used to handling them anyway. I immediately got to work, pinching the base where the arrow met the shaft between my fingers, and trying to fill myself with the light of Solaris. How? I tried thinking of the first time I had seen the sun rise in the church, and how a five-year-old me had gazed in wonder at the shattered light that filled the church. That gave me a tingle of something, but it just didn’t work. Molly’s first time at the church, any one of the several weddings I had attended, both did nothing. There weren’t a lot of major events in my life, so it was sooner rather than later when I made it to my death. While I still had trouble remembering what happened afterward, I had no problems remembering my final moment. How my fangs had slid into Laura’s neck, her hot blood filling my mouth. And how the entire time I was drinking from her, I felt a burning on my back. It started out as pain, but changed swiftly. Instead of the pain of sitting too close to a bonfire, it was the pain of something moving through me and burning out unwanted parts. As they disappeared, a gentle light was left behind. One that approved of me choosing the harder road, yet felt sorry for all the trials that it knew I was going to have to face. Was this what parents felt when their children moved on with their lives?

Getting back to the task at hand, I grabbed onto that feeling, letting it fill my chest. The light and warmth easily moved where I wanted it to, almost seeming to fly down my arm and into my fingers. And that’s where it all went wrong. I could literally feel it swirling in my fingertips, but it just wouldn’t leave my body and enter the arrow. The longer I tried, the more frustrated I got, and the more I tried to force it. I didn’t even notice when my fingers started glowing.

“BRANDON!”

*CRACK!*

A slap to the face brought me back to my senses, and I saw Katy and Catherine staring at me with looks of fear on their faces. Katy was the first to lay into me, “WHAT THE HELL, KID? ARE YOU TRYING TO BLOW UP YOUR HAND?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” I asked, confused.

“You nearly blew up your hand by overcharging it with magic you dolt!” Before she could continue, Catherine put a calming hand on her forearm.

Catherine spoke while Katy took a few breaths, “Easy. He didn’t know, and it is our failure for not teaching him properly. Anyway, with magic, force is never the way to go Brandon. Once you feel it resisting, you need to try another approach. Simply forcing it will result in a few bad outcomes. If you overcharge an item, it will explode. As we mostly imbue in steel, you can imagine how dangerous that can be. If you can’t get it to enter an item, it will eventually overcharge your own body, and you will lose whatever body part you are trying to imbue with. For most people this is their dominant hand, and that will drastically curtail their abilities. Overcharged spells can either warp and come out with unintended effects, or they will blast backward into the mage and kill them.” My face had gone pale somewhere in the middle of that, and I saw Katy gradually relaxing. Somewhere in the middle my vision had switched as well, and I could see that despite her calm appearance, Catherine’s heart was racing just as fast as Katy’s was.