"Please don't judge me just by looking at me. I believe I would be a real asset to Deva's grand military. For example, I runed these bracers myself,” Hugo said and held up his arms so the runes were visible on his forearms. "Three different effects and two lingua, and that is just a fraction of my capabilities."

The attendant didn't seem like he had a ready answer. Hugo wasn't even sure if he knew what was impressive for a runist and what wasn't.

A nox walked up and patted the human on the shoulder as he said, “Don’t worry about it, Marcus. I will take this one from here. Sir? Come on to the back and we will do a full interview.”

Hugo followed the woman, she was dressed in tan clothes with chevrons on her shoulders. She was clearly an officer in the Deva military, a Major if he was reading things correctly. Military rankings were in the packet of information he had been given by the sentinels.

“Please, take a seat,” she said as she arrived at her office. It was a small room in the back of the building.

Hugo sat down and said, “Thank you for seeing me.”

“Of course, of course. We make it a habit of talking to all of the soulmarked that come in here, even if we discover it isn’t a good fit later. So, what is it that brings you here?”

“I would like to discuss joining the military. I wanted to see what the pay was, how long I would have to commit for, all that,” Hugo said casually.

“You have come to the right place. We have a variety of positions available with four to eight year commitments. Pay is based on position, but I am sure that we can find a spot for you in Deva’s military. Despite what that grump said, we are always on the lookout for talented runists. How long have you been soulmarked?”

Hugo smiled and said, “Just a few years, but I have already learned several runes.”

“Glad to hear it. Talented soulmarked are able to rise quickly in Deva’s military,” she said, “Tell me a little more about yourself.” She glanced at his ID papers as he talked.

“Not much to say. I am twenty one years old. I have a mother and two sisters. I have been working since I was sixteen, and I made my own bracers here,” Hugo said and showed off his work.

“I am guessing that you have been a harvester before now, right?” When Hugo nodded she continued, “What made you decide to look into military service instead?”

“I have always wanted to join the military and protect the fatherland. My friends wanted to be harvesters instead. I’ve been with them for the last several years,” Hugo said and sighed. “There were six of us on the team, only two of us returned this last time. I... I don’t want to do that kind of work anymore. I need to do something that doesn’t remind me of them.”

She looked genuinely sorry and said, “My condolences on your loss.”

“Thank you. So, what kind of position could I qualify for?”

“Well, you came at a good time, we have a few openings in special forces that just opened up,” she said with a smile.

“Special forces?”

“Yes, there are three main divisions in the military. We have the home force, the general forces, and special forces. We usually have runists and ritualists join the special forces, they get different projects to work on so we can use their talents to the fullest.”

Hugo nodded along. It made sense to keep runists and ritualists off the front lines. Their main stats weren’t combat focused, so they would be better used for their brains, not their brawn. “Alright, I am interested in that type of position. Can you tell me more about it?”

“You would have to sign up for four years and we would provide everything you need, training, high quality food, a place to stay, uniforms, everything. In addition, the pay starts at two gold a month.”

“That sounds good, but would it be possible to negotiate a better pay? Like I said, I already know eight runes. That’s a pretty good start, right?” Hugo said. He would accept any offer, but he wanted to make this seem believable.

“That is impressive for someone your age and resources,” she said, “However pay is based on position within the army. The higher you rise, the better the pay. I am sure with your skills, they will promote you in no time.”

“Alright, where do I sign?” Hugo said.

She smiled widely and said, “I will have you sign a few things today and then we can set up an appointment for your loyalty oath and official entry into the military.”

“Loyalty oath?”

“Oh don’t worry about that, it’s something everyone goes through every few months. Our newest marshal instituted it. He is a shadow mage, but one of the good ones. The oath just makes it so no one can betray our great nation. We haven’t had a single defector since he instituted it two years ago,” she said.

Hugo smiled and nodded. Internally, he was swearing. He didn’t want to talk to a shadow mage, let alone make an oath to one. Maybe the other spies were already under his spell and literally couldn’t betray Deva. They assumed that everything was progressing fine, but maybe the sentinel spies were feeding command bad information.

He needed to check in with the colonel.

After he signed all of her paperwork and presented his ID, he walked straight to the post office. He composed the letter as if he was writing about the loss of his harvester teammates to the surviving family. The first letter of each word spelled out, “is loyalty oath ok?”

It was a pretty simple code, and it made his letter kind of awkward to read, but he needed to get the message across quickly. He paid extra to make it a pulse note so it would get there right away. He left his contact info so they could reach him at the hotel.

That gave him the rest of the day off, but he was too nervous to wander around. He headed straight to the hotel. After he finished dinner at the hotel, he was relieved when a steward gave him a pulsenote.

He opened it up and quickly read the first letter of each word. It spelled out “save Deva from itself.”

Hugo laughed when he read it. The colonel had an excellent point. He could be completely loyal to Deva by stopping them from causing the cascade failure on the shimmer veins. The resulting explosion was going to destroy Deva too and a loyal soldier would stop them from attempting the attack in the first place.

It still didn’t account for the fact that Hugo would be under a form of mind control. That made Hugo uncomfortable. He wished that he had been able to put more points into wisdom so he could resist the shadow magic. As it stood now, he might be compelled to tell the marshal everything.

Worst case scenario was that he was forced to tell them that he knew for certain that their plans would blow up Deva. If they don’t believe him, he would get sent back in time and he would just try again. If they do believe him they would abandon those plans and all eight cities are saved. He would be stuck working for Deva for the rest of his life.

Could he give up his freedom to save the wheel?

He found that he could. He often thought of himself as inherently selfish, but the last few years had been changing that about himself. Maybe it was the different perspectives, maybe it was him just growing up.

Either way, he was going to take the oath tomorrow.

Hopefully, the worst case didn’t happen anyway. He felt like he could save the city and sneak out before they made him retake the oath. The fact that the marshal had them swear it every few months meant that it was a temporary effect.

He left his hotel and made a few discrete inquiries. He needed to have a backup plan in case this oath thing caused him a problem. Eventually he found a reasonable solution and paid a man the rest of his money to set it up. It wasn’t great, but it was better than nothing.

The next day he found himself standing outside of the military base, escorted by the recruiter. She passed along his paperwork and they spent ten minutes working him through their internal checks and procedures.

Security really was tight, but they still took just about anyone with the right domain. They must really need more runists. Hugo guessed that they needed people to hook up the mana cores to the shimmer vein. It would mean that he would be in the perfect position to sabotage the process. Maybe the colonel really knew what he was doing when he sent him in here.

After he got through the gates, the recruiter introduced him to his new commanding officer, a human named Major Ahmed. The officer didn’t have time for him though, and sent him to go get his oath taken care of first.

They stuck Hugo in a large room, and told him that he would pick him back up after the oath. At first this didn’t bother him at all. But as time went on, he got more and more nervous. He was starting to regret agreeing to subject himself to shadow magic. It was too late to back out now though.

Eventually, more soldiers trickled into the meeting room. The distraction was welcome, even though none of them talked to him. As it got closer to the top of the hour, the talking subsided and everyone sat still in their chairs. Hugo copied their stiff posture.

The marshal walked into the front of the room and looked over the assembled soldiers. He was a young looking human, someone not much older than Hugo. He would have guessed that the marshal was a noble if they were in any of the other cities. Deva was different though, they didn’t have nobility here. It was governed by a collection of influential citizens, led by the President.

“Glad to see you all again,” the marshal said, “And welcome to the new recruit.” He waved towards Hugo. “Let’s not waste time and get right to it, shall we? Repeat after me.” As he spoke, a wave of black mana poured out of the man, like a fog bank rolling in. The cloud reached everyone’s feet as they talked in unison.

“I swear to uphold the values of our great nation. I swear to protect Deva at all costs. I will obey my superior officer. I will return to make this oath to Marshal Botha again. This I swear!”

Hugo felt the oath take hold in his mind as he spoke. This wasn’t an inconspicuous suggestion, it was a command deep in his psyche. He shivered as the oath ended and the marshal walked out. He could feel a headache brewing.

Soldiers came in and distributed small cups of liquid. Hugo took a drink and discovered it was a fast acting painkiller. That was nice of them.

He examined the effect of the oath on himself. Unlike his experience with the fox gang boss, he could feel the magic’s effect on his mind. He mentally probed its influence on him. The first part didn’t affect him much. He didn’t know much about the values of this nation, so he couldn’t uphold them. The second condition, protecting Deva, was strong. He felt the strong need to protect the nation. Luckily, the colonel was right, protecting them from themselves counted, and he still felt good about sabotaging their attempts to create a cascade failure on the shimmer veins.

The command to obey his superior officer was going to be a problem. He found that he couldn’t even seriously consider disobeying a direct order. His mind just shied away from the thought. He would have to be careful about what he talked about with his new superior. Good thing he had set up his contingency plan.

He was the last one waiting in the meeting room after everyone else had left. Major Ahmed must be busy. He hadn’t been commanded to wait here, so Hugo could leave if he wanted to, but he didn’t know where else to go. So he waited there for an hour and a half after the oath.

Finally, the major poked his head into the room and said, “Come on, let’s go.” As they walked across the base he continued, “All new recruits need to go through basic training. I need you to be minimally competent before I put you to work. That will take about a month or so, depending on when you can pass the tests. I am ordering you to be a good student for Instructor Cebisa and to learn everything you can.”

Hugo smiled and said, “Yes sir!” He had an order from his commanding officer to learn everything. He was going to use that to the fullest.