When the party met up early the next morning, Edwin could tell that none of them had gotten much sleep. To be fair, neither had he, but then he didn’t need nearly as much as they did. Either way, the first few hours of marching down the road passed in lethargic silence. By the time the sun rose, raising his teammates’ spirits with it, they were almost at the junction that turned towards the fort.

“So, what else did Master Hector tell you?” Edwin asked Bordan.

“Hmm? Oh, all kinds of things. Logistical stuff like how many adventurers we can expect and when. The reasoning behind the allocation, so I can explain it in case the general asks. And then we talked about what my role is going to be.”

“What is your role, exactly?” Leodin asked. “It wasn’t really made clear during the announcement.”

“It’s complicated,” Bordan sighed. “There hasn’t really been anything like it before, so we’re all making things up as we go. The whole thing is a jumbled mess. Technically, I don’t have any authority over anyone – I’m only there as an advisor to the division general. On the other hand, the agreement between the duke and the Chaptermaster states that we adventurers get a say in decisions that affect us. Now, that’s not a right to refuse orders or anything, but it means that we need to at least be part of the process.

“What makes it worse is that we’re not part of the normal command structure. The Guild as a whole was placed directly under the office of the general of the army, so technically General Marcus is our only superior officer. He has probably placed each chapter under their respective division general, but again, the structure is a messy patchwork that relies mostly on people doing what they’re supposed to because they agree it needs to be done. The other adventurers aren’t used to how things work in the military, and they’re far less comfortable with rigid command structures. If we don’t tread lightly, the general displeasure of being pulled into this could easily turn into something worse.”

“You think they might mutiny?” Edwin said with furrowed brows.

“Not really, but if you want to, you can do a lot of damage without actively being insubordinate. This war is going to be bad enough, we can’t deal with infighting on top of everything else.”

“So, your job is to keep the rest of us in line?” Leodin asked archly.

“No,” Bordan said, frowning. “My job is to make sure the leadership doesn’t mismanage us so badly that this ever becomes a problem, while at the same time advising the general on how to actually utilize adventurers in a fight, because they most likely have no idea what we can and can’t do. All that without having an official rank that I can point to. If people don’t agree to play ball, things are going to get nasty quickly.” Bordan sighed. “Right now, I wish I’d taken the offer and gone to officer school. I’m really not qualified to advise on division-level tactics.”

“You could’ve been an officer?” Edwin quizzed him. “Why didn’t you?”

“I was offered to change tracks, but I didn’t think it was for me,” Bordan answered with a shrug. “Still don’t.”

Edwin wanted to dig deeper, as even after all these months together he knew very little about Bordan’s time in the army, but by the tight-lipped response, he could tell that the other man still didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, he turned to his last teammate, the only one who hadn’t participated in the conversation so far.

“You alright, Salissa? You haven’t said a word all morning.”

The young mage looked up; her face troubled. “I just… I’m, still trying to wrap my head around everything. I don’t understand how all that could’ve happened. Why didn’t the Inquisition stop them?”

“You mean Marrad’s College Council?” Edwin asked. “Because they couldn’t.”

“Wait, that’s a good question,” Leodin interjected. “You always hear about how strong and ruthless the Inquisition is, but they only stood by when a lot of important people got killed and the council broke their laws about war. Doesn’t make any sense, does it? Are they in on it too?”

Edwin furrowed his brows, then nodded in understanding. “I think I see where your confusion comes from. First of all, can you tell me which laws were actually broken?”

“I mean, they killed a bunch of people, right?” Leodin said, suddenly sounding unsure. “That’s just murder. Or assassination or something.”

“Right, but they never figured out who did it, or more importantly, how it was done. We only know that it had to be murder because the timing is so conspicuous.”

“Okay, but what about joining the war?” Leodin pressed on. “That was against the law, right?”

Edwin shook his head. “There is an article in the Laws that’s meant for emergencies. Much like how we adventurers need to go fight because otherwise the duchy might be gone, the founders of the College understood that if there was no circumstance in which they were allowed to fight, the kingdom might be invaded and every last non-mage killed and they would have to stand by and watch it happen. Whoever is pulling the strings over there killed enough councilors until they had a majority, then made it so that the article was activated. Unless you can prove that the vote was rigged, it’s all perfectly legal.”

“So what?” Leodin said, angrily kicking a pebble off the road. “It’s obvious who did it, and why they did it! How can they get away with it?”

“That comes down to how the Inquisition works,” Edwin answered. “There are less than a hundred inquisitors on the entire continent – probably closer to fifty. How do you think they keep control of the mage population? It works because even though they are feared, everybody knows that they are a vital part of the system and that as long as you don’t break the laws, they can’t touch you. Part of their strength is that they are the only mages who aren’t subordinate to the Councils. They don’t have any superiors and are only accountable to themselves.

“It’s an incredibly powerful position, especially if you consider that they are authorized to sentence people to death on the spot, and it only works because the other mages trust them to make the right decision – and they only trust them because the Inquisition always follows not just the spirit, but the word of the law as well, no matter what. If they started to go after people without evidence, people would lose faith in them. If they don’t have the support of the majority, those who want to break free from the rules could drum up enough support to dismantle the entire organization within a week or two. That means that even if it is blindingly obvious that crimes are being committed, as long as they don’t have any evidence, their hands are tied. I’m sure nobody hates this situation as much as they do, and if any of them have slept a wink since all of this started, I’d be more than surprised.”

“That doesn’t sound as powerful as I thought,” Leodin said with a frown.

Edwin chuckled. “Towards those who break the law it doesn’t get more powerful than them, but if you don’t do anything wrong, they can’t touch you. They’re quite extreme in that regard.”

“Look,” Bordan interrupted them, pointing. “We’re here.”

The road had been meandering through the thick northern forests for a while, but the next bend spilled them out onto a massive clearing. The forest had been cut down in a wide area, and the tall palisade that rose in front of them immediately answered the question of where the trees had disappeared to. They stopped, marveling at the size of the construction before them. It was much larger than any village or even town Edwin had come across, and with the wooden guard towers that peaked up from the wall at even intervals, it looked more like a small city than something that hadn’t existed a mere two years ago.

“Wow.” Leodin sighed. “Are they all like this?”

“No,” Bordan answered slowly, just as caught up in his examination as the rest of them. “They’re all at least this large, but I’ve never seen one made from wood before.”

“They used what they had access to, I guess,” Edwin speculated. “And this far up north they don’t have to worry about it being attacked either. The wall is probably mostly to keep monsters out.”

“And for training,” Bordan added. “Fighting from fortifications is something you need to learn too.”

He shook himself out of his reverie and turned to his companions. “Well then, shall we?”

Falling in behind their leader, the party made their way toward the gate.