23. Rohak
Chapter 23
Rohak
A s I predicted, we arrived in Vespera around an hour and a half after we crossed the border out of Hestin. While Hestin was a larger territory, it was dominated by one primary city with sprawling country estates and extensive farmland. Vespera, in contrast, was primarily urban. It was a smaller territory, mileage-wise, and the edges continually expanded and grew over time until it seemed like the entirety of the territory was all just one large city—so much so that everyone simply referred to the entirety of the territory as Vespera. That’s not to say that everything was urbanized—there were still a plethora of hamlets and smaller villages and even some sparse arable land used primarily to grow grain—but those places were becoming fewer and far between.
The constant bustle and sounds of people were comforting, and staying in any other place that didn’t have the same sounds as a city unsettled my soul and made it difficult to sleep.
Why would someone ever want to live in a place where there aren’t other people or modern conveniences?
There were some territories in the far North, and even some of the Border Territories, where people thrived in seclusion and lived off the land. There was even a rumor of a group of people—nomads, really—who lived north of the Ice Shelf in complete isolation .
I shuddered at the thought as I strode up the steps that led into the administration building. That was another thing that I loved about Vespera—everything necessary to run the city and its allies was separated into appropriate buildings away from the main living space. Alois and I still hosted some meetings, especially those relating to public concerns, in a meeting room on the main floor of the palace, but for the most part, the palace was reserved strictly for our private residences and the occasional social event.
As the General of Mages, the majority of my work took place in the barracks and extensive training grounds connected to the Academy, and the training grounds are where I would much prefer to spend my time. I felt at home on the sand or in the grass, working with Mages and their Vessels to create a truly formidable fighting force. But, as Alois’ second, there was an incredible amount of paperwork and strategy, which is where my focus needed to be today, no matter how much I longed to unleash some magic with my Mages.
I sighed as I pulled off my gloves after entering through the main doors. The administration building was a modest two-story structure that held, as the name suggested, offices for the administrators within Vespera. It was a grey stone building with floors to match, and lights illuminated the hallways through a bit of magical science. I wasn’t sure how the magic worked, but if I clicked a certain button, some type of Fire Magic would ignite somewhere and miraculously light a series of orbs secured to the ceiling.
Like I said, magical science. If I really wanted to know how those orbs were lit and the magic behind them, I could speak with one of the Mages in the Magical Experiments Department. But they were all a bit . . . odd, to put it nicely, and I had really no desire to investigate the nitty-gritty details that I wouldn’t even comprehend. So, I simply let my understanding stay as “I pressed a button and the orbs illuminated.”
I quickly climbed the stairs at the back of the building that led to my office on the second floor. There weren’t many offices up here, just mine, Alois’, and the dean of the Academy, but both Alois and the dean tended to complete their administrative tasks in their own buildings. While I could do the same, I knew that I would never accomplish anything if I brought my work with me to the training building, so I kept my office here.
When I reached the door to my office, I placed my right hand on another glass orb. While this one looked like the orbs on the ceiling, its purpose was to verify my magical signature. It was an extra mode of security for the rooms on the second floor, which I was extremely grateful for. If the rebellion really wanted to cripple us, all they had to do was steal a few documents from my office and our entire strategy would be revealed. If someone tried to break into my office, however, the magic inside the orb would alert its Mage, who would then alert the nearby guards.
Once the orb recognized my magical signature, my door’s wards were deactivated, and I was able to enter my office. The room was narrow, but extremely long, spanning the entire length of the building, and I used every inch of available space. There were no windows—a security thing, again—and the walls were decorated with maps of Elyria, both past and present, drawings of battle plans and formations, thoughts on ways to better utilize our Mages, and current troop numbers, just to name a few. I had started to categorize everything at one point, but ultimately abandoned that venture as work continued to pile up with no end in sight.
I reached my desk, a dark wood monstrosity with carvings that depicted the birth of Vespera. The triple-wide top was currently covered in mountains of papers and requests, all of which I would have to get through and address at some point today if I wanted to rejoin the Mages later tomorrow.
I sat heavily in my chair, blew out a breath, and rubbed my temples before rolling my neck and beginning the never-ending paperwork. I sifted through papers with no expectation of actually finishing my paperwork this afternoon, especially after our travel back from Hestin. I also didn’t expect my office would be a constant revolving door of people needing to see me.
The Experimental Mages needed to know if I wanted a new prototype of the weapon they created that helped to focus bursts of a Mage’s magic. Their first prototype had blown up—literally—in the face of Destin, a Fire Mage, which landed him in the infirmary for a week.
Art, one of the Mages from the Magical Experiments Department, hefted the weapon up onto his shoulder as he spoke. “You sure you don’t want to test her out again?” He patted the weapon affectionately. “Charise promises not to blow up . . . again. Well, at least she thinks she won’t. Can’t be 100 percent certain on these things, if you know what I mean.”
I absolutely did not know what he meant, I only dealt in certainties in my line of work. “Quite positive, Art. Work out the exploding thing and then we can talk again.”
“Well alright then, General, I’ll just give Charise here to Gene. He’s been hankering to try ’er out.” And with that, he gave Charise another pat, spun on his heel, and whistled as he left my office, leaving the door open as he went.
I had no sooner closed the door and resettled into my chair, reading a petition from some group or other wanting to host some sort of public picnic to support something about trees in the city square— why? Just why?— before there was a knock on my door and the consultant for inter-territory commerce entered.
Apparently, there was an issue with lumber coming in from some of the Western Territories that were dominated by the Runewood, that needed my immediate attention.
Why is this my responsibility?
The afternoon progressed in a similar fashion. I’d pacify one concern and settle into my paperwork, only to be interrupted again by some other menial question or task. By the end of the day, further paperwork piled up on my desk—the secretary for the administration building continually dropped off the mail every hour or so—and I reread the picnic petition at least fifteen times.
By the time what felt like the thirtieth knock sounded on my door, I was agitated and irritable beyond belief.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I hastily signed my name on the bottom of the petition before barking, “What?”
Lex d’Talionis, an instructor at the Academy and one of our most powerful Mages, stuck his head in before grimacing.
“Uh, this seems like a bad time, sir.”
I tossed my pen down and scrubbed my hand down my face. “No, Lex,” I said, voice still muffled by my hand, “this is a perfect time. I have a literal thousand letters to get through, it feels like every person in the city needs me for something trivial, and I’m fairly confident that I just agreed to a petition for a nudist picnic in support of fostering baby trees.” Lex bit his lip to cover up a laugh. “But by all means, come on in!”
“Great!” A smile broke across his face.
Lex had been with Alois and I since we first took power some fifteen years ago, but he was significantly younger than us—a fact that was highlighted by both his glowingly smooth skin and jovial personality, untampered by cynicism that comes with age and experience. Or it could be from all the sex that damn Pleasure Mage had. Rumors floated about the training grounds of the Academy, and they all pointed to an incredibly active and rather adventurous sex life. I couldn’t even picture some of the things he was rumored to get up to.
Literally, get up to.
“What do you want?” I snapped, probably ruder than necessary. Lex’s smile faded a bit at the corners but picked up again after a second. The guy was like a puppy, it was hard to stay mad at him and he never held a grudge.
People should be more like Lex .
“I heard we have a new Creation Mage joining us!” Lex was practically bouncing in his seat.
I frowned.
“What? Under whose orders?”
“You didn’t hear? I thought . . . well I thought Lord d’Refan would have told you already, considering you’re his second and all,” Lex said, cocking his head at me in question.
I rubbed my forehead again.
“Lord d’Refan.”
“Yep!”
“Told you that we have a Creation Mage joining us.”
“Now you’re getting it!”
There really was no ruining Lex’s mood, apparently.
He also is apparently struggling to pick up on social cues. Or just blatantly ignoring them . I went with the latter after I removed my hand and studied Lex again. He wore a shit-eating grin, and I knew the kid was fucking with me, to some extent.
“You knew Lord d’Refan didn’t run this by me,” I deadpanned.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lex said, his grin still in place and widening at the corners, if that was even possible. “I also heard it’s a girl.” He dropped his voice at the last part as if we were sharing a secret of some sort.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. He’s bringing her here? And why didn’t I know about this? ”
Lex held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Hey, man, I don’t know why he didn’t tell you. Lover’s quarrel, perhaps?” He shrugged his shoulders and dropped his hands. “At any rate, I heard she’ll be joining us sooner rather than later, like within the next month. Figured you’d want to know so that way, you know, you can do whatever it is you do to prepare the Mages and whatever.” He threw his hands around in a circular motion which encompassed the entirety of my office and the destruction on my desk.
“Anything else, Lex?” I was growing impatient and was suddenly exhausted.
Lex picked up a random missive on my desk and studied it, or at least appeared to study it. “Do you get a lot of these? Requests to parade naked through the streets?” When I didn’t answer he just continued on as if I had. “You should approve them more often. Now that sounds like my kind of party.”
“Out with it, Lex,” I practically growled.
“Okay, okay, no need to go all bear on me,” he said as he dropped the paper back on my desk and crossed one booted foot over his leg. “Apparently she’s also joining the Academy.”
While that information was new, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Ellowyn was from a wealthy family loyal to Alois and had emerged as an incredibly powerful Creation Mage. As much as I disliked the girl, even I could appreciate the waves of power that flowed from her after she Awakened.
“And she’s staying in the palace,” Lex finished in a rush.
What the fuck .
“WHAT,” I barked. My home with Alois was my safe space. We had an agreement that we didn’t even entertain women at the palace—we had a separate home for just that purpose, not that I’d used it. But still, the palace was ours , and now he was inviting her to live in it?
“And that’s my cue to leave!” Lex hurriedly pushed out of the chair and made it to the door of my office in three long strides. I was still so fuming and processing the information Lex dumped on me that I almost didn’t hear his parting remarks. “Oh, and maybe keep it between us? That I was the one that told you, that is?” His eyes, so normally full of laughter, were serious for once.
I gave him one stiff nod and his smile returned.
“Great!” He rapped his knuckles on the door frame as he went to leave but stopped for a second time. “Maybe you should hire someone to, you know, go through all the nudist petitions and stuff. Because, uh, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to sign what you signed today.” And with that, he left.
I quickly grabbed the paper he was looking at earlier, desperate for something I could control. I crunched it in my fist in my haste and had to smooth it against the top of my desk before I could read it.
We, the Nudists for the Utopia of Trees, or NUT for short, request to have a gathering in the front courtyard of the palace on the first day of the next moon cycle in order to bring attention to the unfair and destructive force that is the lumber industry. We also request the participation of Lord d’Refan and General d’Alvey to show solidarity with our cause.
I crumpled the missive into a ball before tossing it into the unlit fireplace. Their name was fucking NUT. I ran my hands through my hair and groaned before looking at the utter disaster that was my office. I hadn’t even made a dent in the paperwork added to the piles on my desk while we were gone, my to-do list was a mile long, and I needed to visit with the Mages sooner rather than later.
Maybe Lex was right, I do need someone to help with all of this administrative shit.
I sighed and rose from my chair, deciding that all of these issues would still be here in the morning. And it looked like it was going to be an early morning with everything I had left to do. Most importantly, however, was the conversation I needed to have with Alois. I clicked the button on my wall, extinguishing the orbs on the ceiling, and reactivated the security on my door before exiting the administration building and starting the short walk back to the palace—my home and, apparently, Ellowyn’s.