The Village garrison maintained its main barracks on the east side of Wilamark. It was a large building with reinforced walls and a tower on the left side of the building. Built of stone and wood, the top of the tower was fitted with a Ballista. The walls of the barracks were practically a small fort; in a larger town, it might have been a proper castle. Wilamark wasn’t large enough to justify that kind of expense, so instead it was given a modest fort. Terrabeth described it to Arlie as they approached.
“Naturally, in case of an assault, the garrison is expected to be the safest place in the village. If we can’t flee the village, we are expected to shelter here. Not ideal, but there is enough space for the village to hunker down, barely and not exactly in comfort.”
She replied, “We had something similar in Voros. Any idea how large the guard is supposed to be?”
“As villages go, we are on the more populous side, the guard is supposed to be about two hundred strong. Basically every family provides at least one son or daughter to the guard.”
Arlie did some quick mental math, a guard of two hundred with each family contributing at least one, meant at most two hundred families, the typical family would number two adults and at least six children, those numbers were in line with what you would see in her home village, but some families would contribute more than one child to the guard, so the population would be lower, high end sixteen, but more likely to be somewhere around twelve hundred. Her home village had around a hundred families with most contributing two children to the guard, but it was a very different place and Voros took security much more seriously. She gave the village a second look.“Village seems a bit small then.”
“Well not everyone lives inside the walls, about half the families have their homesteads outside the walls and closer to their fields.”
Arlie glanced up, “Wouldn’t have worked in Voros, but we don’t farm. Some families are hunters by trade, and there are a fair number in Voros as a result. Our main industry is woodcutting, we sell the wood in Arcs, and in turn buy what we need, while our hunting provides meat for our pots, and furs to line our beds or sell in town for extra cash. My family, on the other hand, is in the potion making business, we grow, harvest and utilize local herbs to make high value potions.”
“Given your title, it’s hard to picture you as a village girl.”
Arlie sighed, “Would you believe me when I tell you that I didn’t even know until a few weeks ago that I was a princess?
“Not really,” replied Terrabeth.
Lily chuckled, “Well she didn’t, we found out together... from a dragon of all things.”
Terrabeth blinked, “That sounds like a story.”
Arlie groaned at the reminder of that story, “Yeah it’s one I’d like to forget.”
“That bad?” she replied as they reached the gate into the barracks compound. The gate was open, with two guards on either side of the door, a squad of four was leaving as they arrived. Arlie noticed the guards at the door were both male, while three of the guards in the departing squad were female. Normally, she wouldn’t have paid them as much attention, but after last night she was looking for anything out of place, but she didn’t find anything. They looked attentive, all properly armed with a spear and a shortsword on their hip. Each of them was protected with standard-issue armor, mainly made of leather with the key parts reinforced with thin steel plates. Nothing fancy, fairly cheap to produce, didn’t impede mobility and offered acceptable protection of one’s vitals, making it a common choice for village militias and garrisons, not to mention many towns used much the same layout of armor protection.
The guard nearest them noticed their approach, focusing on Terrabeth. “Terra? What brings you back to Wilamark?”
“Escort mission, but that doesn’t matter right now. Is the captain in?”
“Yes, she’s in her office.”
Terrabeth frowned, “Her?”
“Old Perth finally stepped down, but you know he was getting on in years. His Daughter was promoted to captain, that was last month.”
“Last time I was here, he didn’t say anything like that and I thought Darkin was in the running to be captain.”
“Yeah he was, but Darkin decided he was too big for our little village. Started talking about being a knight like young Terra. Finally left to actually apply last week.”
Terrabeth shifted, “First I heard of it.”
The guard shrugged, “Yeah, well, it was a bit of a surprise to us too.” He gestured. “Well, better head in sooner rather than later.”
The group shared looks and headed on in. Arlie drew closer to Terrabeth, “What do you think of all this?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I don’t like it. Everything seems strangely normal come morning, but last night?”
Arlie nodded, “Yes something does seem a little off. A rogue mind mage perhaps?”
Terrabeth glanced at Mirrelle at the mention of a mind mage, then said, “What makes you think that?”
As they walked into the building, she replied, “You seemed to think Ren’s behavior was unusual, and I found the Innkeeper’s state of dress interesting. How were things at your Mom’s?”
“Well Mom was asleep when we arrived, just the same as it had been...”
“At our inn, I assume you know her better. Was her state of dress off?”
“Well, she came out naked, but Mom’s an imp, it’s not unusual for her to walk around naked.” She frowned, “Right, and she was visibly aroused. Like Beryl, now that I think about it.”
Arlie blinked, “Beryl? That the Innkeeper?”
Terrabeth nodded.
“She was aroused?”
Terrabeth answered just as they arrived near the office of the captain, “Her pussy was visibly wet.”
Arlie blinked; she hadn’t noticed. She sighed and then knocked on the door. A voice from beyond bade them to enter, and the group filed in. Thron and Horon stayed in the hall, along with Clara and Mirrelle. The twins Lily and Rose hesitated for a moment, and shared looks before following the rest of them into the office.
It was a spartan affair, built more for function than anything else. On the left wall was a local map, with pins and other markings on it. There was a big desk in the middle of the room, a young woman sat behind it, looking a bit small in her armor. It was clearly new, and of more expensive construction than standard issue guard armor. Less leather, more and thicker plates, but with the same general markings of the Wilamark Garrison. She looked up, and locked onto Tanyi. “What brings a knight commander to our little village?”
The young woman was quite pretty, high cheekbones, large eyes, silky hair, and a strong chin. Combined with the cut, she had an almost boyish look. Arlie was about to speak, but Tanyi spoke first. “Just a stop on our way to the Blue Temple, but we came in late last night. Couldn’t help noticing the guard on the West Gate was rather lax. Only two guards on duty, and one of them was asleep. The other was naked, and pleasuring herself in the gate house. Not exactly something I can let stand. I’m given to understand that you are new to the job, but that is no excuse for allowing such lax security, especially given recent events.”
The woman gave her a look. “I’m not so sure that’s needed. The Knights of Mylria can be here in a day. There are barely any monsters within a day’s march of here. Bandit attacks are unheard of, and last I checked the only hellspawn even remotely close to here are bottled up on Hiwari. I’ll talk to the guards on duty.” She glanced at a sheet on her desk, “Ren and Brega.”
Tanyi stepped forward, “That’s not good enough. Proper security requires that at least two guardsmen man each watch tower, and that every gate have at least four on duty at any given time. With the hellspawn threat, Baroness Valenflame wants double that for all villages. I know the memo was sent out, why aren’t you fulfilling it?”
The woman replied in kind, “That’s insane, besides we don’t even have the budget or manpower for that. What men I do have are needed for the daily patrols. I can’t waste them on watching gates, especially not nightwatch, nothing ever happens at night anyway.”
“That’s not for you to decide, and if manpower is the issue, you should have drafted, or requested reinforcements. As for the budget, the Baroness has granted leeway for increased defense spending.”
“Leeway we will have to pay back later in taxes.”
“That’s nothing, last year you paid 20%, and we both know that’s basically nothing.”
“Maybe so, but why pay more, when that war isn’t going to touch us?
Tanyi sighed, “I will be making a formal notice of this young lady.”
“Please do,” replied the Guard Captain. Arlie looked to Lily, who shrugged.
Rose frowned, “Wouldn’t it be easier to just increase the guard?”
Terrabeth quietly interjected, “Something is off, I’ve never known her to be so... so stubborn.”
Arlie whispered back, as the two at the desk argued, “It does seem strange. Perhaps we should look into the nighttime security with a closer eye.”
Terrabeth countered, “I’m inclined to agree, but our main objective is to escort you to the Blue Temple.”
“The Blue Temple isn’t going anywhere.”
“I guess that’s true, and we do have standing orders to hunt down rogue mind mages.” She replied looking thoughtful. “Then again, maybe we are dealing with a dream mage.”
“Dream mage? What gives you that idea?”
“I had a... strange dream last night.”
“I see.” replied Arlie, as she mentally noted that down. She’d not sensed any dream magic, but she wasn’t an expert. Her mind flashed to the past. Vivian’s face said it all as she shifted through several emotions. “I’ll take the pair under my wing then, and see if they need any mental guidance.”
Arlie blinked, “You can do that?”
“Sure, mind magic runs in our blood and I’m a fair mind mage if I don’t say so myself. I can at the very minimum help the pair smooth any bumps that might have happened due to what sounds like an honest accident.”
“Focus on Polca, I think she was hit harder by the incident than Hikari was. I’d have done something myself, but I can’t use mind magic.”
“Give it time, you’ll awaken it eventually.”
Arlie rolled her eyes, that wasn’t the first time someone had told her that. It was hard to believe, all her other magical talents had awakened long ago. The Dragon Breath thing was clearly a special case. “Yeah right, like that would ever happen. I’ve read the books.”
She really had, most mind mages awoke with the onset of puberty, but a rare few awoke earlier. Arlie had never heard of a mind mage awakening after puberty, and she’d already gone through it.
Vivian shook her head, “It’s not wise to ignore your elders, young lady.”
Vivian had told her that she’d be a mind mage one day, she still didn’t believe it. Not once had she heard a single thought, but since that conversation, Aunt Vivian had forced her to study mind magic. Dream magic was a very specialized form of it. Involving the projection of an avatar into the dreams of the sleeping. It was quite rare, known to be used only by a very small number of species, the most famous of which is the Dream Succubus, a highly evolved and rare variation of succubus that naturally mastered Dream Magic. Now that she thought about it, most users of dream magic used it for one thing. Terrabeth’s strange dream must have been rather hot. “I’ll send a message to my Aunt Ria then, hopefully she isn’t too busy and can send me some relevant books.” she sighed, “If not, I guess I’ll try Aunt Vivian.”
Terrabeth frowned, “Um, wouldn’t that take days?”
“Warp magic, sending letters or books isn’t that difficult. Pretty much any post office has the required equipment, I think I saw one in the village square.”
She blinked, “They charge...” then stopped, eyes widening. “Right, right, mage family and royal, cost doesn’t really matter to you.”
Not quite true, but she could afford the multigold price of accelerated mail, and this situation required it. “Let’s get to the post.”
Tanyi, who was just finishing up, commented, “I guess that means we are staying a bit longer than I planned.”
Arlie nodded, “Yes, but we can look around town and ask questions.”