Bandits

Another half year passed in peace after the initial training session with Emily Bujrim. Jien trained continuously throughout those months and his eighth birthday came and went with a small celebration including his father, Runa and his instructors. He continued his general physical training, though it moved to an every other day schedule, replaced primarily with training in swordsmanship and fencing. His fencing instructor pushed him hard enough to make up for the lack of general physical exercises, something that Jien quickly came to dislike to a large degree. Most days he would come back to the manor covered in small bruises that were covered in a healing salve to numb the pain.

Jien had genuinely improved in those six months. He had learned to be able to perceive movement even in his blind spots, more by instinct than anything, but also by sound. This led to him being able to dodge better, but also led to the training to increase in difficulty. Emily first increased the speed at which Mark and herself would attack, having traded out the metal training weapons for simple wooden sticks to ensure that they would deal less damage if they actually hit him. Then, when she was satisfied to a degree with his ability to dodge within the three by three square she shrunk the square to be two by two before continuing with the training. This reduced Jien's allowed range of movement and forced him to get creative in how he dodged the coming blows.

At the fifth month she had handed Jien his rapier while keeping him in the two by two square and told him that he was now allowed to parry their blows. She led him through a few routines to ensure that he understood parrying and the use of leverage so that he wouldn't attempt to block a blow head on. With this the training continued and Jien was forced to either dodge or parry blows with hardly any space to move. This was a way to advance his lesson on spatial awareness and finally incorporate the use of the rapier.

Jien's training in terms of mana manipulation and the arcane arts continued under the tutelage of Mark. Though this was the field that Jien was most interested in and the one that he continued to study in his own free time this was also the field that saw the slowest improvement. The slow improvement was not due to Jien in any way, nor was it caused by Mark not being an expert in the arcane arts. The lack of progress was related to the fact that the field was vast and had many uses. Jien had only received two spells from the archon and still had yet to be able to use the second even once. He had tried many times with many different methods he could think of but for some unknown reason the mana would never take on the meaning that Jien tried to transfer to it based on the feeling the archon had placed in his mind.

Despite the lack of improvement regarding the second spell Jien was advancing steadily in mana manipulation and the use in boosting his body. This required him to learn more about anatomy and the various muscle groups. He needed to understand haw they would interact with each other so that any boost he supplied would not disrupt his body's equilibrium and cause him harm. He was also working to learn body casting, though the process was much longer as it had to do with learning the correct paths to flow the mana through without loss of concentration. He also studied several basic vocal spells which were easier to complete but harder to influence with specific meanings. The more basic the chant, the more broad the spell. To give the spell a more intricate meaning while using a basic chant would require more focus on controlling the mana once it has left the body. Meanwhile a longer, more specific chant would be able to imbue a specific meaning but may take a much longer time to cast.

It was during one of his training sessions on controlling mana after he had expelled it from his body that Runa walked onto the training field briskly. She looked to be in a hurry but not willing to run as she approached Jien. "Lord Jien, your father has called for you to join him as soon as you can." she stated immediately upon her arrival. Jien, understanding that his father wouldn't interrupt his training if it weren't for something of importance stood up immediately from his seat on the training field before glancing at Mark. Mark smiled and told him to go since it was his father asking. Jien promptly turned and followed after Runa, heading back toward the manor at a brink walk.

At that pace it did not take them long to get back to the manor. Though Jien would usually dress and change before going to see his father the matter appeared urgent enough that he forsook the routine and moved swiftly to his father's study. Jien knocked on the closed wooden door, only opening it when he heard his fathers voice telling him to enter.

Without hesitation Jien entered the study and closed the door behind him. His father was seated at his desk and in the seat across from him was an older gentleman wearing leather armor with the family's sigil on its breastplate. The man had slightly wrinkled tan skin, his hair was short and black with several streaks of gray running throughout. His eyes were sharp and one could see that he was a trained warrior just by the way he held himself even while sitting. Jien knew this man as the head of Afrem City's guards Jack.

Jack smiled and nodded as Jien entered and sat in the other chair in front of his father's desk. Lord Losler turned toward Jien and smiled before turning back towards Jack and asking him to repeat what he had stated earlier. Jack turned back to Jien before repeating his prior statement. "We have received word from the Wilkins family that there is a group of bandits that have taken residence in the forest to the east of Afrem and they have requested that we remove them and return the goods that they have stolen from the storehouses before they are able to sell them. The forest is within our jurisdiction so they feel that it is our responsibility to take care of the issue."

Jien frowned at this information. He understood that the forest was under his family's jurisdiction and that the bandits were apparently hiding there but the Wilkins family was a family just as high ranking as their Losler family. Why would they not take care of the issue themselves, or at least offer to assist in capturing this bandit crew. Lord Losler quickly answered this question before it could even come up. "The Wilkins family is not friendly with us." Earl stated in a serious tone. "They wish to point fingers and assign blame. If we don't solve this issue and provide them back at least some of their stolen goods they will attempt to make an issue of it in the royal courts during the next gathering, which would likely cause us troubles, even if we have done nothing wrong." He sighed heavily before continuing. "Still this is a great opportunity to give you an important lesson in leadership, specifically leading troops. You will come with me and a platoon of the guards and we will work to capture or wipe out this bandit crew before they become a larger issue."

Jien looked at his father as if he had just contemned him to the death sentence. This was the second of these so called leadership lessons and they seemed to be getting exponentially more ridiculous. He was only eight years old and he was being told that he had to lead troops to hunt down bandits. Lord Losler however, did not react to his son's deadpan expression before continuing on. "Rest for the night while the guards due some initial scouting. We will be heading out in the morning to start hunt."

After hearing this statement Jien simply nodded, knowing his father wouldn't let him out of this and stood up before leaving the room, wordlessly closing the door and starting his walk back to his room to get some sleep while he could.