A Mission Well Done - Part 1

All the equipment they had brought along had just been thrown to the side, the lich had probably not cared much for it. So all their water and food supplies were still there, releasing all the children was quite a simple task now that the enchantments were gone.

With the lich and dragon both death it seemed like a lot of the eerie atmosphere of this place was slowly disappearing. All the children gathered up around Bomfjeord and Erethi seeing as they were all from the same village. Many of them cried their hearts out while Bomfjeord tried his best to assure them that they would take them all back home.

A sight that put a tear in Samuels eye.

Samuel let out a sigh and rejoined the group with a nod. Tere'he handed him a waterskin which he took with pleasure and drank his fill with a sigh. "So not holding back huh?" She said with a nod as he handed back the waterskin.

"No, not anymore. If it means I can prevent death I don't care about breaking orders." Samuel replied with a decisive expression. Tere could do nothing more than smile and nod.

The room was filled with Erica screaming, "But just how did you do that? What were those spells? How do you fly so fast?" She grabbed Samuel's collar and excitedly started shaking him, Samuel groaned from the pain of all the wounds he had assembled.

The pain was slowly returning when adrenaline was leaving his body. "Ow!" Was all Erica needed to hear before apologizing and taking a step back. "What did you think I was doing with Alsian all this time?" Samuel asked slowly when he realized they were all looking inquisitively at him.

It wasn't fully true that Alsian had taught him all that he had done, but Alsian had given him the basics of which to work from. The children of mana truly were blessed but also cursed at the same time.

They all suddenly seemed to remember and slowly nodded, none of them had ever seen the training Alsian had put Samuel through after all, so they could only assume it made sense. "It's just that you always seemed so full of energy after some of his lessons!" Sonya said with a rough voice. She was supporting herself on Sarmah, whom had recovered quite well.

Something about the draconic mage warrior being quite resilient, unfortunately Sonya did not have that same fortitude and she had taken an equal amount of damage. She smiled at Samuel slightly teasing him to show that she was still the same.

"I do admit that in the beginning it was not a lot of work on the body, but on the mind instead!" Samuel replied teasingly, everyone knew he wouldn't tell them the full scope of it because of that and they all shook their heads or sighed.

"Kiddo, you do realize you are only halfway through the second year, yet you are already as strong as one of us!" Bregane hinted toward himself and the other two mentors who seemed to nod in agreement.

"Strength is one thing, wisdom and experience another." Samuel sighed and turned toward the broken pile of rubble and treasure. "If I had been more experienced I would not have underestimated the Lich in the final bout."

Bregane couldn't help but smile, how his apprentice had grown since he was that little scared young kid. Now he stood with confidence, willing to admit his faults, not gloating about his amazing strength in any way.

Tere intertwined her fingers with his as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "Besides, there are many different types of strength!" Samuel continued with a shrug not noticing any of the expressions looking at his back.

"Perhaps in due time you will master many forms of strength then! As long as you keep moving forward!" Bregane chuckled before looking at the rest of the group. "You all performed marvels today, we were all necessary to defeat the lich. Each and every single one of you!" He spoke loud to which they all looked at eachother.

It was true, each and every one of them had worked as a team, each of their contributions is what ultimately took down the lich. Although Bregane had done the most important thing of destroying the phylactery, it was still everyone elses effort that ultimately brought down the lich.

"Now I reccomend you all to rest up, there is no way we are making the trekk over the cold wastelands with this many children. We can set up a one time portal, but it will require us mentors to be back at a modicum of strength."

Bregane and Tere'he walked over to Bomfjeord with all the kids and relayed the information. The kids seemed distraught and sad about the fact but there wasn't much they could do. Samuel used what remained of his magic to create large ice barriers that formed an indoor room.

"Sleeping space?" Samuel shrugged when he saw Erica and Sonyas confused expressions, they both went, "Ahh" realizing it and looked at eachother with a smile. While Sarmah still stood there looking unimpressed. 'Are they really this easily amused by things?' Is what her face seemed to speak quietly.

Not many could easily read a dragonkin's facial expressions. Many of them were always quite stoic. But mostly it was just because of how their heads resembled small dragons.

After Samuel used his remaining magic, he decided to only breathe in the bare minimum amount of new mana, but it struggled for a little bit upon which he remembered that Alsian had warned him that although his Child of mana bloodline ran extremely strong, his blood was still mixed in with other races.

Which meant that there was a limit to how much his body could take when it came to the usage of breathing mana. So Samuel decided not to fully continue as he did not wish to suffer from mana poisoning himself.

The more times he refilled his own mana in a row the harder it became in the long run as well. Alsian of course said that as he grew older and got even more adept at using his bloodline the fewer complications he would run into.

He might even manifest ancient traits that belonged to the children of mana long ago. Some looked like monsters and demonic creatures but were actually just living creatures. Alsian himself disguised his eyes with magic, because whenever he used magic his eyes shone a bright teal blue and almost looked the the eyes of a hawk that pierced its prey.

Samuel started dreaming about what kind of traits he would manifest, if he ever did of course. He snapped back to reality when Erica punched his shoulder and waved her hand in front of him. "Hey! You are doing that fazing out of reality thing again!"

Her voice sounded like she was scolding him, but there were traces of relief in her voice as well. Unknown to Samuel she had been terrified of death in this place, even more terrified of all the things that had happened and the monsters that had appeared.

She was even scared of her own friend that had slain a dragon and stood covered in it's blood, that was thoroughly cleaned off with cantrip spells. But now that she saw him doing his own regular thing again she finally felt like she was back, no longer scared.

She silently thanked her friend for being himself and gave him a smile. "Bregane says we should all rest, they will take turns keeping watch." Samuel sighed and nodded, following her to a corner of the big room, where a large campfire had been set up and several children were already sleeping.

Sonya as well was already asleep. Erica and Samuel shrugged and set up their own bedrolls next to Sonya and lay down next to eachother. Making sure Sonya was inbetween them it wasn't long before the exhaustion made them fall asleep.

"Thank you Night!" Samuel whispered before falling asleep, when he felt a familliar presence curling around him.

Meanwhile at the campfire Bomfjeord gave Bregane a nod when he had asked him if he could keep watch for a few minutes. Most of the children were now asleep around Bomfjeord or Erethi who was also dozing off.

Bregane, Tere'he & Sarmah all walked in silence over to the large door they had entered. Sarmah was the first to open her mouth, "I have so many questions right now! How come this place had not been discovered before? How come such a powerful entity was operating so close without notice? How come a fucking second year is so powerful?"

Bregane held up her hand to calm her down and Tere grabbed both of their hands in hers. "Questions that will be duly asked when we return. Things are changing in the world, we have all seen it first hand! Lost people because of it, we cannot afford to be careless from hereon out!" She spoke with sadness in her voice and they all shared a moment of silence for Teric.

"As for his strength, I believe it is the same reason why Trissphyra Lathalas was so interested in Ulma, we all know how strong Alsian can be as a warrior and semi mage, since Samuel is related to him. Perhaps it's something in their bloodline!" Tere'he spoke and looked at Sarmah with kind eyes.

"We should not pry into his story though, you remember I never pried into yours!" She put a gentle hand on Sarmah's cheek and she instinctively leaned into her hand and nodded.

"Erica and Sonya already show signs of becoming as strong as us as well!" Bregane spoke with a sigh, "So if the rules are changing and the world is changing once more and this is the strength of our future guardians. What is it then, that we are expecting to fight?"

His voice was filled with paranoia and worry. But neither Tere'he or Sarmah could find any words of comfort, for his worries were usually not unfound on nothing, Bregane was the cold logic of the group after all.

"No matter what!" Tere grabbed both of their hands again, "We report this to the Archon himself, hopefully Vazal and the Highmasters can come up with the better means we field agents can't!" Bregane chuckled.

"If the High Masters listen that is!" He spoke while rolling his eyes, Tere looked at him sternly, "Just because a few are pompous idiots, doesn't mean the majority of them are!"

"We also have the Dawn Keepers!" Sarmah spoke with a grin, "Their organization is growing stronger and stronger by the day. Many that do not wish to join the Mage Founding of the military do join with them instead and we all know that they deal with all kinds of threats to the world!" She spoke like she had had a sudden epiphany.

"So we just report it to them as well!" She said with the grin of a genius that figured something out, Bregane facepalmed. "Don't you remember?" He asked and her grin disappeared as if she had forgotten something really obvious.

"Muscles for a brain dragon!" He joked at her and her grin turned into an angry frown. Tere poked Bregane with a sigh, "Archon Vazal is also the mage leader of the Dawnkeepers! Remember?" Tere'he asked Sarmah with concern.

"Oh right! Silly me!" Sarmah said in slight shame, "But wait! Doesn't that mean hes got like, three jobs?!?" Sarmah counted one two three on her fingers, "Headmaster, Archon, Mage Founder of Dawnkeepers."

"So thats why hes so rarely got time for family!" She exclaimed suddenly and this time Tere'he couldn't help but facepalm as well. Before she hugged Sarmah and spoke, "Let's go get some rest, I will stay awake for first watch!"

Together the three ranted about watch schedules as they walked back to their small camp.

Somewhere in the world a small red flashing crystal alerted someone creating a weapon. "That damn fool went and got himself killed! I guess we need a new laboratory and someone to continue the work!" The figure turned around to its master that growled in annoyance.