Blazing a New Path for Mages

Jayde didn't think sending these children to the Mages' Guild was a good idea, as far as she was concerned the Mages' Guild was the main culprit for the attitude of the Mages on Telia.

Remembering what Elder Ryunzo had told her about Master Rainer, she turned to look at him contemplatively.

"Why can't you train them Master Rainer?" she asked.

"Me?" Master Rainer said pointing to himself.

"Hmm," Jayde said nodding in confirmation.

"You know the spells, and with your magical senses still intact you will be able to feel the children weave their spells, so you can immediately correct them if they miscast."

Elder Ryunzo was pleased with Jayde suggestion, he had wanted to suggest it himself, but he didn't really understand magic, so he hadn't dared to bring it up.

"And more importantly wasn't it always your dream to guide Mages to use their powers for the betterment of Telia, if those kids end up in the Mages' Guild hands they will end up just as arrogant and barbaric as the rest of the Mages in Telia" Jayde concluded.

"This is your chance to change the status quo on Telia, and it would be much safer for Tardide as well, as this village would have Mages loyal to the village to protect it in the future" she stressed.

Initially, Master Rainer was hesitant about Jayde suggestion but as he listened to her logical arguments, the more Jayde convinced him that it was feasible. The thought of being able to guide these young mages to follow the right path, to convince them early on to use their powers gifted to them for the benefit the people, instead of harming them excited him.

"By the gods you are right!" Master Rainer declared slamming his hand on the desk for emphasis.

Turning to Elder Ryunzo "Jothan we can't allow these children to fall in the Mages' Guild hands" he beseeched. Forgetting that it had initially been his idea to send these young Mages off to the Mages' Guild for training.

Jayde was surprised to find out that Elder Ryunzo's first name was Jothan, up until she had never heard anyone address him so familiarly. She thought it was good for Elder Ryunzo to have a companion who viewed him as an equal, it must be tiring always being in charge and having no close friend to share that burden with, she thought.

Elder Ryunzo was again startled at how quickly Jayde could change this stubborn old coot's mind. Smiling at Rainer he quickly assured him that the children would be safe in Tardide.

Jayde suggested that the next time Elder Ryunzo returned to Oldstrand that he take Master Rainer with him, as there might be more gifted children begging on the streets that they could adopt, and with Master Rainer's magical senses, he would be able to sense these children.

She also suggested that they could in the future — when things were calmer in Tardide — visit other cities to investigate their war orphan population as well.

If a city the size of Oldstrand had so many war orphans, then it was only reasonable that the surrounding cities had the same problem.

Excited about the prospect of finding these children, the three of them discussed the expansion of the village. Thankfully Elder Ryunzo owned so much land that building a larger city would be no problem.

Jayde asked to borrow the map of the village and surroundings for a couple of days, she wanted to have a look at the design of village and see if she could come up with some sort of design for their future development.

Elder Ryunzo was quite happy to hand over the map to Jayde.

"Oh, that reminds me young Jayde, what on earth do you need that disgusting black stuff for?" he asked wrinkling his nose.

Jayde mind blanked out for a second trying to figure out what black stuff Elder Ryunzo was talking about. Ah! The tar, she thought.

Smiling sheepishly at Elder Ryunzo "Sorry it totally slipped my mind" she said apologetically.

"But that black stuff is called tar and it has some amazing uses" she went on to explain about how tar could be used on their roofs to waterproof them, as well as any wooden barrels that they wanted to store liquids in.

"But honestly the reason I bought back the tar was that I thought we could use the tar to pave the road to Oldstrand," she said.

"Pave the road?" Master Rainer asked confused with her terminology.

"Hmm," Jayde nodded.

"The road between Oldstrand and Tardide is rutted and uneven, pulling a heavy wagon loaded with supplies is slow as you have to move carefully to avoid all those potholes and the wear and tear on the wagon is high, but if we smoothed out the road, we would be able to transport goods faster to Oldstrand and the damage done to the wheels of the wagons would be minimized" Jayde said happily.

"Not only that but once the other cities see the benefit of our road, they will want to improve their roads, and you have tons of tar sitting in your backyard, you might as well sell it and earn gold coins from it."

Elder Ryunzo just shook his head, he really didn't know how this girl had some many strange but wonderful ideas in her head.

"So how do we use this tar?" he asked.

Jayde asked Elder Ryunzo to arrange for the barrels of small stones and tar to be delivered just outside the village.

Then with the help of some of the young men of the village, she dug a pit and mixed the stones and tar together, then using spades she had the young men cover a three-meter-square area. Once the men were finished she sent them off to the baths.

"Now you just have to wait for the tar to dry," she said.

"Should take about a day or two and it will be hard and you will be able to test it."

Since there wasn't much else to see until the tar dried Elder Ryunzo and Master Rainer returned to Elder Ryunzo's house while Jayde strolled around the village.

It was still pretty early so Jayde visited a couple of the older women in the village. It was during this time that she saw Milta the young mother who had lost her two children to the Direwolves, the young woman was looking better than she had the last time Jyade had seen her and surprisingly she had two small children in her arms.

Mrs. Ryunzo seeing Jayde looking at Milta walked up to her.

"She was one of the first to offer to adopt some of the war orphans, she had already lost her husband to the stupid war, and then her children to those beasts. Those two children are a godsend for her — they have given her the strength to carry on."

Milta felt someone looking at her, looking over she saw Jayde and Mrs. Ryunzo looking over at her, she smiled faintly at the two and she waved hello, just as she was about to come over to chat, a young mother ran up to Milta to ask for some advice, smiling apologetically at both Jayde and Mrs. Ryunzo, Milta indicated that she would chat to them later.

Jayde was happy to see the young woman was on the mend, the grief of losing her two children would never go away, but those two small children who clutched her so desperately would surely lessen the sting a bit.

Seeing Jayde looking around Mrs. Ryunzo asked her if she needed something.

"I was actually looking for Mrs. Tunson, to see if I could finish up my baking lesson," Jayde replied.

Laughing Mrs. Ryunzo informed her that Mrs. Tunson had adopted three young children and was busy at home with them. Mrs. Tunson had been alone for quite a long time, and she had been more than willing to open her home and heart to the orphaned children.

"And yourself Mrs. Ryunzo have you and Elder Ryunzo adopted any of the children yet?" Jayde asked curiously.

Blushing slightly Mrs. Ryunzo replied "Not yet, but Elder Ryunzo has offered to take me with him on his next trip, I really want a little boy and a little girl," she said wistfully.

Leaning closer to Jayde she whispered confidentially "I always had this dream of dressing up my daughter in beautiful dresses and teaching her to cook and sew, and having a son to help Elder Ryunzo with his duties."

Feeling a bit shy for saying something so private to Jayde, she patted her chest "Stupid isn't it an old woman like me have such a sentimental wish" she said embarrassed.

Jayde patted Mrs. Ryunzo arm and smiled at her gently.

"Not at all, any child that you and Elder Ryunzo take in would be blessed a thousandfold to have gained such wonderful parents," she said sincerely.

"Ah bless you, young Jayde" Mrs. Ryunzo said smiling watery.

While she was still slightly embarrassed, she was pleased that Jayde thought she would make a good mother. Like Elder Ryunzo she valued Jayde opinion highly. Feeling more confident now that she had Jayde's blessing she couldn't wait for her husband's next trip to Oldstrand.

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