Chapter 69

The next few days were incredibly calm for me. More often than not, I would just find myself sitting in the commanders' office talking to him about the current affairs in the world. To be honest I kind of enjoyed the relative peace that I had suddenly been given.

For the commander though, his days were not peaceful at all they were anything but such. Outside of his office he still had to make it look like he was searching for me and that he did. More often than no by the time he came into the office, he was cursing so much that I thought that he would be a curse himself.

Getting food was kind of interesting though. The servers and porters all gave the commander weird looks as he ordered more food than normal. Though we knew that it was for me. I guess this allowed the commander to relax a bit and almost seem shameless.

After ten days he came in and sat down. His hands massaging his brows. I looked at him, waiting for the curses to start spewing out. Instead, he just looked up at me, with tired eyes. He looked almost defeated I was, to be honest.

"Adoh a Grand Duke of Mocia is coming here. Although the ambassador was killed, the deal is still on. We are still supposed to be bending the knee. You should get out of the city while you can. Return to where you came from, or things could get extremely bad for you if you are still here."

I looked at him feeling confused. I did my mission and more. The ambassador was dead as well as the people were all riled up and angry. Yet we were still bending the knee? This is not right. This is just wrong!

In anger, I smashed my hand into the wall. The commander just looked at me, his eyes agreeing with what I did. In the past few days, I had got to know him well. He was a veteran from the black border. He had served with dignity and skill. Yet after being wounded, he had been sent here, to oversee the garrison of some border city.

"Adoh, a horse is waiting for you outside. Go! If we meet each other again may it be in the embrace of our forefathers!"

I grabbed my sword as I left. I found that there were no guards around at all. He must have had them all go elsewhere. Thankful for this, I quickly made my way outside and got onto the horse, before riding back to the fort where I guessed I would have to go back to so that I could report and claim my next orders.

The trip back, lasted about the same time as the trip there. It was quiet, to be honest. Nothing like the city that I had been in. I had grown used to the loud noise of the city. Now I was outside once more, in the relative peace of the countryside.

Once I reached the fort, I found the rangers stationed here were all moving about. It seemed like they were getting ready to move out and go to what I assumed to be another fort or maybe it would just be to some more hidden camp.

I rode through the fort, without anyone challenging me and getting in my way. Once I arrived in the area for the Shadows, I found that they were doing a similar thing. Ten wagons had been brought out, they were slowly being filled up with boxes full of weapons as well as armor and various other supplies which we could need. The others quickly saw me and all stopped what they were doing.

Dismounting I made my way over to them. I found that I was met with nothing but sadness.

"Kid, you did well. Well. It is just we sent someone too late. We are moving with the rangers to their hidden fortress. All the rangers will be gathered there as well as most of us. You should come with us. From there we will have to work out how to carry on."

I soon understood why their eyes, were so so sad. It made sense. Everything that I had done and I assumed that had done, was just not enough. We were simply too late.

I soon found myself, helping them carry all of the boxes into the wagons. As we fully emptied our courtyard. Once we were all done. I mounted my horse once more and found myself riding alongside the wagon. Just looking around at the countryside and the occasional form of small talk with a ranger or one of the other shadows.

Soon I found that we were passing through some woods, as we rode on I could faintly see the outline of a few mountains through the trees. As we rode on, the woods became increasingly dark, as the foliage of the trees got thicker and thicker. Soon it felt like I was riding in the night than day. Then all of a sudden, we came out of the woods into the bright sun.

surreal shield my eyes for a moment as the sun was just too bright! Then as I adapted I saw where we were all heading. There was a fort in the mountain itself, or it at least appeared to be carved from the mountain itself. There were no seems from bricks, it all just looked like solid stone. The only marks that I could see in the walls, all appeared to be some kind of runes carved into the surface. The whole place looked like a scene from the past. It one of those old and fancy forts from the days before the Imperium. The gates opened as we rode closer, inside I found that many more rangers were moving around. Each one appeared to have a purpose and the whole thing just kind of seemed surreal.

I had never seen so many rangers gathered together in one place. I then carried on riding through the fort, following the other shadows to where I assumed that we would all be going. As we rode on, we passed through an inner gate, further into the fort itself. In this inner region, I found that there was no one around. It was the complete opposite of the bustling area we had just been in. It was like the inner gate was a doorway into a new world.

Then we finally stopped, in a large courtyard. As I looked around I found that it was empty. I could see layers of dust in some areas. It was like no one had been here in a long, long time.

Dismounting, I tied the reins of my horse up onto one of the pillars. Then I had a small look around the courtyard and the buildings which were all attached to it.

It was massive!

There were so many different rooms and spots in which something could be placed. Then as I made my way back to the courtyard, I was soon oped into helping unload all the wagons. This in itself didn't wake as long as I thought it would. Then just once the wagons had been put away, I found that some more shadows arrived with their wagons. Soon enough I was unloading these as well.

Then more wagons arrived.

The rest of the day as well as a good way into the night all carried on like this. The whole thing was one massive unloading.

As the sun rose the next day, I woke up leaning against one of the stone pillars. Looking around I found that most people were waking up in a similar way minus the people who had some intelligence at instead had dragged themselves into a wagon the night before.

As no work had yet to be done, a lot of the shadows who knew each other already began to see each other and form small groups to talk. As I looked around, I found that there was no one who I could see I realized that I was nearly alone and that my entire life as a shadow so far had been just full of solo missions, mainly which all focused on a thing. Assassination.

It was sad really for me, I leaned back against the stone pillar as I thought about this. I was nearly the definition of a loner. Then I finally saw someone who I knew. My master although following behind her, was a rather large group of shadows. She then saw me, a smile graced her face briefly before disappearing once more so that the group behind her didn't notice.

Then she began to slowly change the direction that she was walking towards me. Soon enough she was standing right in front of me, the shadow that she cast and instantly removed the sun in my eyes. As I looked up at her, I saw that the group behind her, all had expressions of wonder and curiosity as to who exactly I was.