Types Of Magic

When the fighting ended for the night, Rukelion checked over all of his men. There had been a few minor injuries but the only one who was seriously hurt was Conrad. He had taken a slash to the chest but, thankfully, it had been light enough that it didn't cause any real damage.

He had fallen over earlier being dizzy from blood loss but now he was stitched up, bandaged, and lying on a cot in the medical tent. He tried to get up to salute when he saw his captain but that wasn't possible with his injuries.

"At ease," Rukelion told him. "How are you feeling, Conrad?"

"As well as I can be, all things considering. Doc said I can fight again in a few days once I've regained my stamina and the wound has healed a bit."

"Good. Don't push yourself too hard. You're one of our best and we need you to recover properly."

An expression of great bitterness appeared on his usually easy-going face. "Please. That water mage took me down like it was nothing. I've never felt so pathetic! I suppose you were able to take him down easily enough?"

Yes but Rukelion had also nullified his magic. Conrad hadn't had that particular advantage. He didn't say anything but his lack of answer was an answer in and of itself.

Conrad sighed. "Of course you were. Thank you for saving my life, by the way. I really thought I was done for back there. My life was flashing before my eyes when your sword came out of nowhere. I'll always owe you for that. I'll follow you anywhere, May. Or I suppose I should be calling you captain now."

"It doesn't really matter."

"It does though! You earned your position. I'll get used to it eventually."

Rukelion looked the injured man over one more time. Out of the remaining Silver Wolves, Conrad was probably in the top three in terms of fighting abilities. More importantly, he was loyal.

Captains were allowed to choose their lieutenants. He could use someone like Conrad to help him advance. And if he stuck to his words about following him anywhere, he could be a useful tool for taking over the kingdom as well.

He may have just managed to find his first chess piece. Excellent.

"Conrad, what do you think about being my lieutenant?" Rukelion asked casually.

The soldier's eyes widened. "Me?! Wouldn't Harland be a better choice? He's been in the army longer than I have."

Technically speaking, but he couldn't trust Harland. He needed someone whose loyalty was to him not the military. "Is that a no? I've put a lot of thought into this over the past few days and believe you'll be the most helpful to me."

More like the last few minutes but Conrad didn't need to know that. He was already wavering because of a lack of confidence in himself and Rukelion needed him to say yes.

Conrad's eyes widened and he coughed, clearly moved. "Well then. I can't say no to that. I'll be your lieutenant, Captain May."

Rukelion smiled. "Good! Rest up, Lieutenant. I need you to be in top condition."

"Yes, sir!"

He walked out of the medical tent feeling rather satisfied. Things were finally falling into place. All he needed to go now was keep the rest of his soldiers alive, get two captains killed, and finish off the water mages. Then the first phase of his revenge would be complete.

===

Daisy was a wreck the whole way back to Cloverfield, though she didn't let it show. When she arrived at Ginny's house (since she and Callum had been watching Ira for her), they all seemed surprised.

"I wasn't expecting you for weeks!"

"Did something happen?"

"Why are you home early, Miss Veronica? Did you run out of money?"

Unable to stay strong a moment longer, Daisy burst into tears. They were all concerned but Ira was the one to rush forward. "What's wrong? Tell me! Did Mr. Leo hurt you?"

"Of course he didn't," she sobbed. "But I don't know if I'm ever going to see him again!"

Ginny and Callum exchanged a look. "Miss Veronica…did Leo go and get himself called off to fight?" he asked gently.

Daisy only cried harder, which basically answered their question. Ginny's brow furrowed with compassion and she walked over to hug her. She wept into the other woman's shirt until she was all out of tears.

"I'm sorry," she hiccupped when she was done. "He's strong so I know he'll be okay but—"

"But you love him. It's perfectly understandable to be worried," Ginny said kindly.

Daisy was worried. She was worried sick after having nothing to do on the road but stew about what might be happening to Leo at that very moment for weeks.

"I just want him to come home," she whispered.

While Ginny and Callum murmured words of comfort, Ira rushed off to gather his things so they could head back to the farm together. He seemed rather eager to go, likely because of how loud the Krinzels' small children could be. That would make it hard for him to concentrate on reading.

"Leo's one of the smartest people I know. I'm sure he'll be just fine," Callum said firmly.

Daisy smiled weakly at him in thanks. Leo was smart. He could do almost anything after seeing it done once. He had quite a reputation in the military too so he hadn't been boasting about being strong. He truly was.

He would be fine. He had to be.

Ira grabbed his bag and firmly said "let's go home, Miss Veronica" before grabbing her hand and marching her out of there. She barely had time to thank the Krinzels for taking care of him and feeding the animals while she was gone on the way out.

The boy surprised her by asking to play a game of cards when they arrived. She knew what he was doing immediately. He was trying to cheer her up. He hated cards but knew that she didn't.

Daisy smiled at his sweetness and was momentarily distracted from her worries. Busy. She had to keep busy but it was hard this time of year. In a couple of months, she would have the grain harvest and the planting to worry about and that would keep her occupied but what was she supposed to do in the meantime?

There were a bunch of household chores that needed to be done after a month of being away. She spent a lot of time working on them in the next several days, singing every song she could remember from back home to distract herself as she went.

Once that was done, she went over the ledgers, baked a ridiculous amount of bread products (including soft pretzels, which Ira had never had before), created some Sudoku puzzles for Ira to solve, and it still wasn't enough. Why did this have to happen in winter? If it was any other time of year, she wouldn't be having this problem!

Ira took to reading his books aloud as she worked on a new quilt to potentially send Leo as a birthday present provided he was back in the capital to receive it or she had his address by then. That helped too because working in silence gave her too much time to think.

He had recently finished a book on the history of Mirea that she had gotten him before she left so he was working on the magic book from the capital now. He had been rather excited about receiving it and his sweet innocence lifted her spirits a bit.

"No one knows exactly how magic came into existence," Ira read. "There are many theories that shall be discussed later in this book but we shall start with the facts. Magic is inherited through certain bloodlines. It is impossible to learn magic if you are not born with an affinity for it.

"Thousands of years ago, when magic first sprang into existence, it was rather common for these bloodlines to establish nations. Since then, they have become much more diluted. While magic is rare, it is no longer solely restricted to royalty.

"Most types of magic tend to be found in specific geographical areas since it is uncommon for people to move from one nation to another, though there are some exceptions. The known magical attributes are water, wind, fire, light, darkness, plants, ice, and stone.

"Water is the most versatile of the magic types but that may be because there are more water mages than any other kind so the most research has been conducted on it…" Ira continued reading but Daisy's thoughts wandered.

She hadn't realized there were so many different types of magic. She thought Leo's fire magic was pretty versatile too though.

He could use it to raise his body temperature, warm a room, and create intricate designs out of flame and that was only what she had seen him do. There could be more applications she wasn't aware of.

She already knew magic ran through bloodlines but hadn't realized that most royals had magic. It made sense if you really thought about it though. Powerful people did tend to end up in charge, historically speaking.