Shadows in the Smoke - 23 - Time for a Party?

"The constitution of the Republic guarantees every Citizen certain liberties. Freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom from starvation. These are the foundation of the Republic and its struggle for freedom."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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The subalterns looked up at Ester's outburst, blinking in surprise. It was like they'd forgotten she was even there, which did nothing to help her mood.

"What do you mean, Mage Mazar?" Tomas asked.

"The magic! You're all using magic to fix the throws and trying to hide it. What kind of people are you, doing this to your brothers in arms?."

Tomas blinked at her, speechless for a couple of seconds and the broke out into a booming laugh. "Hahaha! No, I'm sorry, Mage Mazar. You've misunderstood. It's just a bit of fun and a training exercise."

"A training exercise?" Ester leant back, outrage fading into bemusement. "You mean you all knew about it?"

The other two's nods joined Tomas' shrug. "Well, in a way. We all know we're trying, the challenge is to spot the others doing it." He looked at her, truly focusing on her for what felt like the first time. It felt like he was pinning her in place with his ice blue eyes. "You spotted both me and Jakob? Even when you didn't know what you were looking for?"

Ester looked away, "Well, I thought you were cheating. Anyway, why would you do that? What are you training for?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ester's scowl met his smirk head on. "Subtlety in your casting never hurts. However, the main point is to be able to refine our senses for magic. I suppose you would not have to worry about that in the Empire," Why did he think he could patronise her, he didn't look any older than her! The thing is, the undead aren't just shambling corpses. Sometimes they can be frighteningly subtle and the ability to see tiny amounts of magic can be the difference between life and death. So, when you get to the front make sure you keep your eyes open. Even behind the lines is likely to be more dangerous than anywhere else you've been, especially the places the 13th gets sent to. We'll protect you of course, but the more you can do yourself the better."

"I shall keep that in mind." As if she hadn't seen danger. Tomas' smug expressiion did nothing for Ester's mood, but at least she'd had one victory over them. "Please, do not let me interfere with your training. I shall keep quiet when I see your attempts at cheating."

That got a satisfying frown from the young Republicans, but it did little to improve her mood. With a quiet huff Ester leant back against the side of the cart to watch. She hadn't tried to be truly sneaky with her casting since the Academy when she'd had to hide things from her fellow students and the professors. Maybe she should be trying to practice that too. Perhaps she could even counteract some of their cheating without them realising.

As she focused her mind she started to smile.

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Arcanist-Major Ulrik Norred frowned slightly as he chewed on an unexpectedly tolerable slice of bread and meat. Pork if he had to guess, although with the supply situation the way it was, it was best not to ask. Either way, the quartermaster had at least managed to get them something vaguely fresh, so that was a plus.

The officers of the 13th, or at least those that had come to Nilrava, were spread across the carriage, chatting together and eating their own meals. There was a certain tension in the air, of course. There always was with men heading back from leave. Soon they'd be fighting for their lives once more, but for now they were at relative peace.

With experienced eyes, he took in the scene. Everything was as it should be. There were two gaggles of soldiers, junior officers in one, a slightly noisier group. None of them were truly green, but they hadn't had the spark beaten out of them by the war in quite the same way as their older comrades. Then the other, quieter group of more senior officers, with him at itshead. Of course Sigrid sat slightly apart. She didn't join in with her subordinates' chatter, instead keeping herself aloof and rigid at one end of the compartment. Queen, he smiled at the word, of all she surveyed.

That was as it always was, but there was one crack in the cog. Ester Mazar. The young Mage sat alone at the other end of the carriage. She held herself just as rigidly as Sigrid, but looked rather more morose as she took dainty bites of her food. It was likely worse than she was used to, but then the same could be said for any high ranking civilian.

Ulrik was a fair minded man. She personally had done nothing to the Republic, as far as he knew anyway, his mind went back to her attempt at spying on the locomotive. Regardless, he could hardly order anyone to be friends with an Imperial Mage. The 13th was a combat unit, not some political show pony.

Given her youth, it would have made sense for her to sit with the junior officers. They also tended not to be quite as angry with the Empire. Whatever they were taught in schools, they hadn't fought in the last war. Even if some of them had lost family, they hadn't directly seen the horrors that the Empire could inflict.

Unfortunately, it seemed Mazar had put paid to much chance of that. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened with the trio he'd left her with, but by the time he'd come to collect her, there certainly hadn't been any smiles between them.

He glanced over to Captain Flens and lowered his voice. "Flens, you're an inveterate gossip, do you know what our guest's done to upset the juniors? I can't be having with conflict among us."

"Ha!" The man didn't even bother to finish chewing before he spoke. "It's nothing, Ulrik, I wouldn't worry about it."

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Ulrik sighed. He'd like nothing better than to not worry about it, there were myriad other things he needed to deal with after all. But, he glanced at Sigrid, he'd been made responsible for their guest.

"Indulge me. Even if it's nothing, I still need to know about it."

"Well, if you insist." Flens dropped his voice further. "It seems like Tomas, Niril and Jakob were dicing and trying to cheat each other. You know how they are. Anyway, Tomas has been complaining to anyone who'll listen about her arrogance and her trying to flaunt the Empire's supposed superiority over them."

"Did she beat them at dice?"

"I don't think so. From what he said, she was trying to interfere with their game without actually being part of it."

Ulrik groaned and had to resist putting his head in his hands. "So, they thought they could show off in front of her, she's too arrogant to restrain herself and they're angry because she beat them?"

"Pretty much. I told them to grow up and take it as a lesson. I don't think there'll be any issues, but obviously they don't particularly want to eat with her."

"Well, that's understandable. I suppose we may have to invite her to eat with us," not that he was any keener on the Empire than the rest of the men, but he knew his duty. "Maybe tomorrow."

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Later that evening, Ester sat in her cabin, looking out of the window once more. Except, now there was nothing to see other than the all encompassing darkness of night. It was getting colder too. Nilrava had been chilly, but here on the train at night as they trundled further north the cold was biting. Perhaps she should have brought some warmer clothes with her?

She grimaced at the thought. If it kept going colder, she might have to ask the Republicans for help with keeping warm. For now, all it took to warm herself up a bit was a moment of thought.

She would have liked to sleep, but it was difficult to relax enough. As the thin bands of warming magic flowed around her, making it feel more like being back in Trevayn, Ester laid back on her hard bunk and stared at the ceiling. The train's movement wasn't helping. The swaying was one thing, but the clicking, grinding and rattling of its progress along the rails made things worse. Then there was the… carousing was the only word she could think of.

Even over the noise of the train, Ester could hear the sound of partying going on around her cabin. Republican soldiers were cheering, shouting and running around. Presumably they were all drinking, she couldn't imagine anyone being that noisy at night without alcohol. Maybe they were celebrating getting ready to fight for their country again. She'd known intellectually that Republicans must believe in their own nation before coming here, but actually being in the Republic had made it clear how true that was. A nation of misguided fanatics.

She closed her eyes and tried to tune out the noise until, a couple of minutes later, something slammed into the door to her cabin hard enough to make her jump.

With a growl, Ester sat up and started to pull her shoes on. She was going to…

She hesitated. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. She couldn't just shout at the Republicans, she was meant to be a diplomat and they already didn't like her just because she was from the Empire. Telling them to stop their party wouldn't help anything. Her mind went back to the Academy. At best, they'd just ignore her or even get louder just to spite her. At worst, they'd look for some kind of revenge.

This wasn't the Academy though. Maybe she could even join in. That would be what a good diplomat, or even spy, would do. She wasn't going to get any sleep with all that noise, so she might as well go and see what was going on.

Ester emerged into the corridor outside her cabin doing her best to stifle a yawn. Several young men staggered down the corridor, barely even looking at her with bleary eyes. Shouting and even singing echoed through the cart.

She pressed herself against the wall to avoid the men and nearly retreated back to her cabin when one of them leered at her. No. She was a Mage and she wanted to go out and fight. She couldn't just run and hide at the sight of drunkenness. Maybe she'd find some slightly less drunk Republicans. There was no way she'd join these ones. She glanced behind her at the men, they were embarrassingly drunk. A failure of discipline. Although you couldn't expect much more than that from Republicans.

Ester hesitated, clenched her fists at her sides and then started to make her way down the cart. A couple of doors down from her cabin, another's door stood open. Inside were four junior officers, she recognised Tomas and Niril, sat around a couple of bottles.

She stopped outside and coughed lightly. They didn't notice, or pretended not to. After a moment she spoke up.

"Good evening, Citizens."

Tomas glanced her way and then looked away. Then Niril kicked him and stood.

"Good evening, Mage Mazar. Can we help you?"

"I was just passing by and I saw your door was open. I thought I would say-"

"Oh, were we bothering you, Mage Mazar? Please accept my apologies." Niril bowed and stepped forward, as if he hadn't just interrupted her. "We'll try to be quieter, please enjoy your night."

He shut the door in Ester's face, leaving her standing there staring at the rough wood.

It wasn't like she actually wanted to be friends with them. They were Republicans and not even nice ones like Sonja!

She took a deep breath. It reminded her too much of the Academy and that was making her stupid.

Why would Republican youths want to have her in their room anyway? It wasn't like she'd be getting drunk and joining them in their poor behaviour. Maybe she should look for the senior officers? They'd be better, surely.

With that slightly comforting thought, Ester kept on going, past more closed and open doors, keeping her eyes ahead and her chin up.

She made her way through to the open, cabinless cart, which the officers had used for their meal. Sure enough, the more senior officers were there, talking quietly. They were drinking too, the empty bottles were obvious, but there was none of the shouting or chaos that had kept her awake.

Ester took a breath and headed over to them. It was a pity Lindholm wasn't there, but she'd have other opportunities to talk to her.

"Mage Mazar," Arcanist-Major Norred spoke first, "are you well, do you need anything?"

Ester couldn't help but clutch at the skirts of her dress. Once again, her mind flashed back to the Academy. At least he hadn't tried to ignore her. Anyway, she was a Mage now, not some apprentice.

"Good evening, Arcanist Major, I am well thank you, but I heard the other soldiers partying-"

"Oh." He frowned, if they are bothering you, I shall tell them to be quieter, my apologies."

"No!" Ester quickly moderated her tone. "I mean, there is no need. I do not want to stop them from enjoying themselves. I was just wondering if I could join you instead?" Why did her stomach feel like it was trying to escape through her throat?

The Republican officers exchanged glances.

"Ah, well." Arcanist-Major Norred coughed nervously. "Normally we would be delighted, but it is quite late and actually we were thinking of going to sleep now."

"You were?" Why was her heart sinking? These were enemies of the Empire. They had no reason to want to drink with her and why did she even want to drink with them? Ester pulled herself together. "Of course, it is quite late. I too should go to bed. Good night."

She turned to leave. She could almost feel the officers relax as she did.

However, before Ester had taken more than a couple of steps there was a sudden commotion behind her. Despite her almost overwhelming desire to be far away from the Republican officers, she stopped and looked back.

All of the officers had stood and were looking away from her, at Sigrid Lindholm.

The woman was swaying slightly, keeping one hand on the side of the cabin for balance, and had a bottle of something in her other hand.

"As you were, Citizens." Her voice was just as harsh as the first time Ester had met her. "Mage Mazar, struggling to sleep?" Lindholm didn't give Ester the chance to answer. "Come, join me."

Without another word, she headed deeper into the train and, after a moment's hesitation, Ester followed.

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