Xavier traveled back to the Kingdom of Veldat and actively avoided visiting any place where he had been before or could be associated with the Vralia band. With six pieces of silver and sixty-five pieces of copper, he could survive for a while, but he needed a job. Part of his finances had been consumed during the trip. He stayed in Leno, a village in Tener town. At first, he tried to make a living as a hunter without much success.
Tener was small, but it was close to Palm Citadel. Many groups of mercenaries gathered there, and sometimes they were hired by the locals to hunt monsters, protect transports, or participate in subjugation squadrons.
Xavier had tried to join a few mercenary groups, but without a name, without anyone to support him, and without any particular talent, no one admitted him. Having been rejected many times, he understood that it would be similar everywhere. The only option were the subjugation squadrons, which were not very frequent. Fortunately, they had announced a subjugation mission a few weeks earlier and were still looking for mercenaries. Xavier approached the citadel guard's office.
'Hello' Xavier greeted the guard at the counter.
'What do you want?' asked the guard unwillingly.
'I want to join the subjugation mission,' replied Xavier.
The guard looked at him, lifting one of his eyebrows. To the guard, Xavier looked too young, and although he had some muscle, he didn't look like a great warrior. No one was rejected in the squadrons, and the guard was already tired of trying to convince other fools like him that dying was not a way to make a living.
'Any particular talent?' asked the guard as usual; although he really didn't care, nobody cared.
'Mage'
'Mage?' The guard looked at him from top to bottom. Even if some fool had once pretended to be a magician, it was a very stupid act, and it was not common.
'What element?' asked the guard with a knot in his throat.
'Shadows,' replied Xavier, seeing the guard's face relax and change to a slight disappointment.
'Does your honor have any identification?'
'No, I'm a wild magician,' Xavier lied.
That was quite strange, but not impossible. Some magicians from noble families with ancient magic lines, when they discovered that they were shadow magicians, became a disgrace. Some abandoned their family and surname after being pointed out by their most blessed and successful brothers or other relatives, sometimes even their own parents. They traveled in search of adventures in an attempt to gain fame and fortune of their own. Most returned home a few months later, after learning that the life they were accustomed to as nobles was easy compared to the hard life of an adventurer. Others died trying to prove that they weren't failures.
'Where do you come from?' asked the guard.
'Nowhere. I'm an orphan. I grew up in a troupe of traveling merchants from Orphen.' Xavier kept lying.
'And where are those travelers?'
'Dead. A bunch of garbage from the Poem dynasty ambushed us a year ago,' replied Xavier, pretending to be angry.
With this last lie, the guard's face changed. The Kingdom of Veldat hated the Dynasty, and Xavier had learned to use that in his favor.
'Son, are you sure of this? Shadow magicians don't last long doing subyugation missions. You could join an academy or something; try to find a low-class noblewoman who wants to marry someone with magic blood.' Not even the guard believed what he said; everyone knew about the problem of inheritance. The magicians of an element used to have children of that element. No one wanted to be a shadow magician except the most miserable peasants, maybe.
'Yeah, thank you for your concern, but I know how to take care of myself; I'll be fine.'
The guard filled in the registration card and passed it to Xavier. After reading it, he sealed it with a drop of blood, continuing to use the name Aleum.
'Go to the second floor.'
Xavier climbed up the stairs to the second floor and approached a desk behind which sat a young girl of fine features, probably a low-ranking noblewoman in an administrative position. She handed him the inscription.
'A shadow mage, come with me,' said the girl without much emotion.
Xavier followed her to another counter. The girl pulled out a glass pipe system with the black sand he already knew. It was a simple version of the same equipment used at the guard tower. It measured only the affinity for one element, not its magnitude. Xavier touched the pipe at the specified place, made his magic energy flow, and the sand began to move.
'Well, it is confirmed that you are a shadow mage. Although some of your registration details are dubious, you will be given permission to join a subjugation squadron. If you want a magician badge, you must go to Koros, the royal city, and register there. A cleaning mission on Mount Anim will be carried out in three days; you are free to participate. Good luck.' The girl completed the record, giving Xavier a sealed piece of paper identifying him.
Xavier knew that it was a risk to register as a magician, being a wanted criminal, but he had learned from Vralia that in the citadels and small villages, they did not pay much attention to the mercenaries who participated in the subjugation squadrons. They didn't want to scare the sacrificable flesh, especially the shadow magicians. After all, many died in the miasma, and although they were the majority of the magicians, they were not an unlimited resource either. Xavier stayed in the citadel like the other mercenaries, travelers, and independent adventurers. Many of them were low-life criminals trying to make a living. They slept in the taverns after dinner, and at closing, for a copper coin, you could spend the night on the floor of the place. It was not comfortable, but the hard and cold stone under a roof was better than spending the night in the open. The next morning, everyone got up and went on their way. Xavier stayed sleeping and eating in the taverns until the day of the mission came. The food they made for lunch wasn't bad at all. Although it didn't have much meat, it had a good taste. Finally, the subyugation team was formed.
'Good morning, everybody. I am Sergeant Louis de Canna, I will be in command of the mercenaries and knights on this mission. The leader, Brosma de Tutto, a fire magician, will lead the mages squad,' announced Louis, pointing to a magician with the well-known fire badge on his chest. 'We will depart for Mount Anim soon. You know how it works. We'll arrive at the site in a week, and we'll give you the markers. The shadow magicians will enter the miasma area, locate the core, and then the magicians of other elements, knights, and mercenaries will come in and destroy it. Lets go'
They climbed on several horse carriages and wagons. The fighting magicians climbed on their charriages together. There were two fire magicians, two wind magicians, and two earth magicians.
The Shadow Mages also climbed on a less fine carriage. There were six shadow magicians; four of them were young, probably their first time entering a miasma area. Then there were two older shadow magicians, about thirty years old. One of them was a little pale, occasionally coughing, and sometimes, with his cough, escaped a little black smoke. Everybody knew what that meant; he had the miasma disease and probably only had a few years left.
The rest of the subjugation squadron were groups of mercenaries and knights; there were about thirty of them. There was not much camaraderie or association during the breaks or at night. Each group made a camp fire of their own. The food was supplied by the knights of the kingdom; they were the typical military rations: hard bread, dried meat, cheese, and wine. Each group remained among its own; the knights sat next to the magicians of the Brosma team. The mercenaries and the shadow magicians gathered together; they were on the same level, and they knew they were expendable. The veteran among the shadow magicians was still couching.
'How long have you been sick?' asked one of the mercenaries.
'A few years,' replied the magician. 'If I'm lucky, I'll last about two more years'.
'How many times did you have to go into the miasma to get sick?' said Xavier.
'Only one,' replied the magician, as everyone looked at him with doubt.
'We went into some catacombs; I got lost; I was down there for a week, I think. I don't even know how I got out alive. Since then, I have entered two more times, but every time the disease gets worse and worse.' He said these last words forcibly, and then he began to cough. 'Most likely, this will be my last adventure.'
The smile on his face somewhat confused the young men, not the veteran mercenaries, who knew what it was about. Like the magician, many of them had made peace with death long ago. The life of a soldier or mercenary is not worth much.
Xavier decided to try to draw attention to himself; he needed contacts in the mercenary groups. He stretched out his hand and used most of his magical energy to increase the size and strength of the flame, surprising everyone.
'Fire magic?' asked the sick magician.
'Yes, I am a dual magician with traces of fire. Unfortunately, I can only use it for small things; if you need to dry wood or start a small fire, you can call me. I am a wandering lighther,' said Xavier with a face of defeat.
'That may be useful. What's your name, boy?' asked a mercenary. He was a white, bald, medium-sized man with a crooked nose.
'Aleum.'
'Well, I'm pleased to meet you, Aleum. I am Melna, and I am the leader of the Tide mercenary group. Maybe after this mission we could talk a little bit and discuss the future,' Melna offered.
'It will be my pleasure,' Xavier accepted, hiding the satisfaction that his plan to attract attention worked.
'Tide?' asked one of the young magicians.
'We always come back, like the tide. We survived everything until now, and we tried again,' replied Melna, raising her cup.
The rest of the dinner and the night continued in silence, and the next day they continued their march. By the evening of the sixth day of the journey, the group had finally arrived at Mount Anim. Some trees and fragments of an ancient wall were in sight, and a few meters from the wall began a miasma cloud, within which wandered monsters and the undead.
Mount Anim was a city centuries ago where a massacre took place. After that, it was the site of several battles and conflicts. Most people avoided this cursed land. Occasionally, if there was no miasma, criminals and bandits gathered to do business that often ended in conflict. Blood, violence, and death formed part of the land itself. They spent the night in the vicinity of the mountain, as getting too close could be dangerous. The miasma became more intense and covered more territory during the night. At dawn, the sergeant handed over the markers. Each shadow magician was given a small hexagonal red crystal, inside which there was a gem with a discreet shine. The shadow magicians entered the black cloud that covered the hill where the city stood centuries ago.
As soon as he entered the miasma and was away from the rest of the magicians, Xavier opened the small amulet on his necklace. Since he woke up, he had been using his fire magic to increase the heat of the fireplace with which they prepared breakfast, and by the time he entered the miasma, his magic energy was almost zero. The leech stone would have no trouble keeping it undetectable to any monsters that might appear in the area. His experience in the jungle of Morr helped him. Only a few minutes had passed since they entered, and a cry was heard throughout Mount Anim, and then there was silence.
'With that scream, I'm sure somebody is dead,' he said.
A noise a few meters away petrified him. A skeleton passed by his side, completely ignoring him. When it approached the area where the miasma began to become less dense, it turned left and disappeared in the distance. Xavier breathed in relief, then continued to advance over the hill carefully. Several hours passed. He advanced slowly, but still, he had only stumbled upon a pair of skeletons so far, which was not a good sign; it meant he was not near the core.
A new series of screams flooded the hill. Someone was screaming like crazy, and he was getting closer and closer.
'Shit, shit, shit,' Xavier thought.
Now the screams were heard a few meters away. "I have to hide," he thought.
There weren't many choices. He threw himself to the ground behind a piece of wall from an old building. The screams seemed to run directly toward him; now multiple "clacs" could be heard. Someone ran in front of the place where Xavier was lying down, and suddenly a group of skeletons passed in the same direction. Xavier was close enough to understand what was going on: one of the shadow magicians must have stumbled upon some skeletons and ran away. On the way, he must have encountered some more, because he now had at least twenty of them running after him.
Xavier kept himself on the floor, sweating coldly and with his heart in his throat. The screams stopped two or three minutes later, though it seemed like an eternity.
"Is it worth it?" he wondered.
The pay was good. Five silver coins for the shadow magicians who entered the miasma. Five more to the one who finds the core and a plus to the survivors, depending on the difficulty of the mission, although the important thing was to make relations with the mercenary groups.
"It's not like I have too many choices; this is no worse than the jungle of Morr," he thought to encourage himself as he got up from the ground.
"Damn, me and my big mouth," he lamented in silence.