"You look good."
"You look better."
"...Sorry." Adam's words make me grimace.
Knew I shoulda dressed down more for this.
"Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that," he huffs from his spot across the table and smiles. "I'm glad you're doing good. We've heard some rumors and I've been worried."
"Yeah. Like is it true that after you lost the fight to that big guy he fu--
oww!
" Nate rubs his side where Adam's elbow hit him.
Adam glares at the mage to his right before turning back to me. "Seriously though, David. Is he hurting you?"
"No, really.
I'm fine
. Better than fine, all things considered." I smile back, trying to hide any discomfort over the topic. I can only imagine what they've heard--and how much of it is true. "I'm more worried about you guys in here."
It's Astraday, which is visiting day at the Yash'ak Cr'hol Labor Camp. This is my second time here, my first being last weekend when I saw Liss and Corrine. Thanks to Khazak pulling some strings, I'm able to sit with two of my friends at a time. After I get patted down by one of the guards, I'm brought to a large room filled with tables where they're already seated. They've got the prisoners split by gender, and since Adam insisted the girls go first--which is a very Adam thing to do--this week I get to see him and Nate.
"We're alright. It's not as rough in here as you'd think." Adam gives me a small smile. "The food's not that bad, and the beds still beat sleeping on the ground outside. They say we're earning some money while we're in here, too. They've got me and Liss working construction, so far just helping to build homes in the poorer parts of the city. It's mostly moving materials around and holding them in place while the mages do their thing."
"What about you?" I ask Nate, more out of politeness than actual interest. When I was here last week no one had been assigned a "job" yet.
"Corrine and I have been hard at work transcribing books." He flexes his hand like it hurts. "If they'd just let me use my magic, I could have the whole thing done in a few hours but
nooooo
..." On both of his wrists are small metal bracelets, the same as I saw on Corrine last week. They're long-term versions of the city's anti-magic bracers, lighter and unconnected to make it easier to move around and work while still cutting off the wearer from their magical abilities.
"What about you?" Adam ignores Nates whining. "What does... Ironstorm, is that his name?"
Yep.
I nod. "What does he have you doing?"
"Actually, I'm kinda...working with him and the people who arrested us." I scratch my head, feeling bashful that I'm basically working with the enemy. "It's not all that different from what we did back at the academy."
It's been about two weeks since I started my "job" with the V'rok'sh Tah'lj rangers as Captain Khazak Ironstorm's assistant. I wish I could say it's been an interesting two weeks, but sadly after the investigation we had my first two days, it has been incredibly boring. Khazak -- or Sir, as I sometimes know him -- wasn't kidding when he said most of his job was filling out paperwork; he spends
most
of his time in his office doing that.
"Isn't that kind of weird?" Adam sounds surprised. Understandable, given one of the main reasons we left home was questioning our entire system of law enforcement on top our own morality.
"It's a lot more boring than it sounds. The most exciting thing that happened last week was helping an old lady find her dog." She was thankful, at least. "Check it out though." I bring up one of my arms and flex. "They've got a gym."
Just because Khazak has to do a lot of paperwork doesn't mean I do, unless you count the whole 'trying to learn a new language' thing. When he's not making me work through my
'Learning Atasi'
book (which is going...alright), we manage to break up the boring downtime with some fun activities. Not like
that.
(Well, except this one time we were stuck there kinda late...) I just mean there's been plenty to keep me busy.
Not only do I have a gym to workout in now, but a few days after I started, they tore down the old cells in the yard and converted the space into an outdoor training area. When I can convince Khazak or one of the other rangers to join me, we'll spar back there. It's mostly hand-to-hand stuff, which isn't really my forte against a bunch of muscled up orcs, but there's been a few times where I've gotten to wield a sword again. I even got my own work-issued shortsword! I know it's only been two weeks but it already feels like I'm starting to bulk back up.
"You'll be back to your old self in no time." Adam grins.
"Working out won't make you taller, David," Nate snarks.
"So anyways," I push past him, "if you see the girls can you let them know I won't be able to make visiting day next weekend?"
"Why, everything alright?" Adam tilts his head.
"Yeah, just gonna be spending the week in the woods." That's what Khazak told me a few days ago.
"You're just...going camping?" Nate squints his eyes.
"No, it's this ranger thing. Every week a different group goes out and patrols." One of those patrols is what got us caught. "At the end of the week a new group comes in and takes the old one's place. They rotate every four weeks or so and we leave tomorrow for our turn."
"Huh. Yeah I'll let 'em know. Have fun." I cringe inwardly at Adam's use of the word 'fun,' realizing that I basically just bragged about going on a camping trip for a week while they sit in jail. "If there's one thing we actually got good at in the last couple of months, it's sleeping outside."
"Did you have a nice visit?" Khazak asks when I return from the visitation room now that the hour is over. He's been kind enough to give me privacy when I meet with my friends.
"Yeah, it was good to see Adam." It has sucked to not have my best friend around to talk to about...
any
of the stuff that's been going on. "He's in good spirits, but he's always been pretty good at hiding when he's unhappy about something."
"What about your other friend?" He's still learning their names.
"Nate? He's fine. And I told you, he's not my friend." I refuse to acknowledge that dick as anything more than an acquaintance. "Thank you for bringing me."
"Of course." He reaches over and squeezes my shoulder gently as we walk.
Unlike work, things between Khazak and I have been anything but boring. Not that the excitement has reached anywhere near the levels of crazy drama that first week held. Would you believe I only managed to get spanked
once
last week? It was my own fault, I let Ragnar talk me into pranking Khazak by swapping his regular ink for some that turns invisible fifteen minutes after being put on paper. He didn't notice until he was writing a particularly-long report and the top started to vanish before he had reached the bottom. He said he spanked me once for each field he had to re-fill out on each form. I didn't keep count, but it felt like it.
Outside of that, things have been great. You'd think after almost three weeks of waking up next to and spending the entire day with someone, I'd be sick of him, but we've been getting along swimmingly. There's not a whole lot to do around here aside from eating, reading, and exercising, but he always manages to find something to keep us occupied. Which is sometimes me. Safe to say I think I'm getting kind of good at
that
kind of stuff.
"Ready to pack for tomorrow?" Khazak asks when we arrive back at the house.
"Yep. Do you have a bag I can use?" I'm gonna need a lot of clothes for a whole week. "And do you have an extra bedroll?"
"Mine should be big enough for the both of us." Khazak walks down the hall, turning into the spare room with me following.
"Your bag or your bedroll?" One of those makes more sense than the other.
"Both." He opens the closet and pulls out a large bedroll attached to a sturdy looking leather backpack.
"My clothes are gonna fit in there?" It's sizable but so is he--as are his clothes.
"No, this is filled with tools and supplies." He slings it over one shoulder. "I meant my other bag."
I look at him skeptically, assuming he's talking about the pouch he carries around when we go out. He snorts at the face I'm making, bringing his camping supplies into the bedroom and motioning for me to follow.
"This bag is much larger than it appears," he tells me after placing the bedroll on the floor and grabbing his other bag. He turns to one of his clothing chests and grabs a large stack of shirts and pants, a pile larger than the bag itself. I then watch as he proceeds to put all of them into the bag, which bulges out a little,
maybe.
Not nearly as much as it should; it should have burst by now.
"I knew it," I whisper to myself.
Magic bag.
I've seen them before. Well, I've seen one before, once. "Where did you get that?"
"A port city in the north." He motions me over, holding the bag open so I can peer inside. "My sister and I made the journey there together. I've had it over a decade."
Looking in the top of the bag is weird. It's pitch black, like a void. I'm almost scared to put my hand in. "How does it work?"
"After you have put something inside the bag, you simply need to picture it in your mind as you reach in to retrieve it," he explains.
I give it a shot, picture one of the shirts I just saw him put inside. The inside of the bag feels cool as I insert my hand, and suddenly my hand feels full. Pulling it out, I can see that I'm now holding the shirt in question. I repeat this with another shirt, and then a pair of pants. Then I try inserting my entire arm, touching the bottom of the outside of the bag with my other hand at the same time and ignoring the smirk I receive for my antics.
"That's awesome." I would love to get my hands on one of these myself. It would be
so
