32. Chapter Thirty-Two

When I arrived on the training fields with Arken in tow, my lieutenants exchanged a look, but said nothing. By now, they were accustomed to her presence, even if my excuses to bring her along were often flimsy at best. I appreciated their trust immensely, for a variety of reasons. Today in particular, though, because I just… had a certain sense that Arken was in dire need of a distraction.

“Congratulations, gentlemen,” I called out jovially. “You get a much prettier audience than usual today. I picked up a stray Conduit on the way here.”

Arken snorted, jabbing me in the ribs with her elbow as she waved to Hans and Jeremiah. Simply accidental on her part, I’m sure. They waved back to her before resuming their light sparring session.

“We’re just warming up, Captain,” Jeremiah said, barely containing his smirk. “Give us a few.”

I led Arken over to the other side of the field where a few sets of raised benches offered a better view. I smiled as I heard her snicker beneath her breath at the volley of quips the two men shot back and forth as they parried one another’s strikes.

“You three seem so close,” she said as we took a seat. “I can see why, too. They’re fucking hilarious.”

“Who, Hans and Jer? Yeah. They’re my second and third in command in the scouting unit. We’ve spent a lot of time together over the years,” I explained.

“Which is which?”

“Hans is second. Jer is third.”

“For some reason, I would’ve thought it was the other way around.”

I snorted. That was a valid assumption.

There was a reason why I was so close to these two men in my cadre in particular—I had been the one to promote them both in the first place, hand-selecting them as my direct reporting officers within our unit. There was also a reason why Hans was second-in-command.

Hans Deering was a royal pain in my ass, but he was also an exceptional fighter. He was among the minority within the Elder Guard in that he was not a Conduit. The man was completely non-Resonant—but he had learned how to adapt to what he perceived to be a weakness by developing his own combat style, designed to exploit the weaknesses of Conduits in particular. He had spearheaded this project.

A majority of combative arcana required both verbal and somatic casting, particularly if it was complex spellwork—and Hans was one fast motherfucker. I’d watched him dodge and disarm multiple Conduit guardsmen within mere moments by finding ways to bind their hands during training exercises. He’d often take advantage of the aether-resistant materials in his arsenal, too.

His Novosi bolas in particular were a pain in the ass to avoid. Deering knew that even the well-trained Conduits of the Elder Guard were overly reliant on their arcana, and he exploited every last ounce of comfort to make them regret it.

Within weeks of working with the man, I’d known that I wanted him at my side. I caught some shit for it, even from some of my fellow officers—which irritated me to no end. There were other non-Resonant men within the guard, and they had to work two or three times as hard as others for a scrap of recognition. I took pride in elevating Hans, not just to set an example but because he fucking earned it.

Jeremiah was different—the polar opposite to Hans’ raucous energy. He was an exceptionally talented Fire Conduit, but in the beginning, I honestly couldn’t stand the man. I was naturally skeptical about training Fire Conduits for stealth roles in the guard in the first place, because their combat styles were often too flamboyant, too easy to trace. Beyond that, Fairchilde himself was very stoic and standoffish, quiet—and wouldn’t often engage even when I tried to bait him into conversations. There may have been some personal biases at play, but the work that we do requires trust, and I wasn’t sure that I trusted him.

Funnily enough, what changed my mind was seeing him train with Hans.

The average Fire Conduit took advantage of their blazing fists, shields and aetherblades to force their opponents to give them a wide berth. I’d been intrigued to find that Jeremiah kept his flames to a low, flickering ember—preferring to fight in close quarters. I thought Hans was fast? My third in command was even faster.

In studying the two together, I quickly learned that Jeremiah was a master at counter-calculations, and had developed his own combat style to counter Hans on the fly. Jer would intentionally expose himself with what Hans might parse as a weakness—an opening. Within moments of an attempted strike, Hans found himself disarmed. Every time. Anyone who could knock Deering on his ass without even using their arcana was an absolute force to be reckoned with.

“Lost in thought over there, Captain?” Arken teased.

“Guilty as charged,” I replied. “I was just thinking about what made me select these two as my second and third in the first place.”

“And that is…?” she asked.

“You’re about to find out,” I said, pride creeping into my voice.

“Oi!” I called out. “You two ready, or what?”

“Been ready, Cap. We were just waiting on you two to wrap up the chit-chat,” Hans snarked back, swinging his bolas around casually.

“Royal pain in my ass,” I murmured under my breath, and Arken giggled.

“Alright smartass, show me what you’ve got, then!” I called out.

With a curt nod, Hans and Jeremiah began their presentation. Jeremiah did most of the talking and I was grateful for that, all things considered. Jer was the more tight-lipped of the two, and wouldn’t inadvertently reveal some detail that left Arken with more questions.

Even though Arken was now aware of Amir’s kidnapping, she had no idea how many others had been stolen. Nor did she have any idea about the potential anti-Conduit rebellions that were forming, and I very much preferred to keep it that way. If it became more of a prevalent issue, maybe I could explain… but that would be treading some dangerous ground. In the present moment, though, she didn’t even seem suspicious—only fascinated as Jeremiah put on an intentionally more flamboyant display of arcane combat, emulating what the average Fire Conduit might look like in a hand-to-hand scenario.

It was an effort to keep my eyes fixed to the training grounds, as opposed to watching her watch them, but I had to settle for stealing glances every time she sucked in a small breath of excitement. Was she really not bored by this? Sometimes, the woman still managed to surprise me.

Focus, Kieran.

I dug my nails into my palm a bit, letting the sharp bite draw my attention back to my lieutenants. I needed to approve this training exercise before they presented it to my commander, and it was important. It may have been a smidge short-sighted of me to bring along such a distracting creature, but I wasn’t about to kick her out now. Instead, I pointedly kept my eyes on Hans, watching him move through the exercise.

This was obviously his area of expertise, and it showed. I nodded in approval as he went over the drills intended to help Conduits identify their blind spots. He had done additional research into patterns of the Elder Guard—as well as some of the regional forces—and had even broken it down by the behavior of each type of Conduit.

Air and Water Conduits, for example, had a tendency to be more ranged attackers, so he had developed some exercises to identify common casts from across the field and how to disable them with ranged weapons or stealth units depending on the scenario. Fire and Earth Conduits were often more close-range fighters, so the drills were focused more on direct disarmament.

I made a mental note to place an order with the armory for more Novosi bolas, should these methods be approved. They were really quite handy in both circumstances.

“No specific training against Shadow or Light?” Arken murmured with a hushed tone, obviously not wanting to interrupt.

I shook my head. “No. We’re rather rare, remember? It would be a waste of resources to train for such a niche situation.”

“Ah,” she replied, her brow furrowing. “Right.”

“Besides, if any of the lower ranking guardsmen were up against a soldier trained in Light or Shadow, they’d be kinda fucked regardless.”

“Why’s that?” Arken asked.

“We can blind people pretty damn easily, Little Conduit,” I explained, briefly casting Shadow across her eyes. Though I quickly released the arcana, she still shivered gently.

“Oh, gods. I never even thought of that.”

I chuckled under my breath. I mean, why would she have? The only inherent violence I’d ever seen out of Arken was when I annoyed the shit out of her and she started throwing those bony little elbows around. It was far too early for her to have enrolled in any Physical Arcana courses, if she ever even chose to. And in an era of relative peace, Physical Arcana had grown increasingly uncommon for students who weren’t planning on military service.

In any circumstance, the rarity of our arcana was sort of a blessing in disguise—at least when it came to battle. Entering combat blind was a nightmare.

Finally, it was Jeremiah’s turn to put his skill on display. He also managed to impress me, running through some experimental Physical Arcana tactics that would allow Conduits to disable their fellow magick-equipped enemies as well. It was all reliant on speed, so he had worked with Hans to develop a few drills that really seemed to push the limits on how fast one could cast certain spells that would bind hands or mouths, or otherwise incapacitate. That was more of a long shot, highly dependent on the arcane prowess of the individual, but we’d take every advantage we could get.

“So are you gonna keep sitting on your ass, boss? Or are you gonna come try this shit out yourself?” Hans asked with a smirk.

Arken snorted, and I rolled my eyes as I rose to my feet.

“Far be it from me to deny you an opportunity to get fucked up,” I replied, cracking my knuckles.

It was my turn to show off.