As we walked to the baths, Linus asked from a safe-smelling distance, “How was your first night in charge, Eryk? Did you have to chase someone into the sewer?”

    I was walking behind the group so they didn’t have to smell me, “Something like that. I mistook a bedpan for a clothes-washing basin,” I fabricated a tale simr to something I heard Firth tell about one of his trips to a brothel.

    They startedughing and thankfully dropped the subject. I listened to their tales of their overnight patrol. Nothing too exceptional happened, they stopped three break-ins and turned the criminals over to the city guard. The holding cells were over capacity in the city, so the prisoners were tasked with constructing barricades to be used in the city.

    We arrived at the baths, and I embarrassedly asked for my clothes bundled in a nket to be washed. The young woman recognized me from when I broke in over a week ago after returning from my swamp excursion.

    I pulled her aside to exin why my clothes were filthy, “I am sorry about this, but my legion mates tossed my clothes and nket in the pig pen. I could not get them clean. An entire silver bonus if you get the smellpletely out,” I said pleadingly. Her eyes brightened at the incentive, and I noticed she was the only one working. “Where is everyone? Were there not three of youst time I was here?”

    She nodded, “They left with their families yesterday afternoon. About half the city is gone now. My parents died two winters back, and my only other family is in Bartiradiannds.”

    “So you are alone in the city?” I asked the young woman with a mildly suggestive tone. She was in-looking but not unattractive. I guessed her age to be close to Renna, about 19.

    “I live with my older brother, who is a guard in the lower city,” she said, blushing slightly. She focused on my clothes, scrunching her nose, “I can boil the bundle with lye, white ash, and oil scents. It worked on thest group you hade through here smelling this foul.”

    “Great! Can you wash what I am wearing separately as well?” I said while removing my clothes. She seemed uncertain as she was the only one working and had a lot of piles ofundry to do. I produced two silver coins, one for the bath, one for her bonus, and onerge copper as an additional bonus, “Please?” I asked, handing her the coins. She nodded, and I did catch her eyes look down for a moment. I still was not ustomed to the fact that nudity was not a taboo in the Empire.

    She handed me a new bar of soap and a clean scrubber. Unlike the baths in the lower city, everyone got new soap and a clean scrubber in these baths. “Thank you. What is your name?” It actually seemed a little absurd to ask her name in my state.

    “Carina,” she said shyly, tossing my clothes in a woven basket, trying not to touch the foul-smelling ones.

    “Thank you, Carina,” I said with a reassuring smile and moved to the showers. Mypanions had already cleaned in the showers and moved into themunal hot tub. I spent a much longer time scrubbing my skin raw to remove the scent of whatever the apex magic essence did to me. I settled into the heated pool with the others. I think I had been sessful in removing the odor from my body.

    My skin was raw from the scrubbing and a bit sensitive to the hot water, but the heat was divine on my sore muscles. The training did not get me sore any longer, but my spasming muscles from consuming the magic affinity essence had done a number on me. My body felt like the first day in the legion training barracks. I was quite good at hiding my soreness but settling into the water, I let out an audible sigh.

    “You should just visit the brothels, Eryk. Too much work in pursuing the young bath girls. And then, half the time, you have to deal with their irate lovers,” Lucian advised with a smirk. Lucian was the horse master for thepany and taught me to ride.

    Benito remarked with mirth, “Yeah, you rubbed yourself red, and I doubt that she wants to deal with a tomato of your bulk. She probably prefers a smaller and more handsome package,” he indicated himself. Benito was the shortest man in ourpany at about 5’5”. He preferred a body shield and a short sword inbat to serve in the shield wall.

    Linus, ourpany medic, said, “Our young friend has more sense than the both of you. Benito, you spent nearly half your silver from the snake at the brothel! And the other half getting cleansed of the crotch crickets!”

    “It was still worth it!” Benito pouted, “For Mars’ de, we might not see the end of the week. I prefer my coin spent and my urges satisfied.” Benito’s reminder of our dire circumstances killed the verbal jousting.

    Mypanions left and informed me they were headed two buildings down for food. I could meet them there, and they wished me luck with the young woman. It was not Carina who came and told me my clothes were ready but the older woman who ran the bathhouse.

    She scolded me, “My girls can do better than a muscled brute. I would prefer if you and your Legion men avoided my baths altogether! I suppose the enemy is going to sabotage the aqueduct when they arrive, and my baths will be shut down. Until then, legionnaire, I suggest the lower city baths!” She dropped my two wickerundry baskets at my feet to emphasize the point I was not wee. I take she did not like soldiers for some reason.

    I dressed and noted that my clothes and nket now had a strong floral scent. Carina did an excellent job. I decided, the Mistress of the baths be damned, if I wanted to take a bath in fancy upper city baths, I would.

    I met the others at a small café style restaurant. They were eating something akin to a thick taco, and I joined them. I mentioned, “Life seems too normal for a city that is about to be attacked.”

    Lucian spoke as he ate, “The civilians don’t care. This city has been passed back and forth a dozen times in thest hundred years. When the fighting starts, they will hide in their basements,e out when it is all over, and resume their lives no matter who controls the city.”

    It made sense now why that bookstore vendor did not care to flee. I asked, “So, they will not loot the city if they conquer it?”

    Lucian was shaking his head in the negative, “If they did, then it would be hard to find civilians who wanted to settle in the city so close to the border. It is just the soldiers that pay the price in the border expansion wars with the Bartiradians. You could almost call it a war with civility!” Heughed at his joke.

    “Now, when we fight the orcs of Boutan Caliphate, that is a bloody war of attrition,” Linus added to the conversation.

    Benito contributed his knowledge, “We haven’t fought the Boutan orcs on the northern penins in a century. If we leave them alone, they will keep to their own.”

    Lucian disagreed, “Their Supreme Cleric has been pushing his people to settle the ins across the ocean to the west of the Telhian Empire. Even though the swamps separate ournds there, trust me, there will be war soon.”

    Benitoughed, “When have we ever not been at war? The Emperors have been trying to conquer all of Desia for two thousand years. Besides, the Esenhem Elves block thend passage to the penins.”

    “You are daft, Benito. Have you ever heard of a boat? How do you think they settled the western ins?” Lucian spoke in disbelief. I had not talked too much with Benito, but he dide off as a bit of an idiot.

    Linus focused on me with a knowing smile and asked, “So, Eryk. No luck with the young bath attendant?”

    I rolled my eyes at the question, “The Mistress of the baths warned me off.”

    The entire group startedughing. Lucian so hard his face turned red. Linus consoled me, “Well, this is the upper city, Eryk. She probably only works in the baths tond herself a wealthy patron. We are just men who swing big swords.”

    Lucienughed, stood, and pped me on my back, “Some bigger than others. Let us get back to the vi before Castile sends out a search party.”

    We had eaten enough to avoid Lysander’s dinner tonight. My overnight patrol remained the same, and the night got interesting as a fire was set in one of the warehouses on our street not long into our patrol.

    The first story of every building in the city was made from stone and mortar. The second and sometimes third floors were wood. The warehouse that was burning could not be saved, and the fire brigade was focused on just containing it and preventing it from spreading to other buildings.

    As the fire brigade arrived, I ordered my men, “Let us keep an eye out in case this was set as a distraction. Keep in the center of the road, and do not watch the fire burn.” Maybe I was being paranoid, but something felt off. I moved us toward the city’s outer walls so we wouldn’t be in the path of the smoke.

    Brutus felt it, too, “Seems awfully convenient to have the warehouse burn down,” as the mes started to reach higher and higher, and would easily be seen from anywhere in the city.

    Two loud, shrill whistles rang out from a few streets away. That was the signal the Legion used to alert others that the enemy was near. Faint sounds ofbat could be heard even with the fire and men trying to contain it nearby. Everyone looked to me for direction. “Form up tight behind me. Fast jog,” I ordered as I broke into a jog, heading toward the sounds ofbat.

    We ran to the main thoroughfare and toward the upper city. It was just three streets down when we ran into the fighting. It was one of our patrols. The legionnaires were engaged with a dozen men. “Full Run!” I screamed as I bolted forward, ignoring the formation. My scream was to draw the attention of the attackers to give our men some relief.

    On quick inspection, one of our men was already down, and two looked severely injured. The legion men had their backs to building, protecting the downed man. A spear shed from over my shoulder, and then two more. Two of the three spears connected with the assants. One was a chest strike, and the other a hip strike. Both targets copsed and screeched in pain. With a spear in them they were effectively out ofbat.

    The odds were much better, seven of us versus eleven of them. I had miscounted, there were actually thirteen enemies. I didn’t throw my own spear. Instead, I preferred to charge with it. My target was one of the attackers closer to our defending men. He was distracted, and I took him through the side, losing my spear two feet into his oblique and exiting out his belly. I released the spear, unable to retrieve it, and pulled my short sword, deflecting a sh from another man.

    My men reached us, and in the dim light of the oil streetmps, the carnage of battle waged. My focus was not to let any of the enemy behind me. I was able to identify the four men we were trying to rescue. Orson, Lirkin, ze and Caius. ze was the man who was down. He was trying to hold his neck while blood oozed from the wound.

    I didn’t think as I yelled, “Form a wall around ze! Give me time to get to him.” As if by magic, the six legionnaires pushed the attackers back, and I was able to kneel by ze and get him both the lesser potions from my storage space into his mouth. The blood was slowing, but I didn’t have time to help further, as the effort to create space for me had gotten Brutus injured. It looked like Lirkin had a serious thigh wound, and Orson was fighting one-handed.

    I joined the fray, and it turned into an exchange of des. Another squad of men was running toward us, led by Firth. I could hear not what he was screaming, but the remaining attackers ran. I returned to ze and checked on him. He was unconscious but breathing, and the neck wound lookedpletely closed. Thepany medic, Linus, knelt with me, “I already used all our potions. What do you have left?”

    “Just the two healing salves. Only good for closing surface wounds,” I produced them and handed them to him. It wasn’t long before Firth came back from his chase.

    Firth addressed Orson, “How many attacked you?”

    Orson responded immediately, “Thirteen.”

    Firth did a mental count, then spoke, “Five got away then.” Firth started inspecting each of the men as I helped Linus with our wounded. When he was done, he sounded irritated, “Only five of the eight were Bartiradian soldiers by their clothing and callused hands. The rest were men that were probably insurgents assisting them from inside the city,” he concluded.

    Orson ordered the enemy to be moved together in a pile, and then we returned to the vi. The news was not good. Another squad had been attacked, and ns was killed. The number of injuries also put a huge dent in our potion stock. Castile, Delmar, Konstantin, and Adrian had not returned yet either. They had tasked themselves with hunting down the air mage.

    Toward morning, our leaders returned. They returned and had obviously battled with the state of their equipment—blood, cuts, and filth covered their clothes. As one of the squad leaders, I was called to report on the events of the night. No one was happy with losing ns. Castile did not me anyone, though. We were almost out of potions, which was extremely bad. Durandus had been the only healing mage in the city.

    Adrian told us about their night, “We found the air mage. He got away and copsed the aqueduct just outside the city. We managed to kill the seven soldiers with him, but he fled into the country outside the walls. If no one else fled the city, our best guess is that around ten Bartiradians infiltrators are left in the city now. Hopefully, the air mage does not return.”

    Castile made some rapid decisions, “We willbine patrols for the night watch. Day patrols are canceled. Lirkin can resume his duties. I want rotations to the city wall, Adrian. The enemy should be arriving soon, and I was to know when. Send a message to Gregor and let him know I want to meet him here at the vi. Linus, take Eryk and see if any apothecaries are still functioning in the city, and get what supplies you can. Get all the potions to Eryk’s storage before you leave, and send me an ountingter.” Castile left to talk with Delmar and Adrian.

    I went with Linus, and we scoped out the city’s apothecaries, but all had fled the impending siege of the city. Linus broke into one shop and was disappointed with what he found. All he found was some red aloe that could be used as a topical disinfectant.

    We returned to the vi. I dly went to my room to rest. There was some relief to see Lirkin cooking merrily and whistling to himself. I secured my room and stripped off my armor. In the fighting hours ago, I was shocked to find that I had taken a shallow cut to my bicep. The blood was dried, but I did not remember receiving it during the fight. I closed my eyes and tried to rey the fight in my head. There! In an exchange, I remembered that I had deflected a swing with my buckler and felt a sting, but I did not think the de reached flesh then. I felt better remembering how I received the injury and thought about how I could avoid the same mistake in the future.

    I cleaned the injury and used the red aloe we had just procured. It was going to leave a nice scar. I did not study the healing spell form, instead deciding to get as much sleep as possible. A knock woke me for dinner, and I dly went to eat with everyone else. Even with the improved fare, the mood was still somber with the loss of nsst night. The mood got darker when a city guardsman rushed into the vi to alert us that the lead elements of the Bartiradian army were visible from the walls.