The Journeymen

Strange Times

Jack carefully eased Gabe to the ground after catching the falling wizard. Anya immediately looked concerned over her new friend's immediate decline in health, kneeling down next to Jack and looking down at Gabe's limp form.

"Don't worry, he just over-exerted himself using that magic. He just needs sleep and a good breakfast when he wakes up," Chuck said, sensing his apprentice's concern.

Anya nodded, likely embarrassed that her two teachers noticed her near panic. The bartender hurried over with water and damp towels, hoping to provide aide for the collapsed wizard.

Jack nodded his head in the direction of their shared bunk room, "Chuck, can you and this fine young man," he paused and patted the bartender, likely the son of the owners of the inn as he looked just like his father only twenty-five years younger, "take our exhausted wizard to our room and make sure he's comfortable. I think we all owe him our lives."

Chuck nodded, slinging the much smaller man over his shoulder and walking toward the bunk room, the bartender following nervously, still carrying the water and towels.

Jack turned to Anya, "We'll be questioning our prisoners. Maybe they'll have some valuable intelligence."

The two guardsmen at the gate had been killed in the initial assault, both of them receiving bullet wounds to the head. The remaining four guardsmen who had obviously been relaxing while not responsible for security had emerged following the fight in various levels of readiness, one standing with only a plate carrier, his rifle, and a pair of light blue boxer shorts. Jack noticed Anya let a quick laugh slip at the sight of the man before regaining her composure.

The guardsmen were understandably troubled at the loss of their comrades during the assault and likely wanted revenge on the survivors. Jack therefore tasked the men with carefully searching the perimeter for any more survivors and to render aide to any potential victims mostly with the intent of keeping the raiders turned prisoners alive long enough to question them.

Jack and Anya moved the three surviving raiders to a clear area of pavement. Empty shell casings could be seen around the area, a small part of the evidence of the firefight that had just occurred. The three raiders faces displayed only one emotion, fear.

"So, who are you?" Jack asked, wasting no time at getting to the point.

The two men only stared up at the two Journeymen, terror robbing their mouths of speech. The woman, a scrawny woman with unkempt, short, brown hair, stammered, unable to form coherent words before she finally pieced together, "What happened?"

The woman's eyes were open wide like a doe that was just ahead of the wolves that pursued her. Jack actually felt sympathy for the woman who knelt before him even though just minutes before she had every intent of ending his life. He had never seen magic like that before. He had heard of magic that lethal but wizards rarely traveled, preferring to stay in the universities studying the mostly unknown art. The other aspect that was so jarring to Jack was how Gabe had been able to only target foes. The woods around were of course damp from the recent wet weather but the fires had seemed so intense that Jack was shocked there wasn't at least some kind of a forest fire burning around them.

The normally intimidating Journeyman crouched down to eye level with the panicked woman. He spoke more gently now, "It was our wizard. If you talk with me now and promise to be honest, I can promise you that you'll be safe. You won't suffer the same fate as your friends. I can't guarantee you won't face punishment but you won't burn."

The woman nodded, taking a deep, ragged breath in an attempt to calm herself. She closed her eyes momentarily, taking another breath, this one more even and controlled. She opened her green eyes which were still wide with fear.