Chapter 17
The day everyone dreaded came. I had left the underground city with Pera and returned to our shop, when our usual customers saw us they expressed their concern about us as we had left for just less than a month and no one knew where we went. After we reassured them that everything is fine, we headed back to house and collected everything of value sentimental or monetary and put them inside one of my portals as we didn't know when we would come back or if the shop was burned down or destroyed in the war and we didn't want to lose anything precious.
We stayed inside for a while when we first felt the ground vibrating then we heard the sound of many feat stomping, and we knew that I was upon us, that everything we had done and prepared must be enough, because if it isn't than that means that everyone dies.
We went outside to watch what is happening, more than three fourth of them went to the outside of the city and they put up a barricade to stop anyone from fleeing be them from the city proper or from the outer city.
Then some soldiers stood on any vantage point that they could find and started with their loudest voices, "BY ROYAL DECREEE, WE ANNOUNCE WAR IS COMING, WAR IS COMING, WAR IS COMING," taking a breath they continued, "CONSCRIPTION IS MANDATORY, BY THE END OF THE DAY EVERONE SHOULD HAVE CHECKED IN WITH AT LEAST ONE OF THE GUARDS STATIONED IN ANY OF THE THREE MARKETS. FAILURE TO CHECK IN RESULTS IN THE SAME PUNISHMENT AS DESERTION. YOU WILL BE FLOGGED THEN HANGED IN THE SQUARE FOR ALL TO SEE YOUR COWARDICE." Now that they had shown the stick they also announced the carrot, "BY THE ORDERS OF THE KING, THOSE WHO STAND FOR THEIR COUNTRY SHALL BE REWARDED, A GOLD COIN MONTH AND A RUBY FOR THEIR FAMILIES IF THEY FALL FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY."
When they announced the reward, everyone was shocked, most people barley make a gold coin a year let alone twelve of them, and the ruby also tempted a lot of people. That is when I saw the original one fourth increase to become one third of the people joining the conscription. The soldiers repeated the orders three times and then they started organizing the people and herding them into the markets.
Everyone was talking about the war; most people were afraid of what it would was going to happen to them and worried that they might be coscripted even though the pay was good they didn't want to die. The remaining few were excited for the money or the opportunity to kill people without anyone trying to stop them and even rewarding them for it.
When we reached a market, we found twenty lines already set up so the process wasn't taking as long as I would have expected it to. I could see that whenever a hundred people joined either by conscription or voluntary, they would be escorted by two soldiers to the place I assumed we would all be trained for the upcoming war, where they would try their best to turn a bunch of civilians who most had never taken a life into infantry to kill in the upcoming war. I just hoped that whatever happens I would not be separated from Pera, but I knew that since Vos has become the general of the army, he would look out for us. He told us previously that he can not mess with the conscription or the mandatory training that we would be undergoing before the war really starts.
We stood in line and waited for a while but not as long as I expected, it seems they were serious about the announcement that by the end of the day everyone would be checked. As we arrived at the front of the line I saw that the group of a hundred only had one more spot before being taken away, so I moved out of the way and allowed the person behind us to go forward, both he and the guard at the counter looked at me strangely so I answered quickly, "I am with her," pointing at Pera, "and there is only one spot remaining in the group and if one of us joins the other will join so we don't want to be separated." The guard looked understanding and allowed us to shuffle places, I thanked the Holy Father about this Blessing as I saw some of the other guards not allowing this. As Luck would have it the person, we allowed to pass us ended up being conscripted and joined as the last person of the group before they were escorted out.
Then came our turn and the guard nodded at us to come forward. We had already prepared our documentation as everyone was required to show it to be checked if they are conscripted. As we handed him our documentations, I couldn't help but be curious as to how they are this fast when there are tens of thousands of people that are being conscripted, so I asked him.
He answered as he continued to flip papers in the books in front of him, "you are not the first to ask, but since I like you let me explain. I first check which Keeper is you Patron, and as you see there are ten books in front of me one for each Patron." With that he pulled the book titled Keeper of Love and Light, he continued, "then there are these indentations for each letter of the alphabet so now I only have to search for a specific name in a much smaller number of names, and they are also separated by the second and third letters of the name, after that the clerics in the castle just give up so its our job to search in those remaining few, if we find a name then that means you are up, if not then you are free to leave and don't have to join the war." As he said this he finished rifling through the pages he said, "aha, sorry lady but it seems you have been conscripted," handing her a piece of paper he continued, "this is conformation of your identity, don't lose it, or you will be considered to have dodged the conscription and will be punished if you can't explain what happened, you can usually explain it away as you would have already been in the camp, but why the hassle."
After handing her the paper, he saw her staying beside me and didn't say anything and allowed her to stay. As he began searching for my name that I knew will not be there I asked him another question, "I know you already explained to me the sorting system. But if I could bother you again, how can you be sure? I am sure that there is more than one person with the same name and the same Patron Keeper."
He chuckled as he continued looking, "it's no bother a lot of people ask the same thing. Once we find the name, next to it some special characteristics are recorded, they are hair color, eye color, age, and in which year you chose you Patron. Before you ask another question let me continue. If there are two people with the same information which is unlikely, we would look at secondary identification characteristics, which to say simply is your family, starting from parents then to the husband or wife, and finally children. If by some miracle two people have all of the same information, we can do what we want." With a small smile that hinted at something absurd he said, "personally I wish something like this would happen to me, I always wanted to settle a situation like this with coin flip but I don't think I will ever have the pleasure."
It just happened that he finished checking for my name at that moment so he closed the book and told me, "you sir are not being conscripted, but I know that you wanted to sign up if your lady here was conscripted. So, I just have to make sure that you wanted to join voluntarily with an audible confirmation."
I saw Pera's reddened face but ignored it for the moment and told the soldier, "yes, I would like to join the war."
Handing me a piece of paper he said, "very well sir, this here is identification, go present it to the guard over there," pointing to one of the escort guards in the waiting group. He continued, "as I know you have already seen after a hundred people join a group, they you will be escorted to your camp."
We thanked him and proceeded to the group location, there we showed our identifications and we were allowed to join the group where we found that ten people have already joined before us.
We waited for a while before anything interesting happened, at that was when the fifty seventh person entered. He was a very outspoken young man just about my age. He went from person to person greeting everyone trying to get anyone to talk to him, but everyone ignored him as they either didn't want the trouble associated with having a chatter mouth following them around or were too anxious to even see him let alone speak with him.
Then he came up to me and Pera. I should mention that we sent Murtok away for a while as we didn't want any unnecessary attention. He started trying to talk to me, but I ignored him and at that time I was still a bit antisocial because of powers and all the friends and acquaintances that I had were from Pera introducing me to them, and she always tries to get me out of this habit and that is why I questioned the guard not her when I could see that she was even more curious that I was. So, when I felt her disapproving glare at the back of my head, I pretended that I couldn't feel it and turned my head away from her so I she wasn't in my line of sight.
She knew that she couldn't force me to engage with him especially now that I could tell that he could die. So, instead she started talking to him and that is how I learned that he was an only child of his mother while his father had died long ago and he barely knew him. I also learned that his mother was the person originally conscripted, but he begged the soldier on his knees to let him take her place. And because of the scene and the delay he caused the the soldier allowed him to switch places.
In answer to all of this in my opinion unnecessarily intimate information that he must have blabbed about because he was nervous, Pera introduced herself and introduced me before they continued talking.
As I didn't want to bother with all of this, I completely joined Murtok as he flew above and watched how the people were being led from the city gate and into a large area filled with tents that I guessed was the training area.
I wanted to feel free before all of warring business left me unable to enjoy life, so I completely shut of my sense and joined Murtok, we flew above a secluded forest that people rarely visit because of its dangerous and I watched as the animal hunted each other for food sometimes successful and sometimes not. It felt good being able to fly the wind under my winds carrying me where ever I wanted and I wished that my body could grow wings so that I could carry Pera and fly away from all of this mess. That is when my time as a free bird was over as I felt someone shaking my body.
I reconnected to it and found Pera looking at me with concern in her eyes, so I just smiled at he with a look that said that everything was fine. She then told me, "we have already reached ninety people, it won't be long now before we get moving so get ready."
I nodded my head in understanding and that is when I noticed that max was still sitting next to us. I sighed mentally saying I guess we have a new friend to look out for.
Fifteen minutes later, our group was complete and our two escorts told us to follow them. We went to the gate of the city but when we passed through it, we saw a scene no one has ever seen and we were all shocked. Most tents where still standing, but the outer city was empty. There was no one there everyone was taken away. I guessed that since almost all of them were conscripted they didn't bother with identifications and just took everyone away, and that anyone that didn't fit their criteria of conscription they would be sent away to do whatever they can.
We walked for a while longer and finally reached the camp, and we saw it from away. I could see from our vantage point on the hill that it was a big camp but not the only one. I could see that each group was assigned two tents, and there was two hundred tents in the clearing, so each camp holds 10000 people.