As we broke through the trees I finally got to take a better look at the city besides the gate I could somewhat make out for the last 2 minutes. If I was to describe it I would say it looked a lot like Helm’s Deep, with the gate being centered instead of off to one side. At least it did so when I was moving towards it, no doubt unlike that fortress this one was not just put into the side of the mountain but it covered the entire pass closing off the small circlet of forest I had grown up in.

I knew this city was in fact a lot bigger but I could see nothing but a few tall towers beyond the walls.

“Why are the walls so big?” my thoughts slipped out softly as I was admiring the biggest construct I have seen since being reborn.

“They are there to keep out any manner of beasts” Alana, hearing my whispered question, responded.

“Yeah, that and the fact that it had to withstand beast waves when they first cleared out most of this place for habitation meant that they needed high walls for defense.” My sister finished the explanation.

As the caravan approached the walls I could see the gates open and a squadron of people lightly dressed in guard uniforms similar to the one my brother had marched out towards us. After the last reaction to my new skill I didn’t dare try it out on any more guards, it might be considered rude and I didn’t want to bring any problems to my brother along with my visit.

The check point passed us relatively easily with the cart driver having spoken with the guard we got let in with a simple look as well as a quick examination of the wares we brought in. Clearly this was standard protocol from the bored look on both the merchants and the guards faces.

“So where are we going first?” I asked as we entered the city.

“We should first make our way to the barracks. Last time we were here Kate was looking to buy herself a house and move out of the barracks with Tom. Being a healer seems to make some nice money on the side.” Judy took off with me and Alana following close behind her. “After that we’ll see if they have enough space for us, or at least you since we can probably get a place to stay from the company like last time, and we’ll go from there.”

The city was a lot cleaner than I would have expected to be in mediaeval times, it was by no means clean but there wasn’t much more than a bit of thrash here and there, something I was attributing to magic as plumbing was definitely not invented yet.

The closer we got to the barracks the more guard troops I spotted patrolling the streets. They were formed of simple 3 man squads with 4 beginners like my brother and a higher level leader. I didn’t know why they wouldn’t just let new guards handle something like this by themselves and I planned to ask my brother some time in the next few days after I got settled in.

The barracks consisted of a compound with a big building as well as a smaller more luxurious one attached in the middle and a big walled off compound from where we could hear the sound of armour shuffling and weapons meeting, clearly some training was going on.

My sister walked in the smaller building and went up the counter, clearly she had done this before.

“Hi, I’m here looking for my brother” her joyful voice not betraying the fact that we had been on the road for the past almost 2 weeks.

“Hello there, what’s his name?” a board receptionist answered back while taking out what had to be roster books.

“Tom” she responded and the clerk got to work looking up the name.

“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific, we have two Toms” He said while leafing through the book, clearly he knew his fellow guards and this was a rotation roster of some sort and he was looking to see where we could find my brother at this time of day.

“He joined about eight years ago, that should narrow it down” My sister provided some identifying information, in this world only nobles and rich merchants got to have a last name meaning everyone else had only one. This was something that I could see causing some confusion in cities. “There wasn’t another Tom six months ago when I last came looking for him”

“Yes, a new recruit came in 3 months ago with the latest group of fresh unlocks.” The receptionist thought aloud as he started to slow down on flipping through the pages.”Here we are Tom, you’re lucky he’s just finishing up his round of training, if you want you can go through the yard his group should be done in a few minutes”

After she thanked him the three of us headed for the door we were pointed to and exited in a large courtyard split into a big half and another half split into 2. On one half was a neat grouping of soldiers all following the same workout training with nothing all that interesting happening.

What caught my eye was the 5 people off on the other side of the training yard throwing sleeps at targets besides a big tent that seemed to be where the guard healers did their work. The one thing all the mages had in common was that they all wore shawls around their face to cover their mouths, probably as an extra precaution to prevent their spells from being heard when they were used.

We had settled in on a bench and watched for a little while before a booming voice came from a man who exited the administration building from the same door we had previously.

“That’s enough training for you lot, get on with your next task and make way for the next group” after yelling out his announcement he turned around and went back into the building.

The soldiers all stopped their practice and headed for the same door, as they passed past the bench they threw interested looks at Alana and Judy and some questioning and envious looks at me as I sat beside them.

“Judy, Alana it’s great to see you again” Tom’s voice came from a soldier who broke away from the pack and started removing his helmet. “Ajax is that you?”

“Hey Tom” I waved to my brother as Judy went in to give him a quick hug which she disengaged from quickly.

“I could probably use a shower after almost two weeks of travelling” she commented as Alana also gave him a hug.

He also gave me a hug which is where it became obvious just how much I had grown in the last few years since I saw him, as I was now taller than him despite feeling like he could crush me with his hug if he wanted to.

“Well I just finished training, I was about to go wash before I went on patrol so don’t mind it” he responded.

“So you’re busy, ok then I’ll bring you up to speed tonight, quite a bit has happened in the village since last time I came” Judy proposed.

“Yeah that would work great, we’ll have dinner and I can show you the place Kate and I got” Tom’s face broke into a smile with that declaration.

“Yeah, speaking of your new place, me and Alana have accommodations with the company. Any chance you have a spare room for Ajax?

“Yeah he can stay with us we have a spare room, in fact why don’t you come with me now to see the place, it’s only a short walk from here and then you can go take care of everything else while Kate helps get him settled, she has a time off today” He offered as he swung the bag with his training equipment over his shoulder.

“Sure we can take a small detour.”