The following day, the Aberrant Irregulars were already prepared for departure when Dar drove the single horse-drawn carriage into the barn. The goblins were for their part overly excited at the prospect of leaving the enclosure. Something that they found restrictive and excruciating. Thus, they needed very little in terms of encouragement to pack. Arlene for her part was glad to be on the nomadic side of life than settling in one place. The only one whose expression, a mystery, was the fae.

Dar stepped down first and soon the door to the carriage opened. The carriage itself was unremarkable but sturdy. The colours were neither flamboyant nor dull. There was no visible crest of heraldry symbol adorning the carriage. Everything about the carriage was simple and practical. Though, the same could not be expressed about the person who stepped out.

The figure who stepped down was dressed in elegant attire which is typical for mages. Even though Westerleygates was not known for cold weather, it was still surprising to see the person dressed in multiple layers of robes. A huge cloak was drawn upwards covered the face of the figure.

Arlene leaned closer and whispered with a mock tone, “Mages and their hooded cloaks,”

The figure seemed to consider us for a while before pulling the hood from their face. A silky long brunette hair flowed down below the shoulder and stopped short above the waist. The face of the figure could only be described as androgynous though the contouring on the hair gave a figure a distinctly feminine appearance. In a different light, I would have addressed the person as a Lady. I did another take on the mage. The shoulders were not broad neither was the waist too narrow. Everything about the person, the mannerism, the body structure and their presence could only be termed as androgynous.

“The Mage Syrune, I presume,” I stepped forward making the first move.

“Yes, that is correct, and You might be the one leading this mercenary group?”

Syrune’s voice could only be described as husky and at edges, it sounded like dark velvet. Not masculine but not distinctly feminine either. Syrune pushed the hair falling in front of his face while he tried to focus his attention on me. Even the motions that the mage made only added a refined feminine charm to his exterior.

“I am Rylonvirah, you can call me either Rylon or vera, either is fine. And this is Arlene.” I did the preliminary introductions.

His gaze lingered on Arlene for a brief span before returning to me.

“She would be our ranger during the mission, as well as the one in charge of logistics.”

Syrune simply nodded in response. He remained silent as if his words contained power that he would rather not share.

“Let us get this moving. We can complete the formalities while on the way,” I exclaimed and closed the gap between us.

Syrune who until now fixated his attention on me immediately turned his gaze away from me. It was as if he was purposely trying to avoid looking in my direction.

As I turned in the direction of Dar, the peddler gave me a knowing smile.

“The good mage already paid me a small fraction. It is more than what you promised. I, only wish you good tidings on your journey and may our paths cross again.”

We finally said our goodbyes and prepared to leave. I turned towards the assembled goblins and nodded to Maapu.

“Could you kindly please assign someone to drive the carriage?” requested Syrune without batting an eyelid.

The request and its implications were clear. Since Arlene would be the only other logical choice.

“We are hired to protect. Valet is not our service,” I refused.

Syrune’s expression hardened as if someone who is not used to being refused. But he kept his calm. He flicked his hair on his shoulder and slowly adjusted the folds of his robes.

“Please, I understand that my request might have sounded pompous but I have no such intention. I need my solitude. I merely wish to read through some treatise and elaborate my notes on the journey. We could negotiate on an arrangement.”

I failed to get a grasp on the mage. One moment, he sounded genuine and vulnerable and the next moment, there was an element of surreptitiousness and reticence.

At the risk of pushing my luck, I decided to play it safe.

“There would be no need. I can assign one of the goblins to take the reins. That is if you have nothing against a goblin.”

He seemed to consider my offer for a moment before he finally spoke,

“As long as you promise that they would not disturb my belonging,” uttered Syrune and he appeared weak as he made his request.

“Theko, that is the goblin who would be handling the carriage, is not your usual type. He can be trusted.”

“My belongings contain sensitive items. Mostly books, scrolls, but embedded with arcane powers. Would be problematic in untrained hands.” He offered an explanation. But it sounded very tokenistic in nature.

Finally, it was decided that Arlene would take the lead for the first day while I would ride out with Theko in the carriage. That would provide me with ample time to train Theko with driving a carriage.

And so we set about heading in the direction of Sarenthill, leaving behind a cheerful Dar, while a feeble Nemeash and a pensive Razzia waved from the sidelines.

*****

It was late in the morning but a bit early to be called noon when we covered an appreciable distance from the outskirts of Westerleygates. We marched at a pace faster than I initially anticipated. Our group passed the isolated farms and were well into a well-trodden but lonely road towards Sarenthill. The number of travellers that we met on the roads dwindled the further we moved away from the city.

Syrune, abruptly requested the march to be halted. He did not bother stepping out of the carriage. It was as if the sun would hurt his gentle complexion. Instead, after calling for the halt, he beckoned me from inside the carriage. I obliged not wanting to hurt our first paying client.

“Now I am not sure how you run your mercenaries, but if you think spying on your client is a part of the deal then I would urge you to reconsider,” uttered Syrune with an irritated tone.

“I am sorry but I have no such intention and candidly, I do not know what you are referring to.” I gave the mage my earnest reply. Obviously, it did not please him.

“Let me break it to you, I am a Mage. Not a normal one. I am a planesbender. If you think I would not detect a bit of spatial obstruction, then I would advise you to reassess your intelligence.” The mage spat every word with deliberate mockery.

“All I request is a bit of respect for my privacy,” Syrune finished and his tone switched to a pleading one.

Within the short span, Syrune, as a person, has shown himself to be one who rather oscillated between hot and cold. One moment he could come out as superfluous and the next as genuine and weak. But the more important detail was his accusations, which seemed to come as a bolt out of the clear sky.

As I pondered on how to answer, the object of his annoyance revealed itself or rather materialised themselves.

“Please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding. Spying on you was clearly not on the agenda. It is merely a force of habit formed from travelling undisturbed. Like yourself, I also preferred a certain measure of privacy usually. Unfortunately, my magic might have appeared as spying for your keen trained senses.” explained Vitalia.

Syrune did not show any visible change in facial expression to Vitalia’s appearance. In fact, not many mages can sense a fae, especially if the fae was determined to hide their presence and Vitalia is no ordinary fae. To infer the presence of Vitalia, Syrune must definitely belong to an elite class, perhaps even a prodigy.

After a brief pause, Syrune spoke.

“Ah yes, Fae magic. Effective. They are almost similar to those employed by extraplanar entities. Which makes it all the more difficult to detect... until you are attuned.” Again his contemptuous attitude returned.

Just as the atmosphere between the fae and the mage flared up, Arlene stepped in.

“Please Sir Mage, It is a simple oversight on our part. My mentor actually is not a part of our Mercenary unit but she prefers to keep an eye on me sometimes and hence the secrecy. You were never her target. It is merely unfortunate that it seemed that way.”

The half-elf had enough social intelligence to know and deactivate escalating situations and I was all the more thankful for her initiative.

The response from Arlene seemed to have calmed Syrune, though, for a moment, it appeared as if his gaze was fixed on her. It was not a normal gaze but rather the intensity of it implied that there was more. Syrune became conscious of his action and quickly drove his attention towards me.

“I have the papers prepared. Would you like to take a look? We can complete that formality.” He extended his hands towards the inside of the carriage where sat a sheet of papers.

I motioned for him to deliver me the papers which I quickly glanced through. There was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, the terms were far more favourable to us than one would have expected. I quickly signed the contract and returned it to Syrune and we resumed our journey.

*****

It was clear to us in the evening when we broke camp for the day on why Syrune needed a mercenary company or any company as for that matter.

Our motley group set about in their routine which by now was fairly normal to every member. Arlene went about first calming the dire boars, followed by a small patrol round with a bit of hunting whatever game that she could find. Taltil, even though her skills would work well in conjunction with the ranger, still kept her distance and went about another hunting round on her own. Theko was back to his chef role. Everyone had some task set out for them except for Syrune. The mage simply waited on someone to release his horse from the carriage.

Next came the resting place arrangements. Again the mage just waited for someone to help with setting up his tent. It was unclear whether Syrune considered it below his dignity to get dirt on his fingernails or was just oblivious to simple tasks. I volunteered myself for both the tasks for Syrune, receiving only a simple thanks and a bemused expression from the mage in return.

When the time came for supper, Syrune accepted the gruel that was thrust into his hands. After a few sips, he returned the bowl unfinished. Again, it was hard to infer from his body language, if he had no appetite or he found the contents distasteful.

In the end, the only thing that I could safely assert about Syrune was that the mage is sort of an onion with multiple layers of mystery each one covering another layer of mystery.

It came as no surprise when Arlene was the first to voice her complaint. The complaint came when we were doing our final rounds.

“Have you noticed?" said Arlene with a very weak whisper.

“What?” I answered with another question.

“I mean, Syrune, our illustrious employer,” she uttered the word illustrious with a mocking tone.

“Well, Mages can be a strange bunch. I have seen stranger ones,” I said while thinking of Vangere. Not sure who would win the Mages with peculiar behaviour competition, if there ever was one.

“Stranger than Syrune?” She raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“Oh yes believe me. I have met my fair share of them, but I get it by what you mean,”

“Not just strange, he is lecherous. Have you seen the way he looks at you? The few times I passed, he was stripping me of my dignity with those debauched eyes. If I met him alone in the forest, I would have put some arrows in. The future would be better for girls all over.” As usual, Arlene was very simple-minded in her solution to problems.

“I would advise you to push aside your plan of sticking arrows in him. Despite how he looks, he is a capable mage. In fact, I am willing to wager that not even your ubiquitous Mentor would provoke him on a whim.”

“So he is strong, so he gets to send his lustful gaze all over, is it?” an annoyed Arlene threw up her hand in exasperation as she spoke.

“I am saying every problem needs a different solution. Not every problem needs to be taken head-on. Some with direct force, some with tact and for some you should learn to play the waiting game.” I remembered the same advice I used to teach my daughter while watching her grow up and I failed. Had I succeeded in imparting this crucial piece of wisdom, I would have never found myself in this situation, to begin with. The fate spins and I am back to the same location.

Shaking myself awake from my reminiscence, I continued, “And there are problems which you should avoid. Syrune is probably the latter. My sincere advice, learn to recognise these problems early, they will save your life.”

All the while, I still held a sliver of hope that Arlene takes my advice in earnest.

“Still,” she flexed her muscles as she spoke,” I hope this is the last we see of that lowly scum.”

“Then let us just keep our guard up till we reach Sarenthill,” I came up with the best plan that we could muster and even though I wanted to make the journey safe for Arlene, my own thoughts on the mage were anything but undecided.

Syrune was not an easy person in all facets.