Len surveyed the reception hall, taking in the mix of people gathered in small clusters. Dark wood paneling lined the walls, and platters of food covered long tables draped in white cloth. Few were interested in eating.

  Mason and Vael's parents sat together at a corner table, their heads bent close in conversation. Mason's mother dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief while Vael's mother patted her hand.

  Mason and Vael's father nursed warm drinks, listening to people sharing stories, leading to smiles, tears and laughter.

  Nearby, a group of Isendia mercenaries stood in their uniforms, speaking in low voices and occasionally glancing at the bereaved families. Other soldiers clustered near the refreshments, mixed with their families that had come with them, a little closer today, their fingers entwined a little tighter.

  Len turned to Rick. "Think it's time?"

  "Yeah it's about there," Rick nodded.

  They made their way across the room to where Lydia stood with several others. When Rick caught her eye, she politely excused herself.

  "All right time to head out," Rick said.

  Lydia frowned. "Is that right though?"

  "Officers are the first to leave," Len explained. "Once you leave then Gibson can leave and we can let those of the lower ranks have a few drinks, blow off steam and relax instead of worrying about keeping up appearances."

  "Say a quick goodbye to the family and we'll head off," Rick said.

  Len shot him a look.

  "I'll come with you," Rick offered.

  Lydia nodded in thanks.

  Len glanced at the grieving parents, then back to Rick and Lydia. "If the two of you want, I know my family makes enough food for three families, want to come for dinner?"

  Rick nodded gratefully. "Yeah I think that would be a good idea thanks Len." He guided Lydia over to the table. Everyone started to get reorganized. Lydia and Rick waved them down. Rick cracked a joke to lighten the mood. Lydia shared a story about the two men, praising the parents for raising such good men.

  She was suprised by Vael's mother's hug, Mason's mother followed after, gripping her uniform.

  She shook hands with the fathers and Rick guided her away back to Len.

  Her stride was strong and confident, it was also built in from years of training. Her eyes distant.

  ***

  Len pushed open the door to his family's new farmhouse. The scent of fresh bread and roasted meat washed over him. Light crystal along the walls illuminated the interior.

  He heard water flowing in the direction of the kitchen and then stop.

  Pipes snaked along the ceiling, delivering hot and cold water throughout the house - a far cry from the well-drawing days at their old farm.

  His mother had worked her magic on the place. Familiar quilts draped over chairs, family pictures lined shelves, and dried herbs hung from ceiling beams. The worn kitchen table from their old home held center stage, its surface bearing the same knife marks and stains that told stories of countless family meals.

  Jed and Laurie were laying out cutlery on the table.

  "People don't know cultivation in the capital? I thought you said they're all getting much stronger though, especially the nobles?" Laurie asked.

  "They're consuming cores and eating different parts of beasts," Jed said.

  "There's a ton of power in the cores. I hope they have good body tempering, that's a quick way to get a deviation in your channels," Laurie shook her head. The warnings on what will happen to someone with too much mana are nearly as long as the information on cultivation."

  Jed turned towards the door, making Laurie do the same. Jed's face split into a grin. "Look what the dog dragged in. Close the door will you, getting cold in here!"

  Des emerged from the kitchen, muscles straining against his new Isendia uniform as he carried a cast iron pot.

  Steam curled from whatever delicious contents lay within.

  "Plenty more food in the kitchen to bring in!" Des's grin matched Jed's as he set the pot on the table's iron trivet.

  "Where's dad at?" Len asked as he moved to let Rick and Lydia inside, pulling off his pack.

  "Working on his trains probably," Laurie said. "He goes with me into town in the morning but he's always back late."

  Len closed the door behind Rick and Lydia, setting his pack against the wall. He tilted his chin toward Rick, then where he was putting his pack. Rick followed suit, placing his gear next to Len's.

  "Got any beer in this place?" Len asked, making his way to the kitchen. The sight of his mother putting final touches on steaming dishes brought back memories of countless meals at their old farm.

  She turned at his entrance. "Len!" She grabbed onto him, hugging him and kissing him on the cheek before she scanned him from head to toe before pulling him into a tight embrace again. "It's good to have you back, son."

  "Thanks mom," Len said, hugging her back before they released.

  "Des said you had more food to take in?" Len chuckled, surveying the impressive spread covering every available surface. Roasted meats, fresh bread, and what looked like three different types of pie filled the kitchen with mouthwatering aromas.

  "Well, you said you had a few friends coming over. And knowing your appetite and that of anyone who would be with you, I thought it would be good to lay in some supplies," his mother said, adjusting a bowl of vegetables.

  Len could only chuckle as he moved to help transfer the food. His mother had always shown love through cooking, and apparently that hadn't changed with their move to the city.

  He picked up a heavy pot as Rick poked his head into the kitchen.

  "I heard that there was help needed?" Rick asked.

  "Those ones over there," Len gestured with his chin toward some covered dishes while taking a firmer grip on his load.

  "There's no need for that," Len's mother started.

  "Wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise," Rick declared.

  Jed hurried past the kitchen toward the cellar. His brother paused, glancing back at the main room where Lydia sat, relaying a conversation in eyebrow waggles and eye movements. The message was crystal clear: Holy shit she is pretty! Is she single?

  Len responded with the subtle language of siblings developed over years of silent communication. A slight eye roll and shoulder shrug confirmed yes she is, but he followed it with a meaningful glance at Rick and small head nod to indicate but she's also his sister.

  Jed's gaze shifted to size up Rick, head tilting side to side as he assessed his chances. The cocky shoulder shrug that followed clearly said I could take him.

  Len had to bite back a laugh. His brother had no idea what he was getting into there. He'd seen Rick in enough fights to know better than to underestimate him, but Jed's confident swagger was pure entertainment.

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  He chuckled his brother's bravado would get him into trouble one of these days. Though watching Rick's reaction might almost be worth it. He walked back to the dining room/living room, dodging Des on his way to get more food.

  Laurie and Lydia were chatting as he laid out the food, Jed got drinks and poured them while, Len, Rick and Des laid out food.

  The last of the dishes made their way to the table when the front door creaked open.

  Len's father strode in, face lit up, tired but with the smile of someone that had a fulfilling day of work instead of being crushed by it. Rolls of paper were tucked under one arm.

  "Len!" Edward tossed the papers onto a nearby chair without a second glance. He wrapped Len in a crushing bear hug that smelled of coal smoke and machine oil.

  "Dad, you remember Rick," Len said when they separated. "And this is his sister Lydia."

  Edward's enthusiasm extended to them both as he pulled them into hugs as well. Neither seemed to mind - Rick was used to it by now, and Lydia's usual guardedness softened at the warm welcome.

  "Good to see you again Rick. Lydia you're welcome anytime. If you excuse me I have to clean my hands up or my wife will tan my hide." He hurried off to the kitchen.

  Len could see into the room from where he stood as his father swept Len's mother into an embrace that had her laughing and swatting at him with a dish towel.

  "Grab your seats!" she called out, untangling herself from Edward's arms.

  He used the sink and its water pipes in combination with a cleanse spell.

  Len took his seat around the familiar oak table, sliding onto benches and chairs. Jed moved efficiently around the group, filling mugs with dark beer from bottles he'd retrieved from the cellar. The foam settled into rich amber liquid as Len's brother made sure everyone had a full glass.

  His father grabbed his seat. "Oh, thank you Jed. Adeline this is a true feast!"

  She blushed and smiled. "Was able to get some of the new crop in and I was able to barter for some of the beast meat. Should help you recover more stamina and some mana."

  The table was filled with the familiar sounds of people passing plates around to be served. The scraping of utensils on pots and pans continued as everyone got their share.

  Len and Rick lets out grunts and groans as they got down their first bites. "Mom, you've outdone yourself, this is great."

  "I'm with him, this is great," Rick emphasized.

  "Well make sure that you eat up, I know how you young men are, especially now with all that body tempering and cultivation," Len's mother said, a wide smile on her face.

  Len and Rick set to work with gusto.

  Len listened in on Lydia and Laurie's conversation, both of them deeply engrossed.

  "We've been looking more at how to break down an injury into its components and deal with those one by one," Laurie was saying. "We're no longer looking at healing the entire body, but healing parts of the body to allow the rest to recover. It's been so interesting because there's a lot of things we didn't know were connected!"

  Lydia shook her head. "I can understand that only too well," she replied. "We're just learning all about cultivation, about body tempering. There's a whole, well, dozens of new schools of information to understand. Just look at how many skills people have. Each of those skills has different ways to complete them or advance them. And the human body is nothing if not complex."

  Laurie nodded enthusiastically, quickly chewing and swallowing her food as Lydia dug into her meal.

  "Are you learning about spells that you can utilize on the body, alchemy that can support it? What kind of area is the focus right now?" Rick interjected.

  "It seems like everything and anything," Adeline said as Laurie fought to clear her mouthful. "I've been working with the alchemists and we've been testing out original herbs that were known to heal people. We're growing them in mana-dense soil, which has been having interesting effects."

  Len cocked his head over as he continued to eat.

  "The herbs can have different attributes, increase or decrease depending on the soil or growing environment. Some can be farmed, others have to be left to the forests. Though your father told me about some growing houses you mentioned?" Adeline looked at Rick.

  "Ah, yes, I guess they would work really well in this situation. You can use a growing house to change the environment completely so you're not changing only the soil but you can change the amount of humidity in the air the temperature and a blend of that so you could accommodate more plants."

  "That would be perfect we've been having mixed results in the growing fields adjusting the different heating crystals we thought that they might just be more sensitive to the weather?"

  "Can be, but mana plants are usually hardier than others. Once mana is in a certain form, it doesn't like to have that form disrupted," Rick said. "I joked with Len that we were going to set up a farm of mana plants, though I thought we were still months away from that."

  "Farming families are well used to growing herbs and other medicinal products. There aren't any pharmacists or chemists near us to make different solutions. I was worried starting to work with them that they might dismiss our knowledge though they came to us first interested to learn about horticulture and growing plants."

  "Even do it like a farmer would," Edward said.

  Adeline nodded, taking a sip of her drink. " That's right they take all of the information they can from how much sunlight it's getting how much water is getting what's the average temperature in the air and the soil and they do that day by day. They're trying to figure out the best and most effective ways to grow the plants. Though along the way we've actually determined that based on how the plants are growing it can change their properties completely."

  She looked around the table seeing all eyes interested on her as they kept eating.

  "Yeah, there's more alchemists in the fields than farmers most days," Jed added.

  “Your mother and I have been going to classes on numbers again, refresher for us. It seems that everyone is using it now,” Len’s father said.

  "We found that depending on how you grow the ingredient based on different factors it can change the effects. The Alchemists usually take the plants isolate out different parts of the or combine them in different ways to create a solution Here we're learning that if we grow the plants in the right way we don't have to combine as many of them together," Adeline said."Yeah, there's more alchemists in the fields than farmers most days," Jed added.

  “Your mother and I have been going to classes on numbers again, refresher for us. It seems that everyone is using it now,” Len’s father said.

  "So you would create a potion with just two herbs instead of three?" Lydia asked.

  "That's right and we can pick out the different ingredients and how they go together and the alchemists to do just that. Now we're only doing it at small scale right now and we're still figuring out the effects of the ingredients but we're all very excited about the possibilities," Len's mother smiled.

  " Have you told them about how the different ingredients are now necessary for some people?" Edward pressed, a kind smile on his face, proud to have his wife leading the conversation and so clearly excited about the subject.

  "Well we don't know yet that people will need to eat food that contains mana. Though I had been working with a group of cooks and alchemists trying to understand that. It seems people who eat food that contains at least a little bit of mana don't have to eat as much of it. Some of these smart doctors within the city have surmised that people have increased the ability of their body but their body still uses the same amount of energy. So we've actually increased the amount of food everyone needs to eat."

  "And you're saying that if we have food with a little bit of mana in it that decreases the amount we need to eat?" Rick asked.

  "That seems to be the case," Adeline nodded.

  "Do you know how much mana is in say something like a harvested this year or say the crops we have outside? Len asked.

  "That is part of what they're trying to figure out," His mother said.

  They conversations diverted again to other topics as they kept eating.

  "So you're wearing the uniform now, did you sign up?" Len asked Des.

  "I'm in a reserve group right now, going to be doing more training in two weeks and then I can apply to join full time. There's a lot of positions," Des said.

  "How many positions?" Len asked, getting a little apprehensive.

  "We have lost about thirty percent of our active forces," Lydia said. " There was some talk about disbanding one of the companies though it's been pun forward that we have more applicants than ever."

  "What about the brewing issues between the nobles?" Jed asked.

  "I can tell you we ain't putting our damn foot into that whole mess," Rick said. "We're going to focus on building things up here storing up supplies and learning everything we can about mana."

  "It might come sooner than predicted," Jed warned. "There are people in Eskon who are going hungry already. And there's rumors of mercenary companies moving in from the coast."

  "Have you talked to our grandma?" Lydia asked.

  "No just picked up things here and there."

  "I think that might be a good idea if you're interested—if this is something that interests you?"

  I did say I'd look into it. Len glanced at Rick. Look into it for me?

  Sure. Rick nodded as he chewed on another piece of meat.

  "How long are you staying until?" Adeline asked.

  "Uhh—" Len rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

  " The plan is to head out tomorrow morning darling we're going to go north to Vardon there's a train that's come off the tracks there that we're going to recover," His father said, filled with excitement.

  "Recover a train has come off the tracks? How'd it come off the tracks?" Adeline asked.

  "I'm not sure they were saying freak accident but there hasn't been any information on it it was a freight train. There's supposedly some damage to it but nothing we can't fix with a little bit of magic metal and know how," Edward winked.

  "Tomorrow morning though that's all a bit sudden?"

  Well once we've got the train recovered we can start heading through the Stain Mountain range and towards our first target," Len said.

  "Your first target?"

  "While we were going to go there before seeing you in on the Dell then we realized the time. And I rushed over as fast as I could-then-stuff," Len shrugged.

  "What's on the other side of the mountain range?" Des asked.

  "The seed of an empire an empire that was able to stand up to the arrivals," Rick said.

  "So nothing too big then," Jed said.

  Len grinned.

  "I see where you get your sense of humor from," Rick raised his eyebrow at Len.

  Len just raised his glass in salute and drank.