At the nine minute mark, the senior mage had sweat running down her forehead. “Hurry!” She gasped and trembled as she kept ordering her people to keep sending messages and begging for confirmation that the retreat was actually happening. If they didn't start pulling their people out of the marsh, she was going to be dead in the next minute.

The sound of several footfalls came from outside the room and the door opened to reveal a group of soldiers led by a mage. “What's going on here?” The man said to the senior mage, anger in his voice. “Why would you give the ridiculous order to remove my men from their assigned tasks?”

“I gave that order.” I said and walked over to him. “You're stealing my ingredients.”

“We are doing no such thing.” The man said. “The marsh is unclaimed and...”

“King Rivers granted me the marsh in its entirety and made me a full Lord.” I interrupted him. “I want you and all your thieves off of my land immediately, or you will all be dealt with as thieves.”

“Ha. I sincerely doubt that.” The man said and I pulled out the document. He tried to reach for it and I tucked it away again. “Let me examine that!”

“I'm not stupid. I won't let you try to destroy it.” I said and he looked embarrassed. “Thirty seconds.”

“By the Son's Light.” The senior mage in charge shuddered as she looked at the four communication mages. “Please... please tell us that you're pulling the mages out.”

After ten seconds, one of them spoke. “The Eastern Empire deployment confirms orders.”

“Relay stations 5, 6, 8, and 10 confirm orders.” Another said.

“I've got 3, 7 and 9.” Another said.

The last shook his head and looked at the man with the soldiers.

“I'll give the order, dammit.” He said.

“It's much too late for that.” I said and my knife slashed across his throat.

He let out a gurgle sound and then his head flopped off to land on the floor as his body collapsed. The mages in the room were shocked speechless, as were the soldiers.

“Are you deployed under his orders or the garrison?” I asked the soldiers.

“H-his.” One of them admitted and I sliced him from neck to groin as I stepped by him, then quickly dispatched the other five soldiers that were the mage's personal guards. They tried to fight against me; but, I was trained to fight with all their fighting styles while wearing heavy metal plates. Without them encumbering me, I moved like lightning and slaughtered them.

I searched them all and took their money and valuables, then went back inside the room and searched the mage. I took his charging crystal and the scrolls he had in his pockets.

“Wh-what are you doing?” The senior mage asked, her face a mask of complete shock.

“Looting the bodies of thieves to try and recover some of my lost revenue.” I said and stood up. “You can clean these bodies up while I go and clear out stations one and two.”

“Wh-what? What?” She asked.

“There were only two stations that didn't confirm the order.” I said and walked over to one of the senders. “I think I'll send my personal messages now.”

The man stared at me blankly and didn't speak.

“It's all right. Your boss was smart and we're not enemies.” I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. “Make contact with the capital and send this message to Mage Helena Henrietta at the Henrietta Longshore Estate.”

The man shook slightly and then took a deep breath. “I'm ready to send the message.”

I dictated the message with as much formality as possible while I explained to my fiance what happened between Mage Victoria Ridge and myself. I accepted full responsibility for the incident and would accept whatever punishment she deemed fit.

“Good god.” The senior mage whispered. “She took advantage of your trust.”

“And my body.” I said. “Luckily, she only did that and hadn't mounted me, which would have annulled my contract and caused me severe penalties.”

She looked shocked that anyone would even think that, let alone do it.

“Now for my second message.” I said and the sender nodded. “Send it to the castle, addressed to Richard, I mean His Majesty King Rivers, and it isn't to be delivered to anyone else.”

They all looked surprised at my words.

“I told you I was a close personal friend of the royal family.” I reminded them. “This is what I want it to say.”

The sender and everyone else listened as I told him exactly what had happened and what was happening, and what I was going to do. The people in the room were completely silent when I was done and the sender was shivering uncontrollably.

“It... it's sent.” He said and closed his eyes. “By the Son's Light, it's sent.”

“Thank you.” I said. “I don't expect a reply to either of those messages for a few hours. I'll be done dealing with this long before then.” I walked over to the senior mage. “I need something that will let me come back in here to get the messages.”

She took out a badge that looked like a city identification pass. I put it on the strap of my pack, which I had worn during all of that, and no one said anything as I left.

I calmly walked to the garrison's front gate, which they opened for me, and I ran down the road. I hadn't seen the deployment plans in the communication room, so I had to rely on my own memories of where the relay stations were. If my guess was correct, the soldiers sent as guards would be claiming independence of the mages by the time I showed up, reverting them to the garrison's order structure.

Word play wouldn't save them this time.

I ran down to the boat builder's building and no one was there. My boat was untouched, to their good fortune, and I quickly undocked it and put it into the water. I was away without bothering to use the pole, since speed was the priority right now. I was out of the harbour and went along the army's route to the Eastern Empire... and my eyes widened at the devastation they had caused to my marsh.

They had dredged out the waterways and widened them while making them much deeper for some of the real ships to pass through, which drained the surrounding marsh lands and dried them out. I could see various trees, moss, underbrush, and other growths all along the edges of the water look dry and crumpled, because they had been pushed back and up away from the water that they needed to live.

My anger grew as I progressed to the first station and the movement enchantment in the boat stuttered. I took several calming breaths and did my best to run the enchantment without overloading it and ignored as much of the surroundings as I could. It was difficult, considering it was all along the entire route. I didn't bother trying to dock the boat when I reached the first relay station and ran it right up onto the dry land without stopping.

I deactivated the enchantments as I hopped out of the boat when it stopped and several soldiers there looked shocked. “Where are the mages?”

One of them pointed to a much nicer looking building next to the relay station and I raised my hand and lit it on fire all over. There were no fire suppression enchantments on the outside, so the whole thing lit up and stayed on fire without any interference.

After a couple of minutes, the door burst open and four mages came out. They were coughing and trying to catch their breath, so I easily killed three of them before they even knew what was happening. The last one I grabbed by the back of the neck.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“In... in the... woods.”

“Guards?” I asked.

“With... them.” He said.

“Thanks.” I said and shoved my knife in his back to sever his spinal chord. “I'll let you live for a few minutes.”

The man yelled in pain and I let him go to flop to the ground.

“Hey! What are you doing?” One of the soldiers asked.

“I'm dealing with thieves destroying and robbing my lands.” I said and took several sniffs. I now understood why the local animals had such an easy time finding me when I left and bathed away the marsh smell. People stink in comparison to the homey smell in the marsh.

I took off running into the trees and even with my pack and boots on, I handled myself fairly well. I thought about leaving them in the boat; but, that just invited people to try to open it to see what was inside. I easily fell into my old rhythms and flowed through the trees, the tangle vines, and the underbrush as if it wasn't there. I leapt what little water hazards were there and the impact of them draining water into their bigger canal could be felt for quite a long ways into the marsh.

I found their trail and followed it at my best speed, which was significant. I quickly came up to them to find a dozen soldiers standing guard over four mages that were taking turns gathering ingredients and using a flame spell to keep several small spiders at bay.

“Idiots!” I said as I approached, which got everyone's attention. I didn't slow down, however. I had two guards killed and three of them crippled in seconds before I diverted to slice off the arms of the mages picking my ingredients. I killed the two guards off to the side and then dodged the four crossbow bolts shot at me.

“You need to kill the smaller spiders before they call for help!” I said and the two mages casting fire at the squealing spiders gave me startled looks.

“We have to run!” One of them said and tried to run.

“It's much too late for that.” I said and ran after him to cut his Achilles tendon on his ankle. “I can hear the brood coming.”

There were only five guards left, so I picked up the mage and threw him at them. It was enough of a distraction and gave me the time I needed to disable them and their weapons.

“Help! Save us!” The armless mages said as one.

“I came here to kill you, only to find out that you've already killed yourselves.” I said and looked up. “I really wish I could tell them that I left you here for them.”

“No! You have to... help...” One of the soldiers tried to plead, so I walked over and picked him up, stabbed him needlessly several times and cut his throat, then threw him as hard as I could up into the trees and the approaching brood of spiders.

“I hope they got the hint.” I said and took off running.

I didn't want to be anywhere near the spiders being encumbered like I was and I did my best to leave a false trail several times, backtracked a little, and went back to the relay station. The soldiers stood there and watched the burning mages building without expressions.

“What did you do?” A healer asked as she knelt and examined the mage that was still alive.

“I severed his spine with a magic knife.” I said and picked the man up.

“ARGH!” He yelled and I quickly checked him for valuables.

“Stop! That man's severely injured!” The healer said, indignantly.

He didn't have any valuables, so I tossed him inside the burning building.

“NO!” The healer gasped.

“I said I'd let him live a while longer. It's been a little while.” I said and walked over to the three bodies and searched them, found a couple gold coins and another ring with the same enchantment as the charred one I had, and tossed the bodies into the burning building. Just for insurance, I lit the inside on fire as well and locked the door.

“You're a monster!” The healer exclaimed.

“No, I'm the Marsh Man and you people are damaging my lands and robbing me of its resources. I'm just dealing with thieves that refused to take their superior's orders to cease and desist their activities.” I said as I walked by her and she looked surprised. “Excuse me, I have another station to visit.”

“Wait! I'll go with you!” She said and followed me.

“Why? I'm killing them all. They won't need healing.” I said and she looked both confused and determined.

“I want to try and convince you to be lenient.” She replied.

“I am being lenient. I'm not killing everyone, just the ones that refused to listen.”

“What... what about... me?” She asked. “Would you have...”

“Yes.” I said and she gasped. “You've had healing potions and things made right here, haven't you?”

She opened her mouth to probably say she didn't make them and that I couldn't prove that the mages made them right there, then she sighed.

I activated the enchantments in the boat and easily pushed it back into the water.

“I still want to come.” She said. “In case anyone innocent is hurt.”

I looked at her sincere face and held a hand out to her. She looked surprised again and took the offered hand as I helped her into the boat. “You'll need to hold on.”

I sat down with her and she took that to mean holding onto me, and she tensed up as the boat took off at full speed. She closed her eyes and her breath sped up as she tried to calm down.

“It's just speed. It's just speed.” The healer mumbled.

“I wouldn't normally go this fast with others in the boat.” I said as an explanation. “I'm trying to get to the relay stations before they can mobilize against me or convince the military soldiers to defy the orders as well.”

“They... why would they...”

“They might believe it'll stop me from killing them.” I said and I saw the realization on her face.

“It won't.” She said, sadly.

“No. All it'll do is kill more of them, because I always keep my word.”

She fell silent and her arms around mine tightened. “How can you kill so callously?”

“It might seem that way.” I said and she opened her eyes to look at my face. “It's a stupid waste of life to die for a few plants. I learned that recently from...” I stopped talking, because it brought Victoria up in my mind.

After everything we had been through, she did something to me that she thought was bad for other people to do to her. If it had been the other way around and it was me that did something like that to her, I was sure that she would have been as angry at me as I was at her.

“Then why?” The healer asked.

“I told you. My word. It's all I have to give. If I don't keep it, what's left?”

The healer took a deep breath and let it out without responding and stayed quiet for the entire ride to the second station.