The days dragged on, daily training, resting by the tree in the courtyard, learning how to read and equip armour properly without help. Everything leading up to becoming more self sufficient if we weren't trapped at someones house with no way to flee.
We spent a majority of the time in either the kitchen or the garden. I would spend my time cooking, training and then playing with Elyn while she would eat snacks I made, watch me get beat up and play with me.
Strangely enough once we had settled in it seemed like Ilmilmis had left the town. Which probably had something to do with her travelling when we met her.
After a while things dragged on however. A few weeks of endless training in a mind numbing cycle and I began wanting to leave. The endless and boring same few actions repeated over and over. Elyn seemed to be suffering too, she started asking for books which had to be read to her as she learnt how to read the words of this new language.
It was at this point forces beyond our understanding started to move.
Sarryn approached me as I was resting with Elyn leaning against me while we sat under the tree in the courtyard.
"My lord, I believe you have learnt enough of the basics that it is now time for us to move." she addresses me expectantly.
Curious to what she means I ask, "Time for us to move where?"
"It was never safe here my lord, now Ilmilmis has left we have to move quickly before we are noticed." she says while glancing around with her eyes, making sure no one entered the courtyard while we are talking.
I take a moment to think, sure I didn't like Ilmilmis much but I can't see where she was a threat. At most her trying to kill some peasants who were working with the other side. Which for gangs is pretty common, step out of line and you get punished one way or another. The only issue is how long it was going on for before she took action as that would display how skilled a leader she is but she failed at that, someone else was able to step in.
Someone else stepped in. A leader would usually want to eliminate the people undermining their leadership to take credit for what those people did. I was stupid, we need to leave before she decides my actions of saving the towns folk was rebelling against her power.
"Yes we need to leave, I'm not sure we can trust you, but I agree we need to leave here today. Give me a reason why I should trust you and we can go." I start whispering back to Sarryn.
I have to place Elyns safety first and that requires getting far away from the areas Ilmilmis controls.
"I do not know is this suffices, but I have a token here marked with the symbol of my group, I am a part of The Travellers and each member has one of these tokens, they are made magically by a specialist craftsman I am only second to. These tokens are used to identify the members of our group no matter their appearance and are not given out lightly even to people like apprentices."
"Anyone can copy something with enough skill, how can you verify they actually own the token and not just found it."
"To assure you of our security for these tokens I shall name the three methods we use to make tokens authentic,
These are authority, blood and companion.
Authority requires someone with a higher ranked token to be the one giving out a rank.
Blood requires the token to be bound by blood to the person using it, and to break if they die.
And companion is that the token is an item of magical attunement, meaning it will be magically bound to a person and break if that attunement is lost, an effect similar to death but not requiring them to die. One additional feature of magical attunement is the ability to recall the item to you, so it makes it impossible to get lost.
Anyone given a token would not lend it out lightly due to any crimes their token is witness to, becomes theirs. That is to say someone stealing it and murdering a village, the owner of the token would be held accountable and not the person doing the killing."
"I feel I need to look into this magic more, later you should teach me about it as I feel like I'm able to do anything with it, as I'm fluent in the magical language. For now I'll agree the token is enough proof of you not being an underling for Ilmilmis, I doubt something to valuable would be in the hands of someone lower than her if she still has to deal with bandits herself."
Our plans to escape started to move. First the supplies, food, water and equipment. We secured two tarps for camping along with a few other items like a flint from the kitchen for starting fires as well as a bit of tinder if we were unable to find enough on short notice, we packed multiple knives, one was for skinning another for cooking, one for trees. I made sure to pack a few spices for Elyn, some salt, pepper and some of the basic herbs that wouldn't be noticed as missing since I usually cook in kitchen anyway. We got proper clothes with padding and some ropes for additional uses.
I can only hope Elyn has enough energy to keep moving, if not I'll have to carry her and some of the supplies at the same time.
Close to the end of the day when we were finishing up, Sarryn looks up from packing items into the bags with me and stops for a moment before talking.
"She came back, I've just been informed she has been seen on the road heading back already. We need to move through the night to try and reach the first safe point." She does a final check of the bags before taking the heavier bag and offering me the lighter bag, I don't bother to question her actions as I'm talking to Elyn as I put the bag on.
"Elyn, we have to go for a walk tonight, to keep you safe. You need to follow me closely and try to keep moving, I'll carry you for the start but we need our strength okay? So please try to put up with walking for a while." she nods in reply which is our point to start moving out.