The siege continued for some time, with many bandit lives reaped merely to fatigue the female mage. As time passed, Cyrus noticed that more and more arrows were getting past the barrier erected by the mage and more and more of the defenders were injured or outright killed. Even the mage herself took an arrow into her shoulder, as her focus slipped for but a moment.
"Hahhh, such is life out here. One major mistake and it is all over, most never even knowing how or why they died even as their corpse hits the ground." Lamented Cyrus as he watched the female mage, as powerful as she was, fall to a shower of arrows that blotted out the sun.
Laughing to himself mockingly he said, "I remember when it was not too long ago that I thought I could be the hero, saving damsels in distress left and right like in the storybooks I read when I was younger." He watched the defenders panic and attempt to flee into the desert, only to get run down one by one and slaughtered like pigs.
" How foolish I was, this is the natural order" Cyrus looked away from the hellish reality in front of him. If one were to look at him in this moment, you could see the face of a cynical boy looking at an atrocity unfolding in front of him. Yet, contained deep within a sense of melancholy and helplessness could be found within.
------
The bandits finished cleaning up the battlefield and left it promptly, with their spoils in tow. Blissfully unaware of the oriole behind, ready to relieve them of at least some of their newfound gains. Cheery they were, they set up camp not too far from where the battle had just happened and prepared to wait out the cold night. With bonfires raised and meat and wire galore, the bandits celebrated not only their victory but also their life.
"Perfect" Thought Cyrus, "Now I know where they are keeping the wine. Not only that but these men are both drunk and tired, easy pickings"
He reached into his cloak, taking out a small corked bottle full of a dark liquid. He then pulled out a rag and poured the liquid on it, before promptly rubbing it on himself from head to toe.
"With this shadow essence that Cato gave me, coupled with their drunken revelry, so long as I am careful there is no chance of failure"
As if Cyrus had become an oracle of fate and destiny, he easily succeeded in slowly sneaking to the back carriage where large barrels of wine were kept. With a tap of his bag, he stored barrel after barrel before making out, quite literally, like a bandit with practiced ease. Even having enough leeway to empty a bottle of poison his mentor has given him as a reward for his last lesson on what exposed food supplies he found.
He then escaped into the night, once again heading back towards the oasis town to report his success to Cato.
---
Upon returning to the stone chamber, Cyrus was greeted by Cato sitting down whilst spinning a crystal in his hand. He looked upon Cyrus with a gentle smile and asked
"You had good fortune I take it?"
Cyrus looked at Cato, who was full of confidence of his guess and no doubt pleased to know everything as he usually does, sighing in resignation.
" Yes yes, things went well. While it was not as simple as I initially expected it to be, it all worked out in the end" said Cyrus as he handed a jeweled sack to Cato, now full to the brim with barrels of Austern Wine.
"You will find that things tend to not go as one might expect, no plan survives very long once put into action when it involves intelligent life. Your foes will not be static targets nor mindless beasts, they will react and adapt to just like you can not to mention all the lovely surprises Mundus likes to lay on our heads from time to time" explained Cato as he pulled out a barrel of wine coupled with a large jug which he promptly began to fill up before continuing saying, "Now, tell me exactly how things happened from your point of view"
Cyrus explained everything, starting from buying information from the local dealer and deciphering the code to when the caravan had fended off the first attack.
"Good, very good indeed Cyrus" said Cato in between mouthfuls of sweet wine. "You trusted your judgement and held off on taking action, reining in any impulse of a quick gain. There is no shame in playing it safe, even if you do indeed lose out every now and then it is worth it to guarantee the safety of all the other times… continue on."
Cyrus nodded and began to explain the follow up attack by the bandits, which he reasoned were backed up by the local Agha, and then of the mages last stand, all the way to him finally relieving the bandits of some of their ill-gotten gains.
"Ah, you were quite right in your deduction once more. The bandits were backed up by local forces, a group of local Anjems rallied up what men they had at their disposal for the raid." Wiping his face clean of some spilt wine, "I know you still have some naïve sensibilities in you, that you have yet to fully learn when to apply your empathy and when to withhold it proper…. It must not have been easy to watch that go down.
"Still, I applaud you for not making any foolish choices. You will not believe the type of fools I have watched in my day, who tried to go against impossible odds for their own sense of self-importance…Bah!" Cato emptied his jug into his mouth once more, any other spectator would surely marvel at the sheer volume of wine the man has consumed thus far, " Knowing you, I bet the story did not quite end there did it, are you sure you did not omit something boy?" said Cato while staring at Cyrus with a know it all grin.
Cyrus scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously, "Hahaha…about that. I may have gone through with a thief's sendoff ritual for the recently departed caravan. A bit of poison here a bit of poison there, all within my means and to no risk to myself of course."
Cato laughed hard at that, almost losing his grip on the wine. "Sounds about right boy! Good riddance as well. It is important to know your own bounds and limits, to not do anything that you cannot possibly handle. But it is equally as important to not take something that goes against what you believe in lying down, even if its just a small form of retribution. Now, what poison did you use anyways?"
Cyrus reached into his cloak, pulling out the bottle of poison that Cato himself and gifted him for a lesson past.
"Oh…you used the liquid death essence... well forget about what I said about small form of retribution you brought down the imperial fist on those bandits…." Cato wiped a cold sweat from his forehead
"Brutal. I gave him the bottle to coat his weapons in, which would kill his enemies even if he did not strike a vital as I knew he was quite squeamish about going for the kill. I never explained exactly what it did so he would not avoid using it, unintended consequences I suppose."
Cyrus, with visible confusion, asked "What do you mean Cato? It was just poison right? I only got it on about a fourth of the food supplies so I doubt it would have affected more than few dozen."
"Boy, what I gave you was liquid death essence bottled nice and tight. It's the highest form of its kind that is usually wielded by a mage that is at least at the adept level. While lower mages can still use the form, it will not be as potent or viscous as this."
Coughing nervously Cato continued, " I neglected to tell you this as I wanted you to freely use it and not be scared of the consequences…but putting it lightly the "poison" you used was enough to kill many more times the bandits you fought. The only hope for survival being a fairly skilled vita mage on hand, deaths antithesis" Cato sat down and regained his cool, "The problem that we have, and why I reacted so strongly, is that the liquid form of what I gave you will eventually evaporate into a mist and spread out a decent ways from where it was emptied.
"Death essence will naturally gravitate towards anywhere life is and try to siphon its energy for itself to grow in strength. Thankfully we are in the desert, so there is little life around to begin with which means you did not accidentally cause a small-scale natural disaster. However, I imagine that right about now most if not all of those bandits are dead or dying. Eventually turning into undead which will roam the earth until they exhaust their souls"
Cyrus froze in shock, as the gravity of his actions settled upon him in full.
"Well, I did not imagine my small retribution ended up to be stronger than intended. At least they deserved it…" Rationalized Cyrus as he came to terms with the fact that he just brought his kill count up by double digits.
"Cyrus, you did indeed cause a bit of a mess. Alas, it is more my fault than yours as I neglected to explain exactly what I gave you other than saying it was a deadly toxin. Now, as you are the student and I am the mentor, allow me to clean up the mess that we both had a hand in creating. It is not too much of an issue, but you did just inadvertently create a small horde of undead creatures that will roam the land searching for life to consume so as to satiate themselves and sustain their existence for one day longer."
Cato produced another empty jug from seemingly thin air and filled it with wine. He handed it to Cyrus saying, "While you are not of age yet, I would say that the situation calls for it. Both as a celebration for your success in the face of stacked odds as well as to ease your unsettled emotions. The mass butchering of defenseless foes, ahhaha, nothing some good wine cannot fix!"
He corked the jug, throwing it to Cyrus, and walked out the secondary exit whilst laughing no doubt somewhat pleased for several dozen new test subjects for his repertoire of spells.