The bath house was unconventional to say the least. It was a stone brick room with a gate on one end. When you turned a knob, the gate would open allowing fresh water in like a waterfall and quickly filling the room. The recessed floor allowed the left over water to remain and the excess flowed over a small wall on one end and out of the room. The floor had runic symbols on it and produced warmth for the chill fresh water.
You bathed by letting some water in, washing yourself, then running the fresh water into the pool of old water to wash away the grime leftover from scrubbing.
It was unconventional, but after 6 months of roughing it in the woods and sleeping on the ground, it was heaven on Echon. Castus and Rys relaxed in the pool of a bath for half an hour. It was a silent bliss. Rys broke the silence with a looming question. "Did you figure out a way for us to escape out here?" Castus tensed up at the question. He had been blissfully unaware of his situation for a while now. Out in the wilds of the marshlands he didn't have to worry about anything, but suddenly the questions about his father, his two sisters, and the problems of escape came rushing back to him.
"No, I didn't figure out a way yet." Castus stood up, leaving the water. It didn't feel good anymore. He touched the collar around his neck unconsciously. Taking a fresh set of clothes that had been left for him on his bed he got dressed. He didn't have time to question where they came from and was just happy for a clean set. Rys joined him shortly after and they both came back to Shi and Alyssa in the main room. Wyden had returned, done with his duties for the day it seemed. A darker mood had overtaken the room and they all sat down at the table silently. Alyssa decided to break the silence first. "Hey, just cause we are in a bad situation doesn't mean we have to be gloomy!" Her cheerful attitude was awkward and raw in the room, but it did alleviate Castus' worries slightly. She was right, acting mopey and depressed wouldn't solve their problems. Turning to Alyssa, Castus nodded in affirmation.
"Hey, maybe when everyone else gets back they will have a solution. Alyssa's right though, acting sad isn't going to make anything better, so we might as well enjoy the free time we have now." Castus chimed in. The remaining three looked up and nodded. The gloom slowly leaving their faces. The room slowly uplifted with cheers, questions and jokes. Even the normally stoic Wyden laughed here in now. Especially when Shi would mimic someone. The conversation soon shifted over to discussing how Earth is.
"I wonder if we could ever go back to Earth?" Rys pondered out loud.
Wyden was first to chime in. "I don't see why not. I can literally bend space, if I knew how to get there we could."
Castus' eyebrows rose in amusement. "Could you imagine the effect we would have on Earth if we returned with these powers? We would be heralded as gods." He chuckled at his own quip. Everyone else followed, but Shi who looked to be thinking.
"Do you all think that the gods and warriors from Earth's legends might just be that?" A brief silence followed Shi's question. Castus thought to himself. 'If that were true, why did they leave again after? Why does Earth not have mana in the first place?' Alyssa was the first to respond. "Who cares anyway? At the end of the day at least we have each other here!" She raised a cup of water that she was pretending to be beer into the air in a toast. "To the transplants! We may be slaves now, but not for forever!" Everyone followed suit. Wyden spoke up following the cheer. "Let's make a pact now. We will include the others when they get back. We will escape together and always stick together. We may not have known everyone here for a long time, but we have so much in common." The unusual length of Wyden's sentence made everyone seriously consider the words. Shi raise her cup once again. "Of course. We are interlinked for the rest of our lives here!" Castus raised his cup with a smile, looking at Shi. Shi was right, he didn't have much left, but it was comforting to know there were others like him. A shared burden.
The group continued to chat long into the night before retiring to their respective beds. The following morning, after a groggy wake up, Castus found Alyssa eating and a large bowl of porridge sitting on the table. Castus approached the table and made himself a bowl, sitting across from Alyssa. In between mouthfuls Castus asked. "So how long before we get shipped off to the next assignment?" Alyssa paused, swallowing hard. "Hard to say. I spend a lot of time here in the base, but some people like Cerone or Wyden get called on sometimes daily. The blessing of sound isn't exactly super useful you know." She smiled, fangs poking out of her childish face. It was easy to forget she wasn't all human sometimes.
Castus nodded, remembering Grant's word about being sent to work in the forges. He hoped they were nearby so he could come back to his comrades every night. Rys, Shi and Wyden awoke shortly after the conversation and joined in the breakfast. Once they finished Wyden and Rys left to go to their tasks. Wyden operated the portal for the base and Rys handled camouflage of the outside by warping the nature to better conceal the base. This left him with Alyssa and Shi. While Castus enjoyed chatting with them he wanted to focus on experimenting with making things, especially blueprints.
In the marshlands Castus realized that it was far simpler and more mana efficient to have the things he needed in a blueprint before hand. The number of times he had lost a spear made that painfully apparent. Since nothing else was going on today he decided to focus on making some useful tools for later if he ever needed it.
Meanwhile in a different section of the church.
Grant just finished his report of the time they spent in the marshlands and the training of the troops. He made sure to vocalize the treants appearance as extremely troubling. As he finished his report he stood from one knee to face a middle aged man in a gloriously embroidered robe full of orange and blue flames.
Grant spoke. "That is all that occurred Holy Pyre." The man sat at the desk had deep set eyes caused from lack of sleep and the tell tale signs of wrinkles on his face. His hair held firm, the same color as steel. He closed his icey blue eyes to contemplate Grants report.
"This is troubling indeed sacred flame. We need to end this war soon. We may only be supporting the Ryden kingdom, but at the rate we are going the other surrounding nations may soon feel the effects. That would negatively effect our expansion efforts." He stroked his chin contemplating. "The next Holy Pyre meeting is in 2 months. I will raise the issue there and we will decide on a definitive action. Work with Darius and those corrupt children. They may be of use to end this conflict."
Grant saluted, his singular hand struggling to make the two handed salute. The Holy Pyre noticed this. "And talk to Freth. She can fix your arm. We can't have you out of commission."