Chapter 547: Isabell’s Lesson
"There are things that you learn about war between humans that I hope you never learn Baron Hanrahan," Isabell told the slack-jawed baron as she finished telling her tale. "I hope you never learn to take joy in windy days because the wind drowns out the sounds of people screaming as they burn to death," she said coldly. "I hope you never count it a double blessing because the flames burn hotter and spread faster when the winds are high and the work will be done sooner."
"More than anything, I hope you never fight demons who learn to fight the way humans do in the old countries," she added as she stared at the trembling baron with gray eyes that felt so haunted they must have belonged to a ghost. "Because the day they learn that is the day you learn what it’s like to survive the destruction of your entire city, and what it feels like to preside over funerals that last for days."
"Survive?" Owain said, blinking rapidly as he tried to process everything he’d heard from this terrifying engineer. "The baron you attacked, Baron Balleste, he survived what you did to his city?"
"Most keeps survive the destruction of the town that surrounds them," Isabell said, glancing over her shoulder to see the people sitting at the lower tables staring at her as though she’d prouted horns and claws. "So long as your fortress wall is far enough from the walls of the keep itself, then there’s usually enough of a gap to keep he flames from jumping across. Your odds of surviving are even better if you have a moat between your keep and your people, like the one you have here."
Beside her, Master Tiernan reached out to rest a comforting hand on her shoulders. Of all the gathered Guild Masters of Blackwell City, perhaps only Master Sebastian of the Wayfinders Guild truly understood the ghosts that haunted Master Isabell. On more than one occasion, Tiernan had spotted the two masters sharing a bottle of strong wine and pouring extra cups for people who had departed for the Heavenly Shores many years ago.
It wasn’t until today that he realized why neither master ever spoke much of their youth and the things that had shaped them into the strong masters they’d become. For Master Sebastian, it was impossible to escape the tales of his heroism that were told by his crew and companions. His legends, for better or worse, resounded across Blackwell Harbor. Isabell, on the other hand, seemed to have left her life of war entirely behind in the old countries, taking up an ordinary life among her fellow engineers with few understanding her past.
"But wait," Bastian said, frowning as he looked at the steel-haired Isabell. "If you did all that, if you commanded soldiers in battle, even engineers, and if you defeated whole armies, then how is it that you’re still a commoner? You should have been knighted for that at the very least. If you had done something so amazing here, I’m sure that Marquis Lothian would grant you the title of Baron to rule over the lands you conquered. So, if everything you just said is true, how is it that you have to buy your way into the peerage now?"
"Some things are worth more than a title and land, Young Lord Bastian," Isabell said simply. "My husband was bound in service to the royal court. I traded the title and lands that his majesty offered me for a chest of gold and my husband’s freedom. We left the old countries behind and never looked back."