Riding with the Colonel

We made bad time, a loaded pack animal, and an old man kind of slowed us down (I'll admit I was looking kind of frail, and I had to get off and urinate frequently).  The colonel really didn't seem to bothered by what was going on.  He rode out in front, I was behind, his soldiers behind me and the pack animal pulled up the rear.

"Aren't you a bit young for a Colonel?" I knew a little about a little about military ranks in Ronerawth, still Colonel Rojove looked younger than even I would assume the rank would denote.

"How old do you think I am?" He had gotten some form of cigarette in his mouth, the smoke was fouler than most I'd smelled previously.  Obviously outside of being a slow moving target, he didn't care about letting everyone know we were coming.

"Mid twenties?"

"Try double that, now I'm not over a hundred years old like you are, but I also don't look bad like you do." I could tell he was smiling from where I was even if I couldn't see his face.

"How? You aren't some necromancer are you?" It was a valid question.

"No, you haven't been in Ronerawth in a while Lorentino, or well we don't have record of you coming or going, but magic has taken less and less of a role in our society, no this is just the result of all my clean living." He laughed a little bit at the end, I took it there was something else going on with Rojove, but figured I wouldn't exactly get details on it. We rode south, making camp occaisionally until we reached the The Divider.  I hadn't seen it since construction had completed.

The Divider was huge; well over a hundred feet tall from top to bottom.  At the top I could see cannons and patroling soldiers with Rifles.  The door we approached was not the main entrance, and looked barely large enough for mounted people to pass through (I was told that there was a bigger entrance for trade convoys, and I've seen that one, its gigantic. The doors work on some weird pully system that has to be opened by two massive steam engines, prior to the invention of those engines I have no idea how they intended on that door ever opening).  I didn't hear a challenge, and Colonel made no move to unlock the door, it just opened and we passed through, either we were expected or they spotted it from far enough out they knew who he was.

And so it was I was returned to Ronerawth.  It had been a while since I was last there, things had changed, some for the worse, a lot for the better.  I was mildly terrified, then again I was an old necromancer invited to assist an emperor who openly did not like magic, so I think I had good reason to be terrified!